Mat-Su school budget proposal to include support staff, sports and activities cuts
The proposal joins a plan to close three district schools at the end of the year.
What you need to know:
- The Mat-Su School District plans sweeping cuts in its 2026-27 budget, including eliminating all middle and high school librarians and elementary school sports coaches, reducing nurses and administrators, cutting student activities and ending transportation for sports and extracurriculars.
- The reductions aim to close a projected $22.5 million shortfall and follow proposed closures of Glacier View School and Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools announced earlier this week. Officials say they prioritized protecting classroom teachers.
- District officials said the budget crunch is tied to declining school enrollment and state funding that has not kept pace with inflation.
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PALMER — A Mat-Su School District budget set for introduction next week will include a sweeping series of cuts for the upcoming school year that halt transportation for sports, eliminate some student activities and dramatically reduce student support positions across the region, including all middle and high school librarians, elementary school sports coaches and many nurses.
The cuts are part of a Matanuska-Susitna School District effort to make up for a $22.5 million funding shortfall expected for the 2026-27 school year. They join the proposed closures of Glacier View School and Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools announced earlier this week.
The reductions were listed in an email sent to families and staff Wednesday evening. They will be presented during a regular school board meeting scheduled for Wednesday next week, district officials said in the email.
“In developing a recommended list of reductions, we have prioritized protecting classroom teachers to the greatest extent possible,” officials said in the email. “Achieving that priority, however, requires structural and programmatic changes across the district.”
The cuts listed in the email include a reduction in administrative positions across the district and the full elimination of all secondary school librarians, records specialists and elementary school sports coaches, the email said. It also extends a series of cuts started this year that share nurses between multiple schools rather than stationing one in each facility.
Student activities will also be reduced, and transportation for activities will be eliminated entirely, officials said in the announcement. Those activities include sports, clubs and other extracurriculars, district spokesman John Notestine said in an email Thursday. Details on which sports and activities will see cuts were not available.
Notestine did not respond to a request for information regarding how many positions will be affected by the cuts or the total savings the proposed cuts will bring. Deputy Superintendent Katie Gardner will present information about the number of staff positions affected by each cut during the meeting scheduled for for Wednesday evening, he said. The presentation is also expected to include a series of other reductions.
The school board is expected to vote on the budget during a regular meeting scheduled for March 18.
The budget crunch comes on a wave of funding woes district officials say are tied to reduced student enrollment in Mat-Su schools, state funding that has not kept pace with inflation, and borough contributions that sit below the state limit.
About 3,000 students who live in Mat-Su enroll in homeschool correspondence programs operated by other school districts across the state, according to state data, siphoning away about $2.1 million in state student funding that would otherwise go to Mat-Su.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com