With $155,700 of federal pandemic relief money left over from the past two years, the Haines Borough School District will continue to support student activities, summer programming and a second counselor for the 2022-2023 school year.
“Many districts used (the federal money) to fill significant budget shortfalls, usually due to drastically reduced enrollment,” superintendent Roy Getchell wrote the CVN.
But because Haines’ enrollment is expected to remain stable, the district has been able to direct the one-time federal funding elsewhere, including to providing families with high-speed internet, supporting the continuation of student activities, expanding summer and after-school programming, and adding a second counselor.
“We threw everything we had into continuity of learning and continuity of activities,” Getchell said, and the board plans to continue with that effort in the next school year.
The school board on June 23 approved the budget for the school year that starts in August. The total budget, comprising borough, state and federal funds, is just over $5 million.
All of the money from the federal 2020 CARES Act and 2021 American Rescue Plan must be spent by Sept. 30, 2024. The board has tentatively set aside money to continue the second counselor’s employment in the 2023-2024 school year – the last year the grants can be used.
Getchell said community focus groups have stressed the importance of mental health support. Both the pandemic and the 2020 landslide that killed two people have “been hard on families and hard on kids,” he said.
He also considers the expansion of activities an important component of mental health support. The school is underwriting costs this year for Little League, which it took over from the borough’s Community Youth Development. It’s free this summer thanks to federal money, and 90 children are enrolled.
The school budget allocates $40,000 of the remaining federal money for student activities and summer school next year.
However, Getchell said it’s hard to predict what holes they might need to plug in the 2023-2024 school budget. Board members expressed concern about rising expenses, including soaring fuel and energy prices and higher property insurance. The budget projected an increase of $75,000 in fuel- and energy-related expenses over the preliminary 2022-2023 budget from the past school year.
The problem of “rising costs and flat funding is getting real,” Getchell said at the June 23 meeting. “It used to be a slow drip and now the faucet’s on. We need (the state) to step up and help us here.”
The Legislature failed to approve an increase in the state funding formula for school operating budgets, but lawmakers appropriated $57 million as a one-time 5% boost for the 2022-2023 school year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the budget Tuesday.
Haines will receive an estimated $137,000 from the appropriation, which is based on student enrollment.