The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is facing a “paralyzing” level of uncertainty as it waits both to see how Gov. Mike Dunleavy will exercise his veto rights in the next month and for the borough to finalize its contribution to the district, KPBSD Board President Zen Kelly said Monday. Decisions on staffing, programs and schools are being held up as the district won’t know how much money it must work with until the end of June.

The Alaska Legislature passed a bill May 2 that implements a set of policy changes and increases the amount of funding the state provides to districts per student, the base student allocation, by $700. Dunleavy vetoed that bill May 19, the last day of his deadline to do so, and the veto was successfully overridden by lawmakers May 20.

Unlike in recent years when the state has only provided one-time funding increases, Kelly said this year’s increase is significant because it is law. The BSA, which has been $5,960 per student since 2017, is now $6,660. That total doesn’t lift the buying power of Alaska’s school districts to the level that it has lost to inflationary pressure since 2011, which would have called for a $1,808 increase. It also is subject to appropriation in the state budget and, consequently, the ability of the governor to veto the money.

The governor has “telegraphed that is his intent” to veto at least some amount of school funding this year, Kelly said. The Alaska Legislature is unlikely to call a special session to override the veto and wouldn’t consider the issue until the next session in January. Dunleavy has until June 19 to veto — and Kelly said he could allow schools to be funded to several different possible levels.

If a heavy cut comes from Dunleavy, the district could be made to craft another budget with even steeper cuts than those already proposed.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” Kelly said.

A question of timing

The Kenai Peninsula Borough last month delayed its decision on school funding to June 17, two weeks after a previously scheduled June 3 action on their budget ordinance. The borough assembly decided in early May to include $57.6 million in the borough budget for schools, roughly $5 million less than the $62 million requested by the district. An effort by some members to increase the local contribution to the $62 million level have been delayed in a “strategy” that Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche says will put pressure on the state to provide more money.

The KPBSD finance committee will meet June 26, after the state and borough have made their decisions. That group will advance a recommendation for a final budget to be considered by the KPBSD Board of Education on July 7, after the start of the next fiscal year but before a July 15 deadline to provide their budget to the State Department of Education and Early Development.

While the district waits to see what it will have to work with, uncertainty is impacting some district staff who still haven’t been issued contracts, and whole facilities are currently set for closure, like the district’s pools. The district’s draft budget calls for closing schools, eliminating positions, reducing teaching staff and making steep cuts to programs like Kenai Peninsula Middle College and Quest.

The pools, per the budget, would be closed at the end of this month as all the pool managers are eliminated. KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland said Monday that a plan had been developed to keep “larger pools” temporarily open this summer by leveraging increased summertime pool revenues. Since Friday, the pools at Kenai Central High School and Skyview Middle School have both announced the start of registrations for July swim lessons.

Sterling Elementary School, which is also set to be closed, has yet to see firm action from the KPBSD Board of Education — Holland said a vote to close the school is set for July.

Uncertain whether or not Sterling will indeed be closed, staff and students on Monday told the board they don’t know what their future looks like. Krystal Duval, a kindergarten teacher, said Monday that her classroom is boxed up and she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to return to it. She said in May that as the school year ended, she wasn’t able to find closure or say goodbye to students who may find their school closed during summer break.

Makayla Jicha, a Sterling student, says she doesn’t know where she goes to school anymore.

“I don’t now if I’m going to be going to Sterling, or Redoubt, or homeschool,” she said. “We need answers. We need them soon. If we don’t get them, then we won’t know.”

A full recording of the finance committee meeting and board of education meeting will be available at the KPBSD BoardDocs website.

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