Nome Schools Business Manager Paula Coffman began her budget overview by announcing the obvious: there’s no good news.
“So the next line is the not-so-fun line,” said Coffman. “From fund balance, the FY16 number is a big number right now. $401,501.”
“Basically that’s what it would take to balance our budget, is that right?” asked Board President Betsy Brennan.
“Yes,” responded Coffman.
At last week’s work session, Nome’s Board of Education looked at the second draft of their 2016 budget—and right now, the best-case-scenario puts the district about $400,000 in the hole—money they’ll have to take from their fund balance, or savings, in order to break even.
But the question still up in the air is whether the state will come thru with another $200,000 in one-time funding. That decision won’t be announced until late April, and without it, NPS will be $600,000 over budget.
As for strategies to reduce expenses, no idea was too big or too small—dipping into transportation aid, limiting staff travel, making black and white rather than color copies… This year, the district saved quite a bit of money inadvertently, since they were unable to fill certain staff positions. But next year, barring a major shift in revenue, Superintendent Shawn Arnold says, regrettably, cutting positions might have to be considered.
“What are positions that are being underutilized? What are positions that, if we were to not get this funding…” he asked. “We want to avoid that at all costs. We don’t have a large staff to begin with so it’s really hard.
“Everybody is working as hard as possible to look at that savings. But we haven’t hard any good news from Juneau. I know there’s attempts being made and they’re really working hard down there but we may have to have a budget A and a budget B,” said Arnold.
While considering position reductions, Arnold also announced two big hires that need to be made for next year: both principal and assistant principal for Nome Beltz High School. Both Harlan Heinrich and Doug Bushey have submitted their resignations, and an internal search for the assistant principal position is being currently conducted.
Teachers still have about a week to submit their contracts for next year, but so far Brennan says it looks like there will be less turnover than last year, when the district had more than 10 open positions.
For the administrative positions, Arnold is looking local.
“One of my strong feelings is that I would like a principal that has some experience there as an administrator, but preferably from Alaska. Somebody here would be great,” said Arnold.
Arnold also recommends shifting a couple of positions to make them more cost-efficient for the district, including his former role, director of Human Resources. And then of course, there’s Richard Beneville.
Performing countless duties for the school (and community), Richard, in Shawn Arnold’s words, is “an institution.” But Richard is looking toward retirement. Arnold says the district might consider dissolving the position Richard holds and transferring those individual duties.
With each proposed shift and the potential reduction of staff, the board reiterated that responsibilities could not fall through the cracks. For now, the district must wait on Juneau and plan for its best- and worst-case scenarios.
