Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026

Are you ready? Okay. All right. I will call the May 14th Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Work Session to order. We will begin with citizens' comments tonight.

For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3033. 3231. Toll-free number is 1-855-492-9202. Please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. And for those in the room who wish to speak under citizens' comments, please come to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking, and please speak directly into the mic and state your name for the record.

Please address all remarks to the Assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

Okay, we have—.

Okay. Hello, Assembly as a body. I'm here tonight to advocate for meeting the Board of Education's recommended budget funding for the upcoming school year. My, my—. We were just having a conversation about it, and I was asked if it was my kid— I don't have any kids, and I know some of you guys have kids or are planning to have kids— what you want your kid to go to, that, that's these schools.

And the answer I had was, it doesn't matter what I want, this is the schools we have. It's sort of like we have one airline to get to this island, right? We have Alaska Airlines and we have the ferry and we have those things. And if the pilots come to us and they tell us that the engines need to be fixed or that things need to be done or the engineers need to— these things need to be done for our kids, for us to successfully get to and from the island, we need to do them because they know what they're talking about. They know the safety.

And yes, there's, there's other ways to get to this island, right? There's, there's private jets. You could swim, um, if you wanted to, um, but they're a lot harder, and not everybody can swim very well. So I think we should trust that the school board has done the deliberation and we have elected them to look into all of this. And they don't come to you guys with any of this lightly.

It's incredibly hard to— could you imagine asking for millions of dollars? It's insane. But I just want to Think of it that way. There's what everybody deserves, a way to progress. And this is the one way that we have to get everybody there.

Is it perfect? No. Just like Alaska Airlines, there's delays, there's turbulence. But that doesn't mean we should stop putting fuel in the jets, you know, because, because we still need to get to where we're going. Just because it's not perfect doesn't mean we should stop supporting it.

So that's my case.

Thank you. Do we have any calls? No. Okay.

Good evening, assembly members. For the record, I'm Dr. Cindy Micka, Superintendent of the Kodiak Island Borough School District. I wanted to take a moment tonight to clarify several statements and questions that have come up regarding the district's FY27 budget request. First, at the last, uh, two meetings ago, it was stated, uh, that the district budget included over $1 million in technology purchases for iPads. That is not correct.

While the district has discussed the need for a long-term technology refresh over the past several years and over the past several board meetings, that technology refresh has not been included in previous budgets, nor is included in this year's budget. Request. As in previous years, these purchases are not built in. I've also been asked why the district was requesting approximately $1.6 million increase in local funding while also reducing roughly $3 million in positions and expenditures. The answer is simple: inflation and staffing costs.

Just like families and businesses across Kodiak, the district is experiencing higher costs in nearly every area of operation. Utilities cost more, fuel costs more, professional services cost more, supplies cost more, even basic items like milk and shipping costs more. At the same time, staffing costs continue to increase annually through negotiated collective bargaining agreements that include salaries, health insurance, and benefits. The largest portion of the school district's budget is staffing because schools are people-driven organizations. Teachers' aides, custodians, cooks, maintenance staff, office staff, principals, and support personnel are the individuals serving students every single day.

So while we have made over $2.5 million in cuts, those reductions are largely offset by the rising costs required to maintain district operations and fulfill our contractual obligations. Finally, there was also a statement that our schools are failing students and therefore should not be funded. I respectfully disagree with that characterization, and more importantly, our student data disagrees with it as well. Next Monday at our school board meeting, our end-of-year assessment results will be presented publicly. In fact, it is in our board book currently, and the data shows that our students are in fact growing.

Our K-3 DIBELS literacy data shows students moving out of the well below benchmark category and also growing in the advanced category, increasing in benchmark and above benchmark over time. Our cohort data in reading, language usage, and math through MAP growth also shows steady improvement across multiple grade levels and across multiple years for the same cohort of That growth does not happen by accident. It happens because of the work of our teachers, principals, support staff, families, and students. It happens because of intentional instructional practices, intervention systems, curriculum work, and sustained support for schools. If we want to continue improving outcomes for students, the answer is not to reduce investment in education.

The answer is to continue supporting the systems and people that are producing growth for kids. Thank you for your time and continued commitment to our students.

Thank you. Anyone else?

You are now answering a call from the queue. Good evening, assembly meeting. Good evening. I was hoping to call for public comment. Go ahead, please.

Please state your name. Hello, my name is Molly Miller, and I am the executive director of the Kodiak Arts Council. I am calling today to encourage the assembly to fund education— fund the KIBSD at the level requested, specifically because of the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium. I understand that the assembly does not manage KIBSD's individual staffing decisions. However, I would like to explain why this issue is different from a normal school line item.

The auditorium is a borough-owned building and one of Kodiak's most important community spaces. Where else can you seat over 700 people at a time? It serves students, families, volunteers, performers, civic groups, and the public. My concern is that the auditorium is down to one staffing position that covers at least two separate jobs, which is the community school scheduling and the auditorium technical director. This is an essential position that allows the building to function safely and responsibility— responsibly.

