The Anchorage School District plans to hire more teachers with the millions of dollars it received after legislators overrode Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s education funding veto earlier this month.
The override boosted public education funding in Anchorage by $10 million. The district had already spent roughly $4 million of that to hire 20 new teachers ahead of the start of the school year. At its meeting Tuesday night, the Anchorage School Board decided to spend the remaining $6 million on efforts to recruit, hire and retain even more educators.
State lawmakers passed a budget earlier this year that included a $700 per-student increase to the state’s education funding formula. Dunleavy vetoed that amount to $500, but legislators restored the funding in a vote Aug. 2.
Anchorage school officials had initially built their budget around a $560 per-student increase, and the additional funds came as a windfall.
The district plans to spend $3.5 million on hiring 27 additional teachers and $2 million on improving teacher recruitment and retention.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Anchorage School District Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said he aims to set up a working group to look into how to better staff the district’s classrooms.
“One idea the committee could come up with is referral bonuses, or some sort of incentive to get out-of-state teachers to come to Alaska,” Bryantt said. “These are all the different types of discussions that we would brainstorm collectively. So I think that this is a really innovative way to hear directly from educators.”
The remaining funding is slated for an English Language Learner summer school program and a boost in online tutoring services.
Most Anchorage students returned to school last week. Kindergartners start school on Thursday.
