Looking ahead to the New Year, Nome Public Schools is preparing to create a suitable budget despite potential cuts to state spending. At a school board meeting last week, Superintendent Shawn Arnold said education funding for the 2017 fiscal year could be slashed significantly.
“The state finance office is recommending districts plan for six percent less for budgets,” Arnold said. “Six percent less, this year, could mean up to $850,000, or eight teachers.”
That would also come on top of the many cuts made this year, when the district had to trim the equivalent of five full-time positions. Having already scaled so far back, board member Jennifer Reader said the district cannot handle losing another six percent.
“We can’t run that way,” Reader said. “We’ve already cut pretty much everything. And now we’re talking, ‘Oh, we’re going to add arts back in’ and ‘We’re going to add this new reading program.’ We’re going to have eight less teachers to do it with.”
That won’t be settled for sure until the state legislature decides just how much Alaska can spend on education, which could take until end of their session in April. Until then, Arnold said talks with the City of Nome — which also contributes funding — have been encouraging so far.
At the meeting, Arnold made another, more positive financial announcement: Sitnasuak has donated nearly $100,000 to the district.
“The major program that Sitnasuak Native Corporation (SNC) is contributing to is a new reading intervention program at the junior high aimed at seventh and eighth graders,” he said.
Of Nome’s 84 seventh and eighth graders, Arnold said 50 fall below grade level when it comes to reading. The new intervention program — due to start next year — will target those struggling students by focusing on literacy skills in small groups.
Ninety-two thousand dollars of Sitnasuak’s donation will go toward to the reading program and pay for books, assessments, and teacher training. Another $5,000 has been set aside for an elementary art program that could get off the ground this school year.
While the board was happy to hear about the influx of new funding, Reader said she’s worried it could jeopardize another district program.
“Wow, Sitnasuak. That’s a lot of support for our reading intervention program. My concern is we also rely heavily on them to provide support for our JROTC program,” she said. “Do you think this is going to impact that support?”
“It may,” Arnold answered.
For the past eight years, Sitnasuak has funded the JROTC program at Nome-Beltz Jr/Sr High in part or in full, but the district is looking to get away from depending so much on one source. Arnold said finding a long-term solution for the program will be a board priority in the spring.
Beyond funding discussions, the school board also honored Tom and BeeJay Gray with the Partner in Education Award for their work hosting cultural camps for Nome educators as well as teaching students to butcher seals and beluga whales. The board also presented music teacher Ron Horner with the Teacher of the Month Award.
The school board will hold their next meeting on January 12.
