Fairbanks school district seeks state increase in transportation funding

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - Following last week’s passage of House Bill 57 through the State Legislature, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District said it continues to see a deficit in state funding for transportation, forcing the district to use money from its general operating funds to fill that gap.

This, according to School Board Treasurer Tim Doran, takes the money away from other uses, with the district planning to spend $2 million out of the general fund for transportation this year alone.

“That means that’s $2 million we don’t have for classroom teachers, keeping schools heated, that type of thing, so it becomes part of our general expenses,” Doran said.

According to Doran, along with the Base Student Allocation — the annual, per-student funding amount for kids across Alaska — transportation funding from the state has not kept up with inflation, with the school district using its own funding for at least the last decade.

The portion of its budget that it has subsidized over that period has varied, according to the district’s Chief Operations Officer, Andy DeGraw.

Under its pre-HB 57 formula, the state funded the district with about $10 million a year, and DeGraw said the district expects transportation costs to be $13.5 million next year. That leaves an approximately $3.5 million shortfall, $2 million of which would be subsidized by the district, DeGraw said, with the remaining $1.5 million assumed to be coming from the state.

However, as currently written, HB 57, would add another $1 million to state funding for the district, leaving another $500,000 for the district to take on, according to DeGraw.

In its list of legislative priorities this year, the district asked for a $270 per student funding increase for transportation, which would bring the per-student total to $1,172.

This, School Board Member Brandy Harty said, would still fully fund the district’s transportation needs.

HB 57, Harty added, provided an additional $90 per student, bringing Fairbanks up to $992 per student, $180 short of the requested increase.

If state lawmakers opt for a larger increase before the session expires, Doran said it is unclear at this point where exactly that funding would go.

In its budget, the state allocates different per-student transportation funding levels to each school district, depending on its costs.

Doran said the weather in the Fairbanks School District makes transportation more expensive than in some other parts of the state, requiring the use of a heated facility, among other added costs.

The district has in recent years worked to make transportation more affordable by, among other things, moving from a three-tier to a two-tier bus system, Doran said.

“We ran three buses, one for high school, one for elementary, and one for middle school,” Doran said. “And now what we do is two-tier. There’s the high school. There’s a secondary, and an elementary.”

House Bill 57 has been transmitted to the governor but has not yet been signed into law or vetoed. Bills can also become law without a signature after 15 days.

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