Nine schools have responded to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board’s request for budget cut and revenue increase suggestions.
The School Board presented the request on October 9 and reviewed some of the suggestions before its regular October 21 meeting.
River City Academy Principal Dawn Edwards-Smith included her students in the October 9 presentation.
Edwards-Smith: “I think the most important thing that our students got out of it is that they should be involved in the process and should be aware of it. That overarching understanding of how the budget works, where the funding comes from, and who’s in control of which portions of the money is something that they walked away from really strong and they’ve got a much better understanding of it.”
During that discussion she and her students considered the use of technology and distance classes to cut the districts’ transportation budget.
In the October 21 board meeting, reorganization of Kenai High School and Kenai Middle School faculty was suggested based on a student gap of projected enrollment and actual enrollment at the high school.
Soldotna Prep and Redoubt Elementary agreed on a suggestion to increase pupil teacher ratio to cut spending while the Skyview Middle School site council stated they believe the borough should fund to the cap.
Another suggestion to cut costs is to merge similar programs like Soldotna’s River City Academy and Kenai Alternative.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for November 3.