The road to increasing education funding has been tough on schools.
There was legislation in the state government during this year’s session to permanently increase the Base Student Allocation, or how the state calculates education funding. But the bill was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The last significant increase to the BSA was in 2017.
Instead, the state once again opted for another one-time funding increase of about $680 per student.
Cyndy Mika, the Kodiak Island Borough School District’s superintendent, said it didn’t significantly change her plans.
“We’re using it to have less of a reliance on our fund balance because we all know that we’re going to have another hard budget year going into next year and we’re already thinking about that and planning for it,” she said.
School district budgets were due to the state government on July 15, just two weeks after it approved the funding boost.
Without the one-time funding, the district’s fund balance, or savings, would have dropped to just $1.2 million. But with the extra funding, Krista Cowley, the district’s assistant chief financial officer, estimates they’ll have about $3.5 million. Mika said she prefers to keep about $2 million in case of emergencies.
That’s after about $4 million was cut from the district’s budget.
The district will spend a quarter million dollars of the one-time funds on bringing back two positions as one-year contracts though. An extra counselor through Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center will be retained, as well as an instructional coach at Peterson Elementary on the Coast Guard base.
Mika said she doesn’t want to count on any funding increases for next year.
“It wasn’t financially responsible for us to add back in a whole lot,” she said.
She said it’s difficult to plan for the future as the state keeps only approving one-time boosts. The state approved one time funding last year too, but was cut in half by Gov. Dunleavy’s line-item vetoes.
“I was a little bit more pessimistic after what happened last year,” Mika said. “While I’m not happy that it wasn’t in the BSA, I’ll take anything we can get to help stabilize us.”
She said the district likely won’t change any of its lobbying strategy next year. But, the superintendent said she hopes more residents will reach out to elected officials to continue pushing for a BSA increase.
Mika is also beginning her third year as the district’s superintendent. She said she feels more comfortable in her role now and that she hopes to be more proactive and plan better than her first two years on the island.
School starts for Kodiak students on September 3.
