School districts and colleges across Alaska are facing drastic cuts under Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal. On Wednesday, Dunleavy proposed a 41 percent cut to the University of Alaska system, but the Kenai Peninsula College says it’s too early to say exactly how it would respond to the loss of funding. The college currently provides classes at three different sites on the Kenai Peninsula and one in Anchorage.
Gary Turner is Kenai Peninsula College’s director, and he says how the college would manage the cut is up to the state university system’s president and the board of regents.
“There will be campuses that will close, that will be closed,” he said. “Which ones they are, that is anybody's guess.”
Turner said he did not want to speculate on whether the cuts Dunleavy is proposing could cause one of the campuses on the Kenai Peninsula to close down.
The Kenai Peninsula School District would also be hit hard by Dunleavy’s budget. Pegge Erkneff is the spokesperson for the school district, and she says the district would lose roughly $20 million.
To put that number in perspective, Erkeneff says $1 million pays for 10 teachers’ salaries and benefits. So, a $20 million cut could cost the district funding for 200 teachers.
However, Erkeneff says the district is still assessing how it would move forward under Dunleavy’s spending plan.
“So what we're doing right now is we're looking at what does $20.6 million impact would be to staffing, to programs we offer, to sports, to class sizes and we'll begin providing those details at the community budget meetings that start next week,” she said.
The district will hold a meeting at Homer High School on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. about its budget. The district will also host a meeting in Soldotna next Wednesday that will be broadcast to other schools on the peninsula.
