Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

School district officials spoke to attendees at the school for the third of four public meetings the district is holding at schools the board is proposing to close to save money.

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.

On today’s episode of the Kenai Conversation, we’re joined by three big players in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s ongoing contract negotiations.

The cuts are being proposed as school board members trying to reconcile a roughly $8.5 million forecast budget shortfall, and come as community members fervently advocate to keep their programs.

The district is going to come up about $8.5 million short if it wants to operate next school year with the same number of employees and programs as it is this school year.

Josh Bolling, 17, is a junior at Kenai Central High School. Alaska’s state school board is a group created by state law to head up the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Aurora Borealis Charter School will welcome ninth and tenth graders to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s first charter high school program next school year.

Approval from the Alaska Board of Education came roughly two months after Kenai Peninsula school board members also signed off.

Early estimates put the district about $8.5 million in the red if it maintained the same staffing and programs next school year.

Aurora Borealis Charter School pitched two new grades – ninth and tenth – to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s charter school committee Monday in Soldotna.