The first day of school is approaching.

Getchell: “It’s exciting you know, I always get nervous.”

Despite his nervousness, Haines superintendent Roy Getchell is well prepared. His school’s new playground is almost complete, and workers are putting the finishing touches on a new roof. He says depending on enrollment and need, the school might hire a couple more paraprofessionals. And he is still looking for a cook.

But Getchell says he has hired all the teachers he needs: “We are excited to bring a mix of experienced teachers form Alaska, we have a teacher that’s coming from the Philippines to teach science, that’s going to be really good. We have an experienced science teacher from Illinois that’s coming, and a social studies teacher from Montana with Alaskan experience. We are welcoming back Jordan Baumgartner, so we are going to be thrilled to have him back, and our new assistant principal Sam White is here.”

Getchell says the school is fully funded -for now. Earlier this year, Governor Dunleavy vetoed a bill that would have permanently increased the base student allocation, or BSA, the amount schools receive per student every year. What schools across the state got instead was a one time funding of $175M.

For Getchell, that’s a problem: “The problem with that is that it was one time funding. So we are going to start the year, going into next year’s budget, if that’s not included, with potentially, that’s about a 12% deficit just right of the top. That’s more than our fund balance.”

Getchell is also the president of the Alaska Superintendents Association. He says schools need stable funding from year to year: “So that we can plan, plan effectively and responsibly. To do that, we need to have predictability and reliability of our funding. So here in a few months, I already have to gear up for it, going right back to having the same hard conversations with our legislature about prioritizing public education.”

House Representative Andi Story had a career in education. Haines and Skagway are in her district. She says she understands the importance of stable funding: “That is really tough when school boards, when families want to have programs continue, have reasonable class sizes, the school district and board all have to look at that in making decisions.”

Story says legislators will likely make this a priority during the next session: “Many people who are running for office really want to make a permanent funding increase for our children’s education, and that will definitely be a hot topic right away when the session starts, because we know how important early funding is.”

Getchell agrees that funding has to come earlier so that the school district can find the teachers it needs. “We can’t advertise traditionally as we’ve always done, in March and April, that is way too late, the supply of teachers is already pretty well exhausted by then.” 

The flip side of hiring is retaining staff. Getchell says there is some work to do there as well. “I think that Alaska is losing its position competitive wise, it used to always be the top of the list as far aws teacher pay and benefits and so forth. And we slipped now from anywhere from 8 to 10 on that list.”

And the state looks even less attractive when accounting for the high cost of living.

“So when there is a finite number of teachers and school staff, competition for them increases and wages increase. That’s why we advocate so much for funding. We have to be competitive, we have to be able to respond to the market.”

Representative Story says the BSA has to reflect rising prices. She says the allocation has stayed the same since 2017. Since that time, inflation has cut into the value of a dollar by almost a quarter. She says many school districts, along with the superintendent’s association, have asked for a $1400 increase. This would bring the BSA from $5960 to $7360, which would account for the last seven year’s inflation.

As for teacher benefits, Story hopes the state will move away from the current system, where state employees have a 401k instead of a full pension. “The longer you have your teachers, the more training you put into them, it’s really important to retain, and it’s been identified by school board members, superintendents, teaching staff, that a defined benefit pension system will really help.”   

Story says legislators have been working on a bill that she says would make it affordable to the state to return to a pension system. 

“I’m hoping we will see that legislation pass this year, and I’m hoping the governor, in seeing the numbers, is going to be convinced that this is a good way to move forward to bring us some certainty and retain our state employees.”

Haines students will return to school on Tuesday 20th of August. Alaska legislators will be back in session on Tuesday, January 21st, 2025