Spend $3 million on students now, or save it for next year's hole

The Anchorage School Board is deciding whether to spend $3 million this year on tutoring, credit recovery and school staff, or set it aside to soften a deficit that could exceed $45 million next year.

The money is part of roughly $32 million in one-time funding from the Legislature. Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt's plan put $3.7 million toward student supports, deliberately flexible so schools could use it for paraprofessionals, substitutes, counselors or whatever they needed, and held back $17.61 million to shrink the following year's gap from about $40 million to $26 million. An August district update then put that gap above $45 million.

A substitute from Board President Carl Jacobs and member Kelly Lessens would cut the student support piece to $700,000, enough for tutoring, credit recovery and a contract with the Anchorage School-Based Health Center, and move the other $3 million into next year's problem. It keeps $20.6 million committed to about 144 teaching positions, including the middle school model.

Part of the argument for holding back is that the money may not buy teachers anyway. Staffing figures shared this month showed that of 66 positions principals posted, only 16 were genuinely new hires; the rest were filled by substitutes, transfers and retire-rehires. Vincent Lang said elementary vacancies now go unfilled at all, which he called a sea change: "for every vacancy in elementary there were 20, 30, 40, 50 viable candidates."

Chief Financial Officer Andy Ratliff told the board that treating the additions as one-time gets the district to "an estimated deficit of about $6 million if you consider all this non-recurring," while costing schools holdback teachers and activities.

The board is split. Dora Wilson backed saving it, saying that "if we use every penny again this year, next year is a huge blow." Paul McDonough disagreed, saying he "cannot make out the business case that this is a stronger proposal" and urging colleagues to trust the superintendent's hiring plan.