By Jake Dye

Special to the Homer Independent Press


The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly next week will consider giving Nikolaevsk School to the non-profit group behind the new Nikolaevsk Charter School, under a deal that waives the cost of a sale if the organization both operates a school on the property and invests in maintenance and other related costs.

Nikolaevsk School was closed by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District last year, with the district citing low enrollment. At that time, there were 21 students at the K-12 school, which was built in 1976 and has a capacity of 175 students. Only six months after voting to close the school, the district’s board of education approved a new charter school to operate in the same location — despite concerns about the proposed budget, facility, enrollment and operating plan. 

Nikolaevsk parents had submitted applications for a charter school annually for four years before finally winning approval in 2025 on a 5-3 vote. The charter application says that the organizers expect to have 94 students enrolled when the school opens later this year. 

When the school was built and later expanded, Nikolaevsk was predominantly a community of Russian Old Believers. In recent years, many Old Believer families have moved away, to be replaced by an influx of settlers interested in home-schooling their children. This population shift was a factor in the decline of public school enrollment.

An ordinance introduced in May and set for public hearing and action on June 16 says that the currently vacant school building will be “conveyed” to Alaskan Homestead Education Inc. — a nonprofit organization formed in 2023 whose officials include several Nikolaevsk parents — for the price of about $2 million. Borough information shows that the assessed value of the property is nearly $8 million. Each of the 10 annual payments of $203,000 will be deferred and eventually forgiven by the borough if that amount is spent annually by the organization to maintain and operate the facility.

A proposed budget included in the charter application describes $215,000 of a $1.2 million budget directed to facility operations. Revenues in that budget come primarily from nearly $1 million in state education funding.

Aaron Hughes, the borough’s land management officer, told the assembly’s policies and procedures committee last month that the borough had struggled to find a use for the facility, and that the arrangement would be “in the benefit of both parties.” He said selling the building to the private organization rather than leasing it for the purpose of a public school protects the borough from any unexpected costs from outstanding deferred maintenance.

Willy Dunne, who represents the southern peninsula on the assembly, asked whether any language in the deal would prevent Alaskan Homestead Education Inc. from instead opening a private school within the facility — the ordinance as originally written reads only that the organization will operate a “K-12 school.” It was because of that uncertainty, as well as outstanding questions about the property tax exemption the organization may or may not be eligible for, that Dunne successfully moved to delay implementation of the ordinance, originally set for the assembly’s June 2 meeting.

A proposed amendment by Dunne published in the packet for Tuesday’s meeting adds the word “public” to the permitted use of the facility under the deal. Another amendment, by borough administration, goes further. The second amendment includes the same “public” addition and also tightens a condition that says the property will be returned to the borough if the organization doesn’t operate a K-12 public school during the 10 year deal — the amendment says that termination of the deal would be triggered if the nonprofit fails to operate a school in the property for more than four months. 

As long as the organization is satisfying the “minimum requirement” of operating a school, Hughes said last month, they would be able to use the building for other purposes as well.

Another new line in the administration’s amendment says that “this arrangement must not be viewed as a precedent impacting any future surplus school facilities.” The district this year closed three more school buildings, and the board of education says more may close next year.

Meeting documents and a link to a livestream of next week’s meeting can be found at kpb.legistar.com.