Mat-Su School District seeks borough funding boost as school closures loom

What you need to know:

• Mat-Su School District officials will ask the borough for about $9.4 million more than last year to help close a roughly $23 million budget gap and keep three schools open.
• If the Assembly does not approve the increase — which officials say is unlikely due to potential tax hikes — Glacier View, Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools are expected to close at the end of this school year.
• The budget includes reductions to transportation, activities and staff, driven by declining state funding, rising property values and enrollment shifts; a final decision on school closures is due by May 15.

• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

PALMER — Mat-Su school officials will ask the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to chip in more taxpayer money to make up for several years of state funding reductions and help district officials avoid closing school buildings as part of a series of deep, upcoming school budget cuts.

If the Mat-Su Assembly greenlights the increase, the district will keep Glacier View School and Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools open next year, according to a plan approved by the school board Wednesday. If it does not, the district will move forward with a plan to close the three neighborhood schools as part of the cuts officials said are needed to make up for an approximately $23 million budget shortfall expected for next year.

“I’m just going to be blunt: I’m not feeling very hopeful,” Mat-Su school board member Kathy McCollum said during a regular meeting Wednesday. “Nobody ever wants to pay more taxes, which is what that means — they’ll raise your taxes to increase things like that. And I really do worry, because I see the emotion, and I feel the emotion of closing schools.”

The district was warned in February that such a funding increase is unlikely because it would increase property taxes, Borough Manager Mike Brown said in an interview Thursday. Brown does not plan to include the extra funding in a borough budget slated for introduction at the assembly next month, he said. The Assembly can opt to update that plan to include the money during debates on the matter this spring.

School district officials said they must make a final decision regarding school closures by May 15.

Other cuts included in the budget plan eliminate all librarians at Mat-Su middle and high schools, limit school bus routes, reduce funding for student sports and activities, and cut elementary school instructional coaches, records specialists, and elementary specialists.

A plan to cut district nursing in half was walked back this week after the Mat-Su Health Foundation pledged about $1.7 million in one-time grants to cover those costs.

The school board unanimously approved the district’s overall budget plan during a regular school board meeting Wednesday. It approved the funding request increase 4-3, with members Kendal Kruse, Brooks Pitcher, and Andrew Shane voting no. 

The board’s vote to increase its borough funding request followed more than an hour of public comment asking the board to avoid closing the schools, including several statements from young Larson Elementary School students.

“I’m here because I heard that my school might close, and that makes me very sad,” 7-year-old Nathan Merrill, a first grader at Larson, told the board. “Larson is a very special place, and I love my school.”

The update approved Wednesday boosts the school district’s total borough funding request from about $81.2 million to about $87.4 million.

District officials said their anticipated budget shortfall is tied to a series of funding issues that include per-student state funding that has not kept pace with the rate of inflation; an overall state funding decrease triggered by rising Mat-Su property values; Mat-Su Borough funding increases that don’t make up for the state’s property value-based cuts; falling student enrollment created by dropping birth rates and a fluctuating population age; and students who live in Mat-Su enrolling in programs run by other districts.

The district will present its budget to the borough at a joint Mat-Su Assembly and School Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday at the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Administration Building in Palmer. 

‘Ask for the full funding’

District officials initially planned to ask the borough for $81.23 million for the 2026-27 school year, about a $3.2 million year-over-year funding boost and $1.7 million more than Brown, the borough manager, said he plans to include in his annual budget proposal. Officials said they need at least the $3.2 million to avoid adding teacher cuts to the list of planned reductions.

The request approved Wednesday boosts the year-over-year increase request to $9.43 million. If the assembly agrees, the district will use $3.48 million of that funding to keep schools open and about $1.7 million to pay for additional costs currently covered by the district’s savings account, district officials said during the Tuesday meeting. About $578,000 will go to district charter schools, a split required under state funding rules.

Brown said he does not plan to update his budget proposal to fulfill the district’s request. District officials and school board members were briefed on the borough’s upcoming budget in late February, but still opted to shape their proposal around an increase they were warned would not be coming, he said. 

Assembly members can vote to update the budget to include the funding during their deliberations next month and in early May, but such a boost would likely result in a property tax increase, a step that is likely to receive pushback from residents facing record-high property values.  

School board members said the assembly should approve the additional request to make up for local funding they say should have increased more year over year since 2022 based on Mat-Su property value assessments.

The Mat-Su Borough is required by state law to fund the school district within certain minimum and maximum levels. The exact amounts are calculated annually based on local property values and paid by Mat-Su property owners, with state funding decreasing each time the local minimum contribution goes up. 

The borough is not required to increase funding to match the state’s decreases as long as it meets minimum funding requirements, officials said.

The state has reduced its payments by about $13.5 million since 2023 based on that Mat-Su property value calculation, but the borough has only increased its funding by about $7.33 million, according to district officials.

That more than $6 million delta is money that should belong to the district, school board member Ole Larson said Wednesday.

“My recommendation is to ask for the full funding,” he said. “It’s our responsibility — don’t get me wrong — to close schools, and cut the budget, and do everything we’re doing. But I get a little annoyed when Borough Assembly members say, ‘That’s not my problem.’”

The updated request for $9.43 million above last year’s funding makes up for that past shortfall, plus the adjustment expected for next year, district officials said.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com