School district is whirlwind of challenges, change

Frontiersman editorial board

It's a time of change and challenge for the Mat-Su schools. After announcing a more than $3 million budget deficit in December, the district has been scrambling to find solutions and to do damage control. Almost 50 classified employees were laid off just prior to the Christmas holiday, and the board recently announced a series of potential stop-gap measures to get the budget under control for at least the short run. Following that discussion last week, the board voted to make interim Superintendent Bob Doyle permanent, and they also narrowed the list of candidates for the vacant school board seat down to six. It's a busy time, indeed.

Doyle's position is certainly not an enviable one given the circumstances, and we have to be impressed with the courage of those willing to take a seat at the school board table during these tumultuous times.

It seems the first order of business for the board and for Superintendent Doyle should be to deliver to the people of the borough a full and accurate accounting of what exactly went wrong with the budget. We've heard the condensed version -- we know that some poor planning at the correspondence charter school led to about $500 thousand of trouble. We know that there were problems with enrollment counts that led to a reduction in state funds for the schools. What we need to know now is how can we be assured these and other problems won't jeopardize the quality of education in the Valley in the future.

Among the possible solutions presented at last week's board meeting was the closure of an elementary school, an increase in class sizes, increasing the cost of lunches and cutting some programs. Those things may help the district survive this year, but it seems the brunt of the burden is being carried by the students, and these are not solutions that will work for the long haul. We will soon be asked to approve a multi-million dollar education bond package that will include funds for construction of new facilities and other big ticket expenses. The district must convince us that they will be responsible with that money before the vote takes place. They also tell us they want to capture some of the hundreds of students who have chosen home schooling options. Those students may not be rushing back any time soon.