With a budget deficit in the neighborhood of $17 million looming large for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, officials will continue a difficult dialogue on Tuesday morning regarding schools that are being considered for closure. The closures are merely discussions at present in the event that no increase to the Base Student Allocation (BSA) comes out of Juneau.
The schools being considered include Homer Middle, McNeil Canyon Elementary, Moose Pass, Nikiski Middle/Senior High School, Nikolaevsk School, Paul Banks Elementary, Seward Middle, Sterling Elementary, and Tustumena Elementary.
During a guest appearance on KSRM’s The Morning Update, District Superintendent Clayton Holland reaffirmed that no decisions have been made on closing or consolidating any schools but that the topic is still a discussion at this point.
“What we did was we took schools based on their capacity and what they actually have in them, and it’s going to be presented [to the school board],” Holland said. “It’s a lot of schools. Even if we decided to [close] half, I don’t know logistically how we pull that off. So it’s a discussion. The board, I’m sure, is going to want more information. We’ll come back with that. And then continue that discussion and maybe some sort of a tiered approach to certain things, and maybe we [decide to close] one school or two or maybe none.”
Holland said any potential decisions rely heavily on what transpires during the current legislative session, where education remains the largest topic. “I think also it’s let’s see what happens in Juneau too. But depending on that, we have to be ready.”
Revenue projections for the district in FY26 were created using a BSA of $5,960, the same BSA as FY25.
This projected revenue from all sources totals $134,965,394 in funding for the KPBSD, which combined expenditures and transfers totals $151,901,148, leaving the district with a projected deficit of $16,935,754.