Next Thursday, the Anchorage Board of Education will have to make a tough decision:
It will have to vote on a plan to protect the education of 49-thousand students -- in one of the largest school districts in the United States -- while at the same time dealing with a $19 million dollar budget shortfall.
Current plans call for addressing the situation, in part, by increasing class sizes from third grade through high school. On average, classes that contain 22 or 23 students might be increased by 1 or 2.
The increase is small. Still the school board is concerned that cramming more students -- into the same classroom -- could harm the quality of education. It would diminish the amount of time any teacher can spend with each individual student.
So the board asked School Superintendent Carol Comeau to come up with an alternate plan. They asked her to examine the consequences of maintaining current class sizes through the next fiscal year's budget squeeze.
Today Comeau publicly released a plan that said it could be done, but that other significant sacrifices would have to be made.
Comeau estimates that increasing class size by 1 or 2 students would save the district $4.6 million dollars over the next year. So keeping classes the same size would force the district to make $4.6 million in cuts in other areas. Of course, all of the alternate cuts will hurt someone.
For example, under the plan -- if class sizes are maintained -- 7 Library Aids will have to lose their full-time jobs. Six more part-time library Library Aids would also lose theirs. The position of Library Resources Manager would be eliminated -- after the current person in that position retires this summer.
Other jobs would be lost as well -- bringing the elimination of positions to well over a dozen.
And that's not the end of the cuts.
Busing for the "highly gifted" program at Rogers Park would be eliminated -- saving more than $160,000 per year.
And busing for the "activities" program at South Anchorage High School -- to Girdwood -- would also be cut, saving $21,000.
Cuts in the funding of student supplies -- for more than 49,000 youngsters in the Anchorage School District -- would be enacted to the tune of $5 per student. That would save nearly a quarter million dollars more.
And the funding of middle school sports would be reduced. Sports programs such as volley ball -- which currently feature inter-school competition -- would have those games scaled back. Most of the competitions would become intramural. Then -- once a year -- there would be an inter-school sports jamboree for the middle schools.
While Comeau says these alternate cuts are possible, she doesn't believe they're wise. She says studies have shown that increasing class-size from say, 22 to 23 students does not adversely impact education. She thinks that, on the whole, increasing class-size modestly -- and avoiding the proposed cuts that she's been asked to outline -- is a better solution.
The board has only 5 days left to decide which path to take. It must vote on how to live within its new, $728 million dollar budget.
In March, the plan goes before the Anchorage City Assembly. After that, it's on to the state legilature in Juneau -- which must put its stamp of approval on the budget before the start of the new Fiscal Year on July 1st.
Even though they represent a shortfall of less than 3 percent, Comeau says the cuts are tough. Each year school district costs rise by 5 percent. And because of a drop in oil production at the North Slope, the state is experiencing a tightening in its fiscal situation.
If oil drops below the present price of $96 per barrel, the state will have a difficult time balancing its budget.
Still Comeau says parents do have choices here. She -- and various members of the Board of Education -- are urging citizens to write their state lawmakers and ask for passage of Senate Bill 171. That bill would not only convert school districts to a 3-year-budget plan, which Comeau says would be helpful, it would also restore some of the $19 million dollar shortfall she and the board are struggling with.
In addition, the school board is urging Anchorage residents to contact the mayor and the Anchorage Assembly. The board says that each year, the city of Anchorage charges the School District half a million dollars for the collection of taxes.. An expense that the Board of Education feels that the district shouldn't have to pay. In addition, The Board says that Anchorage charges the district another 2.75 million dollars for Safety Officers, Officers who do not serve the schools full time.
Comeau and The Board feel the officers are extremely valuable, but that it's wrong for the District to have to pay for them. They ask citizens to write the assembly and ask for a reevaluation of this policy.
If all else fails, Juneau could still come to the rescue. In the end, lawmakers -- and the Governor -- could decide to restore some of the budgetary shortfall. In the end, they did exactly that last year.
But time is running short. There are just over 4-and-a-half months to go before the new fiscal year begins.
