Transcript
Nome Public Schools wants three and a half million dollars from the City of Nome. To help make its case, it took city council members on a tour of its campuses Wednesday to see firsthand the struggles the district is facing.
Here's the rub, the City of Nome is facing money problems of its own. For the 2025 fiscal year, the city took out $2.5 million dollars from its savings account, good for about 13% of its total budget that year.
And honestly, at this scale, it's kind of hard to contextualize these numbers. So imagine you make $60,000 a year. Imagine you needed to take $8,000 out of your savings, if you had any, just to be able to make ends meet. Imagine taking $8,000 out of your savings for two years in a row, or three years in a row. At some point, you'd either need to cut expenses by switching to an all ramen noodle diet, or you'd need to raise revenue by going to your job and asking for a raise.
In a way, that's essentially what the city did. Last year, the council put a measure in front of the voters to increase the sales tax from 5% to 6% and very narrowly, it did pass in November and took effect at the start of this year. But you can also cut expenses, and cut the city did. It slashed budgets across the board, a move that put a strain on everything from Public Works to the Rec Center.
One of the more visible and unpopular cuts was a 20% reduction to Nome Public Schools. At $2.7 million, it was the city's lowest contribution to the school district since 2018. And we all know that, especially since the pandemic in 2020, nothing has gotten cheaper.
Wednesday's tour gave the council a first hand look at some of the challenges the district is facing. Take, for example, the playground at Nome Elementary School. Shifting permafrost is making it dangerous to use. Or the dated sewage system that famously shut the school down for a couple of days this winter for repairs and to remove a not-so-good odor. And there is also the school's aging HVAC system, which was installed along with the school when it was built in 1988.
All of that is just Nome Elementary School, 10 minutes up the road at Nome-Beltz High School, a multi-million dollar repair to its roof is almost complete. Water had been leaking down the walls in the school for years. The campus has also long sought to overhaul its main entrance doors for security purposes, but all of the bids that have come in for the project have been too expensive. And these are just the big projects. There's a lot of little things, like gaps in the doors letting cold air in.
The single largest line item in the school district's budget is personnel, and that amounts to just over 50% of total expenses. Following the campus tour, the council sat down with school board president Darlene Trigg and Superintendent Jamie Burgess. She told the group if the district doesn't get the three and a half million it wants from the city, cuts are going to come.
"That's what I asked for, because if I have to, if you guys are going to give us less than that, I have to, I have to cut teachers. I have no choice," Burgess said.
The council's newest member, Adam Lust, questioned whether teaching cuts were the only answer.
"Why do we always start with we have to cut teachers?" Lust asked.
To which Trigg pushed back, saying that staff cuts are the last thing the district considers.
"When she's presenting us with a budget, she's already looked at, how much do we need for to keep the building lit and heated? How many, how much can we cut in supplies? We're looking at our contracts for our technology, and how can we save in resources? You're hearing it in that way, because that's kind of where she's already done the work of slimming things back, tight," Trigg said.
So here we are. The district wants more money and the city is short on cash. So where do we go from here?
One creative solution the city is considering is consolidating administrative services at its three component units into one. Today, Nome Joint Utility System, Nome Public Schools and the City of Nome essentially operate independently.
The city, for example, employs a full time finance director, assistance finance director, an accounting tech and an accounting clerk to the tune of about $340,000 a year. The school district, meanwhile, pays about $286,000 for accounting and payroll services provided through its CFO's company, Alaska Education and Business Services.
So is there some room for consolidation? Probably. Would it be easy? Probably not.
Here's a more radical idea floated during the tour. What if Nome Public Schools consolidated its buildings? Nome Elementary School alone costs the district $400,000 a year to heat and power. By moving elementary students and staff out of town to Nome-Beltz, the district could save a good chunk of money. But of course, having elementary school students that far out of town has lots of downsides too.
This report is just one of many we'll produce throughout the budget process this spring. You're welcome to leave comments on the video, but if you really want your voice heard, show up at school board meetings and city council meetings.
The school board has until May 1 to turn in its budget to the city. The council, meanwhile, will chip away at the city budget up until its next fiscal year begins on July 1. We'll keep you in the loop in the meantime.
