Funding reverses proposed cuts to teacher salaries and benefits, library staff

By Jake Dye
For the Homer Independent Press

The Kenai Peninsula Borough (KPB) will spend more than $62 million on education this year. That’s after Borough Mayor Peter Micciche on Tuesday advanced a measure to increase funding above his own roughly $59 million proposal.

The KPB School District’s Board of Education, as it advanced a budget assuming the mayor’s proposed $59 million in funding last month, detailed cuts that could be reversed if the borough funded instead to $62 million. Per that communication, the district will reverse planned increases to the staffing ratio that would have triggered the elimination of $3 million in teacher salaries and benefits. The district also will eliminate fewer library staff. 

The school board last month adopted a budget that included deep cuts to staffing and programming, as well as the closures of four schools and all of the district’s pools. That budget was a response to a projected $8.5 million deficit as the district expected to receive roughly $3 million less from the borough and $5 million less from the state than it received last year.

Micciche’s stated budgeting philosophy for all borough departments allows for 2.5% increases, which he says account for inflation while pressuring the borough to keep costs down — he championed a reduction in borough property taxes last year while pointing to those rising costs as a driver of outmigration. His $59 million proposal would have been a 2.5% increase over his original budget proposal from last year — before members of the assembly voted to increase last year’s funding to the same $62 million amount that was authorized Tuesday.

A resolution sponsored by Micciche says that the increase in funding above his “sustainable budget curve” is supported “in recognition of the hard work and difficult decisions by the KPBSD school board and staff in an effort to reduce their spending toward a partnership of sustainability with KPB taxpayers.” 

The reversal, Micciche said during the meeting, is an acknowledgement of the work that has been done this year — including the closure of four schools — though he pushed the district to further work to meet the financial realities of declining attendance. Students and parents are choosing to homeschool, and families are leaving the borough. 


“We’re going to be paying for three less buildings and adding programs to schools where those dollars won’t be paying for half-empty buildings,” he said. “That’s not a negative thing. That will end up being a positive thing for kids.”

He pushed back on calls voiced in public testimony during the meeting and elsewhere for the borough to provide funding to the maximum allowable amount — roughly $69 million — as unrealistic and said any long-term solution will require action at the state level.

The resolution was adopted on an 8-1 vote. The lone opposition was cast by Cindy Ecklund, who’d pushed for funding schools to the maximum allowable amount. 

“I think we should fund education,” she said. “It should be the highest thing we fund, because it’s the most important. It’s our future. It’s our kids. It’s a value statement.”



Other members of the assembly said increasing funding to last year’s total had them “excited.” 

Sarge Truesdell, who represents Soldotna on the board, said that funding to the cap was unrealistic, but that Tuesday’s move is “exactly what we needed to do.”

Len Niesen, who represents Nikiski, said that the $62 million number is “a good compromise” that reaches a reasonable level of support. She said she wouldn’t support funding to the cap because 67% of borough spending already goes to schools — “I just can’t go back and tell people I was okay with more than that right now.” 

During the meeting, the assembly heard testimony from a small group of people. Many called for funding to the cap.

Winter Marshall-Allen said she would support an increase to the mill rate — the value which drives property tax calculations — to see schools get the funding they need.

“I would take another full mill increase in order to fund our schools, in order to meet the needs of our students, so that we can keep the brains and the talents here on the peninsula,” she said. 

Heather Fernstrom said that, while she agrees that the state has failed to provide for schools, it’s the borough that could make a difference now.

“Now, in this moment, do we say to our children ‘everyone else is failing you, so we will too,’” she asked. “Or do we step in and give everything that we can?”

Dr. Erin Pearce, of Bear Creek, similarly said that state decisions are driving local funding problems, but that borough residents can only control borough decisions. 

“We can’t predict the future outcomes at the state level, just as we can’t rely on them,” she said. “But we can decide today what kind of community we want to be and what kind of community we want to show others that we are.”

Jason Tauriainen, school board president, said the $62 million funding was “what we asked for.” He said that the state’s approach to education funding — which this year shifted burden to the borough because of rising property values — should be made more equitable.

“I know it’s a big ask,” he said. “The way the state has handled this, and the way the foundation formula is affecting it, it really puts the local taxpayer or local government in a tough spot.”

Patricia Bouton asked the assembly instead not to increase school funding. She said she wants to see better performance from local schools and more efforts to cut costs.

“We just can’t afford it anymore,” she said. “We need to figure out a way that we have a balanced budget for the school board, for the assembly, for the state.”

In supporting the increased funding, some members of the assembly described it as “the floor.” Willy Dunne said that discussions will continue over the coming weeks as the assembly shapes its larger budget document — planned for final action on June 2. Micciche said that they may create “false hope,” and told the assembly to focus pressure “where the pressure should go.”


A full recording of Tuesday’s meeting is available at kpb.legistar.com.