Almost a week after Kenai Peninsula Borough leadership told the borough assembly that the price of projects described in a $65.5 million bond package approved by voters in 2022 had ballooned to $83.4 million, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education met for a work session to talk through the path forward.
The board and district leadership, during their work session in Seward on Monday, Sept. 9, received a truncated version of the same presentation by Borough Mayor Peter Micciche and Borough Purchasing & Contracting Director John Hedges — who said that the cost of projects has gone up and projects need to be scaled back or reimagined to fit the new reality. Many of the projects are set to start moving forward in the spring of next year.
Central to the conversation was the increased cost of reconstruction of Soldotna Elementary School, the largest of the bond projects. That project was budgeted at $21.5 million, but a design specification instead describes a new cost estimate of $35 million. The borough has rejected Clarion records requests for that document, citing “deliberative process privilege.”
Part of the increase in cost, Hedges said, is because Soldotna Elementary “is not a conventional school” compared to one in Anchorage that the projected budget was based on.
“There are some significant, unique situations associated with Soldotna Elementary that drive square footage and limit our ability to overlap dual purposes for spaces.”
Much of the conversation about how to get projects back on track centered on a new request for proposals that Micciche said will explore options for how to renovate Soldotna Preparatory School and reconstruct Soldotna Elementary School within the new financial reality of the projects.
“Once we know what those costs are going to be, I think some of these other projects either will be reduced or may have to be another source of funding,” Micciche said.
Hedges said that the new request for proposals will bring the borough’s understanding of “other areas of focus up to a level of understanding that we brought the Soldotna Elementary replacement program up to.”
“It’s the opinion that, if we don’t do that, then we truly haven’t done our diligence in regard to how we’re going to spend this $40 million in the Soldotna area,” he said.
Micciche said that the borough’s legal analysis of the bond suggests that modifications to the projects can be made under the authority of the bond. The replacement of Soldotna Elementary, he said, is viable “whether it’s at Soldotna El, or its at Sol Prep, or another nearby location. That is what they believe to be the case.”
Despite the extended focus at both the Board of Education work session and during the assembly work session last week, Hedges said the borough would not describe the request for proposals because “there might be an unfair circumstance associated with the individuals that would give us proposals.”
He conceded that they were “alluding to certain things and not giving full descriptions.”
“Once we complete it, in the end of this whole process, we’re going to come back to the board with what we’ve discovered, including the reasons why we were not recommending certain things,” he said.
Eventually, Micciche said, “we have to have a discussion about excess square footage,” repeating an idea he returned to several times during the assembly work session. There, he said one of the large questions facing the bond project is how best to use Soldotna Preparatory School’s 84,000 square feet.
When asked for clarification by Board President Zen Kelly, Micciche said “I think that would be a healthy discussion to have in executive session.”
“It makes sense for us to be maintaining square footage that is fully utilized,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense for us to be maintaining square footage that isn’t.”
Board member Penny Vadla expressed frustration at seeing projects like Kenai Central High School’s concession stand and Seward High School’s football field move forward while students in Soldotna are either attending a school in need or repair or being left without “a sense of place.”
Per previous Clarion reporting, Soldotna Elementary School was built in 1960 and now faces significant challenges because of its age — trees growing from its roof and panels falling from its walls. Other schools have waited years to be moved into Soldotna Preparatory School — like River City Academy, which occupies an increasingly tight part of Skyview Middle School.
“I think that we are making a mistake,” she said. “I think we are not giving service to the students who need it.”
Micciche declined to respond to her comments, saying “I didn’t hear a question, I heard lots of other words.”
When Vadla asked how an “equitable correction” could be made, Micciche, again, touted the new request for proposals as the solution to “evaluate the other possibilities” and “make the best decision for kids in our district.”
A full recording of the work session is available on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s BoardDocs site.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
