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Residents and school officials discuss consolidating Homer Middle and High School

Renee Gross, KBBI News

Consolidating Homer Middle School into Homer High School is one of the many options the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is considering if there are deep cuts to education. On Monday night, district officials gave a presentation to over 80 Homer area residents on the idea. Residents also raised concerns ranging from the separation of younger students and upper classmen to the impact on class sizes.

Assistant Superintendent John O’Brien made it clear that closing Homer Middle School is far from a done deal. He said it’s merely an option if the district faces steep cuts to K-12 funding.

“From an educational standpoint, moving Homer Middle into Homer High School probably isn’t the very best thing for us to do as a district and I think that’s something that we need to recognize from the very beginning,” he said. “The reason we're here is that if these draconian cuts go forward, we have plans to balance the budget in this district.”

Closing Homer Middle School would save the district roughly $450,000 annually. Along with the closure of Soldotna Prep School, that would mean a yearly savings of over $1 million dollars. O’Brien said that would help stave off cuts in the classroom.

“That's a million dollars for ten teachers in the district that the district would be able to continue to employ,” he said. “So while about $458,000 may not sound like a lot in a $120 million budget, for those 10 teachers that it could possibly save or those programs it could save, it is significant.”

The school district surveyed area residents about whether or not they supported the consolidation of Homer Middle and High school. As of Monday afternoon, district officials said most respondents opposed the move.

Homer Middle School Principal Kari Dendurent said one of the largest concerns she heard from parents was about older students having a negative influence on their younger counterparts.

“We are very aware of putting 12-year-olds and 18-year-olds on one school campus, and it’s going to be a lot of conversations,” she said. “But we want to assure you that we will be taking care of every one of your children whether they’re on the middle school campus, Homer High School campus or a blended campus.”

Both Homer High School Principal Douglas Waclawski and Dendurent say students would be separated as much as possible. But space will be an issue. Waclawski said that as it stands now, there isn’t enough room in the high school for both the 35 Homer Middle School faculty members and the roughly 190 students they serve.

Waclawski expects about four and a half teaching positions to be cut from both schools if the plan moves forward.

“If we do that, we would have to use the green room, the auditorium, convert one shop and then maybe have some teachers on carts to make it work,” he said.

Those cuts could affect class sizes. However, Waclawski said the idea of consolidating the schools is preliminary and there are other factors at play.

“If we have flat funding, we have flat staffing, which means our class size would stay the same,” he said. “So class size would be affected if we had to cut positions, which means we would have fewer teachers for the number of students we have, class sizes would increase.”

The House has proposed flat education funding and the Senate expects to wrap up its work by the end of the legislative session in mid-May. Still, Gov. Dunleavy is threatening to utilize his line-item veto power and to call special sessions.

Despite how the battle over education funding plays out in Juneau this year, Waclawski notes that consolidating schools takes time, likely years and that residents would have their chance to provide input throughout the process.

School officials also took residents questions Monday. Potential impacts to sports programs and to homeschooled students’ ability to participate in classes were among them.

Others, like, John Carlin, wanted to know how residents and parents could continue to stay involved.

“When we will be able to get back together as a community and voice our concerns more publicaly, as coaches, as people that work in the school systems, as community leaders, more so than just this format this evening?” he asked.

O’Brien said that the district would consider hosting a town hall style event. More immediately, the conversation will continue on the school board.  The board will formalize its contingency plans for school closures on May 6.  

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