The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will assemble a 12-person team to study and make recommendations about school consolidation. Superintendent Clayton Holland briefed school board members Monday about the new team.
The group’s work will come on the heels of a tumultuous budget year, during which school board members closed the K-12 school in Nikolaevsk and came close to shutting Sterling Elementary School to cut costs. The proposal sparked heated debate around the district, and now Holland says he wants to get ahead of the same conversation next year.
“We want to do it in such a way that doesn't cause anxiety and stress, right?” he said. “We don't want to put things out there that maybe aren't truly going to happen or are not in the realm of possibility, but we do want to have that long-term piece and long-term trend to be considering.”
Funding shortfalls, declining student enrollment and struggles maintaining consistent programs across its 42 schools have forced the district to consider school closures. By consolidating students into fewer school buildings, Holland says the district can offer programs they might not otherwise be able to when those students are spread out across different schools.
Earlier this year, the district floated nine schools for potential closure.
When considering which schools to close, Holland says the new 12-person administrative committee will consider building conditions and deferred maintenance, potential cost savings and larger regional impacts. Holland said he will pick committee members.
Multiple board members said the district should put expanded student opportunities at the front of the school closure conversation. Outgoing Board President Zen Kelly says closing any one school doesn’t result in tremendous cost savings for the district.
“When we look at cost savings, it's just, I would say it's an element of the decision making process, but it is a small element of the decision-making process, and we should look at the gains that we get through consolidation, in offering more to the students that we serve as being the core reason of why we would move toward to that.” he said.
Some board members questioned whether a 12-person group would be too large to be effective. As proposed, the team would include district office staff, two school board members, building administrators, three community members and a representative from the Kenai Peninsula Borough, which owns and maintains school district facilities.
Sarah Douthit represents Kenai on the school board. She says it will be important for the group to operate efficiently.
“We do not want to just talk about this for the next five years,” she said. “We need a timeline, we need a timeframe, and we need to stick to it and move forward in an impactful and strategic way to make these things a reality, so that our students do have these better programs and better impacts on their education.”
The group’s still in its early stages, but Holland wants the group to make recommendations by February. School board members will still get the final say on any decisions about school consolidation.
