David Boyle: Round three of Anchorage school ‘closures’

Final decision on which schools will closed will be made at Dec. 17 school board meeting

By DAVID BOYLE

It was only two years ago when the Anchorage School Board proposed to close six schools.

In the end, no schools were closed. Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt stated that Abbott Loop Elementary School was closed when, in fact, it was “repurposed” into an ASD charter school.

Anchorage School District closures: District and parents should take a close look at the test scores

So much for misinformation and misleading statements.

The district has too many schools and a decreased student population, now and in the foreseeable future. Here is the student enrollment trend for the past 10 years:

Fast forward to this year. The student population continues to decline. Schools are kept open with low occupancy rates. Once again to save money, Superintendent Bryantt has recommended seven schools for closure.

Not long after that announcement the district announced three of those seven schools will remain open.

Parents had come out against closing any of the seven schools the district recommended. Many parents testified that those schools were the center of the neighborhood and losing them would virtually destroy the neighborhood. 

Somehow the physical structure of the school brought the community comfort, safety, and happiness.  

Very few parents testified that those schools were teaching their kids how to read and how to do math. That’s probably because these parents don’t know how few of their children can read at grade level or do math at grade level.

Here are the standardized test scores (AKSTAR) for the proposed school closures:

School	English Language Arts	Math
Baxter	23	20
Bear Valley	67	71
Fire Lake	31	45
Lake Hood	16	12
Nunaka Valley	33	36
Tudor	32	24
Wonder Park	24	21
Anchorage Total (3-9)	36	37

Three schools have avoided the closure axe: Bear Valley, Tudor and Wonder Park elementary schools.

As noted in the superintendent’s memo to the school board, the ASD enrollment has decreased by 6,453 students since 2010. The ASD is experiencing the same decline in students as many other districts across the nation. 

Bear Valley was taken off the closure list because it will expand its childcare to six classrooms in 2026-27. While I applaud this school remaining open because its students are scoring well on the State’s standardized test, I don’t believe providing day care for some parents and school staff is the purpose of the K-12 school system.

Tudor Elementary School was taken off the closure list because some parents whose children were enrolled in that school’s Montessori program said they would not continue to enroll their children in the Montessori program at Denali Elementary School (the receiving school). Thus, these students would be enrolled in the Lake Otis Elementary School, which would not have the capacity to accommodate them. 

It is not clear if these parents would actually remove their children from the Montessori program or was it merely a threat to keep Tudor Elementary School open. But the tactic worked. 

David Boyle: Round 2 of Anchorage school closures

Wonder Park Elementary School has a very low enrollment and has the very old (1970s) “open space” design.  But the district wants to relocate the pre-K kids from Nunaka Valley to use the excess capacity of Wonder Park.  

But Nunaka Valley students had much better test scores than Wonder Park students—maybe that would be a better criterion for determining which school to close.  

And Wonder Park will need more money to “address major structural improvements” according to Board Member Carl Jacobs.  It is unclear how much these improvements will cost and will they offset the savings of closing all the schools.

The Administration recommends the closure of the four schools by May 2025.

It has been said that none of the closed schools’ staff will be let go. Remember, about 85% of the district’s operating budget is made up of personnel costs.  Will closing any of these schools save money?

Understandably, most of the teachers will move with their students to other schools. But will the support staff such as clerical and custodians be required at the receiving schools?

Here’s a breakdown of the expenses for the recommended closed schools taken from the ASD fiscal year 2025 budget:

School	Total Operating Costs	Non-Teacher Salaries	Other Expenses
Baxter	$2,323,000	$241,000	$199,400
Fire Lake	$2,216,000	$211,500	$219,000
Lake Hood	$2,182,000	$222,000	$205,000
Nunaka Valley	$1,753,000	$146,000	$197,000

The “Other Expenses” includes utilities, energy, supplies and other purchased services.

Note that if only the non-teachers are reduced and the Other Expenses are saved, the total is just $1,640,900.  This does not include the saved non-teacher benefits which the district does not break out for analysis.

Will closing any schools save money?  

The final decision on which schools are to be closed will be made at the Dec. 17 board meeting.  

Do you believe the Anchorage School District has too many elementary schools for its declining student population?  

Will any of the Anchorage schools actually be closed?

More importantly, is the Anchorage School District just setting the stage to garner public support to get the legislature to increase funding?  It has already been successful in marshalling parents and staff with the school closure threat.

Will these parents and staff descend upon the legislature demanding an increase in the Base Student Allocation to keep their neighborhood schools open?

You can testify in writing, provide testimony in person or by phone. Here is a link to testify.

David Boyle is an education writer for Must Read Alaska.