The Anchorage School Board has approved hiring dozens of teachers using one-time funding from the Legislature.
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The teacher positions are among several budget additions the school board made Tuesday night in response to a roughly $11.6 million dollar boost state lawmakers approved in May. Facing a $90 million dollar deficit, board members had cut over 300 teaching positions in February.
Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said adding back teachers was a major focus.
“The largest investment restores more than 50 classroom teachers to help address class size pressures, elementary planning time, and scheduling pressures across all levels,” Bryantt said. “That remains the top priority, educator positions for these dollars.”
Board members ultimately added a total of roughly 60 teaching positions, funded five more nurses and retained the district’s riflery program and contract with the Dome sports arena. The district will also pilot a new language arts curriculum for grades six through ten.
District leaders initially proposed funding the new curriculum outright, to the tune of about $2.7 million, but board member Kelly Lessens amended the proposal to fund the pilot, freeing up dollars for more teachers.
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“At a moment where we have radically eliminated classroom teachers in passing a balanced budget, I believe there is a path forward to initiate a pilot this year prior to formally adopting that curriculum,” Lessens said.
Meanwhile, school districts across Alaska are monitoring how much additional money the state anticipates allocating from an increase in oil prices. A provision in the bill funding the state’s operating budget instructs the Department of Revenue to boost school districts’ funding by about $115 million if prices are high enough. Anchorage stands to receive about $32 million of that funding.
The bill says the decision on education funding will be made on Aug. 31, though Lessens and other school board members in Anchorage and Fairbanks have asked the state for earlier revenue projections in order to better plan their budgets.
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