Aurora Borealis Charter School is not getting a high school program, for now. That’s after Kenai Peninsula school board members Monday rejected the school’s efforts to add more grade levels starting next fall.
The K-8 charter school in Kenai has long sought to add high school to its program, which serves a little less than 200 students. But it’s consistently run up against an issue — space. Until this year, the school shared a building with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula. After that group moved out, the charter school revisited its dream of a high school program.
But the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Kenai Alternative High School also calls the building home, serving around 45 students.
The expansion proposal submitted by Aurora Borealis Charter suggests moving the alternative school out of the building. It’s not clear where the Kenai Alternative students would go.
If the alternative school doesn’t move out, the charter school’s proposal says the school district “will provide a suitable facility” for its new high school program. But Kari Dendurent says that’s not the district’s job. She’s the assistant superintendent and oversees the district’s charter schools.
“The language in here about the district being responsible is not appropriate language,” she said. “And I think the other piece of it, too, is that, I believe, stated several different times, is that you've been looking for a facility and you've been unable to find a facility.”
Board members were unified in their desire to find a solution that best serves the needs of the growing charter school and the Kenai Alternative program. But they clashed over whether ABC’s proposal provided that solution.
Those who favored the charter’s request said a high school program could bolster an academically successful program and boost district enrollment. They also say the expansion could facilitate the relocation of Kenai Alternative’s program to a better facility as the district already considered closing the program. Here’s board member Kelley Cizek.
“I don't see a school trying to, you know, be a bully and kick somebody to the curb,” she said. “What I see is a school that is a good school trying to expand what they can offer to our district and maybe allow another school to be in a better facility.”
Those who oppose ABC’s expansion say pushing out the alternative program would unfairly target the district’s most at-risk students and crowd whatever other school is asked to absorb Kenai Alternative students and staff. Opponents also say the move would eliminate a source of stability for students because a new location for the program hasn’t been identified.
Superintendent Clayton Holland supports adding a high school program to ABC, but not at the expense of Kenai Alternative.
“The concern is what that communicates to our whole district and our community and our teachers and our admin and most importantly, our students, about taking our most at-risk kids and, through this process, moving them without certainty of a better facility,” he said.
The board heard dozens of comments from people on both sides of the debate during their Monday night meeting.
RayAnn Nye is a special education teacher at Aurora Borealis and Kenai Alternative whose four children attended ABC. She says the students at Kenai Alternative need a stable place to learn more than ABC students need space for a high school.
“If they want that high school, more power to them. It is a good place to learn,” she said. “My children are products of that and SoHi, and they are doing amazingly well. But we can't sacrifice the family that Kenai Alternative has developed for these kids that don't have another place to call family.”
Taylor Fallon is a student at Kenai Alternative.
“Kenai Alternative is a second home to the students,” she said. “You should put emotion into consideration when you vote tonight, and don't look at us as numbers and test scores, because we're not. We're people who need structure, support and a good learning environment.”
Aurora Borealis seventh-grader Lynx Robertia says she’s nervous about leaving her school when she gets older.
“I personally am not excited to go to another high school experiencing how good it is at Aurora and people just being kind and, like, helping when you don't understand certain subjects,” she said. “I think ninth and tenth grade would be great for both the kids to get more chances and just to not be thrown into a high school that they've never been into before.”
State Rep. Bill Elam acknowledged the board’s difficult position. His three kids attend Aurora Borealis, and his wife is now a member of their governing committee. He supports adding a high school program.
“Aurora is looking to expand,” he said. “We've been trying to for the better part of a decade. Each time, we've run into some kind of a problem that didn't happen where we were unable to be successful. This is an opportunity for us to be successful, to be able to show the rest of the state what we can do with our charter programs.”
Board members considered, but killed, an attempt to compromise. A defeated amendment would have greenlit the charter school’s ninth and tenth grades for next school year, but held off on eleventh and twelfth grades. That would have enabled the charter to partially expand while keeping Kenai Alternative in its existing space.
But after consulting with the charter school, Dendurent, the assistant superintendent, said that wasn’t something that interested the charter school team.
The vote against Aurora Borealis’ application was 6-3 opposed. Since board members voted the proposal down, they won’t be able to pick the issue back up again until the next round of charter school proposals are considered next fall.
