Kodiak district asks school board to weigh closing East Elementary in 2027

The Kodiak Island Borough School District will lay three options in front of its school board Tuesday, and two of them close East Elementary in the summer of 2027. Five weeks ago the same board received a capital plan asking the state for $5.75 million to renovate that building, with the work scheduled from 2029 through 2032 — every project of it after the school would be gone.

What closing East would save, the district does not say. Under the heading for fiscal health, the presentation reads in full: "Financial Information is forthcoming." It lists the costs of running half-empty buildings — heating unused space, staffing nurses, counselors, psychologists and music programs — and attaches no number to any of them.

The reason for the exercise is not in dispute. Kodiak ran 15 schools with 2,420 students in 2016. It runs 10 with 1,871 now, 549 fewer children, a drop of 23 percent. On the same trend the district expects 1,441 by 2036. Every school it operates is under capacity. Peterson Elementary sits at 40 percent, East at 59.

Where East's children would go depends on which option the board takes. Under one, East folds into Main Elementary and Kodiak Middle School, Main becomes a K-3 school and the high school picks up eighth graders. Under the other, East's students split between Main and Peterson, and Peterson becomes a K-7 school. The third option is not reorganizing at all, which the district describes as postponing in hope of more money from the state and the borough while cutting staff and programs to close recurring deficits.

Some of these children have already done this. In January 2025 the board voted to close North Star Elementary and send its students to East and Main. Two and a half years later, East is the school on the list.

The capital plan reached the board Aug. 3. Drafted July 29 for the state education department, it asks for 31 projects worth about $19.6 million over six years. Seven of them are at East: HVAC controls, lighting, an exterior wall system, flooring, plumbing and fire suppression. Those seven come to $5.75 million, nearly 30 percent of everything the district is asking the state for.

The town is shrinking around the schools. Borough figures show Kodiak lost about 650 residents in five years, and a draft comprehensive plan projects roughly 1,200 more by 2045. The Association of Alaska School Boards, which opposes mandated consolidation, says "no evidence has been provided" that combining schools produces savings or better learning.

Tuesday's meeting is a work session at 6:30 pm with no vote scheduled. Community comment comes at the start, three minutes a person. The district takes the options to its community budget advisory council the next day. A board decision sits last on the district's list of next steps, with no date attached.