With Dr. Bobby Bolen’s recent appointment as superintendent of the Bering Strait School District, Nome Schools Superintendent Shawn Arnold says the pair will be planning their curricula in tandem. The two new superintendents have noted they share a lot of students between the two districts.
“We hope to work together and collaborate,” said Arnold at Thursday’s board meeting. “There’s some efforts that we’re hoping to look at with curriculum, with professional development—to kind of work together and deliver some of the same instruction.”
And in addition to students, the two districts also share the same dismal outlook on state funding. The topic occupied much of Nome’s board meeting since Arnold and board member Brandy Arrington just returned from Juneau, where they attended the Association of Alaska School Boards Legislative Fly-In. Students Emily Pomrenke and Madison Johnson also flew down for the Youth Advocacy Institute.
Arrington said her biggest takeaway was the need for one-time funding of schools across the state to continue this year. The primary funding mechanism for K-12 Alaska schools is the BSA, or Base Student Allocation. But this state funding source has not increased since 2011, which is why last year a bill was passed to distribute one-time funding to offset the stagnant BSA.
According to Governor Bill Walker, in this current financial turmoil, he may not reauthorize the one-time funding bill. And for Nome, that’s a decent chunk of the pie.
“And we received numbers from Juneau,” said Arnold. “For Nome [the potential impact on our budget next year] would be $208,000.”
Arnold said Senator Donny Olson and Representative Neal Foster have been supportive in exploring alternative forms of funding, but $200,000 is a large margin of error for building a budget.
“And it’s not money we could save by just flipping off the lights and being better about…you know, we would have to make some cuts,” said Arnold.
“Or go into our fund balance more than we ever have,” responded board president Betsy Brennan.
The decision on one-time funding will come down from the state by the end of April, and the board tossed around the idea of building two budgets while awaiting the decision.
“I think Representative Foster had a great term. He said that all the work they’re doing right now—it’s like 52 pick up. All of it’s gonna be thrown up in the air and they’ll figure out those last few days what the reality is,” said Arnold.
The first draft of next year’s budget (along with an update on the current one) was explored at Thursday’s meeting. At this point, Business Manager Paula Coffman estimates the district will dip about $130,000 into fund balance for the next fiscal year, not including the potential cut of another $200,000.
In more positive financial news, Coffman announced that the city granted the district $10000 from NSEDC’s community benefit shares toward continuing the daily breakfast program.
The Nome Board of Education will continue exploring next year’s budget, and other topics including curriculum and staffing, during a work session on Monday, February 24.
