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

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District board votes Monday on whether to renew the charter for Homer's Fireweed Academy for 10 more years, and district administration recommends approving it.

Fireweed is a small K-6 public charter school with an emphasis on art and the humanities, including violin, Socratic seminars and project-based learning. It has 99 students this year. Its kindergarten-through-second-grade campus on East End Road has three classrooms, two yurts and a chicken coop that students help care for. Third through sixth grades rent classrooms inside West Homer Elementary.

District administration says the school is financially sound and meets or beats district academic standards. In 2025, 62.5% of Fireweed students were proficient in English language arts and about 52% in math, and the school posted its best overall score on the state's school rating in a decade, according to its renewal application.

If the school board approves, the renewal would run from July 2027 through June 2037 and would still need approval from the Alaska State Board of Education.

The same night, the board takes up a proposed charter at Soldotna Elementary, which district leaders recommend denying. They cite about $1.1 million in budget differences, no secured building, an inadequate transportation plan and an admission process they say doesn't comply with state law and district policy.