The position provides technical oversight, scheduling, scheduling, safety coordination, and maintenance awareness. Preserving minimal staffing now is less expensive than allowing a public facility to deteriorate operationally and then trying to rebuild capacity late— later. Once institutional knowledge, volunteer coordination, technical systems, and community use patterns are lost, they are very hard and costly to restore. And right now there are ongoing in-depth conversations about how the auditorium is managed managed, funded, staffed, and maintained. We should not let the facility fall below basic operating capacity before these conversations result in a workable and sustainable plan.

The auditorium generates economic activities. Attendees to local performances spend money at local restaurants and bars, buy flowers from local stores to celebrate life milestones and performances. Americans for the Arts study shows that attendees to arts and culture events spend spent an average of $38.46 per person per event beyond admission. When the Kodiak Arts Council produces community theater productions, we buy paint, lumber, and materials from local shops. During our performance— performing arts series, we utilize paid advertising with local and public radio stations, the Kodiak Daily Mirror, and print banners and signs through local print shops.

In addition, facilities like the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium make Kodiak a more attractive place to live and help our community recruit and retain teachers, healthcare workers, public employees, Coast Guard families, and private sector workers. Though the auditorium's function— through the auditorium's function as a public facility, people learn skills with economic values. Volunteers involved with community theater, for example, learn lighting, sound, construction, project management, event operations, and public speaking. If the district is not funded at the requested level and the final auditorium position is eliminated, the borough's own asset may become less available available, less maintained, and less useful to the public. I am asking the Assembly to consider the operational risks of this public facility when making its funding decision.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify, and I hope you have a good evening. Thank you.

Thank you.

After college, I came back. Oh, Tammy, can you turn your mic on? Is it not on? Okay. After college, I came back.

I worked as an aide and as a teacher, and most recently as a project specialist with secondary students. I have worked with students in our alternative programs. I've worked with our special ed teachers, and I most years had 6 to 9 preps at the secondary level. I'm currently retired, but I am still coaching the middle school drama club. And for me, as someone who has been here for more than 40 years, the school district is central to so much of our lives.

Our buildings host roller hockey games, they host political meetings, They host performances of many different kinds. And as Molly said, our auditorium needs a person there.

One of the things that I noticed when I started looking at this issue this past couple of weeks is in the spring of 1986, when the auditorium was open to the public, we had 4 employees that handled different aspects of the of the building.

Employees of the auditorium are not your responsibility. However, it is a borough building. It was jointly created by the borough, the school district, and the Arts Council, and the original agreement was that the three organizations would continue to work together to maintain a place for the community for a variety of activities, not just school performances, although we have a lot of those. We have band concerts. We have dance concerts.

We have shows. Recently, we had a meeting for scheduling for the fall. We have to book 6 months in advance to get space and time. That also includes the assistance of the facility technician. Part of the reason we have to do that is not all of us know how to turn the lights on, how to make the sound equipment work.

How to put things together. There are safety issues that are crucial that have to be maintained. Someone has to know how to run the building.

There was a point about 5 years ago where it looked like we were going to add back an assistant technician's position. I was very excited. I wanted to apply for it, but that position was never funded, and now we're looking at a possible cut to our technician as well. One of the things you might consider is that while grants have been written over the years to maintain and upgrade the auditorium, the upholstery for the seats is 40 years old, so are the rugs. Okay?

Um, it's a very busy place after school and in the evening. Most recently, we had a dance performance, and it was packed. So please fund the school district. We need it. Thank you.

Thank you. Phone call. All right, you are now answering a call from the queue. Good evening, assembly work session. Please state your name for the record.

Good evening, my name is Brenda Schwantes. Go ahead. Oh, okay, thank you. Tonight I'd like to direct my comments Regarding the Kodiak Island Borough School District funding request, um, I spent a little bit of time reviewing the Kodiak Island Borough audit. There's some charts in there that you can compare from 2015 to 2025, and it, it has some quite some really interesting data.

While the budget has increased quite a bit, student enrollment has significantly dropped over a 10-year period of time. I think it's really essential that we as a community and assembly and governing officials keep in mind that this— these budget issues may be very temporary, and that just because, you know, we have to cut things now, including the school budget, that doesn't mean they can't become— we can't improve them and expand on them down the road. So this could be very temporary. I think, I think it's interesting that the district has a policy that students can't bring cell phones to school, yet they spend millions of dollars on iPads and allow children in grade school to just sit on these iPads.

The Borough Assembly has the power and the purse regarding the budget, and, um, I think it would be smart as well for the, uh, Borough to recognize that a lot of teachers are required to do continuing ed classes but are sent off island in large groups. That just increases the substitute budget. Uh, CPEs can be done online. Um, I know there's a grant, but the, the cost to hire subs and so forth There's a lot of things that can be looked at, at in the school district budget. It's not just about, oh, if we give them this much money, we support education.

