The Anchorage School Board pledges no more closures next year, but one member says the last three were never explained

The Anchorage School Board committed Tuesday to close no schools during the coming school year except in an emergency, a pledge its author called an olive branch to a community still grieving three recent closures. The resolution passed 5 to 2.

Member Paul McDonough, who wrote it, said it accepts Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt's April recommendation against further closures. He framed it as a gesture to families still stinging from the loss of their schools.

Not everyone was satisfied. Vice President Kelly Lessens tried to tie the pledge to city funding, proposing that it be voided if the municipality funds schools below the maximum its tax cap allows. "Maybe it's not an olive branch, maybe it's a stick," she said. McDonough argued that would hand the city control over school closures, and the board rejected her amendment.

Member Pat Higgins voted against both the amendment and the resolution, and his objection cut at something the district has not resolved. He said it has never explained why Campbell STEM, Fire Lake and Lake Otis were the schools chosen to close, or what the closures actually saved. "I think we're making a serious mistake, and I absolutely oppose it," he said.

The closures came out of real financial pressure. Bryantt told the board the district balanced a $90 million structural shortfall and faces $45 million in cost growth next year. The board approved the three closures in February on a 4-3 vote, after rejecting two of them months earlier.

The pledge holds while the board works out how such decisions should be made in the first place. It has formed a committee to write the criteria for choosing which schools close, and the moratorium runs until that work is done in May.