The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is on track to keep its pools and Sterling Elementary School open for another year. School board members had considered shuttering both – and a trove of other programs – as a way to offset a forecast budget deficit. But the district’s finance committee warns that while some things have come off the chopping block this year, tough conversations are far from over.
The budget decisions made during last week’s special finance committee meeting aren’t official yet. But they reflect a general consensus of the four-member committee and input from other school board members.
Superintendent Clayton Holland also presented recommendations from his team at the district office.
“One of the things our leadership team did, I want to keep that in mind as we go through this entire day, is that we really looked at what impacts our strategic plan and what really impacts kids,” he said. “And I encourage everybody, as we go forward, this isn't about the adult needs, right?”
It’s the first time the group’s met since learning how much money the district will get from the state and borough for the fiscal year that starts Tuesday. It’s been a tumultuous budget season for the district, which started the year with a forecast $17 million shortfall.
The budget the board passed in April closed the K-12 school in Nikolaevsk, cut staff and eliminated programs. But now that the district has a better sense of how much it has to work with, the board can fine tune the spending plan.
On top of the high-dollar cuts, the committee also suggests eliminating two more positions in the district’s administrative office. And they’ll bring back a scaled-down version of the district’s middle college program, which the board had previously planned to cut entirely.
Sterling Elementary School
The school district won’t close Sterling Elementary School next year. That’s after fierce lobbying by school supporters, who said they felt blindsided by the proposal.
But School Board President Zen Kelly says the school’s future is far from settled.
“For Sterling Elementary, we're going to proceed along for next year at that building location,” he said. “But we're also starting the conversation, September at the latest, of what we're going to do.”
The district estimates closing the school, which operates at about 40% capacity, would save a little over $700,000.
The district initially floated nine schools for possible closure. But ongoing uncertainty about the future of more than $50 million worth of bond projects on Soldotna-area schools has stalled decisions on central peninsula schools. It’s to those schools that Sterling Elementary students would be moved if the district closes their school.
Kelly says he’s already planned to schedule two special board meetings for later this summer. One will focus on school closures and the other will focus on long-term district finances.
School bus routes
The district also plans to cut two school bus routes to save money. Even though state lawmakers set aside additional money for education this year, the district still comes up about $550,000 short of what it needs for status quo bus service.
That’s about the amount school board members budgeted for, but Kelly says costs, especially for diesel, are expected to go up.
“That is my recommendation as I dug into this – is that we go ahead and eliminate the two less impactful routes, we keep the loop route going into next year,” he said. “And then my hope in the future is we can figure out a way for transportation to equal what we get funded from the state.”
The state gives the district $1,011 per brick and mortar student to bus kids to and from school. In recent years, busing has cost more than the state funding covers. So, the district’s drawn from its general fund to make up the difference. And for the last three years, they’ve trimmed routes to cut costs. That means parents may have to drive their kids farther.
Kenai Peninsula school buses burn through about 765 gallons of diesel every school day. The district’s bus contract pays for the first $2.50 per gallon, but anything over that is paid by the district. On Monday, a gallon of diesel at Fred Meyer cost $3.80 per gallon.
Class sizes
The cuts will impact students inside their classrooms, too.
Committee members are recommending increasing the district’s student-to-teacher ratio by two students across all schools. That will make some class sizes bigger and will eliminate some teaching positions. As of Monday the district didn’t know how many full-time teaching positions would be cut through the change.
Staff vacancies around the district mean some employees who are laid off may be able to transfer to another position. But committee member Jason Tauriainen says the impact to students shouldn’t be downplayed.
“These do affect the number of classrooms and sometimes programs that are offered in these buildings,” he said. “So I get that we're not cutting the person that has a job currently with the district, but we do need to be aware that these cuts are meaningful for these schools.”
The increase will make the Kenai Peninsula’s student-teacher ratio comparable to the historic rates of the other so-called “Big Five” school districts in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. But all those districts are increasing their student-teacher ratios to save money next year, too.
Athletics
The district also plans to halve the amount of money it spends on stipends for staff who run middle and high school extracurricular programs, like sports and debate. But there’s disagreement about how that cut — expected to save roughly $522,000 — will be implemented.
“I feel like it's a very difficult thing to do this 50% cut, then dump it on to fundraising,” Tauriainen said. “If you have a coach, they're going to have to get paid for the contract. I don't get how we can do this. Like, it doesn't make sense.”
Holland said district admin only recommended cutting stipends for middle school athletics.
“Athletics are one of our biggest interventions that we have, right?” he said. “It is a reason that a number of kids stay involved in school at the level they are. So that's where I have the hardship on this.”
On top of the employee stipends, the committee also recommends spiking $40,000 in spending on ice rentals for hockey and safety testing of football helmets.
School pools
The board also plans to rehire pool managers, but those employees will work 10 days less next school year. They were among a handful of employees laid off earlier this month. The cut would have saved about $550,000. But it was also one of the most unpopular decisions the board made.
The board’s thought about closing pools in previous years, too. And board member Kelley Cizek says she thinks the public is getting tired of the district crying wolf.
“Unfortunately, I feel like we've done this before, and what happens is that the communities go, ‘Oh, well, they're going to pay for it no matter what,’ and they don't take it seriously,” she said.
Management of school pools is at a crossroads right now. Because so many non-school groups pay to use the pools, some say ownership should shift from the school district to the borough, such as in Nikiski. Seldovia residents, for example, opted to pay more in property taxes to keep their pool open. And a similar effort is underway in Ninilchik.
In all, the revised cuts bring school district expenses within budget and with about $1.3 million to act as contingency.
Kelly, the board president, said Monday employee negotiations are one of the things being considered for the $1.3 million contingency. In raises alone, the two groups are requesting a combined total of more than $15 million in raises for next school year. And that’s not something school board members have factored into their budget scenarios.
The updated budget only becomes official if approved by school board members at their meeting next week.
