The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is going to come up about $7.5 million short if it wants to operate next school year with the same levels of staffing and programs as this school year.
That’s per the district’s finance director, who briefed school board members on the upcoming budget cycle during a work session last Monday. The district attributes the anticipated shortfall to a decrease in state and local funding next year caused in part by a forecast net drop in student enrollment and a rise in the taxable value of borough property.
Compared to last year, the district expects to get about $4.2 million from the state. Of that, most, around $3.6 million, is due to the state’s assessed value of Kenai Peninsula Borough property going up. That shifts some of the school funding burden to the borough.
The other roughly $633,000 decrease in state funding is tied to a forecast enrollment drop. According to October data, the district expects enrollment in brick-and-mortar schools to drop by 230 students and for enrollment in its Connections Homeschool program to increase by 165 students. The net impact of those projections is a loss of 65 students.
The district also expects the amount of money it gets from the Kenai Peninsula Borough to decrease by about $3.3 million over last year. The district says that’s based on how much money Borough Mayor Peter Micciche is proposing in the borough’s next budget.
Micciche has previously said he bases his budget proposal on a 2.5% year-over-year increase that accounts for inflation. Last year, borough assembly members overrode that proposal and gave the school district the maximum amount of money allowable under state law.
Even with a forecast $7.5 million shortfall, the district is in a slightly better financial position than last year. Facing a budget deficit of almost ten million more dollars, school board members eliminated certain employee positions, cut programming and closed a school to cut costs.
