Time to end yo-yo budget for schools

When contentious issues from this years school district budget still remain to be resolved, its hard to turn toward the process of budgeting for the 1999-2000 school year.

But that time of year has arrived.

We applaud the members of the school board who are striving to make this years budget process more open, cooperative and less disruptive. Board members say they want to work with a streamlined budget advisory committee, decide their goals for the year and budget for those goals.

This move is a step in the right direction. Last year, the final budget session consisted of funding programs until the money ran out. No overall priorities or goals were discussed. There was some vague talk of keeping teachers in the classroom, but no clear consensus or decision on the best way to do that.

Board members say this spring they will present the Mat-Su Borough Assembly and the public with a clear statement of goals and how the budget will support them.

We hope things can run that smoothly.

At last weeks joint meeting of the Assembly and school board, staff members in the instructional swimming program pulled yo-yos out of their pockets during breaks and sent them spinning around and round. It illustrates the on-again, off-again, up-and-down situation theyve faced this year regarding their funding and the programs future not knowing from one minute to the next whether they had jobs or not. For now, the borough has provided enough funds to keep the program running through March.

At the end of the meeting, some members of the Assembly said they would support spending more borough funds on the swimming and community schools programs if the school board will do the same, allowing them to continue until the end of the school year.

Lets break out the yo-yos again, another staff member muttered.

We realize state funding for education will be tight this year. Our community, through its election choices, has made budget cutting a priority. The budget reality was further driven home last week when the price for a barrel of North Slope oil fell below $9 for the first time.

And we also understand the Assemblys desire to keep property taxes low. With public schools already taking the lions share of the borough budget, its going to be hard for the borough to increase school funding.

Still, we hope the board can forgo axing entire programs this year.

If it must, however, we hope there is enough careful consideration and participation from parents, students and teachers that it is a decision the community can support.

Spending a school year like a yo-yo isnt fair to anyone.

- Frontiersman