The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is working on a variety of budget options to present to the school board in January.
Spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff says district administration was happy to hear Governor Bill Walker’s plan to keep the base student allocation increase in his proposal for the state budget yesterday, but will be planning for in case it is removed too.
Erkeneff: “There’s so much that’s going to happen this spring with the House and the Senate in the legislature in looking at different revenues for our state and looking at taxes and any other kinds of cuts that are made.”
That increase of $50 for each enrolled student for FY 15-17 was set when the legislature passed House Bill 278.
Erkeneff: “But you don’t just multiply $50 for approximately 8,700 [Kenai Peninsula] students, because it goes through the foundation formula so there’s a whole lot of calculations that go into that.”
The governor’s proposals to keep the BSA increase must still be approved by the legislature.
Erkeneff says the district met with Kenai Peninsula legislators in a work session on Tuesday, where the lawmakers commended the district on high test scores as well as gave realistic conversation about the upcoming session.
She says January will kick-off with a School Board meeting on the 11th and from there the district will continue to meet with local parents and staff to brainstorm budget fixes.