The Anchorage School District has laid out a plan for the 2026-27 school year that would reshape staffing and student programming as the district tries to close a projected $90 million gap, according to Superintendent Jharrett Bryant.
In remarks provided Monday, Bryant said the district is preparing to make major reductions to meet next year’s budget needs. He described the effort as layoffs across multiple departments and said the district would become “the leanest that we’ve been in over 15 years,” adding that it may be “even leaner than that” even as the plan also increases class sizes. “We’re laying off dozens of employees in departments across the district,” Bryant said in an interview Monday. “We’ll be the leanest that we’ve been in over 15 years, and probably even leaner than that, and we still were forced to increase class sizes by four.”
Bryant linked the deficit to what he described as years of flat state funding, including changes to the Alaska Legislature’s per-student funding formula. He said the projected $90 million deficit takes into account a $700 increase to the state’s Base Student Allocation that lawmakers approved last year. He also said the district had already lost “purchasing power by about $1,800 per student prior to the BSA increase,” and that after the increase, the district remained “still behind about $1,400 per student than where we were back in 2011.” Bryant said the legislature appears unlikely to provide much more funding soon and is “signaling that they have their own revenue issues at the state level,” which has led districts to budget cautiously around the new BSA.
The district’s proposed budget totals about $601 million and includes broad reductions affecting both instruction and student services. Bryant said the plan would cut more than 300 teaching positions and lay off 25 nurses as the district moves to what he called a “regional model.” He said the proposal also would eliminate the IGNITE gifted program for elementary schoolers, and cut almost 70 special service positions, including special education teachers as well as instructors and teachers supporting students who are English language learners and students who are deaf or blind.
Bryant said the district has also reduced administrative personnel, which he said make up less than 5% of the total budget. In discussing student outcomes, he pointed to improvements the district has made, including what he said would be the highest graduation rates since the pandemic, a 5% increase in math scores, and more students taking Advanced Placement courses. Even so, he said the district doesn’t expect a quick turnaround in state support and described the proposed budget as built around the BSA baseline.
Among the most visible changes, the district’s proposal would eliminate all middle school sports and many high school sports. Bryant said the plan would end programs including hockey, tennis, gymnastics, volleyball, esports, swimming and diving, skiing, wrestling, soccer and riflery. He said many sports programs have relied on community support and said he was hopeful the district could shift more of that work to partnerships and outsourcing. “I would love to speak more with community organizations to figure out a way that we can come together and potentially outsource more sports,” he said.
The proposal arrives less than a week after Anchorage Assembly members approved an $11.8 million one-time education tax levy for the April ballot. Bryant said he has committed to using the money for teaching positions and that it would pay for more than 80 teachers, which he said would help blunt the forecasted class size increases. “Right now, this budget encompasses a +4 to the pupil-to-teacher ratio,” Bryant said. “If that levy passes, that’s the equivalent of a -2 PTR. So if that levy passes, then the net increase is a +2 instead of a +4.”
The proposed budget next goes to the Anchorage School Board. Bryant said a work session is scheduled for Tuesday on the proposal, and the board is expected to vote on it later this month.