It's not that. You can bifurcate certain things out of the current funding issues, like the IT stuff, the iPads, the one-to-one program. Get rid of that and save millions. So I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Hello, my name is Jill Miranda.

Is it on now? Okay. My name is Jill Miranda. I'm here for the same reason everyone ahead of me has been here, uh, and— oh my gosh, I'm just going to read word for word because I'm nervous. Sorry.

Kodiak is a magical place. Magic can be seen and felt here in some way every single day. Sometimes it's in the scenery, sometimes the wildlife. I think most of the time it can be felt within the community. When people come together, whether it's to perform or to watch a performance, magic happens.

We learn, we share, we sit in the moment together. Together, this is so important, especially here on this remote island where the winters are long and the dark— long and dark— and the summers are short and often wet. Our auditorium is not just an entertainment venue. In our isolated community, it functions as a social connection hub, a youth resource center, and a public mental health investment. Social isolation is a major mental health risk in Alaska.

Isolation is one of the strongest predictors of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide risk. Access to the arts is preventative mental health care. Research consistently shows that participating in music, theater, dance, other live arts lowers stress hormones, improves mood, builds emotional resilience, and increases feelings of belonging. This applies to both performers and observers. This is especially important for our youth.

For many young people, the space provides mentorship, mentorship, confidence, emotional expression, teamwork, and a sense of identity. Removing, removing access can negatively affect teens who may already feel disconnected or isolated. If these young people aren't spending their free time in a positive space, what else might they be doing? Joyriding around the town, experimenting with substances and alcohol, having late-night beach parties. The auditorium gives them a safe space to belong, to create, and to be seen.

Communities with strong cultural and civic engagement recover better from economic stress, disasters, trauma, and social conflict. Shared public experiences strengthen social, social trust and community togetherness. The auditorium is one of the few places where the entire community can come together across generations, backgrounds and beliefs. The experiences we share are especially important in today's political and economic environment. People are stressed, angry, and frustrated.

Live performances create one of the few environments where people sit together, listen together, and experience emotion together in the moment, regardless of politics. Communities become stronger and more resilient when there are places the people can come together as neighbors, When we lose gathering spaces, we do not simply lose entertainment. We lose connection, belonging, and the opportunities to see each other as human beings. We are asking you to look at the auditorium not through the lens of short-term costs, but through the lens of community well-being, youth opportunity, mental health care, and human connection. At a time when the world feels increasingly fractured, Kodiak needs a place where the people can gather, create, celebrate, and remember that we are neighbors first.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Lindsay Bondurant. I do not have a speech prepared because I found out about the meeting today. But I am here along with all of these wonderful people to support the Arts Council. I had never done it as a kid, but I grew up here and I performed there for many, many school events. And as an adult, I got into theater, and my love of theater has grown so much in the last few years.

As you can see, I'm wearing my Chicago shirt. This is my first performance ever. I couldn't imagine having a place where we couldn't express our love to perform, to share, to hear, you know, the beautiful art that this community has to provide. And it would be so sad to hear that that would be lessened because of not having someone to be able to take care of the facility that we all need so badly. Um, so I hope that, that you all make the best decision and can keep it going, because it would be really sad to lose.

As a mom, my daughter has become a theater lover as well, and I know that that would affect her love— becoming a teenager, as Jill said, who knows what she could get into when she could be sitting backstage, hanging out with her friends, you know, doing what she loves. So, thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Carrie Irons and I'm speaking tonight as a member of the KIBSD School Board, currently as its Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity to share comments about this year's budget request. I understand that you have many pressures on you, many ways to spend every dollar of the revenue— of your revenue you receive as a borough. You're tasked with prioritizing the borough's fiscal needs. Of course, the school board is tasked with prioritizing the fiscal needs of the school district. Our ongoing reality is that state contributions have decreased significantly significantly in their purchasing power due to rising costs that are far beyond our control.

My first year on the school board, we cut about $2.5 million from our operating budget. My second year, we closed a school to save nearly $3 million. This year, we're cutting $2.5 million or more, which will impact how the district operates. We've heard from students about the impact of fewer course options. Diminished contact time with teachers, fewer options for activities resulting in less engagement in school.

We've heard from teachers about the impact of larger class sizes that will impact learning, classroom culture, stress levels, and simply their love for and dedication to their jobs. We've heard from families about the impact of fewer opportunities for their children, whether they're preparing to step into a job after high school or attend post-secondary career or university options. We've heard from principals about the impact of a diminished instructional team that monitors student learning. Right now, instructional practices are improving student outcomes, and they fear that the momentum will falter and die. We're also listening to our community.

