A school funding proposal going before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Tuesday could enable local school board members to reverse millions of dollars worth of budget cuts approved earlier this month.
Borough Mayor Peter Micciche wants to give the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District $62.4 million for the fiscal year that starts in July. It’s the same amount of money the borough gave the district last year. And it’s the amount school board members requested, although they approved a more conservative spending plan.
The school board budget closes four schools and cuts millions of dollars in programs and employees. But the plan came with an asterisk. If the assembly funded the school district at the same level as last year, the board would reverse some of the cuts.
Specifically, the board promised to put the extra money – $3.3 million dollars – toward keeping class sizes the same by reversing planned increases to pupil-teacher ratios at elementary, middle and high schools. And the board promised to bring back school librarians.
The bonus borough funding is not enough to reverse all of the district’s budget cuts. But it’s still more than the school board thought it would get.
“We are committed to using this revenue in alignment with Board goals and policies to reduce class sizes, retain our highly regarded educators, and support the effective, valued programs our community relies on,” the board said in a resolution.
Micciche’s proposal is the assembly’s starting point for school funding. Throughout the school district’s budgeting process, he has espoused a budget philosophy that ties year-over-year spending boroughwide to a 2.5% inflation rate. But that would mean the district would receive less funding overall than it did last year.
In the resolution, Micciche said he’s proposing the higher amount as a sort-of reward for the district, saying it’s, “in recognition of the hard work and difficult decisions by the KPBSD school board and staff in an effort to reduce their spending toward a partnership of sustainability with KPB taxpayers.”
Micciche also included a compilation of 108 written public comments about local school funding. Of those, the borough says roughly three-quarters do not want the borough to give the district the maximum amount of money allowable under state law. That’s also known as funding to the cap.
Numerous people, including students and parents, have called on assembly members to fund to the cap. That’d send enough extra money to the district to fill its entire budget shortfall. But Micciche has said the process for funding schools in Alaska is flawed at the state level, and that the borough cannot afford to keep picking up the state’s slack.
Last year, base per-student state funding increased significantly for the first time in a decade. But the school district says the impacts of the per-student funding bump were essentially zeroed out by a spike in borough property tax assessments. That shifted a financial burden worth millions from the state to the borough this year.
Micciche’s funding proposal is not a done deal. It’s subject to approval by borough assembly members, who could change the amount to give the district more or less money. The group’s next meeting is Tuesday in Soldotna. The assembly offers multiple opportunities for public comment during meetings.
