Education budget set at $165m

School board members pleased with borough and state funding

JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Mat-Su Borough School Board members are largely pleased with the state and borough funding levels they received for next school year.

On Wednesday night, they approved a $165-million budget for fiscal year 2006.

The budget allows the district to hire 57 new teachers for next year as well as fill several other administrative positions.

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle described the budget as a "best-case scenario" and said the district is appreciative of funding levels from both the borough and the state.

The new budget is $16 million more than last year's but still about $1 million shy of what the district initially planned for.

To accommodate the difference, several budget adjustments were approved Wednesday night.

"We still have a million-dollar shortfall to make up," Doyle told school board members before they approved the final budget.

In addition to the million-dollar cut from its initial budget projection, the district also had to account for increased health-insurance costs of about $350,000.

To make up the difference, the board approved a budget that freezes all new hires for custodial and clerical positions not directly involved with classroom instruction.

The final budget also does not restructure the extended learning program for gifted and talented students, a cost savings of $600,000.

Other cost savings include: one principal to oversee both Talkeetna and Trapper Creek elementary schools, no assistant principal for Burchell High School, and no new hires at the district's warehouse facility.

One notable addition for next year is a new administrative position to monitor habitually truant students. The truancy monitor will work with the state Office of Children's Services to crack down on school attendance problems.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.