Kenai Peninsula parents, government officials, and educators brainstormed fiscal ideas for the school district’s upcoming budget cycle at 23 sites Thursday night.
At the Kenai Central High School discussion, Janice Villegas says she’s wants to know how the school’s budget will affect her daughter’s education.
Villegas: “They have got some hard decisions to make. I can’t imagine being in the position of having to decide to cut a teachers job, or having to cut a language or an art program or even sports or the gifted[programs].”
Kenai Principal Allen Fields said if he had to cut from his school’s budget, he would avoid snipping teachers or programs, aiming instead at the district’s second highest cost behind salaries: energy.
He proposed a solid lock-up time of 9:00 pm for KCHS facilities which could possibly cut light and electricity bills.
District spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff says one concept that has been broached by a couple of communities is an endowment fund, which are monies raised outside government financing.
Erkeneff: “So we’ve heard the idea of private citizen’s forming a foundation with an endowment fund to help fund public education, then last night it came up, if there is something that the borough can do with some type of an endowment. Mayor [Mike] Navarre happened to be at the budget meeting and had some thoughts about that, what couldn’t be done or could be done and somebody else said, ‘What if there’s a time that the borough can’t fund to the cap? Could it be used to help with that?’ So we’re going to look into all those options.”
Click here for more information about the school district’s budget work and schedule.