Kodiak may close an elementary school its building plan still invests in

Kodiak's school district has put three options in front of its school board. Two of them close East Elementary in the summer of 2027. Three weeks earlier, the same board was handed a six-year building plan with $5.75 million of work slated for that same school.

The plan is a wish list, not a check. Projects have to be on it to qualify for state money, and none of the East Elementary work is close enough to happen soon. The first piece, $400,000 for heating controls, comes in 2029, two years after the school would close. The biggest share, $4.35 million, sits in 2032.

Under one option, East's students split between Main and Peterson, the middle school takes grades 4 through 7, and eighth graders move up to the high school. Under the other, East closes and Peterson becomes a K-7 school of about 230. The third option is to do nothing and wait for the Legislature to send more money, cutting staff and programs in the meantime.

The district says the first two would shed empty space and save money. It has not said how much.

What it points to instead is the last school it closed. Shutting North Star Elementary saved $1.8 million in personnel costs. But then-Superintendent Cindy Micka told the borough assembly in May that the savings came from consolidating grades, not from closing a building.

The enrollment case is the strong part. Kodiak had 2,420 students in 15 schools in 2016. It has 1,854 in 10 now, down 23 percent, and expects 1,428 by 2036. Every school has empty seats. Peterson is at 40 percent of capacity, East at 59, the high school at 60.

One number cuts against it. Enrollment in the first week of school was up 119 students over last year.

Nobody has posted minutes from the Aug. 17 meeting, so whether the board adopted the building plan is not on the record. Its next gathering is a retreat Saturday, where no votes are taken.