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Chapman School getting Intensive Needs Room

Chapman School in Anchor Point dodged another funding scare last night. Instead, it wound up with a room for special needs students. The school had been an early target for closing last year as the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District tried to balance its budget after Governor Mike Dunleavy slashed education budgets.
    On the assembly’s agenda last night was not a decision whether to keep schools open, but a capital fund expenditure of a million dollars for new direct digital controls for Homer High School’s various mechanical systems.
Also included in the ordinance, initially, were funds for upgraded lighting systems in school theaters district-wide. But the assembly amended the ordinance to instead build an intensive needs room at Chapman School.
Two assembly members fought against funding the intensive needs room, saying the money might not be well-spent if the school wound up on the chopping block anytime again soon.
    School District Director of Planning and Operations Kevin Lyons replied that there were many reasons that the school board decided to keep Chapman School open, including a recently-installed 20-year roof and many other upgrades.
    He described why the school required an intensive needs room.
    “These rooms are very common in almost all of our facilities, especially the newer ones. But they've not been constructed  in facilities where there's not been a student population needing them,” Lyon said. “And in the past we had very few students at Anchor Point that required those facilities, and were able to find room in Paul Banks Elementary.  And we were able to bus them down. Very few students. But that's not a great option. It's really not good to be busing our younger students that far.”
    Lyon said there would be many benefits to keeping Chapman students in Anchor Point.
    “Construction of this facility here will help the school district, number one, it's going to not increase our transportation rate to have to pick up more students and bus them down to Homer, which is a fairly significant cost  -- I have to sign for those bills. And it will also help not to have to expand or make new educational facilities in Homer for the Anchor Point needs that are there for those students,” he said.
    Assemblymember Jesse Bjorkman of Nikiski tried to use the ordinance to veer off into school budget-cutting.
    “If not Chapman School, what, what are we looking at? A little surprised to see, not, not a lot of talk of contraction from the school district budget this year. Uh, certainly looking into a bit of an abyss now, but that financial picture, so if not Chapman School, where is the district looking at, uh, reducing liabilities and expenditures?” Bjorkman asked.
    The mayor’s chief of staff, James Baisden, however interrupted, saying, “Madam president, I think this is out of Kevin Lyon’s league. He should probably not be commenting on this.”
    “I agree. Mr Baisden,” said Assembly President Kelly Cooper, adding, for the benefit of Mr. Bjorkman, a rookie assemblymember, “We the assembly, we appropriate the money and we expect the school district to make their budgets accordingly. And as you know, we typically are working a year out.”
    Assemblymember Brent Hibbert then sought to postpone the measure, but Mayor Charlie Pierce advised against that.
     “When we move this forward originally with the Homer school and the controls and the lighting, the same issue will take place with the special needs and the job that will take effect. We can take effect with the school being not occupied at this time and maybe get this finished before the beginning of the school season,” Pierce said. “So the longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes.”
    When postponing didn’t happen, Bjorkman tried to separate out the funding for Chapman School to be considered separately by dividing the question.
    “You know, we all kind of see where things may be headed here, and I think it's important to have answers first and commitments as far as we can make them, to reasonable certainty. But to just have that information available before we commit to appropriating funds, I think would, would be a good way to go in this case,” Bjorkman said. “So I'd like to move to divide the question please.”
    But Assemblyman Norm Blakely spoke for the rest of the assembly just before that motion was voted down.
    “I think Mr. Lyon said they just spent a ton of money on roofing, redoing windows in the building and everything else,” Blakley said. “It sounds like to me, they've upgraded that substantially and I don't even know why we're not considering it. Thank you.”
    The measure wound up passing unanimously, and, as Mayor Pierce noted, with the schools empty of students due to COVID-19 mandates, work on both the Homer High School system controls and Chapman School intensive needs room can begin right away.

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Local News Homer High SchoolChapman SchoolKenai Peninsula Borough Assembly 2020
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