The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will receive full funding “to the cap” from the Kenai Peninsula Borough with the approval of the $54.7 million in KPB funding through the consent agenda at the May 2nd Assembly meeting.
KPB Mayor Peter Micciche confirmed the approved spending and issued some direction for the district.
“At the (Borough)Assembly meeting, the Assembly approved the $54.7 million to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. That is funding to the Cap. There are funding issues at the Borough for the school district. We decided to fund for the Cap and not have that fight.
We have our own requests of the district. You’ve heard me talk about the thousands of kids that are attending home school out-of-district. I want to work hard to bring them back. Those are customers of ours. I want them to attend our home school district. I think that’s $7 million that’s leaking out of the district. We need to compete with Idea (homeschool) to bring them back.”
KPBSD President Debbie Cary thanked the Borough for the full funding and support of the school district.
“Thank you for fully funding to the Cap this year and for your support of education and the investment of what education does for our students and recognizing how important it is. And also, just take a moment and thank you for the resolution that you sent to the state on behalf of the Kenai Peninsula School District and encouraging them to fund education in a meaningful way this year.”
The $54.7 million in borough funds comes from a proposed overall Kenai Peninsula Borough budget of $175.6 million.
The Borough funding includes about $41.9 million in appropriations and about $12.8 million in-kind services That is the maximum amount the Borough could contribute to the district for the upcoming school year and is about $2.2 million more than 2022-23.
Funding from the Kenai Peninsula Borough may be subject to increases based on the amount of funding approved in the Alaska state budget and possible increases to the state formula funding.