The seven school districts in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta range from single schools to the largest rural district in the state. But all face significant budget pressure as they wait on the Alaska Legislature to decide how it may change its per-student funding formula, called the Base Student Allocation. It hasn’t meaningfully increased since 2017, even as inflation has skyrocketed.
This year, on March 12, the Alaska State House passed a $1,000 increase to its per-student funding formula. It’s not yet clear whether that funding boost will clear the state Senate or the governor’s desk.
Meanwhile, school districts across the state are setting their budgets. KYUK reached out to each of the seven districts in the Y-K Delta to find out how they’re factoring in a potential increase to the Base Student Allocation, and what would happen if the funding didn’t pass.
Lower Kuskokwim School District
The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) is the largest rural school district in the state, operating 27 schools in 22 communities throughout the Kuskokwim Delta coast and lower Kuskokwim River.
LKSD superintendent Andrew “Hannibal” Anderson said that the district is budgeting with the assumption that the Base Student Allocation won’t be raised. But that comes at a cost because 80% to 90% of the district’s operational budget is in personnel, and Anderson said that students suffer when staffing positions have to go unfilled or are cut.
“The continual tightening of resource availability for student learning has unquestionable longer term impacts. Not only for youth, but as they go older their capacities or their preparation for life in the workforce, for adult living and all that kind of thing,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that with rising costs, the budget for the coming year is $1.6 million more than last year, even with conservative planning and some intentional cuts. With an increase, though, he said that the district could fund more activities, or restore or pursue additional staff positions – one of the most important factors in properly educating students.
Lower Yukon School District
The Lower Yukon School District (LYSD) operates 11 schools in 10 villages. LYSD Chief of Budget and Finance Andrew Leavitt said in an email that the district’s initial proposed budget assumed no change to the funding formula and no one-time funding and ran a $9 million deficit.
With a $1,000 increase to the per-student funding, LYSD’s deficit would still be $1.3 million. Without a per-student funding formula increase or one-time money, Leavitt wrote that there would be “difficult choices” ahead, which could include cutting some or all of the district’s sports and student activities, breakfast and lunch programs, or reducing headcount.
To cut costs in the longer term, the Lower Yukon School District’s school board recently voted to phase out its district office building in Mountain Village – an estimated savings of around $900,000 per year, fully realized starting in 2028.
St. Mary’s City School District
St. Mary’s City School District is a single-school district on the lower Yukon River.
Superintendent Troy Poage said that the district is starting its budget process assuming that the state won’t increase funding, and will be cutting programs to balance the books. It’ll mean reduced sports travel, and less money for teacher housing improvements or professional development for staff.
With a $1,000 increase to the state’s per-student funding, Poage said that St. Mary’s City School District could restore what’s being cut in the budget process – build back in student activities travel and maybe add a dedicated physical education teacher to the payroll.
Kuspuk School District
On the upper Kuskokwim River, the Kuspuk School District faces a $1.6 million budget deficit and its superintendent said that the district has already been operating in a deficit.
The Kuspuk School District operates nine schools over eight communities on the upper Kuskokwim. Without an increase, superintendent Madeline Aguillard said that the district is considering reducing support staff and teacher positions, even though 70% of the district’s elementary classrooms already serve multiple grade levels. Aguillard said that the Kuspuk School District is also facing reduction or total elimination of sports and other extracurricular activities.
Aguillard said that to maintain its current operations, the Kuspuk School District would need a $1,400 increase to the Base Student Allocation. While she calls the proposed $1,000 increase a “step in the right direction,” the district would still face cuts under that funding plan.
Yupiit School District
The Yupiit School District operates three schools in the lower Kuskokwim communities of Akiachak, Akiak, and Tuluksak.
District business manager Jennifer Phillip said by email that there’s very little left to cut. The Yupiit School District’s superintendent is also working as its maintenance director, and the assistant superintendent will also be the acting oversight principal at two of the schools.
Phillip said that a $1,000 increase to the base student allocation would alleviate some stress, but still leave the district in the red.
Kashunamiut School District (Chevak)
Chevak, on the Y-K Delta coast, operates its own single-school district, the Kashunamiut School District. It’s one of the only Cup’ik-speaking communities in the region.
Kashunamiut Superintendent Jeanne Campbell said that without an increase to per-student funding, the district is looking at cutting teaching and support staff positions. If there was no increase to the state’s base funding formula, Campbell said that Chevak would have to cut a minimum of nine to 11 positions throughout the district. That would be around 15% of the district’s staff, according to its website.
Iditarod Area School District
The Iditarod Area School District, stretching from the upper Kuskokwim River to the middle Yukon and into Interior Alaska, operates seven schools. The district is early in its budgeting process, but in a February report to the school board, superintendent John Bruce wrote that it’s harmful to schools to go into union negotiations and budget season with funding so up in the air.
“The Legislature and the governor are going to play tug of war needed by our district without a tax base,” Bruce wrote. “The reality of the situation is that we still need to press forward and will make the fiscal adjustments when more becomes known.”
Operational versus Capital
For each of the seven districts in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, the most direct impact of an increase or lack of increase to the state’s base student allocation will be felt in their operational budgets – salaries, utilities, and daily school operations.
But districts’ capital budgets, which fund infrastructure and equipment, are also in dire need of state funding. A KYUK and ProPublica investigation found that more than 30 rural school infrastructure projects have languished on the state’s capital improvement projects list for more than a decade, leading to major infrastructure failures and building condemnation.
“You hit a true tipping point between the costs of maintaining facilities when, as time goes by, those costs become greater and greater, and the deterioration also becomes greater and greater,” said Anderson, LKSD's superintendent. “When is the tipping point between that, combined also with a tipping point on whether students truly are learning how to read in a time frame which is critical to them in order to be able to manage the educational curricular content and standards when they cannot recover from it?”
Earlier this month, Alaska’s Senate Finance Committee discussed capital needs at a hearing in mid-March, but didn’t come to any conclusions.
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