The Petersburg School Board will cover budgetary business at its meeting tonight. Board members will get an update on the budget process for the next school year from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter and Finance Director Shannon Baird, including efforts to lobby the state legislature for more education funding. They plan to talk about the need for an increase to base student funding, or BSA, which is the funding for each student in a district. Insurance costs have increased substantially, which will impact next year’s budget. The school district plans to request more funding from the Petersburg Borough. They’ll talk about possible funding sources beyond state and local budgets.
The school board will look at renewing contracts with the district’s teachers and administrators. Petersburg’s teachers union is negotiating a new contract with the school district. Teachers’ contracts will be renewed once contracts have been agreed upon.
The board also plans to look at a resolution that would support a bond from the Borough to repair the middle and high school roofs. The roofs of the two schools were built at different times and were patchworked together. They have been leaking for years. Damage from heavy snow and ice two years ago made the problem worse. A repair has been on the school’s capital improvement plan for four years and two years ago it was submitted for a state maintenance grant. If Governor Mike Dunleavy funds the grants this year, much of the money bonded by the borough would be paid back by that grant. Dunleavy will decide how much money is available for those grants by July 1.
The school board will meet in the middle and high school library at 6 p.m. tonight. The meeting will be broadcast live on KFSK.
