Kenai Peninsula school board members on Monday OK’d the latest version of the school district’s spending plan for the current fiscal year. The changes preserve some programs previously slated to be cut. But the revised budget still leaves some unhappy.
Zen Kelly, school board president for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, read the list of budget cuts the district is implementing next school year to offset a budget deficit.
“We will be reducing 50% of our distance ed certified salaries and benefits,” he read. “We'll be reducing all of our budgeted elementary school counselors that come up from our general fund.”
It’s a long list.
School board members technically already passed a budget. But that version was based on a lot of guesswork. That’s because the district didn’t know how much money it was getting from its two biggest funding sources – the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the State of Alaska.
But that’s not a problem anymore. Borough assembly members voted to give the district the full amount of money it had asked for. And the district’s on track to get a $500 increase to basic per-student funding from the state.
Monday’s school board vote implements the budget crafted by the board’s finance committee. Students on Monday thanked board members for preserving programs that spurred community action.
Sterling Elementary School student Makayla Jicha is glad her school’s not closing next year.
“I have been waiting to see if you guys would say to keep it open, or to see if we could – or to close it, and I just wanted to thank you all, because my school is really an amazing school,” she said.
Seward High School alum and Olympic gold medalist Lydia Jacoby advocated for the continued operation of school pools.
“Without this pool, which seems like a small community resource, I would not have had the opportunity to swim competitively, which ultimately led me to represent our state on the top of the Olympic podium,” she said.
But the budget still left some unhappy – particularly, Seward residents.
Kameron Kowalski is a Seward High graduate, along with her dad and grandma. She says cuts to programs and staff disproportionately impact Seward students.
“We have a lot of brilliant, bright, great kids that want to stay in our community,” she said. “And right now, what kind of education are we offering them? It's not fair. Adults could go get other jobs if there's layoffs Seward, kids can't go choose another education.”
There’s a chance the district could get some more money to put toward the fiscal year that started July 1. Lawmakers are scheduled to convene for a special session next month. Among other things, they’ll consider whether to override a gubernatorial veto of tens of millions of dollars for Alaska’s K-12 schools. If lawmakers override the veto, the district would get another roughly $3 million.
Here’s Kelly again.
“If that gets overridden, we will have another discussion about, well, what can we do with another $3 million?” he asked. “What holes can we plug and fill?”
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has asked members of the Republican House Minority Caucus not to attend the part of the special session in which lawmakers can consider veto overrides. But the central Kenai Peninsula’s two House Representatives have said they plan to attend anyway.
