Three Anchorage schools set to close could stay open after all, if the Alaska Legislature passes a significant, long-term increase to school funding.
However unlikely, that’s the plan under a budget resolution the Anchorage School Board passed Tuesday. It directs the Anchorage School District to reverse course on closing three elementary schools – Campbell STEM, Fire Lake and Lake Otis – if the Legislature boosts the state’s school funding formula by $920 per student.
Lawmakers are considering a number of more minor enhancements to education funding, including a one-time increase. But bills that would boost the heart of the long-term funding formula, known as the base student allocation, have not advanced this legislative session, which ends May 20.
Still, the Anchorage School Board’s resolution urges the Legislature to pass a $920 increase to the per-student formula.
New Anchorage School Board member Paul McDonogh added an amendment to the budget resolution Tuesday that would keep the schools open.
“If we have this dream of getting money from the state, and if it comes in time to be able to reverse the closure, I believe that we should and then begin building that framework, that metric system, very carefully to include a lot of parent engagement,” McDonogh said.
The district needs to rethink how it interacts with the public, McDonogh said.
A vote to close Campbell STEM caught community members off guard and prompted a lawsuit, in part, due to what the school’s supporters said was a lack of notice.
McDonogh’s amendment to keep all three schools open raised the complicated issue of school closure logistics. Some board members and district administrators worried that by the time state funding is decided, much of the three schools would already be packed up, their staff displaced to other locations and their school buildings promised to other programs.
It’s still the right decision, McDonogh said.
“It's been stated by many that there are many logistical hurdles that would have to go through,” he said. “It's difficult to reopen schools, but difficult is not a rationale I use to make governing decisions.”
If the Legislature does pass a $920 increase to school funding, the resolution also directs the Anchorage School District to adopt a new budget that would reverse many recent educator and program cuts.
One-time funding would not trigger the budgetary changes.
The school board was unanimous in passing the budget resolution. The amendment to reopen the three schools passed 6-1, with member Margo Belamy voting against.
New school board member Rachel Blakeslee encouraged the public to advocate for funding increases.
“When you look at this resolution, you can look and see what the exact impacts are to your schools, to the programs that you love,” Blakeslee said. “And you can take that to your representative of your district and say, ‘This is your responsibility.’”
