The Anchorage School District is considering closing two more elementary schools, as it faces declining enrollment.
The district has lost about 7,500 students since 2010. As a result, the district has closed five schools since 2016, including three in the last two years. Ahead of a vote on whether to close another two schools – Fire Lake Elementary in Eagle River and Lake Otis Elementary in Anchorage – district officials held two town hall events, with another to follow, to hear concerns from community members.
In a cafeteria at Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School on Wednesday night, a couple dozen people filed in as district employees stood nearby.
Anchorage School District Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt told attendees a decision to close Fire Lake and Lake Otis has not been finalized.
“We want to make sure that you're fully informed as to what this proposal would mean or would not mean for your children, and we take the education of your children very seriously,” Bryantt said.
The declining enrollment behind the school closures corresponds with a downward trend for Anchorage’s population, said Jim Anderson, the district’s chief administrative officer.
“It's really just a result of lower numbers of Anchorage residents and people are having less children,” Anderson said. “Younger couples are having less children than when I was bringing children into the world.”
Now, Fire Lake and Lake Otis are on the chopping block, with both schools’ enrollment sitting at less than 55% of capacity.
Matthew Lasley, a 1st grade teacher at Lake Otis, had concerns over the school’s free breakfast and lunch program. As a Title I school, all students at Lake Otis qualify for free breakfast and lunch, but the schools they would move to operate differently.
“They usually set up a certain number, and there's kind of a first-come, first-serve in a lot of those cases,” Lasley said. “So I'm not certain what that's going to look like as we move in with these Title I kids, who automatically get a free breakfast and free lunch, and they make sure they have enough for all these kids.”
As part of the closure plan, the school district is offering the school buildings for use by two district charter schools: The Rilke Schule German Language Immersion School would use Lake Otis, while the Eagle Academy would move into Fire Lake.
Lasley said he’s worked with dozens of student teachers from the nearby University of Alaska Anchorage and worries the future teachers wouldn’t get the same learning opportunities if a charter school moved in.
“It's a convenience, something they won't get from the same experience with Rilke Schule if it moves in there, because they're not going to see a Title I-type school where these really are our kids and our neediest kids,” he said. “Instead, they're going to see a program, if they can get in at all.”
The closures wouldn’t just impact programs at the two schools.
Chandra Binion is a behavior coach at Kasuun Elementary School, where many Lake Otis students would move if it closes.
“We provide social, emotional learning,” Binion said. “We teach them coping skills, because they do have behaviors that pull them out of their regular ed program.”
Part of the district’s “right-sizing” plan would move Kasuun’s School Based Behavior Support program to a different school, and Binion worries it could be a tough adjustment for her students.
“If Lake Otis closes, we would have to move to Ocean View,” Binion said. “And several of our children, they were at Lake Hood last year when they closed, and this would be their third school transition in three years.”
Not everyone thinks the closures are a bad idea.
At a second town hall at Chugiak High School on Thursday night, Leah Parks wanted to learn about how the closures could affect staffing at her school. Parks is an English Language Learner teacher at Eagle River Elementary, which stands to see a sharp increase in enrollment if Fire Lake closes.
Parks said her school has both a neighborhood and an alternative optional program, and there is sometimes only one teacher per grade level.
“I have a 3rd grade teacher that I work with. I have several students in her room,” Parks said. “She doesn't have another 3rd grade teacher to collaborate with and to be able to do things with.”
Officials with the Anchorage Education Association, the local teachers union, said no teachers should lose their jobs if a school is closed. If there’s an influx of new teachers at her school, Parks said, that would be beneficial.
“Sometimes the classrooms are very large, but we do have enough that I feel with 140-plus students coming from Fire Lake, we would definitely be able to have a second classroom in each of those grade levels,” Parks said.
District officials and the Anchorage School Board have a couple weeks to decide on whether to close Fire Lake and Lake Otis elementary schools. A final board decision is scheduled for Nov. 18.
The Anchorage School District is holding a final town hall on the potential school closures at its education center on Saturday, Nov. 1 from noon to 2 p.m.
