As Kenai Peninsula school board members grapple with a $17 million funding shortfall, the district has considered shuttering up to nine schools to save money. Last month, some schools breathed a sigh of relief when the board whittled the list down to three. But the angst is palpable in Nikolaevsk, where the community school is still at risk.
Bob Moore started teaching in Nikolaevsk in 1970 – six years before the current K-12 school was built. He hauled the school’s first chalkboards in through the woods from the main road and taught without books for his first few months. After arriving in the Russian Old Believer village, about 10 miles east of Anchor Point, Moore says he started knocking on doors to find students.
More than half a century later, Moore joined roughly 50 people who packed into the school’s small library Thursday night to plead with school district officials not to close the school.
“I’m telling you, our kids are worth it,” Moore said.
In recent years, the school’s enrollment has plummeted. The school’s built for 175 students. But next year, the district forecasts only 19 will enroll. And as school district officials consider what to cut, Nikolaevsk’s school remains a top candidate.
“I'm hoping that you can give them a chance to find the students and encourage families to bring their kids here,” Moore said. “I think it'll be in your best interest in the long run. Thank you.”
It’s been a rocky road for the school over the last few years. Community members tried and failed multiple times to open a charter school for students amid concerns about enrollment, school staff and cultural needs. The district made some adjustments, but enrollment hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.
But multiple people on Thursday said they feel good about the school’s current trajectory under Principal Diane Maples, who started this year. Nikolaevsk parent Lisa James says having a principal who’s willing to advocate for the school makes a big difference.
“She hasn't even had a year, and, you know, we're going to shut your doors,” James said. “It's like, wait, wait, can we get a little bit more time just to see if we can, you know, before we shut it? Because, like you guys said, it's seven years, that's a long time.”
State law says districts have to wait seven years before reopening a school that was closed due to low enrollment.
If the Nikolaevsk School closed, its students could be bused to Chapman School in Anchor Point about 10 miles away and Homer High School about 20 miles away. According to district data, Chapman is already forecast to be 36 kids over capacity next school year.
Atticus James is a fifth grader at Nikolaevsk, and Lisa’s son. His favorite subject is math and he’s trying to learn Russian to talk to his classmates in their first language. He’s worried about changing schools – he’s lived in Nikolaevsk his whole life.
“It’s close to my home,” he said. “A lot of my friends go here. I would be pretty sad if I had to disband into other schools.”
The district’s budget woes are far from resolved. School board members built three budgets, each around a guess on how much money the state might chip in this year. The district also doesn’t know how much money it’s getting from the borough. All three scenarios assume full borough funding, but that’s not a guarantee.
School Board President and Finance Committee Chair Zen Kelly says the scenarios each leave a cushion if they don’t get maximum borough funding. But, he says the district's financial challenges were years in the making.
“We've been talking about the ‘cliff,’ and ‘the cliff is coming,’” he said. “We've tried to stairstep it all this time. We are now looking off the cliff because it's here and it's happening now. So I don't know how to get time, unless we convince the legislature to give us time and funding.”
Borough Mayor Peter Micciche has suggested he’s open to closing schools with low enrollment to save money. On the education front, he says the borough can’t afford to keep filling in the gap left by a lack of state funding. And since the borough owns school district buildings, its spending on facilities maintenance could change, too.
“We can try and be heroes in our local school, or we can work together on a survivable KPBSD,” Micciche told assembly members last month. “That’s all I’ll say about that. We are going to have to consolidate half-empty schools into something that works.”
The district estimates it would save just under $500,000 the first year after closing Nikolaevsk. But those savings decrease over time – to almost half that amount in the fifth year.
Multiple attendees Thursday expressed interest in helping build the school’s enrollment back up. One person suggested putting an advertisement in the Homer newspaper, while another proposed reviving Bob Moore’s door-knocking.
Superintendent Clayton Holland said proven interest could help save the school.
“If you had a commitment and you trusted those people, I think that would speak loudly to the board,” Holland told attendees Thursday. “I can't say what the board's decision collectively would be on that.”
Nikolaevsk School alum Blake Sawyer recently moved back to the village from Ohio, with the intention of having his kids graduate from the school, too. He says he’s up to the task of trying to boost school enrollment.
“I know we’ve got work to do on our end, but I’m just asking that you would take that … back with you when you speak with other board members, to convey that message to them,” he said. “There's a passion there for their school, and we understand what we need to do, and we're going to try and make that happen.”
School board members have until the end of the month to send a balanced budget to the borough assembly.
