School budget nearly $250M

PALMER — If you have something to say about the School District’s budget for next year, now’s the time.

On Wednesday, the school board will hold the third and possibly last public hearing on the budget. The first was on March 4, the second on March 11. There is a second meeting scheduled for Thursday if the board runs out of time.

District spokeswoman Catherine Esary said that so far only one person has showed up to testify.

She said she thinks the budget process, which includes input from parents and staff as the district convenes committee meetings to cobble the budget together, has contributed to the lack of speakers at the public hearings.

“Perhaps those who would have the most interest have already had their input,” Esary said.

In the broadest terms, the budget calls for $244,623,115 in expenditures over the year.

Esary said 90 percent of that number is eaten up in salaries, a number that the district can’t change.

“The spending portion which is somewhat, and I’ll use the word discretionary, even though that’s a loaded term, is 10 percent,” she said.

Another important thing to keep in mind at budget time — the School District has no say over how much money they’ll actually have. The borough and state hold the purse strings. Once it’s clear how much money the district will get, the board will take another crack at the budget, adjusting it to fit the projected revenue.

The school district has lately gone about creating its budget in using what’s called a Program Based Budgeting process.

Committees are convened to look at various aspects of district — Small Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, Educational Support, etc. – and then each team comes up with a handful of different scenarios.

The Small Schools Committee, for instance, when asked what their budget would look like if it reduced 5 percent from last year, said they’d have to cut kindergarten.

At a 2 percent reduction, they would cut down on administrative secretaries. The environment, the team said, would not create a safe and healthy environment for students and staff.

But, if given an increase over last year, the team said, they’d spend it on reading intervention, to bring more children up to grade-level in their reading.

Over at the alternative schools, an enhanced budget would allow them to a hit a target student-teacher ration of 21:1 and beef up the home schooling program.

Middle schools, if given their enhanced package, would bring in a tutor for the in-school suspension program. Each school would also get an intervention specialist.

At enhanced levels, elementary schools would each add a teacher. They’d also bring in more help for special needs students.

The high schools committee chose to focus its enhanced package on reducing dropout rates, bringing in staff to work with at-risk students.

The Career and Technical High Schools team, if given the larger budget, would bring in an assistant principal and two cooperative education teachers.

A copy of the budget is available by clicking on the Budget and Finance department under the Departments tab at the district’s Web page: matsuk12.us.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.