Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

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.

It’s been over a year since the district and its two largest employee unions swapped contract proposals. Union members say they’re frustrated with the sluggish process.

Nikiski Middle/High School’s Bulldog Theater opens ‘Anything Goes’ on May 1. The show features romance and humor on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and marks the final performance for some of the school’s seniors.

City Manager Terry Eubank says he’s met with other city managers and the borough mayor to talk through possible solutions, and that Kenai’s all-age nonprofit swim team has been proactive. Starting July 1, the school district will stop funding the pool.

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.’

Representatives of the Soldotna Silver Salmon Swim Team have ideas for making the pool profitable, and say Soldotna has a vibrant enough base of swimmers to keep the schedule busy.

The budget now heads to the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Assembly members still haven’t decided how much money the borough should give the district. Board members hope to get more money than they budgeted around, which would let them undo some of the cuts.

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.

In its latest offers, the district proposed a three-year contract with a 3-2-2 raise structure to both unions. Staff would get a 3% raise for the current school year, then 2% and 2% raises through the 2027-2028 school year.