We're actively working to build greater trust about the budget process and about being as transparent as possible about the projections or estimates we must use to create the budget. We have had to make heart-wrenching decisions. The priorities of the school board are always focused on our students. Our students are living in a different world than the one each one of us grew up in, whether you're a millennial or a baby boomer. In addition to instruction, we must address issues with mental health, child nutrition, screen time, vaping, safety, and the list goes on.

At a recent school board conference, a student shared this: You say we are the future leaders of our state. Why won't you invest in us? We ask that you invest in our collective future, the future of our community, not just consider what we can afford to spend this year on education. Please fund the school district to the level of the request of our preliminary budget. It will make a difference to our entire district into the future.

Strong communities value public education. Next week, our Community Budget Advisory Committee will meet for the first time, and I am personally excited that the assembly will be part of the dialogue as we plan for the future of our district. Thank you. I deeply appreciate your commitment to our school district and our community. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Judy Carstens. I'm a 35-year resident of Kodiak Island. Came here first with the Coast Guard, had children in Peterson Elementary, and they have 5 children that have graduated from high school here. I have 2 statements or 2 things in my heart that have given— that educators have given to me from over the years. The first one was from our Dr. Witveen.

If you remember, he was a superintendent, and he was the first one that got me involved in volunteering in a school. And he said to me, one day you will run for school board. And I did. But I will quote what Dr. Witveen told me then, and I still carry that close to my heart, is do what's best for students.

Another friend of mine that was on the school board with me said, you need to remember that you can think about the students in your heart, but we have a business to run. And those are pretty two-sided, so far from each other, because the students look at it like, I want to learn, I want to know how to read. So in these 35 years, I have spent many hours in classrooms, all the way from kindergartners up to the, to the senior high school, and I will continue to into my 80th year as well. But we can talk about auditorium, we can talk about anything. Today I had a meeting with CTE in regarding to how that program has grown in our high school.

And do you know how many businesses in this community are connected with the high school CTE program and offering jobs and such to those that walk right out of high school and to walk in even if they seek forms? That is progress in our school system. The same with the auditorium and the, the art classes. Look how the music program programs have grown. We thought we were going to lose orchestra in, um, COVID years, but last week, two weeks ago, that auditorium was filled with music with the most gifted music teachers that we've seen.

And yes, we're doing best for students. We have staff that spends extra hours doing best for students. And you are here also as volunteers. If you were to take the hours that you spend, you're probably making— I averaged it one year for the 30 years and it was a negative number as to what I would have made for a salary and none of it was qualified for Social Security. But my point is, is we need to look, all of us together in a unified way to see how we can continue to do what's best for students.

And if you give us one more year, fund us to the top. We understand that the community theater— we have a great community group that is forming to help support the auditorium. With funds and wills. We've got 2 people I already know with money put in their wills. So please just fund us as close to the top as you can so we can continue— we can continue to do what's best for students.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name's Ilva Fox. Thank you all for being here and for the work you do. I am here to speak in favor of funding the revised school district budget in front of you tonight. A lot of work and thought has gone into reducing the budget while maintaining quality education and experiences for our students. I am concerned that the only remaining staff position for the auditorium will be cut if the requested funds are reduced.

The borough-owned auditorium is an asset, and I believe a treasure. It is an educational space where students have the opportunity to be on stage starting in kindergarten, performing for family and friends. School concerts keep this ongoing for their career. Theater and music classes in middle and high school give students a chance to learn lighting, sound systems, costuming, in addition to performing. They learn to work together for a common goal.

All part of their education. What else happens at the auditorium? It is a place for local groups to perform or show their art. The Aisle Bells, Next Step Dance Studio, the Fairwind Players, the Artist Trading Card Show, the Altered Book Show are some. The Kodiak Arts Council brings us off-island music and dance.

There are meetings from the community is a place a community has come together to mourn after local tragedies. An evening or afternoon at the auditorium often benefits local businesses when patrons purchase cards, flowers, go out to eat, or just make that extra stop on their way home. Having an employee is essential to the function of the auditorium. Scheduling, tracking hours, Maintaining equipment, supervising volunteers, checking for safety, all are part of his job— or the job, excuse me. The where and how knowledge will be lost without an employee.

I believe it is cost and knowledge effective to keep an auditorium employee rather than to lose the employee and restart at a future date. Please fund the school district budget request and keep the auditorium staff for our students and the Kodiak Island Borough residents. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Yeah, my name is Fred Vogel. I've lived here pretty much my entire life. I've been here 60 years. I can remember when they built the auditorium. The state was flush with money and they were more than happy to give it to us.

They built us a facility that we have had Grammy Award winners, we have had international people from all over the the world walk in and go, wow.

If we let that go, it will never come back. The state can't afford to fund what they promised us for our high school, much less build us a new facility if we do not maintain it.

I understand there's a lot of pressure monetarily for the budget for the school for a lot of different reasons, and we're all feeling the pinch, but we own a multi-million dollar facility that is—.

Sorry—. Constantly used.

