The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has scheduled budget meetings open to the public this week as they face difficult staffing decisions for the upcoming year.
Assistant Superintendent John O’Brien…
O’Brien: “Everyone is encouraged to attend one of the three regional budget meetings that will be occurring. Tuesday, February 16, we’ll be in the Seward area at the Seward High School at 5:30 pm. That following day, Wednesday, February 17, will be the Soldotna, Central [Peninsula] are, at Soldotna High School at 5:30. And Tuesday, February 23, the Homer area will have their opportunity to talk budget at 5:30 pm at the Homer High School library.”
District spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff says there will definitely be positions eliminated in the upcoming year, some because of a decline in enrollment and others because of the District’s budget gap.
Erkeneff: ” So one of the things is to date, we’ve had reductions in building this budget of over $3.1 million and it’s possible that more reductions might be necessary based on what comes out in the final budget to the state and how that’s effective in the borough. But specific to our employees, we are looking at, between our schools and District office reductions, 35 full-time employees. And our preliminary budget that’s out right now reflects the reductions of the salary and benefits of those positions.”
The preliminary budget estimate for Fiscal Year 2017 is $138,327,000 with estimated revenues coming $284,000 short, which would need to come from the district’s fund balance.
Those numbers do not include the $50 Base Student Allocation amount that Governor Bill Walker left in his proposed budget that was submitted to the legislature in December.
Erkeneff says that budget is working its way through the State House and the District is waiting to see if the BSA remains in the budget once it makes it through the Senate.