Following news that the Anchorage School District may not spend millions of budgeted dollars this school year, Superintendent Ed Graff has proposed 11 budget revisions to send more money toward staffing, substitute teachers and summer school.
The Anchorage School Board will consider Graff's recommendations at its meeting Monday. The board must authorize Graff to approve the allocation of about $3.7 million -- money that would come out of the district's unallocated reserves, said Mark Foster, the district's chief financial officer.
Since the district announced this fall that it was poised to underspend its budget by roughly $21.4 million by the end of the school year, discussion at board meetings has centered on where to put the projected funds and what led to their existence.
Primarily, the district has said, the unspent money stems from its inability to hire as many staff members as it budgeted for as well as the departure of more experienced, higher-paid employees than anticipated. The district has also identified a problem with hiring substitute teachers who have not seen a salary boost in seven years.
Heidi Embley, district spokeswoman, wrote in an email that Graff identified the $3.7 million as "a reasonable amount needed for the second semester to address the challenging areas the district faces in terms of staffing."
Foster said that in crafting the recommendations the administration reviewed a list of items flagged for attention that "we thought could be reasonably implemented during the second semester and make a difference in the classroom." Bracing for future budget deficits, he said, the district looked at what costs it could sustain long-term, including raises for substitutes.
"You might get people who say, 'Why didn't we spend more?' Well, we didn't get things that we thought met the criteria we were applying," Foster said.
Here is what Graff and the administration have recommended:
• $550,000 to extend teacher assistant hours: Up to 170 teacher assistants would be given the option to extend their workday by two hours, from 3.5 to 5.5 hours.
• $572,000 to increase staff support for larger elementary school classes: Additional long-term substitutes would be hired at 22 elementary schools where increased enrollment has pushed the student-teacher ratio beyond what is suggested.
• $332,000 for secondary class size reduction and remediation: Additional sections would be added for 21 secondary education core area classes in which class size exceeds 35 students.
• $1.5 million for summer school: Money would fund a program in June for elementary and secondary students.
• $405,000 to increase substitute teacher compensation: Pay for substitute teachers would increase from $120 to $140 per day to a flat $150 per day. Pay for long-term substitutes would increase by $3 per day to $265. Pay for classified substitutes whose work includes maintenance or administrative duties would increase from $12.65 to $14 per hour. Some substitutes who worked the equivalent of 50 days in hard-to-fill positions would receive a $500 bonus.
• $65,000 to hire a temporary position that would focus on recruiting for hard-to-fill staff positions, with a focus on special-education vacancies.
• $40,000 for a temporary certified vetting specialist who would focus on vetting applicants.
• $75,000 to pay for additional online recruitment search tools including premium membership on LinkedIn.com and Monster.com.
• $85,000 to hire IT substitutes.
• $16,000 to promote employees within the IT department: Five Tech Support I positions would be promoted to Tech Support II positions to provide the staff with additional opportunities and a more competitive salary.
• $69,000 to hire a charter school/alternative programs coordinator who would support existing and prospective charter schools.