Both my children grew up there. I've been involved in more productions than I can remember.

I've been to debates for our governors, for our senators. I've been to funerals, I've been to memorial services, I've been to KEA's board meetings. I have been to so many different little kids' events that are wonderful in their own way, but would not be possible without a building that seats that many people. Um, without a person to maintain it, uh, it'll fall apart like anything else. If you don't maintain it, it falls apart.

If you don't change the oil in the car, the engine dies, and then it gets really expensive to fix. There is a lot of moving parts in that auditorium. There are hundreds of lights that need to be maintained. There is a number of different safety issues that must be addressed and checked on a constant basis. If we do not have someone to do that it no longer becomes a usable facility.

That facility, as other people have noted, gets booked 6 months in advance. There's constant use for it. We have— I can think of at least a half dozen people that I know went to school here, went through the theater here, and now they're professionals in the theater other places doing other things. We have, uh, you know, a state-renowned theater group, the Shakespeare's, that, uh, use it constantly. Most of those kids grew up in the facility.

Without that, all that goes away. So thank you. Thank you.

Apologize for that. Steve Belden. I had a bunch of notes. I can't even read my own on handwriting. So yeah, I'd like to kind of continue where Fred left off.

Sadly, I've been to a lot of these meetings over the years. My parents were both public school teachers in the music and the arts in Kansas, Texas, and Alaska. And seen it over and over and over again. If a school district budget doesn't get fully supported, the first thing to be cut is the arts. Absolutely the first thing to go down the hole.

We came here for a visit 5 years ago from Anchorage, and some friends of ours here locally, they said, hey, why don't you come down and see The Nutcracker? And I knew what that meant. I was like, okay, I'm going to go to The Nutcracker. It's going to be a bunch of— I'd never been in this theater. There's going to be friends and family and people who are obligated go show up and watch The Nutcracker one more time.

No, sold out both performances. If you wanted to watch it, you paid $15 to watch it on Zoom, which we happily did. And we watched well over 100 kids from every dance studio in this town prancing around on stage having the time of their life. And I was like, we are moving here. This is a town that supports the arts.

This is—. Did I even turn the mic on? Oh, good, it's still on. This is a town that supports the arts. This is fantastic.

Kodiak Arts Council, holy cats, man, you got a fantastic organization there. What do they bring in, half a dozen shows a year from out of state, out of the country? Fantastic performances. Like Fred said, you got the Shakespeare's, you got an award-winning theater. Company here for young kids growing up.

I was a weird, awkward, gawky kid. I really was. And the only thing that saved me was theater. It was a big, big deal. There's a lot of kids like me.

There's a lot of kids. Not everybody's built to be in football or hockey or basketball or whatever. Some of us need the arts. Some of us need that stage. Without that, what do we got?

Not a lot of resources. There's not a lot. That's a fantastic place. I was here in Alaska back in the '80s. We all saw what happened in Project 80s.

Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars spent all over the state and not a thought given to maintenance. Not anything put into the long-term preservation of these facilities. If you don't fund the school district budget all the way, and if that position over there, that one maintenance position, is cut, all we're left with is volunteers, and we can only do so much. Like Fred said, safety alone, safety alone, we won't be able to maintain the minimum standards of safety. The place will have to be shut down.

So I'm begging you, I'm begging you, please. Fund the school district all the way. Let's keep that going. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Mike Litzow. I'm a member of the school district, or rather the school board, and I just want to offer some thoughts about the reasons for the school district asking the, the full capped amount, the maximum amount of local support for the, for the district budget, and also some of the implications as a community member that I see that, that stem from that decision that's before you. So in 2011, the base student allocation from the state of Alaska was $5,680 per student. 15 Years later, uh, 2026, it's $6,660.

If it had kept pace with inflation, the base student allocation would be $8,220 today. If state funding had kept pace with inflation at our current enrollment, we would get $7.4 million more from the state in this fiscal year. And critically, the local contribution scales with state aid. If the state aid had kept up with inflation, um, the cap for the local contribution would be $1.7 million higher. The district could be coming to you with this ask right now, and it'd be $1.7 $1 million below the cap.

Um, we've heard already some thoughts about the implications of not funding to the cap. I'll just say that we'll have to make some immediate impossible choices. We already spend considerably less on maintenance per square foot in this district than Anchorage School District does. That's in spite of our much greater costs. From my personal perspective, we're not meeting our maintenance requirements for keeping assets viable for this community.

But then we also hear from parents about the desperate need for school psychologists and counselors. So we'll be faced immediately with, with decisions about reducing maintenance or reducing support for students in that form. Um, longer term, next year we're going to be revisiting the decision about consolidating the school district further. We've already seen town versus base sentiment growing around the idea that that might happen this year, and I think that's really fundamentally bad for this community. Um, big picture, I believe deeply that a public school system is the way our generation meets our responsibility to the next generation, and really I'm concerned that at the at the state level, what passes as hard-headed realism is really a willingness to walk away from that responsibility.

