Anchorage School District officials are once again floating closing elementary schools in an effort to tackle the district’s roughly $90 million budget gap.
In order to address the shortfall, the district recently proposed a budget that would cut more than 500 staff and eliminate all middle school and many high school sports, among other changes.
Anchorage School Board members requested the district provide recommendations for suggested school closures as another way to save money. On Friday, the district proposed closing three schools. Fire Lake, Lake Otis and Campbell STEM elementary schools. Fire Lake and Lake Otis had previously been on the chopping block, but board members voted against closing the two schools in November.
If the closures are approved, two of the buildings would be offered to two charter school programs. Fire Lake would be offered to house the Eagle Academy, while the Rilke Schulle German Immersion School would be offered Lake Otis. The former Abbott Loop Elementary building, which currently hosts the German immersion school, and Campbell STEM would both be deemed “excess to ASD’s needs.”
In a statement to parents, ASD superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said that the closures were difficult considerations to make.
“Simply put, the District is operating more facilities than current enrollment and funding levels can sustainably support,” Bryantt wrote. “Maintaining underutilized buildings spreads staffing and resources more thinly across schools, making it more difficult to stabilize programming and student services districtwide.”
ASD officials estimate each school closure would save the district roughly $900,000 per school.
Other consolidation options proposed by the district include moving Tudor Elementary School’s Montessori program to Denali Montessori, having Denali 6th grade students join middle school and move non-language immersion students from O’Malley and Government Hill elementary schools to Huffman and Inlet View elementary schools, respectively. O’Malley would become solely a French immersion school while Government Hill would host a Spanish immersion school.
Members of the public can provide public testimony on the closure plans during Tuesday night’s regular school board meeting. The board is expected to vote on the budget during a special meeting on February 24th.
