Facing a multimillion-dollar budget hole, the Juneau school board has approved a plan to consolidate the district’s two high schools into one, close its two middle schools, close an elementary school and rearrange where sixth, seventh and eighth graders go to class.
The board approved the plan in a contentious all-night meeting that ended at about 12:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 23.
The decision followed hours of testimony from a crowd that board members called one of the largest in recent memory, with attendees overflowing the high school library into a video viewing area set up in the school commons where students eat lunch.
People testifying online said they had difficulty following at least some portions of the meeting because the Zoom feed consistently was at its maximum of 500 viewers.
The restructuring is necessary to close a projected budget deficit of nearly $10 million in a roughly $77 million operating budget for the 2024-2025 school year — and similar ongoing deficits in future years — due to a multitude of causes including faulty accounting, declining enrollment and several years of flat funding from the state.
The district is facing a projected deficit of nearly $8 million in the current year, although the Juneau city and borough assembly has tentatively agreed to provide a $4 million zero-interest loan and take over $3.9 million in “shared costs” for buildings used by both the city and school district.
Although the Alaska House has approved a substantial increase in state funding for public school districts, the legislation, which still needs approval of the Senate and the governor, would not be enough to close Juneau’s budget gap. It would provide an estimated $5.2 million in additional state money for the district next year, still leaving the schools several million dollars short.
“It could lessen the severity of the actions we need to take, but I don’t think it eliminates it,” Will Muldoon, chair of the school board’s finance committee, said of the legislation during a break in Thursday night’s meeting.
The plan will consolidate students in grades 9 through 12 at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé; turn over Thunder Mountain High School for use by students in grades seven and eight and the HomeBRIDGE program for correspondence and homeschool students; and add sixth graders to the elementary school system of kindergarten through fifth grade.
The district’s alternative and optional programs also will be affected, with Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi High School, Montessori Borealis and Juneau Community Charter School relocated to the Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School building.
In addition to disbanding the Dzantik’i and Floyd Dryden middle schools and disbursing those students to other buildings, the plan will close Marie Drake Elementary School and the district’s administrative office, turning those buildings back over to the City and Borough of Juneau that owns them.
Many of those who testified during Thursday night’s meeting reiterated a main point during weeks of previous meetings, saying that both of Juneau’s high schools should remain open because they have distinctly different identities befitting different types of students. There were also concerns consolidation into one high school would result in fewer opportunities to participate in sports teams and other activities.
Juneau-Douglas High School alumni Charles Van Kirk said consolidation “robs the identity” of “two totally different communities.” Juneau-Douglas High School is near downtown; Thunder Mountain High School is in the Mendenhall Valley, about nine miles away.
The board voted 5-2 to move forward with the plan.
Numerous additional steps need to be taken before the plan is official, including board approval of a budget for next year that implements the plan. The state Department of Education, which has agreed to give the district up to five years to pay off its existing deficit without penalty, must also approve the plan.
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