Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed about $123,000 from the state budget Wednesday that was earmarked for a maintenance position at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka.
The school, which is operated by the state, currently has three budgeted maintenance positions, but two remain unfilled.
Dunleavy spokesperson Grant Robinson said in a statement that the governor generally doesn’t support adding funding for new positions when existing positions have vacancies.
Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican, said the state-run boarding school needs maintenance staff given its state of disrepair. News of deteriorating facilities and an exodus of roughly a quarter of its students over the past year prompted state legislators to visit the campus in February and hold hearings to question school leadership. But he said cutting the position seems like a “logical” move on Dunleavy’s part, given that there are still unfilled positions.
“When we looked at it, the age of the buildings and footprint of the school, [we saw] they could use some assistance in maintenance manpower,” Stedman said. “So we had a dialog with the Department of Education, and we added that in the budget, and the governor had a difference of opinion, and that’s fine.”
Mt. Edgecumbe serves students from across the state, the majority of whom are Alaska Native from rural communities. Stedman said the state can do better when it comes to creating a better environment for the hundreds of students living there.
He said the $123,000 funding cut isn’t “significant” given the millions in approved funding for facilities upgrades at the school. But, he said, they will continue conversations with the state Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) next school year to check on staffing levels and maintenance progress.
“It is a big, big year for Edgecumbe as far as appropriations to fix Mt. Edgecumbe High School. Phenomenal,” Stedman said. “It took a lot of work to accomplish it, so now it’s going to be up to the contractors to make the school look proud again.”
Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, an independent from Sitka, said Mt. Edgecumbe is in a crisis, but she doesn’t believe the governor’s veto was “malicious.” The problem, she said, is that even a small amount of money can make a major difference to any school, and certainly to a school like Mt. Edgecumbe.
“They need to fill the positions they have, and if we find that’s not sufficient, we’ll go back at it next year and add another position,” Himschoot said. “But having one maintenance person when you have 400 kids at a residential school is completely inadequate, so they need to fill the positions that are budgeted right now, and then we can look at it again. I feel like it’s not a completely unreasonable move to make that veto.”
Himschoot said the entire school needs a lot of support from the Department of Education right now, and the most important thing is to fill vacant positions and bring the school “back up to the standard that we want to have for kids across the state.”