School board approves budget

BY JEN RANSOM-Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board approved its budget for fiscal year 2005 and has forwarded it to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly for review. With hopes that the state Legislature will come through with extra funding to meet the financial needs of the school district, the board suspended $8 million in cuts while finalizing the $150,677,983 budget.

"Basically they passed the budget based on the increase we are anticipating from Juneau that is being held up in the Senate," said chief school administrator Bob Doyle.

The budget is based on a projected enrollment of 14,393 and a base per-student allocation of $4,576, the proposed allocation in Senate Bill 1. That bill is one of several in Juneau that propos an increase in the amount districts will receive. As part of the budget, the board is requesting the assembly fund the district to the state-allowed local funding maximum of $35,927,012, approximately $2.7 million more than the borough's school funding ordinance currently allows.

To encourage the assembly to increase funding, Doyle said he intends to explain exactly how the money will be spent.

"We think we need to present information to the assembly about what we will restore," Doyle said. "They don't line-item control the budget, but they need to know what they are going to get for [the increase]."

While the board is scheduled to present the budget to the assembly on April 27, there is hope that the presentation can be scheduled earlier in April. The assembly has 30 days to make a decision on the budget after it is presented, and the earlier the presentation occurs, the earlier the district will be able to move forward.

"We want to share it early on; if we get it approved early we can get on to rehiring non-tenured teachers," Doyle said. "I'd rather be doing that now than wait."

Most teacher job fairs occur in April, said Doyle, and he wants to hire teachers during the peak hiring time instead of waiting until this summer.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.