Kenai Alternative would lose staff member under proposed district budgets

Kenai Alternative High School is set to lose a member of its staff in all three of the possible budget reduction scenarios being considered by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

The school, alongside all the district’s alternative schools, was briefly raised as a possibility for closure during a meeting of the KPBSD Board of Education in Homer on March 3. At a finance committee meeting March 25, KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland said district administration recommended reducing the staff at Kenai Alternative, rather than closing the school. That cut would represent a reduction of nearly $202,000 in teacher salaries and benefits.

That’s because, he said, the student population at Kenai Alternative has declined “significantly.” Alternative schools are staffed via administrative regulation rather than the pupil-to-teacher ratio employed in other schools. Declines in attendance otherwise would have automatically triggered staff reductions. An increase in the pupil-to-teacher ratio also included in the budget reduction scenarios will result in staff reductions at schools across the district next year.

There would be “significantly less” staff at Kenai Alternative if it were staffed according to the small school’s pupil-to-teacher ratio formula, Holland said, “but we recognize when schools have very unique needs and challenges and students who need that extra support.” The cut included in the budget scenarios is a reduction of two employees, only one of which is full time. Only one person at the school will see their role eliminated, because Kenai Alternative already has an open part-time position that will be left unfilled.

Kenai Alternative students and staff championed their school to the KPBSD Board of Education during their meeting on Monday.

“I don’t think I would be able to graduate without my school,” Kenai Alternative student Stefany Montague said.

The school, she said, is a community and a family that serves students who have struggled in larger school settings.

Zaeryn Bahr, another student, echoed that sentiment, saying Kenai Alternative had become a second home for him.

“It’s made me enjoy school every day,” he said. “I think it can do that for a lot of kids, and I think a lot of people do deserve that home away from home.”

Adelynn DeHoyos, also a student, said Kenai Alternative was her “last resort,” a place where she’s been able to grow and discover an excitement for her own future. That’s a role she said Kenai Alternative plays in the lives of many young people in the local area.

John Galahan, Kenai Alternative’s principal, said his students are “the ones who feel neglected, ignored or forgotten within our public schools.”

“Without a place like the alt to be, they would not be in school,” he said. “By cutting any one person within my school, we don’t cut a teacher, we don’t lose a class, we lose an individual who in some cases may be the only adult that those kids know and trust.”

Retired Kenai Alternative teacher Vickie Roney said Kenai Alternative over decades has seen countless students graduate and enter the local workforce despite challenges they’ve faced in their lives. Those students now work at local businesses, some even own their own.

“We are their difference,” Kenai Alternative math, art and science teacher Alison Larson said. “We are their support system. Please don’t take us away from them.”

The full budget reduction scenario document, and records of board and finance committee meetings, can be found at the KPBSD BoardDocs website.

This story was corrected on Thursday, April 10. A previous version misspelled the name of Zaeryn Bahr.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.