Kenai Peninsula school board votes Monday on 10-year renewal of Fireweed Academy charter

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education is scheduled to vote Monday, Nov. 2, on a 10-year charter renewal for Homer's Fireweed Academy, and district administration recommends approving it. The new contract would run from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2037.

Fireweed submitted its renewal application Sept. 30, according to an Oct. 24 report. A renewal approved by the school board would still need approval from the Alaska State Board of Education. It would keep the school's K-6 program in place, along with its Academic Policy Committee, a group of parents and staff that sets the school's admission and administrative policies.

Administration says the school is fiscally sound, runs a sustainable model and meets or surpasses district academic standards.

The Fireweed Academy Charter Renewal 2027 application reports a School Index Value of 61.02 in fiscal 2025, the school's highest in a decade, with 62.5% of students proficient in English language arts and 51.79% in math. Classes are capped at 18 students in kindergarten through second grade and 20 in third through sixth.

Fireweed runs two campuses. Nonprofit partner Friends of Fireweed Academy has applied for a borough land lease to fund a single campus, according to the application.

Fireweed opened in 1997 and is the only public charter school in the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. Board minutes from February 2002 show administration sought a one-year charter over insolvency concerns at the time. School representatives asked for five years instead, and the board approved that unanimously. In 2010 the board approved the school's request to expand from grades 3-6 to include kindergarten through second grade.

At an Oct. 19 board work session, Fireweed Academy principal Kye Darbonne presented changes since the school's last renewal in 2017, including new curricula, a new technology policy and an expanded student agriculture program with a garden and chicken coop.

On the same agenda, district leadership recommends denying the proposed Soldotna Elementary charter. It cites four deficiencies: about $1.1 million in budget differences, no secured building, an inadequate transportation plan and an admission process that does not comply with state law and district policy.

The business meeting starts at 6 pm in the Betty J. Glick Assembly Chambers in Soldotna. The public may comment on action items.