School board, assembly discuss budget issues

PALMER -- At the joint Mat-Su Borough School Board/Borough Assembly meeting in Palmer Tuesday all but a few audience seats in the chambers were filled while borough representatives listened to concerns of the public -- namely teachers, administrative staff, church members and a few parents -- before tackling the school budget for next year. The assembly focused mainly on the potential of issuing bonds to finance the budget.

"We will not be able to meet the education needs of our students if we lose teachers," one Cottonwood Elementary School teacher said during the open discussion part of the meeting. "Our school's testing shows that no child has been left behind; to continue this we need to have full funding."

The school board plans to have a formal presentation of the budget on April 28, but the majority of this week's meeting was still centered around a discussion of how to fund the budget, including how and when a bond issue election should be held.

School Board President Mike Chmielewski reminded the assembly that even if funding is kept at the same amount as last year, funding is actually cut due to inflation. Chmielewski said he is in favor of using bonds, but wants to remain realistic: He feels the board and assembly must figure out how much the individual taxpayer is willing to pay for each of the bond issues.

"If we are going to do a bond issue it should not only be appropriate in need but also in success of passage," said Chmielewski. "It doesn't do us any good to put up a bond issue that fails."

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle agreed. He is in favor of conducting some random polling, he said, through Ivan Moore Research, to find out which bond issues should be grouped together for the election. The majority of the assembly and school board agreed as well. Funding for the polling would come out of this year's superintendent budget.

The earliest the bond issue could be put up for election would be Aug. 5, but because of other elections happening during that time, the bond issue will most likely be presented to voters in October.

Also at issue Tuesday was the location of Mid-Valley Alternative school in Big Lake. Nearly 80 Mat-Su borough teen-agers are attending the school. The school, which provides educational opportunities for students who have fallen out of the traditional system, is being held at Faith Bible Fellowship -- a temporary location.

A number of people who live around the church spoke at Tuesday's meeting, applauding the school district for reaching out to those students, but asking that the school no longer be run in the church. Residents complained that while most schools around the district have a 'campus buffer' between the school grounds and nearby houses, Mid-Valley has only a couple of steps before students literally come into people's driveways.

"We are not bringing kids into the neighborhood, these are kids from the neighborhood," Doyle reminded the audience. "We do know it is an impact, but it's for the right reasons. It's for students that want to turn their lives around."

Assembly Chair Jody Simpson encouraged the school board to hold a community meeting in the Big Lake area to find out about some of the problems the residents were having, but Doyle felt the board's time would be better spent finding a permanent location for the school.

"If people feel this way for whatever reason, I would prefer to focus on finding a permanent location," Doyle said.

The board did not discuss whether or not the amount of students enrolled in Mid-Valley would increase next school year.