Kenai Peninsula Borough

Schools will get at least as much local money for operations as they did last year after borough assembly members on Tuesday pledged to give the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District around $62.5 million.

The school board budget closes four schools and cuts millions of dollars in programs and employees. But board members said they’d reverse certain cuts if the assembly funded the school district at the same level as last year.

The school district wants an inflationary bump to what it got from the borough last year. That still comes with millions in cuts to programs and staff. That’s why others are asking the borough for the maximum funding allowable under state law, also called the ‘cap.’

The event was held by the Kenai Peninsula Borough and Soldotna Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge, and capped a trio of similar public outreach meetings hosted by the borough.

Earlier this month, the board built three budget scenarios that assume different levels of funding from the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The borough is consistently the district’s second largest source of income, behind the state.

In practice, Tammy Goggia-Cockrell says that would not change much operationally. She coordinates the center and would become the new department’s director if the proposal passes.

One major change for borough recycling has to do with plastic – the landfill previously had multiple large containers for different types of plastic. But Borough Mayor Peter Micciche says that’s a service that will not be returning.

On today’s episode of the Kenai Conversation, we’re airing a presentation Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche gave to a joint meeting of the Kenai and Soldotna chambers of commerce.

Borough Mayor Peter Micciche says the goal is to boost travel safety along that section of the highway by making it possible to place calls from the road.

Materials taken from the site will be used to widen the Sterling Highway between Sterling and Soldotna. That stretch of the road is recognized by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as having higher-than-normal rates of serious vehicle accidents driven in part by busy summer traffic patterns.