The finance committee of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education on Tuesday, March 25, added additional proposed cuts to each of the three budget scenarios that would represent operating budgets at three different levels of state funding.
The move comes after an early March meeting in Homer where the group designed draft budgets with significant cuts to staff and programming in the face of a $17 million deficit. The most generous scenario reflects a $1,000 increase in the base student allocation — the amount of money the district receives from the state per student — as described in a House bill considered by the Alaska Legislature this session. Other scenarios describe a $680 increase, like they received last year from in one-time funding from the state, or a $340 increase.
The budget scenarios are the recommendation of the committee and will be considered at the full board on April 7. The body has to submit a completed budget document to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly by the end of April — likely before they know how much money they’ll get from the state.
Last year, the board passed a budget with severe cuts to programming and staff that it later reversed when one-time funding from the state materialized in June. This year, though, members of the board have said that cuts need to be made and maintained regardless of funding to begin rebuilding their savings and to account for ongoing negotiations with unions representing district teachers and support staff.
Ongoing challenges with the budget, the district and other education advocates say, come from stagnant state funding that has failed to account for inflation. The district cites information from the Alaska Council of School Administrators that says a BSA that kept up with inflation since 2011 would be $1,808 greater than today’s per student funding.
School Board President Zen Kelly, who also chairs the finance committee, said Tuesday that the district is unlikely to see the level of increased funding it’s asking for. The House bill describing a $1,000 increase is still working through the Alaska Senate, but might be unable to survive a veto by Gov. Mike Dunleavy even if it passes. Kelly said he hasn’t see any other bill gaining traction in the Legislature with any increase in the BSA included.
The district’s budget scenarios also assume funding from the borough to the maximum allowable amount, which is by no means guaranteed. Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche’s stated budget philosophy of annual 2.5% increases would come in nearly $5 million less than the district is asking for.
“As important as I think it is for the state to fund us at a level that exceeds a $1,000 increase to the BSA, I think the reality is coming down,” he said. “Between limitations of having enough money within the state to fund education to looking at the real aspect of what we’re asking our borough to step in at, I think the $680 column is going to be the most accurate depiction of what our district might look like next year.”
That scenario, as shown in the budget crafted on Tuesday, would mean elimination of elementary school counselors, small school counselors, Quest teachers, counseling assistants, student support liaisons, pool managers and theater technicians.
The budget also describes cuts to staff for distance education, at Kenai Alternative High School and Connections Homeschool, in the district office and in the district’s warehouse. There would also be significant cuts to the Kenai Peninsula Middle College School, all stipends for extracurricular sports and activities.
The staffing formula for all the district’s brick-and-mortar schools, whereby each school is staffed at a level defined by its student population, would see the pupil-to-teacher ratio increased by one. That change would result in a reduction of nearly $1.2 million in teacher salaries and benefits.
Some of the cuts, like for ice rentals and football helmet safety examinations, wouldn’t mean those things don’t happen, Kelly said. Instead, parents and booster clubs would need to take on those financial burdens. Those groups could also pay coaches in lieu of the eliminated stipends, he said.
Without pool managers or theater technicians to operate them, those facilities would also be expected to close. Kelly said that move would not close the district’s pools, and that he would expect the district “to work with other entities” to staff and operate the pools.
“We are just not able, at this time, to afford to pay for it,” he said.
Such an arrangement could be possible, KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland said. The borough could, under a memorandum of understanding, provide funding for pool managers and utility costs — “there’s a big barrier to that.” Borough leadership have not publicly expressed any interest in taking on the responsibility of managing school pools.
With all of those cuts, assuming full funding from the borough and an increase of $680 in the BSA, the district would operate in the next fiscal year with a surplus of $4 million.
If a $1,000 increase to the BSA were to come from the state, the budget scenario wouldn’t include some of the cuts described in the $680 budget scenario. Most pools and theaters would remain open, many of the cuts to teaching staff would not be implemented, and extra-curricular stipends wouldn’t be eliminated, among others.
If state funding falls below the $680 number, to the $340 scenario, even more cuts are described, primarily including greater cuts to teaching staff.
The full budget reduction scenario document, and a recording of the finance committee meeting, can be found at the KPBSD BoardDocs website.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
