The Valdez Star - Serving Prince William Sound and Copper River Basin

The board of education for Valdez City Schools will ask the Valdez City Council to up its funding to education by $246,387, which will bring city funding to the cap – the maximum allowed by state law.

The move comes after the board held its second public budget hearing Saturday.

School administration presented the district with two options to overcome a projected $341,500 deficit.

The numbers bandied by the board and administration at the meeting was less than the $574,000 deficit projected by Superintendent Jacob Jensen earlier last month.

This is due to the fact the board proceeded with balancing the budget by assuming next year’s sixth graders will attend Gilson Jr. High instead of Hermon Hutchens Elementary, combined with savings by efficiencies and allocating other undesignated funds.

The City of Valdez provides $9,194,896 in funding for education, with a projected $4,306,000 in funding coming from state resources. An additional $1.5 million comes from other city, state and federal funding sources.

The board will further discuss the proposed budget and the proposed move of the sixth grade class to the junior high at its April 9, meeting.

The administration and board has looked at harsh budget cutting measures earlier in its budgeting process.

“At our last meeting we brought forward some worst-case scenario cuts,” Jensen said early in the meeting.

A second option to balance the budget that was discussed included numerous cuts in personnel, food service and student activities.