Our only hope as a district is to, to hold out for better times for state funding. And so I just want to leave you with one more number as my time's about up, and that is in 2011, the local contribution was $10.3 million. If that was inflation adjusted today, that'd be $14. $1.85 Million, an inflation-adjusted amount. The school district's asking for $245,000 less than was given in 2011.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Anyone else? Oh, hi, Marian. And no calls. You're going to need a new piece of paper here pretty soon. Just saying.

Well, let's take Marian first. The mic is tall. Okay. Hi, my name is Marian Owen. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak.

I want to give you a brief report on my trip to Seattle last month. I was invited to present at the SWANA Northwest Regional Symposium in Tulalip, Washington, just north of Seattle. Now, SWANA stands for the Solid Waste Association of North America. The symposium brought together professionals from the U.S. and Canada, and they focused on recycling, composting, and solid waste management. On day one, though, I thought I'd come to the wrong conference.

Big cities, large processing facilities, but then it clicked. These folks are working on the same challenges that we face here in Kodiak, just on a different scale. My presentation focused on home composting because communities of all sizes see it as an important part of the big picture. Now the focus I heard again and again was on diversion. Keeping materials out of the landfill, especially organic materials like food scraps and yard waste.

The other big thing was education and outreach. Why? Because if people don't understand what to do or why it matters, programs don't work. And needed change does not happen. I also attended the Washington State Department of Ecology Organics Summit.

This was a full-day event that focused primarily on food waste diversion. Now Washington State is rolling out new rules to divert all food scraps and organic materials out of the landfills. And composting and food recovery are now becoming a normal part of daily life. They're investing heavily in education, simple messaging, and making participation easy for businesses and restaurants and coffee shops and homeowners. During the trip, I also toured a large recycling and composting facility.

I saw firsthand how materials are sorted, how food waste is actually separated from packaging, and how yard debris is turned into compost and soil. Now, at several sites I watched trucks and Subarus pull into self-haul stations to weigh in and then drop off everything from tree branches and grass clippings to construction waste. Waste. And one of the presentations focused on upgrading aging bailing facilities like what we have built in the '90s in order to meet today's standards. So in summary, we're dealing with many of the same challenges, and my trip to Seattle gave me a lot of hope.

I believe we have a real opportunity here to show other Alaska communities what's possible with practical step-by-step solutions. Thank you, and if you'll excuse me, I have to go home and turn my compost pile. Thank you, Marian. We do have a call.

We are now answering a call from the queue. Good evening, Assembly Work Session. Please state your name for the record.

Hi, my name is Leanna Harrington. I am calling in to, I guess, be the black sheep tonight.

So I've been listening. I reached out several times to the school board, my daughter's school directly. And for me tonight, it's really disheartening to hear board members stand up there and say they're improving, test scores are going up, it looks great. We're doing so good. I could not disagree more with that.

In fact, I've been working very hard with my daughter's school on many issues we've had. I have her test scores for the 2 years we've been there. This year specifically, her test scores never moved. I kept getting red marks on a graph that she's behind in reading, writing, and math. No improvement.

Improvements, and I chose to go try to figure out why we are not seeing that. I went to my daughter's school, and in about 20 minutes, I was able to figure out that she was sitting on an iPad for over almost 3 hours total that day, including music class.

That's an issue in my eyes. She was 6 years old at the time. I don't think they should be sitting on tablets for that long, half their day specifically, and we're spending a lot of money on that. Um, at the end of the day, they will need updates eventually, but I don't think we should have iPads in schools until middle school. At least my daughter should not be able to work my phone better than I can.

Um, and here we are. Um, I hired a tutor actually because her test scores were so bad, so I can vouch for my daughter that us paying over $300 a month for a specific tutor, um, her test scores have improved. That is no thanks to that school district. Um, I actually brought the iPad issue up several times. I brought up to the board, to the assembly.

I've tried to reach out to resolve this issue and bring up to the principal for less screen time and being a huge advocate for that. I was told that the solution for that would be don't bring your kid to school until 9:30, 10 AM. That was the solution if I want to avoid iPad time. So don't come to school if you don't want to be on an iPad at 6 years old. I've tried to voice my concerns to the school board.

No response at all whatsoever. There was— I asked, I want to work this out, I want to see this through, I want this school board I want the board to succeed, I want the system to succeed. It is the best and most convenient thing for our lifestyle is using the public school system that we do fund. We're pulling our child out because of how horrible our experience has been in the iPads. So I don't think there's any growth.

It's really hard to see that Things like the auditorium are put into this. I think that's a necessity. It'd be nice to have some accountability with the school board. I hope they're listening and the borough's listening. We don't want our money going to bloated admin.

