Uncertain funding leaves fate of three Mat-Su schools unresolved

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su Assembly will decide by mid-May whether to provide enough funding to prevent the closure of three schools amid a roughly $23 million district budget deficit.
• Borough Manager Mike Brown said he will prepare options for finding the $5.3 million needed to keep schools open without raising taxes.
• Dozens of residents urged the borough to provide funding up to the state cap, but officials say that is too costly, pointing instead to declining enrollment, underused schools and the need for a clearer school closure process.

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PALMER – The Mat-Su Assembly will decide by mid-May whether to give the Mat-Su School District enough money to halt the shuttering of three schools, even as borough officials said they want the district to develop a transparent and streamlined approach to future school closures.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District officials and the school board met with the Mat-Su Assembly and borough leaders to discuss the matter during a four-hour meeting that ran until 11 p.m. Tuesday at the district administration building in Palmer.

The Mat-Su district is facing about a $23 million budget deficit next year, with planned cuts including closing Glacier View School and Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools, along with a sweeping downsizing of dozens of district support staff.

The annual Mat-Su schools spending plan is approved as part of the assembly’s annual budget deliberations. Budget hearings and meetings are scheduled to start in mid-April at locations across Mat-Su, with a final vote expected in May.

Last year, the borough gave the district $78.03 million for operations and spent an additional $16 million on building updates and paying off school-related debt, according to borough documents.

Borough Manager Mike Brown said he plans to introduce a budget to the Assembly early next month that includes a $2.1 million increase to district funding for next year, less than half of what school district officials said they need to avoid teacher cuts and far below the additional millions required to sidestep school closures.

Brown also plans to give the assembly information on funding options for avoiding school closures this year without raising local property taxes, he said in a late-night interview after Tuesday’s meeting.

Such a step requires about $5.3 million above what he plans to include in his funding proposal, he said. He asked the district to deliver data on how much money it has in four separate accounts and to calculate its total savings as it paused payments to its bus contractor during that company’s ongoing labor dispute. He also may suggest reducing what the borough plans to spend on school maintenance projects next year to increase the school operations budget, he said.

“If we have to go find $5.3 million, I want to know what’s sitting around,” he said. “I want to prepare for if we were to want to talk about options, here’s some funding that doesn’t involve new taxes.”

Brown said the district’s funding challenges are likely to continue in future years and include a need for more school closures. Of the district’s 41 brick-and-mortar schools, 24 are expected to be filled at less than 70% capacity next year, with eight of those falling below 50%, according to data provided by Brown.

District officials announced the current proposed school closures in February but offered little transparency about how they selected the locations. Brown said he wants to see the district develop a clear consolidation process that can include community input and a clear plan for how students will be redistributed.

The borough and district have such a process for opening new schools but not one for closing them, he said.

“For school site selection, we have a very thoughtful process with defined criteria, membership on a committee, and governance,” he said. “For consolidation, we have nothing. … I’m not suggesting it should be borough code, necessarily — I’m just saying there should be a policy.”

‘Fund to the cap’

About 50 Mat-Su parents, teachers, school administrators, and students spoke during public comment at the meeting Tuesday, with many asking the borough to boost the district’s funding to almost $107 million, a cap set by state law. Doing so would allow the district to avoid all of its planned cuts, they said.

“Top districts don’t close high-performing schools to solve short-term problems; they invest in them,” said Kelly O’Malley, a secretary and registrar at Larson Elementary. “Fully funding the cap is not optional. It’s not extra. It’s the minimum required to keep our schools stable and our communities intact.”

Such an increase is “untenable,” Brown said, because it would require the borough to increase its current funding by nearly $30 million, cost the average borough property taxpayer more than $700 a year, and require the assembly to update borough law to allow tax rates above the current 9.5-mill ceiling.

Assembly members did not commit during the meeting Tuesday to giving the district enough funding to keep the three schools open. Several assembly members said dramatically increasing funding is not option because of how it would impact property taxes.

District Superintendent Randy Trani asked the school board and Assembly to work together to decide the upcoming funding level so he can direct next steps.

“We’re in a really tenuous spot right now, not knowing which way to plan,” he said. “We’re really in a tough spot, and I’m hoping … we can get some more clarity so we can focus our work for the remaining part of the year.”

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com