Anchorage School Board pledges no closures in 2026-27, rejects funding condition

The Anchorage School Board committed Tuesday to close no schools during the 2026-27 school year except in an emergency. The resolution passed 5 to 2. Minutes earlier, the board rejected 1 to 6 an amendment that would have voided the entire pledge if the Municipality of Anchorage funds schools below the maximum allowed under its tax cap.

Member Paul McDonough, who wrote the resolution, said it accepts Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt's recommendation from April. The board, he said, "will essentially accept the superintendent's recommendation not to close any schools except in the cases of emergencies." He called it an olive branch to a community he said is still grieving three school closures.

Vice President Kelly Lessens brought the amendment. She told the board the Anchorage Assembly voted unanimously on July 21 to ask the mayor for at least two school-funding scenarios in her Aug. 31 budget memo, one at the tax-cap maximum and one below it. "Maybe it's not an olive branch, maybe it's a stick," Lessens said. Her amendment would have nullified the resolution if either the mayor's Oct. 2 proposed budget or the Assembly's Nov. 17 adoption funded schools below the cap.

McDonough said the condition would hand the municipality control over school closures. "I think it turns an olive branch into something with a fuse, a time bomb," he said.

Member Pat Higgins voted against the amendment and against the resolution. He said the district has never explained why Campbell STEM, Fire Lake and Lake Otis were chosen, or what the closures saved. "I think we're making a serious mistake, and I absolutely oppose it."

Bryantt told the board the district balanced a $90 million structural shortfall and faces $45 million in cost growth next year. The board approved those three closures in February on a 4-3 vote, after rejecting two of them in November 2025.

Criteria for choosing which schools close are still being written. The board formed an ad hoc right-sizing committee on July 16 to develop them. McDonough said the moratorium runs until that committee finishes its work in May.