The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education passed an amendment during a Feb. 2 work session to add ninth and 10th grade curriculum to the Aurora Borealis Charter School starting this fall. The school currently serves kindergarten through eighth grade students.
Because the school’s enrollment cap would stay at 24 students per grade level, the district would keep the current lottery entry system. The school would offer honors courses and AP classes for high school students.
“This charter looks to expand grade levels as outlined in the timeline below,” reads one page of the 77-page-long amended application. “Adding grades 9th and 10th will give students the opportunity to continue the whole-group, subject-centered direct instruction as the core learning strategy. Students enrolled in the K-8 program will benefit from the opportunity to continue their education in the same system that utilizes the same instructional approaches and curriculum.”
The application also provides a brief outline of the proposed daily schedule for ninth and 10th grade students. Students can enter the building at 7:30 a.m. and make their way to their classrooms in time for first period, which begins at 7:40 a.m. Six more periods follow, each around 50 minutes long. A 30 minute-long break for lunch begins at 11:10 a.m.
School board president Jason Tauriainen said because the district is submitting an amendment rather than an application, there are less hoops to jump through in receiving approval for the application. KPBSD assistant superintendent Kari Dendurant said district leadership is in full support of adding ninth and 10th grades to the charter school.
“We do understand that there are some pieces that still need to be put in place, and we still also need to look at recommendations for adding courses,” she said.
Board member Ash-Lee Waddell voiced concerns during the meeting, saying some sections of the proposed application violate state statutory and regulatory compliances. First, she pointed out that the proposed contract incorrectly establishes an 11-year-long term, violating Alaska statutes — which caps terms at 10 years — while correctly listing the term as 10 years in other parts. She also said the Academic Policy Committee structure in the document’s bylaws don’t comply with Alaska law, which requires the committee to include parents, teachers and school employees.
“Teachers and employees as voting members are completely absent from the governance structure, and that’s a core component to the operation of a charter school,” Waddell said.
Waddell also said certain parts of the admissions process were outdated or missing from the document entirely.
“I understand the district’s desire to support innovation and the enthusiasm of the school for this expansion, but I don’t support approving a noncompliant application due to the exposure of both the school and the district to operational risk,” she concluded. “I would respectfully urge the board to require that the identified deficiencies be corrected and the application submitted before approval is granted.”
Dendurant said district leadership plans to review Waddell’s concerns, which she sent in an email to KPBSD superintendent Clayton Holland and the other board members.
“I’m trying to correct any potential prior negligence due to allowing everything to proceed falling outside of statutory requirements,” Waddell said. “I find that it’s disingenuous to come and recommend that it’s approved today regardless of when I sent my feedback, because a thorough review would have identified these deficiencies. The appropriate action would be to come in and say, ‘We need to extend this for another session.’”
Aurora Borealis principal Cody McCanna said he’d work with KPBSD to ensure the mistakes in the application are corrected in a timely manner, but school board treasurer Penny Vadla seconded Waddell’s concerns, saying that she couldn’t support moving the application forward with its current inaccuracies.
“I usually like to support everything, but at this moment and at this time, I think we can wait until March,” she said. “If we clear this up and make it a clean document, I know it will go through in March.”
Other board members spoke largely in support of the amendment. Dianne MacRae said she’s always been impressed with the charter school and believes the issues can be fixed in time for the upcoming school year.
“I’ve seen nothing but positive things from this school, and I can’t do anything but support it,” she said.
The resolution passed 7-2 during the school board meeting later that evening. Applications for ninth and 10th grade students to attend the charter school during the 2026-2027 school year are due by March 6.
The meeting was recorded and is available to watch on the KPBSD BoardDocs website.
