Board of ed closes 4 schools, advances budget

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 10, 2026

A six-hour regular school board meeting held in Homer Monday resulted in the closure of four Kenai Peninsula Borough district schools and the advancement of a “worst-case scenario” budget.

The district had been working through three budget scenarios for fiscal year 2027 over the past several months in the face of an $8 million deficit. All three scenarios assumed approximately $71.8 million in state foundation funding, barring an additional increase to the base student allocation by the state Legislature, and different levels of funding from the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Scenario one, which district superintendent Clayton Holland has previously called “the worst case scenario,” assumes the $59 million in funding currently proposed by the borough, which is a $3.3 million decrease from how much the borough funded the district last fiscal year.

The scenario also includes elimination of or reductions to several staffing positions and across-the-board increases to the pupil-teacher ratio.

This is the preliminary budget that was advanced by the district on Monday, as funding talks continue with the borough mayor and assembly. While several members of the Board of Education have previously stated that they supported scenario two, which assumes the same level of borough funding as fiscal year 2026 and includes no PTR increases and far fewer staff eliminations or reductions, as of Monday no concrete promises for increased borough funding beyond the $59 million already proposed had been made.

In that light, Holland said, they had to move forward with the preliminary budget that was based off of what the district “currently knows.”

Borough funding currently proposed represents a 2.5% increase above what the borough would have funded last year, before the assembly voted to fund the KPBSD to the maximum amount allowed.

However, the district remains in a deficit again this year due to both decreased enrollment and a cost shift from the state to the borough, resulting in the district receiving less money from the state despite the permanent increase to the base-student allocation last year.

During a town hall meeting held in Homer last Thursday, borough mayor Peter Micciche said that he would not fund the district to the cap for a second year — calling it unsustainable, as that would quickly diminish the health of the borough’s general fund balance — but he would remain flexible on the amount of school funding provided by the borough.

Still, he urged members of the audience, the responsibility for adequate school funding lay with the State of Alaska and a long-term plan to resolve the continuous debate over school funding needed to come from them.

“The BSA is a very complicated system that is broken,” he said. “At the time when we need funding the most, our support from the state is crashing. I’m very afraid of standing in this room next year having the same conversation, and nothing has changed. I’m also afraid that the local borough taxpayers will bail out (the state) again, so why should (they) do anything? We need the state to come to the table.”

Micciche also said that the final funding numbers from both the state, and therefore the borough, might not be realized until June.

“I will remain flexible. I will tell you that we will not know the final number until sometime in June, and that’s problematic for all of you, but that’s the reality (of) the legislature,” he said.

“We need the state to come forward, and we will help make this survivable, but we can’t save it alone. It’s not possible for us to save it.”

Similar town halls were held in Seward and in Kenai last week as well.

Meanwhile, all three budget scenarios considered by the district called for the closures of River City Academy, Seward Middle School, and Sterling and Tustumena Elementary Schools. The board heard testimony from dozens of community members including parents, teachers and students advocating to keep their schools open as they serve students’ unique needs and, particularly in the cases of Sterling and Tustumena, also act as community hubs.

The board voted 7-2 to close River City Academy, with board members Dianne MacRae and Penny Vadla voting against. Board members who voted in favor of the closure did acknowledge the difficulty of the decision and the unique nature of RCA’s academic programming and student support. “I’ve been very impressed with the testimony that we’ve had. We’ve had students come in and share their stories … it is very clear that this is a successful, unique program, and this kind of program is very much needed in our district,” board member Mica VanBuskirk said. “I don’t think we can delay on this. We have to balance the budget ….It’s a staffing and numbers issue. It is very difficult, but I do believe we need to move forward with this.”

District assistant superintendent Kari Dendurent previously stated that because RCA is not located in its own facility, it is not subject to the seven-year moratorium mandated by the state before it would be allowed to reopen.

On the vote to consolidate Seward Middle School with Seward’s elementary and high schools, VanBuskirk — who represents Seward on the board — reiterated the difficulty of the decision.

“The simple fact is over 20% of our students have left our brick and mortar schools for a variety of reasons in the last 20 years,” she said. “With this kind of student loss, it’s heartbreaking … but I do believe that as a district we have to do the fiscally responsible thing and consolidate some of our schools.”

Seward Middle School’s closure passed in an 8-1 vote, with MacRae the only dissenting vote.

Sterling Elementary’s closure passed on a 7-2 vote, with MacRae and Kelley Cizek dissenting.

Board clerk Sarah Douthit, who said she was a graduate of Sterling Elementary, said making the decision to close the community’s school felt “like we’re kind of up against a wall.”

“I would not be here contemplating this decision if there were other viable options at this point,” she said.

Tustumena Elementary’s closure also passed on a 7-2 vote, with MacRae and Vadla opposed.

Seward Middle School and Sterling and Tustumena Elementary Schools are subject to the seven-year moratorium upon closure.

A recording of the full regular board meeting, as well as the Board of Education work sessions and supporting documents, will be available on the KPBSD Board Docs website.

School district administration also met with the borough in a joint work session on Tuesday before the regular borough assembly meeting, where Holland, board president Jason Tauriainen and district finance director Czarina Voivedich gave a presentation on the district’s preliminary budget. The district also included a resolution, approved by a 5-4 majority of the board on Monday, formally asking the borough to approve a local contribution of at least $62.3 million — the same funding as FY26 — for operational and in-kind purposes prior to district’s July 15 deadline to submit a final budget to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. Documents and the recording for the April 7 borough finance committee meeting will be available at kpb.legistar.com.