The Haines Borough school board meets 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Haines School library. Its agenda includes discussion of a proposed agreement with the teachers’ union on salary and benefits.
Board chair Anne Marie Palmieri this week declined to share details of the agreement, saying not all board members had yet been apprised of it.
In June 2013, teachers received a 2 percent raise and a one-year $550 per capita “stipend” to defray the rising cost of health insurance.
Teachers last year negotiated revisiting salary and benefits this year.
The board on Tuesday may approve its budget for the coming year.
Palmieri said the board backed off a recent push for full funding from the Haines Borough.
She said school officials instead looked at actual expenses to reduce projected costs. The district also was able to tuck some general fund expenses under grant revenues, further saving money.
The district’s $5.19 million budget is buoyed in part by $300,000 in state “hold harmless” funds, money provided on a short-term basis to prop up school budgets suffering from declines in enrollment. “We have to be cognizant that these are not sustainable funds,” Palmieri said.
Without an increase in borough funding from last year, the board will receive $1.55 million for instruction from the borough and $210,000 for Community Education, lunch programs, and student activities.