PALMER – Dozens of students at three district high schools walked out of class Tuesday to protest proposed budget cuts that will impact school staffing and student activities next year if approved.
The protest came hours before a Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening and expected to attract parents and students who want to speak during public comment in protest of the proposed cuts.
The walkout started at 11 a.m., with students leaving class at Wasilla, Colony, and Palmer high schools, students and Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District officials said.
More than two dozen students at Colony High School gathered outside the school’s front doors despite the frigid 10-degree air and brisk wind, though at least a dozen retreated indoors about 10 minutes into the 45-minute event.
“The main reason is that yes, we have a budget deficit, but the things that they are trying to cut are not OK,” said Hadley Spear, a Colony High junior who helped organize the walkout in response to a series of proposed district budget cuts announced last week.
District officials said they need to slice $23 million from the 2026-27 budget to account for expected state and local funding shortfalls. The district’s budget for this year is about $272 million. Proposed cuts include closing Glacier View School and Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools, downsizing student activities and eliminating many school nurse positions, officials said last week.
Those changes are bad for students, Spear said during the walk out Tuesday.
“Shutting down three schools and cutting the regional nurses is not OK, especially since they put students’ health and safety at risk,” she said.
District officials said they learned of the planned demonstration Tuesday morning. Whether students are marked tardy or absent during a walkout is a school-by-school decision, he said.
Mat-Su district policy protects students’ rights to “peaceful assembly,” so long as it doesn’t interfere with the educational process, district spokesman John Notestine said in an email. Students last staged a pair of walkouts in 2023 to protest what they characterized as “anti-student” decisions by the school board and administrators.
Tuesday’s student walkout followed a rally at Larson Elementary School held Monday to encourage parents and advocates to speak out against the school’s proposed closure at Mat-Su Assembly and school board meetings scheduled for this week.
Larson, Meadow Lakes and Glacier View schools are proposed for closure due to falling enrollment, district officials said last week. Staff at the Larson event Monday said district officials told them their school was flagged because its central location in Wasilla makes it easy to redistribute students to other facilities.
More than 100 students and family members attended the Larson event Monday evening in the school gymnasium. Students waved handmade posters, while a young teen wearing the school’s eagle mascot costume stood behind the speaker with a “Please Keep Larson Open” sign.
“Our staff, our teachers, everyone in this building forms relationships with our students that continue to build up their confidence and love of school every single year,” Larson Family Teacher Association President Alyson Coffman said during the rally. “I know emotions are already high — believe me, I feel it — and we all want to save our school. But the reason we decided to host our community and our families tonight before the board meeting is to give everyone a few more facts and some information about Larson that can be used in emails, or speeches, or voicemails, or any way you can please your board members to save our school and keep it open.”
While the Mat-Su Assembly does not dictate school district spending, assembly members control how much local funding the district receives through the borough’s annual budget. That funding combines with state payments and federal grants to cover the district’s annual costs.
State law requires most boroughs and municipalities to contribute funding to local education, with funding minimums and caps tied to local property values. Of the state’s five largest local governments, Mat-Su contributes the smallest percentage to local education at 75% of its allowed amount, or about $27 million under the nearly $105 million cap, according to district funding data.
District officials said they plan to request $81.3 million in borough funding for next year, a $3 million increase from last year’s local contribution of $78 million and $28 million above what the borough is required to contribute under Alaska state law.
If the Assembly votes to give them less than their request, the district will need to identify more cuts, Associate Superintendent Katie Gardner told the School Board earlier this year.
Teachers at Larson said they hope the borough will help keep the schools open and ease other cuts by opting to chip in above the district’s requested funding amount. School staff told families the best thing they can do is attend the borough and school board meetings and respectfully advocate for what they want.
“Please speak from the heart, but you need to share your truth with compassion and respect,” said Courtney Downing, who teaches third grade at the school. “School board members will not appreciate it very much if an angry mob comes to them from Larson. So we really want you to speak your mind, share what your heart tells you to share — but please do it in a respectful way. No swearing, no shouting, please.”
A regular Mat-Su Assembly meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Borough Administration Building in Palmer. A regular School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the school district administration building, also in Palmer.
This story originally appeared in the Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