We want to see things like the auditorium and things that actually directly affect our kids and do better by our kids. So I think that should be taken into consideration also. It's not— the rainbows aren't there. Um, and I've voiced this several times, so I hope that's taken into consideration. I hope money is spent where it should be, and I don't think that we the taxpayers should just be dumping money into this system that's not working.

And it's not just me that thinks that. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Hello? Is it on? Hi, my name is Tanya Khedka. I sent an email to all of the Assembly members earlier today with various documentation on the history of land near Beaver Lake. I saw on the agenda that you're tasked with providing direction to the Borough Lands Committee, and I'm here to promote the idea that we finally lay the Beaver Lake area to rest once again.

This is a very full agenda, by the way. This is a lot to pack into one night. I wrote a very similar letter to this in 2019 regarding public hearing notice then proposing a land disposable— disposal of 4.7 acres near Beaver Lake with the intent to sell lots at a future borough land sale. All of this letter is still very applicable today. So the history: Beaver Lake area is part of a major watershed in Kodiak that stretches from Horseshoe Lake through Beaver Lake, Dark Lake, Island Lake, and down to Mill Bay.

It's a natural habitat for fish, birds, forest life, and is frequently used by the public for recreation, hiking the trails, which are updated and preserved by the Island Trails Network—picking berries, ice skating, etc. This particular piece of land has been brought under scrutiny several times over the past few decades, according to my research, and each time the Standing Assembly has come to their senses and not allowed it to be destroyed by development. In fact, in the late 1990s, the Assembly listened to the people of Kodiak and rezoned these lots from public use to an even more conservative natural use designation. As public use, the land could have been developed for something that would benefit the public, like a police department that they were considering at the time. But as natural use, the assembly knew that this forested land surrounding the lakes could be preserved and appreciated by everyone in its current natural state.

The previous assembly knew that future assemblies like you would feel the pressure, as you are now, to open up more and more land for development. They knew that the areas around town are the easiest to develop and cheapest for the borough and would be first on the chopping block. They designated this land natural use for the benefit of all in an effort to preserve it from slash-and-burn clear-cutting for more high-end homes. What is left in this area is presently, after the housing expansion over the past 20+ years, is just a barrier left to protect the lake from pollutants of overdevelopment. I quote a letter to the editor from Donene Tweeden published in the Kodiak Daily Mirror on February 20th, 1997, discussing the same piece of land, although it could have been written today.

She said, "Look carefully at the comprehensive plan and look to the future." Resoning and selling the lots around Beaver Lake is not going to solve our current woes. The public wanted this land to be public use area. It is, it is the last public lake left where the property surrounding the lake is not privately owned. Are we going to revisit Beaver Lake every 10 years, or are we going to realize that this is the last public area for the community to enjoy and just leave it alone? There may come a time when outdoor open spaces are not as valued, where people only interact virtually and rarely get outside together.

In this day when our lives are taken over by screens and technologies and iPads, we need to be ever more conscious of what we're compromising if areas such as this are allowed to be destroyed. It's our responsibility to protect places like this and not help usher in a new generation of children who have little or no connection with nature and the earth because we did not demonstrate the importance. I'm almost done. It's too late to reverse the congestion and deforestation of previously developed areas in our town, but it's not too late to benefit from responsible planning for the future. Having every last piece of accessible land developed should not be the end goal here, but rather to preserve the quality of life for current residents as well as future ones.

Thank you. Thank you, Tanya.

Anyone else?

Is this on? Yes, it is. Okay. Hi, my name is Shawna. About 3 or 4 years ago, I moved to Kodiak, and what has kept me here is, um, the auditorium space, and in turn the school district.

There's a lot of opportunities there. My hometown— I grew up in Healy, uh, which is right dab in the middle of the state— uh, does not have, um, in fact it has little to nothing when it comes to like an arts-focused sort of community. When I first came to the auditorium here, I was shocked at how huge it was. I was also part of student government and visited many other schools inland There's nothing really like this, like this auditorium, this space in the school district here. It is incredibly impactful to the community.

I mean, I actually work for the Arts Council now, and this has been the weirdest conglomerate of people I've ever seen come through the doors. You've got these adorable little kids preparing for their performance performance this weekend in tutus asking their moms to make their buns, and military people walking around. So this— it's not— the space is used by everybody. Everybody needs these spaces, and the— in order to keep these spaces here, they need to be kept safe with appropriate staffing, and that includes like an auditorium director. I mean, the simple— I mean, again, this town has so many opportunities my hometown growing up did not have.

And just to put it blankly, I don't live in my hometown anymore. I moved hundreds of miles away and I live here now. So if we lose funding for all of these opportunities, you're going to end up with people growing up going, what is— what is here for me? I think I'm going to go try and find what I am looking for. Somewhere else and see if there's a community that's a bit more well-fed, I guess, is what I'm saying.

So that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Hello. My name is Stella Rockwell, and I moved here 8 months ago. I'm quite new. Previously, I lived in Alabama for about 24 years. And in my time there, I never really felt a sense of connection to the community.

