The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District held its second community budget forum Wednesday in Kenai. The district, which is facing a roughly $17 million budget deficit, is seeking input on where to make cuts.
Before the forum, a handwritten sign taped to Kenai Central High School’s entrance directed attendees to the school’s auditorium. The event was moved from the school library to accommodate the more than 100 people interested in weighing in.
Looking out across rows of plush, stadium-style seats, district Finance Director Liz Hayes offered a grim preview of the discussion.
“I wish this presentation had a lot of good news in it, but it really doesn't,” she said. “Unfortunately, the situation we are in with funding for the school district is in a pretty dire strait for this fiscal year.”
The district is $17 million short of what it will need to operate next fiscal year, which starts July 1. Hayes says a combination of flat state funding, the end of federal COVID relief and a nearly-empty savings account are fueling the shortfall.
The district has joined others around the state in calling for lawmakers to increase the base amount of money it gets per student. Other than a half percent increase two years ago, that amount hasn’t changed in almost a decade.
In recent years, the Legislature has OK’d one-time boosts, but district officials say that doesn’t provide the long-term financial stability they need to make informed budget decisions. Last year, the district received its one-time state money two days before the start of the fiscal year.
This year, Hayes says they’re in limbo again.
“We can’t wait until we find out from the governor how much money we’re going to have to start the process,” she said. “We have to issue contracts to teachers. We need to let people know if they’re going to have a position and where they’re going to have that position and what services we’re going to be able to provide.”
Of the roughly $152 million the district expects to spend next year, 80.5% will go toward employee salaries, benefits and worker’s compensation. That doesn’t include the costs associated with whatever contracts the district hashes out with its two employee unions in the next couple of months.
Hayes warned of “far, wide and deep” cuts needed to balance the budget if no state money comes through. The district’s already floated firing more than 80 teachers, eliminating its middle college program, closing school pools and theaters and spiking extracurricular activities, including sports. And earlier this month, it published a list of nine schools it's considering closing.
Patti Truesdell represents Kalifornsky on the school board. She says board members are considering deep cuts to keep schools open.
“I’m not going to close schools and then let SoHi have football,” she said. “And I’m a football mom.”
Retired teacher Donna Anderson, who’s also the chapter head for the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty, criticized recent raises for district administrators and Superintendent Clayton Holland during the town hall, to the cheers of audience members.
“Why are we giving admin 10-12% raises and bonuses when our students are worried about their activities?” she asked.
Holland said those changes reflect, in part, the reduction of positions from the district office, including a communications director, an assistant superintendent position and a chief financial officer. He says remaining staff had to take on more work.
“I’m not complaining, but I’m also saying there’s a great decrease in the number of admin in our building who are doing things,” he said.
Holland also said he took less money than his predecessor when he stepped in as superintendent and makes less than other Alaska superintendents overseeing districts of similar sizes including the Matanuska-Susitna and Fairbanks North Star Borough school districts.
A handful of students turned out for the forum, including Soldotna High School senior Elias Bouschor, who said he’s particularly concerned about cuts to school theater programs.
“I spend a lot of time there, and we're always struggling to find the money for more resources for the shop, or having to pay our theater technicians, and it really stifles what we're able to do in the theater,” he said.
He says Wednesday’s presentation was “jargon-y” and that he walked away still not fully understanding how the district came to be $17 million in the hole. He says the average high school student doesn’t understand what opportunities they may be missing out on due to budget cuts.
“There's nothing that should not be offered to students, because school is the entire – like, pretty much the entirety of a child's life up until adulthood,” he said.
Also in the audience was SoHi junior Ethan Anding. He’s concerned about dwindling class offerings. And he says his peers don’t seem to know what’s at stake.
“I was talking to my friends recently actually about this, and they had no idea what was going on,” he said. “They had no idea the potential schools were going to be closed. They had no idea that extracurriculars might be cut out of schools.”
Anding says he’s become passionate about school funding, but he’s not sure the best way to channel his energy.
“I'm trying to essentially figure out how I can bring about change,” he said. “And I don't know if that is possible, but if it is, I want to, because I can't just sit here and do nothing while our education system is failing.”
The district has until the end of April to approve a balanced budget. That’s because state law requires the budget be submitted to the Kenai Peninsula Borough by May 1. Still outstanding is how much the Kenai Peninsula Borough will chip in for the district this year.
Holland and School Board President Zen Kelly are scheduled to attend a budget work session with borough assembly members Tuesday in Soldotna. The district is also soliciting public input on the budget crisis online via its Balancing Act software.
