Anchorage schools list nearly $18 million in urgent repairs ahead of April bond

Anchorage School District staff told the school board Tuesday that newly urgent repairs total nearly $18 million. The list includes aging boilers and a Wendler Middle School roof beyond patching. Some projects could go on a bond. Others would draw from maintenance funds or grants.

"We're not making decisions tonight," said Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt. He plans to seek board approval in November of an April bond focused on safety and security. Staff will try to arrange one-on-one meetings with board members before presenting a ranked project list on Oct. 20. The list will then go to the Anchorage Assembly and voters.

Maintenance Director Carrie Shivers said Wendler's roof ranks low on district spreadsheets despite its leaks. "This particular roof is so far gone it won't even hold a shingle anymore," she said. Klatt Elementary's boilers, which should last 30 years, quit a couple of years ago, closing the school for a couple of days. A second boiler at Ptarmigan Elementary is "on its last leg," she said. Ravenwood Elementary needs a well pump before its current one fails. The gym bleachers at Bartlett High School are structurally fine, Shivers said, but it's "a 50/50 chance" whether they'll open, and then whether they'll close.

Wendler's roof could be fixed about three years after going on a bond, Shivers said. Maintenance funds can replace well pumps in weeks and boilers in months.

Chief Operating Officer James Anderson totaled the list. "It's a little bit under $18 million," he said. Board member Kelly Lessens asked whether the Klatt boiler problems were the same Klatt items in the April 2026 bond proposal. Staff said the boilers are a new emergent issue.

Deferred maintenance has grown from the equivalent of $183 million in 2010 to almost $1.5 billion, Anderson said. He tied the rise to a 2015 state moratorium on school bond reimbursement that cut state aid for district bonds from 60 or 70 percent to nothing. That moratorium ended July 1, 2025, and newer debt now qualifies for 50 or 40 percent reimbursement. Even so, Anderson said, the legislature and governor still have to appropriate the money every year.

Bonds pass or fail by about 2 percent, Anderson said, and voters seem comfortable in "that $60 to sometimes $80 million range." Last April's bond, just under $80 million, failed. Surveys found the main reason was voters' "own personal financial insecurity."

Lessens said she didn't want students learning to count "by counting the buckets of water in their hallways." Staff confirmed the district considers roofs a safety issue.