Time is running out for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District to greenlight a balanced spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
The district’s facing a $17 million budget shortfall if it wants to implement a status quo budget next year. And the district doesn’t yet know how much it'll get from the state and borough, which combined account for nearly all the district’s revenue. So, the school board’s building three budgets, each around different possible funding levels.
District Superintendent Clayton Holland says it’s all distasteful.
“None of these are palatable, right?” he said. “None of these are easy.”
The three scenarios each count on different amounts of money from the state. The Alaska Legislature is considering multiple bills to boost funding for K-12 schools. It’s unpredictable if any will pass – but the local school officials have to guess to pass a budget.
“It will be the job of the committee to finalize these numbers in the different scenarios,” said School board President and Finance Committee Chair Zen Kelly. “We'll start the conversation by working in the $1,000 BSA increase and then work backwards to $340, that way we can hopefully prioritize as we go along.”
BSA is short for “base student allocation.” It’s a basic, per-student building block of state funding to local school districts.
The BSA numbers Kelly was talking about come from a bill by Sitka independent Rep. Rebecca Himschoot. Her bill, HB 69, would increase and inflation-proof the BSA.
The best-case scenario incorporates that $1,000 increase. It would bring about $16.8 million to the district – still not enough to make up the deficit, but pretty close.
In that case, finance committee members recommend, among other things:
- Firing elementary school counselors and library aides at schools with a certified librarian
- Reducing the number of days worked by pool managers, pool supervisors, theater technicians and theater managers
- Closing the pools in Ninilchik and Seldovia
- Nixing or reducing money for extracurricular activities, curriculum, transportation and school supplies
Some board members thought even the best-case scenario cuts went too far. Here’s Nikiski representative Jason Tauriainen.
“I am not real comfortable with making deep cuts on this level,” he said. “Like, I'm hopeful at some point that the state and the people in our state value what our schools offer and what extracurriculars offer our students, and actually want to invest in it. And so if somebody does invest the $1,000 to the BSA, I feel like that should be honored by not making deep cuts.”
The second scenario is built around a $680 increase – which some committee members think may be the most likely. A bill including that amount cleared both state legislative chambers last year, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it.
A $680 increase would cover about two-thirds of the district’s shortfall. To make up the difference, the committee proposes making all of the cuts from the best-case scenario. But it also includes:
- Eliminating certain counselors at small schools, all counseling assistants and student support liaisons
- Reducing the number of days worked by bilingual tutors, special education aides and instructional aides
- Halving the amount of money the district spends on tuition and materials for students in its middle college program
The worst-case scenario is built around a $340 per-student increase. That amount would cover about a third of the shortfall, but still leave the district with a more than $11 million deficit. This scenario requires cutting everything from before, plus bigger class sizes at most of the district’s 42 schools.
The different scenarios are pretty granular. But a lot’s still unsettled.
For instance, all three scenarios assume full funding from the Kenai Peninsula Borough. But that’s not a sure thing. The borough assembly will decide at a future meeting how much to chip in. The borough is the district’s second-largest funding source behind the state. And lawmakers in Juneau are still hashing out an agreement with Dunleavy at the state level.
The district’s also actively negotiating contracts with its two largest employee unions. The teachers’ union is asking for 22% raises for their members, while the support staff union is asking for 15% raises. The associated price tag isn’t included in the district’s spending plans.
Kelly said Thursday the cost of those raises at status quo staffing levels would be about $15.5 million. He emphasized that the raise proposals are only initial offers and that the cost estimate doesn’t include other parts of the contracts.
The three plans are subject to approval by the full school board. Finance committee members will meet again later this month. The board’s next meeting is April 7 in Soldotna. They have until April 30 to submit a balanced budget to borough assembly members.
