The central Kenai Peninsula’s trio of state lawmakers fielded constituent questions for more than two hours during a town hall event over the weekend. More than 100 people converged in Soldotna to talk about a litany of local issues.
On Saturday morning, it was standing room only for a joint town hall meeting in the Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly chambers. All three of the central Kenai Peninsula’s state lawmakers were at the dais: Soldotna Reps. Justin Ruffridge and Bill Elam, and Nikiski Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, all Republicans.
The trio heard from dozens of attendees, who voiced thoughts on everything from ranked choice voting, to electronic pull tabs, to the foster care system, to Canada.
Education was a recurring theme. Attendees shared thoughts on boosting state funding for schools, pension plans for teachers and how federal decisions may impact the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.
Duane Edelman didn’t support unconditionally increasing state funding for schools.
“I do not support an increase in the base student allocation without there being some safeguard rails to deal with the declining scholastic achievement of the students,” he said.
Local district data show elementary reading scores have gone up since the implementation of a new literacy program in 2022. And the Kenai Peninsula consistently outpaces the state as a whole in standardized testing. But the same tests show just a third of the district’s third through ninth graders are proficient in reading and math.
Edelman said the district should focus on converting families who use non-district programs to homeschool over to the school district’s homeschool program. Then, state funding for homeschooling would flow back through the school district.
The district estimates if all of the peninsula’s school-age children attending a non-district homeschool program transferred to the district’s, its state funding would go up by roughly $7.7 million.
Hannah Dolphin is the principal of Mountain View Elementary School in Kenai. She was one district employee to say a BSA increase is needed for stability.
“It’s really hard at the school level for us to make decisions, at the district level for us to make decisions, when we’re waiting to find out how many cuts we’re going to have to make,” she said. “We had an administrators meeting last week, and we had to have some really tough conversations about our nontenured staff.”
Bjorkman said the state needs to be clearer about what it wants from schools.
“Education is a series of inputs and outputs,” he said. “If you want results to improve, we have to deliver education that provides for quality inputs with clear standards and clear expectations of students, families and teachers, stakeholders about what kids need to know, understand and be able to do well in school.”
Interwoven throughout multiple comments were concerns about how recent federal actions – including job cuts and funding uncertainty – could impact the Kenai Peninsula.
Kelly King, a supporter of more school funding, said the need may go up amid federal uncertainty. King runs the district’s Students in Transition program, which supports students experiencing homelessness. It’s funded in part by legislation that wasn’t included in the federal budget passed in March.
“That program, in addition to others that our district relies on to support our students may not exist after June 30 of this year,” she said. “That wraps around to the BSA because as these supportive programs are exiting the district, then our brick-and-mortar school, our public school system is going to need a dependable education allotment more than ever.”
Elam said Alaska’s congressional delegation is aware of state concerns over federal actions. But he suggested he agrees with some federal efforts to cut government.
“Whenever somebody has had some kind of, ‘This is a critical piece of Alaska that we need,’ they all already are aware of that,” he said. “You know, some of these services we need. Some of them, there's waste in. And so we're trying to work through both sides of that.”
Lawmakers also heard from multiple fishery user groups about threats to their respective industries.
In response to poor Chinook runs, the state’s fisheries board has restricted how, when and where people can fish. Board members are appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In recent years, those restrictions have forced sport guides to adjust their business models away from trophy kings. And they’ve outright shuttered business for hundreds of commercial setnetters on the east side of Cook Inlet.
Setnetter Colby Engstrom was one of several people to express concerns about how his fishery is being managed. He pointed to recent comments from Board of Fisheries members about setnetting as troubling. And he opposes a bill that would preserve Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s authority to appoint board members.
“I believe that’s completely counterproductive to having user groups appoint people that represent themselves, for him to say ‘I don’t like you, I don’t like you, I don’t like you, oh I’ll take you,’” he said. “It gives him the ability to manipulate anything that he wants to within that.”
Ruffridge was also concerned about board comments about set gillnets. He said Alaska fisheries are subject to uniquely stringent state rules that other industries are not. He tried to draw a comparison between fisheries and his work as a pharmacist.
“I cannot imagine if the state of Alaska came into my business and said ‘You are no longer allowed to do business this year because of, oh I don’t know, like, the pills are too big or,’ I don’t know – it’s unacceptable,” he said. “I don’t understand why we are telling people that they cannot fish.”
Elam, Ruffridge and Bjorkman encouraged anyone unable to attend Saturday’s town hall to reach out to their offices directly with questions or concerns.
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