Nome Public School Board approves budget revision, talks about teacher recruitment

Nome Public Schools Board voted to approve an updated budget for fiscal year 2024/2025, and it is $352,624 more than anticipated.
The increased budget came after decreases in anticipated revenue and increases of cost beyond initial estimates.
A significant reason for the decrease in revenue is that the district’s student count of students, who attend one of the district’s three physical schools, was 43 less than the previous year’s student count. By contrast, the Extensions Correspondence homeschool program increased by eight students. The revision document in front of the board stated, “One student in brick-and-mortar will generate $16k, whilst one correspondence student will generate $5k (33 percent of a brick-and-mortar student) in revenue to the district.”
When the district first made their budget at the end of last school year, they left a $400,000 placeholder where more funding would be needed to balance it, before the legislature finalized their budget. It was thought the money would come from the district’s savings. Then the legislature passed a budget that gave $1.1 million in one-time funding to Nome Public Schools, far over the amount needed to balance the budget. But with the loss of students (and the corresponding state funds per student) and other unexpected costs, Burgess said the amount necessary to balance the budget will be closer to the $1.1 million received.
“Once our student count is 100 percent finalized, then we’ll have the actual amount that will be incorporated,” Burgess said.
Meanwhile, teachers are still fighting for a pay raise that will match the rate of inflation, while working under last year’s negotiated contract.
In a letter to the editor last week, the Nome Education Association bargaining team wrote they were looking for an agreement that would cost NPS around $420,000 for the current year.
Burgess’s update to the school board regarding negotiations was that they’ve stalled, the next step is to bring in a federal mediator.
“We will likely have at least a second budget revision after, hopefully, we are able to come to successful conclusions and negotiations,” Burgess said.
In other news, Burgess announced Assistant Superintendent and Human Resources Director Elizabeth Korenek-Johnson will be traveling to the Philippines for two weeks in January on a teacher recruitment trip.
Korenek-Johnson will make the journey with four other Alaska School districts traveling to at least two cities, meeting and recruiting prospective teachers.
NPS isn’t new to job fairs, having frequented them for many years, switching to virtual fairs once they stopped being as plentifully attended, then not participating in any after those ran dry, Korenek-Johnson said.
“The applications that we get in Alaska teacher placement are predominantly international, and so several other districts have been going through the same things we are,” Korenek-Johnson told the Nugget.
Kodiak Island Borough School District is taking the lead on this trip and working with other districts to create a coalition where schools in Alaska can be represented as a unified front.
Previously, the school district has used a third-party agency to bring on international teachers, but going directly to the source will allow them to “control the process” better and make it more financially beneficial for the district and the teachers.
As Burgess has explained to the school board before, international teachers are not paid any less than other teachers, and the process of getting them here can be time consuming and complicated. But in a district where turnover is high and hiring is a challenge, going where the applications are coming from seems to be the best way.
Board member Nancy Mendenhall asked Burgess for reasons why it’s been so difficult to recruit and retain teachers. Wages and housing, Burgess said,
Looking internationally has almost felt like a last resort, Korenek-Johnson said, for her personally. “I think that in the current market and situation, we have to get away from that mindset. We need to start looking at all candidates simultaneously, regardless of where they’re from, and really get hard to work after the ones that are qualified for the position.”

 

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