Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members on Tuesday formally asked the State of Alaska to increase and inflation-proof the base amount of money school districts get per student. The resolution spurred input from students, teachers and school board members and came on the heels of a work session with district officials and assembly members to discuss the district’s financial future.
The audience demographics of a typical Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting are generally pretty reliable – lots of adults. But on Tuesday, several rows were filled with a much younger crowd – more than a dozen Kenai Peninsula Borough School District students.
Among them was 15-year-old Kenneth Fine, Soldotna High School’s freshman class president.
“I don't have decades of experience in policy or finance, but I am someone who sees every single day how underfunding affects my classmates, my teachers and my education,” he said. “And I know that if we don't do something, it's only going to get worse.”
Fine was speaking in favor of a resolution asking Alaska’s state government to increase and inflation proof the base amount of money it gives school districts per student. Other than a half-percent increase two years ago, the amount has stayed the same for almost a decade. Around the state, school districts say that’s forcing them to do more with less.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is facing a $17 million budget deficit heading into the fiscal year that starts July 1. The district’s considering myriad cuts to make up the difference, from closing schools and spiking its middle college program, to laying off staff and defunding extracurricular activities.
Adelyn Ross, a SoHi sophomore, described cold and crumbling classrooms while testifying in favor of the resolution.
“I'm tired, I'm frustrated and disappointed,” she said. “Our students, our extracurriculars and our teachers are worth more. Our schools are supposed to be safe spaces for us to be ourselves and to do what we love to do, whether that be to learn, run, wrestle, sing, swim, play, football, act, debate. We can't do these things unless our government values our education.”
Assembly members passed the resolution with unanimous support. The students’ testimony came hours after a work session where district officials and assembly members took a deep dive into school finances. The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s annual contribution is the school district’s second-largest funding source, behind funding from the state.
State law dictates how much money the borough can give the district every year. The district usually asks for the maximum, but that request doesn’t always clear the assembly. This year, the district’s asking for the maximum contribution again roughly $62.4 million.
But a key variable has changed. The state’s assessed value of the Kenai Peninsula Borough went up last year. That shifts some of the school funding burden from the state to the borough. This year, the borough’s maximum contribution is higher than last year, by $6.1 million.
“Part of the reason that it's going down is the true, full and true taxable value of the Borough has increased,” said District Finance Director Liz Hayes. “It has been increasing every year. So when that number increases, the amount of money the state can provide to us goes down.”
Borough Mayor Peter Micciche says the borough can’t keep up with that growing financial burden. He says he’s “not giving up” on pushing for a $1,000 per-student funding increase from lawmakers this year, and that the school district should be doing the same.
“There's a constitutional requirement in the state for the state to adequately fund education, and they're not meeting that requirement,” he said. “You should absolutely use the number that gets us balanced and then put the pressure on policy makers to get there and to put on their big boy pants and negotiate with the governor for something that works, because we can't do this every year.”
The district has until the end of April to send a balanced budget to the borough assembly. School board members will convene for their monthly meetings Monday in Homer. They’re scheduled to talk about budget scenarios and school closures during committee meetings before their regular meeting that evening.
