Juneau’s school board adds back dozens of jobs previously cut for next school year

Dozens of jobs previously cut from the Juneau School District due to a lack of funding are now being added back for the coming school year. That comes after Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed this year’s state budget, which included a one-time funding boost of about $175 million for school districts.

On Saturday, the Juneau Board of Education voted to recover the equivalent of about 40 full-time positions, including several elementary and secondary staff positions, paraeducators and staff for the district’s homeschool program, HomeBridge.

The board also voted to put some money into savings and to cancel a $1 million loan it planned to take out from the city. All of this is being paid for with $5.2 million that the district is getting from the state.

Lyle Melkerson, the district’s director of human resources, said the added positions will have a direct impact on students, including lowering the ratio of students to teachers.

“What it will look like, I don’t know. We will assign staff where they are necessary, where they are needed to support our kids,” he said. “There is no student who should come to school and have a classroom without a teacher.” 

The funding won’t reverse the district’s consolidation plan for the fall. It comes months after the school board contentiously voted to close some schools, consolidate grades and reduce staff to resolve a multimillion dollar deficit.

Board Vice President Emil Mackey said putting some of the money into savings would give the district a cushion going into the next year. But he warned the board that the money wasn’t coming from a reliable source.

“There’s no promise that this governor will ever, ever sign another one of these one-time increases again until he’s politically bashed over the head for not supporting education,” he said. 

In total, the board voted only to spend about $3.6 million out of the $5.2 million from the state.