You may remember from last week or from my interviews on the radio, that the Anchorage School District (ASD) over-estimated HR by $41 million for the current year and has those funds available for next year. The ASD Superintendent’s recent letter did not refute this. It is standard practice to over-estimate to a degree but ASD’s average amount of over-estimation for the last three years is 2.5Xs more than had been done historically by ASD.
The additional $49 million ASD received from the legislature last summer (the $680/student budgeted outside the formula for districts) is still a big question mark. According to ASD School Board Member Kelly Lessens in a document distributed to the legislature, ASD used only about $8 million of that for operations for the current year and tucked the rest away that will move forward to the upcoming year. According to the Superintendent (in his letter), all of the $49 million was applied their operating budget for the current year. According to the Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), ASD did not apply any of the $49 million of additional funds they received last summer to this year’s budget based on what they submitted to DEED.
ASD, you got some ‘splainin’ to do
Three different conflicting accounts on that $49 million. As Ricky Ricardo used to say, “Lucy, you got some ’splainin’ to do.”
It’s important to note that all the other school districts around the state reported to DEED that they were using the additional funding they received from the legislature last summer for their current budget.
Now another question mark for ASD
While ASD has indicated it would cut 380 positions if it didn’t receive the $1000 BSA increase, ASD School Board Member Andy Holleman in an ADN article dated January 31, 2025 reported that because there were already 200 vacancies, there wouldn’t be the full number actually cut.
More recently, the ASD HR director indicated in another ADN article dated March 31, 2025 that ASD had received 250 resignations and expected 350 more.
Why have funding advocates painted a bleaker picture than what is accurate, circulate that misinformation, and whipped up a frenzy that the sky is going to fall and lots of people are going to lose their jobs?
I say all this while STILL understanding that districts have been hit with inflation and increased healthcare costs and need some funding help, but I will not be played a fool and you shouldn’t be either. You deserve to know the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say.
To close out this topic, for those who are curious: I initially questioned what is circulating regarding ASD because their fiscal shortfall grew so much more than – and out of proportion to – all the other districts across the state. Something seemed to be off with ASD, and in my mind, still is.
