Homer's Fireweed Academy asks Kenai Peninsula school district to renew its charter for 10 years

Fireweed Academy has asked the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District to renew its charter for 10 years, the longest renewal district policy allows. The renewal would keep the Homer school operating from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2037. The school enrolls 99 students this year at two campuses in Homer and calls itself the only public charter school in the southern part of the district.

District policy requires a public work session, a public hearing and a vote at a regular board meeting on a charter renewal. The school board's Oct. 19 work session took up the application. If the board approves the renewal, the Alaska State Board of Education must also approve it.

Enrollment has fallen from a peak of 127 students in the 2019-20 school year. The application says past waitlists were mostly for kindergarten and third grade and that there is no waitlist this year.

For fiscal year 2025, the application reports the school's highest School Index Value in a decade, 61.02, with growth in each of the past four years. Students scored 62.5% proficient in English language arts and 51.79% in math. In a climate survey on the school's slides, 92% of students said they feel safe at school.

The school has qualified for Title I funding in seven of the last 10 years. Its state and borough funding is based on the Base Student Allocation, a per-student dollar amount set in state law, and the district keeps 4% of the school's revenue for services such as finance, payroll and human resources. The draft contract requires at least 20 students at all times and lets the board end the charter for missed achievement or fiscal standards, a material default or other good cause, with 90 days' written notice.

Principal Kyle Darbonne's memo lists changes since the 2017 renewal: adopted curricula, a technology use policy, stronger Homer-area partnerships, an expanded garden with a student-kept chicken coop and a new principal evaluation process. The school's slides list partners including local schools, Bunnell Arts and the Homer Council on the Arts.

The school opened in 1997 as Homer Charter School.