Anchorage’s School Board on Tuesday night approved a “severe” budget for the Anchorage School District that includes large-scale staff reductions and three elementary-school closures, while district leaders warned the shortfalls extend beyond the current year. Board members also said the plan would raise average class sizes by four students as they cut across most parts of the district, including classroom and support positions.
Officials said the $90 million deficit was tied to years of flat funding from the state, and they warned that closing that structural gap would not end the budget work. Superintendent Jharett Bryantt said the district would still need additional funding beyond the $90 million deficit to address future shortfalls that the district expects to be in the multimillions over the next two years, according to the district’s outlook discussed at the meeting.
The approved budget trims more than 500 staff positions, including over 300 teachers. District staffers and administrators listed other reductions described in the board’s discussion, including more than 50 administrative positions, more than a dozen nurses, nine principals and eight counselors, as well as the plan to increase average class sizes by four students.
In the course of the meeting, community members filled the room as the board debated whether to close three specific elementary schools: Fire Lake, Lake Otis and Campbell STEM. Board members spent hours discussing the closures and had attempted to delay or prevent them before the vote moved forward.
Pat Higgins opposed closing Campbell STEM, saying the school community did not get enough time to respond and arguing that the program—selected recently—had no direct replacement. “Campbell STEM is a great program,” Higgins said. “It got selected in a rush and you don’t have a replacement for it. They’ve got the preschool for the special kids. They’ve got special ed education programs. It’s occupied. It’s not one of those half-empty.”
Board members ultimately voted 4 to 3 to close the three schools, with Higgins, Dave Donley and Andy Holleman voting against the closures. After the vote, ASD Chief Operating Officer Jim Anderson said the decisions were made with care and acknowledged that no one in the city would agree with everything that the budget cut. “I don’t think there’s anyone in the city that likes everything we cut in the budget,” Anderson said. “You know, it’s an amazing school. We’ve learned over the last, you know, half a decade plus of trying to close schools that every school is the wrong school for somebody.”
While discussing the tradeoffs tied to the closures, the board said the funding used for the closures would help preserve middle school sports and many high school sports, including hockey, wrestling and cross-country skiing. Member Kelly Lessens said community members expressed strong support for keeping those sports opportunities for students.
In addition to preserving sports, the board said it restored more than a dozen middle school teachers and roughly 16 nurse positions as part of the budget plan. The board also voted 5 to 2 to approve the district’s roughly $867 million budget, with Donley and Holleman opposed, and it said the plan could change if Anchorage voters approve a one-time tax hike on the April ballot.
District leaders said the roughly $11.8 million levy on the April ballot would go to the school district and that they would use the money to fund about 80 teacher positions. MSI previously reported that the Anchorage School District proposed a budget featuring 500 staff cuts and larger class sizes in early February .