Assembly sets $60 million minimum local contribution for schools; vote 7-2

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly voted 7-2 on April 10 to approve a resolution setting a $60 million minimum local contribution to the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District for fiscal 2025-26.

The measure, advanced by Mayor Hopkins and moved by Assemblymember Reeves Ramos, raises the borough's minimum contribution by $2 million over the $58 million the assembly provided in the prior year. Mayor Hopkins and school officials said the increase is intended to help offset reductions the district faces under the state funding formula and to limit cuts to programs and staff.

School board member Grama Hardy said the district wrote its budget around a $60 million local contribution and warned that funding at $58 million would force further reductions. "If the local contribution remains at $58,000,000 this year, that percentage would increase to 68.81, resulting in an additional $165,000 in loss of aid funding to the District," Hardy said during her report to the assembly, later detailing that the combined effect would be about $1.4 million in lost revenue if the assembly kept funding at $58 million. She added that a $60 million contribution would allow the district to retain about $324,000 more in federal impact aid.

Melissa Burnett, testifying as a private citizen and identified as the current school board president, urged the assembly to approve the $60 million figure and clarified local/state accounting questions raised in public debate: "Only the state mandated minimum local contribution of 39,000,000 is deducted from the state's funding formula. Any amount above that, such as the proposed 21,000,000, is additional funding that directly supports our schools," Burnett said.

Opponents on the assembly and in public comment objected to drawing from borough reserves to meet the proposed amount. Assemblymember Haney and Assemblymember Wilson both said they were concerned about the budget's use of the borough's fund balance. "I don't think we should be dipping in the fund balance," Haney said, citing long-term sustainability concerns and the state constitution's assignment of primary responsibility for education to the state.

Mayor Hopkins said the resolution is a required step under state law after the district delivers a proposed budget. He described the choice as a fiscal and policy judgment the assembly must make now, given the timing of state actions on education funding. "We should do what we can to take control of the numbers and increase education funding and support the schools and the students in our community as they need," Hopkins said in his staff report.

The roll-call vote on the resolution was: Yes ' Ms. Re—s Ramos, Mr. Roterman, Mr. Guttenberg, Mr. Leginas, Ms. Kelly, Mr. Kras and Ms. O—Neil; No ' Ms. Haney and Ms. Wilson. The assembly then rejected a motion for immediate reconsideration.

What happens next: The resolution sets the borough's funding floor for the coming fiscal year; the assembly's final budget decisions will be made during upcoming finance committee and budget work sessions. School officials said the district will return to the board with any additional changes required if the assembly finalizes a different amount.

Votes at a glance

- Resolution specifying minimum local school contribution for FY2025-26: motion to adopt moved by Ms. Reeves Ramos, seconded by Mr. Leginas; vote 7-2; outcome: approved. A subsequent motion for immediate reconsideration failed.

(Reporting detail: the assembly record and speaker testimony are the source for all figures and quotations in this article.)