In the 8 months I've been here, I feel very strongly connected to this community, and it's because of that building, the auditorium right there. I started out just volunteering for the shows, the concerts, ushering. Now I work in the middle school, and I feel obligated to say something on behalf of these kids because They are so vibrant and wonderful. And if we— they need this outlet. They need the theater.

They need the bands. Because I've been to 3 concerts this month. I've been to the theater performance they had earlier this month because they asked me to. This is where they want to be seen. And I'm afraid that without it, they're they're going to want to leave.

These kids are more than anything else the future. They are future adults, and I think they need— they need incentives to want to stay here. I thought when I moved here that I would be here for maybe a couple years and just head out, go wherever I wanted. Now I don't really want to leave, and it is because of the school. It's because of what we do with the school in the auditorium.

It is because of the staff members at the school. It is because of the kids. I just— that's all I had to say. I didn't have anything prepared. Thank you.

Anyone else? Last call.

Well, thank you all for coming out tonight for citizens' comments, and thank you to our callers. We're going to take a 5 5-minute recess, and we will get into the agenda. Thanks again.

Okay, we are, um, back from a little break at the work session. Uh, we will go straight into Manager's comments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Assembly. Upcoming community events, the Crab Festival is on May 21st through 25th.

I attended a meeting, tour, and lunch today with the Arctic Care Distinguished Visitors Program. They had some pretty high-ranking people from the Air Force, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard here to learn about the innovative readiness training program that brings Arctic Care to Kodiak. Afterwards, we talked about potential future projects would fit into their construction mission. That's what extended the runway out in Old Harbor. So we talked about also looking at the Anton Larsen Road extension.

So that was an exciting potential project for the future. Yesterday I went to a KC HC expansion meeting with Mayor Griffin. If I didn't thank you then, thank you for coming, because I was the gray cloud that came into the room and said, I'm not sure about the ramifications applications for the Notice of Federal Interest yet. I have a request in with our legal team to give us more information about that to make sure we understand how that impacts our future ownership of the building. I heard back from her today.

She has a couple of people in her law office that have experience with NFIs, so she's going to get me something by next Wednesday. Last week I was at a board of directors meeting in Valdez for the Prince William Sound Regional Advisory Council. I got the chance to tour the Valdez Marine Terminal. There are 14 tanks there, each are 30— 52 feet tall and 250 foot across, so everyone is over an acre. And when they get 6 feet of snow, it takes a week to clear each individual tank.

It's pretty amazing to think about the size. Anyways, I got to observe oil spill cleanup training on the water. We got to go out on a boat and see that in action. And the author Tom Crestadina was there. If you've seen his Working Boat Illustrated books, he has done one for oil transportation, which was a project that I worked on, on a committee that I serve on the board, and I was also elected to the executive committee for the board.

Uh, in the packet tonight— or sorry, in the report tonight— we have our profit, nonprofit funding proposed schedule, our upcoming budget dates In Community Development, they had a planning and zoning work session last night. The commission provided feedback to staff on proposed future land use map designations for the new comprehensive plan, and they discussed a subdivision and rezone for the tsunami shelter in Uzinki. The commission will have a public hearing on those cases at their regular meeting next week on May 20th. Nothing has changed in Finance, still same tax foreclosure, and we are still continuing to enter and verify information in both our new and legacy Tax collection systems. In assessing, um, next week people in the city of Kodiak will start to get postcards.

The review section for this year is inside of the city of Kodiak, so you'll see assessing staff, uh, staying in the city this year. Assessing is working on liquor and marijuana research for the clerk's office for Wildflower, Nudiak, and Odum exemption appeals for the Alutiiq Heritage Foundation. The trial is scheduled this year for the '23 refund case on July 27th through 29th. That'll be something that we can attend virtually. And there is upcoming oral arguments for the '24 Board of Equalization decision.

And then Sima put in there some more information about the Tyler conversion as well. In information technology, the IT department has completed work on the TimeClock Plus hardware. That is our last thing that went out to the Baylor building. So after this pay period, we'll be going fully electronic. That required Starlink out at the landfill and, uh, just different equipment than we used to have out there.

But we're ready to go now. IT is working with Koniak Cyber. They have a consultant, um, who has been here this week to actually help, um, place the hardware and, um, explain where the cables are gonna be run. So that project is moving forward. If you walk by our IT office, there's literally a mountain of hardware, and we should start seeing that shrink over the next few weeks.

Our GIS analyst is back and working. He was on vacation for the last few weeks. He's back and working on requests for maps and posters. So sorry, Lands Committee, you're going to have to get real maps now instead of ones that I make 15 minutes before the meeting. In Engineering and Facilities, the Solid Waste Contract Committee met on the 28th.

We have that project in front of the borough attorney for review right now, and we'll schedule a new meeting as soon as that legal review is complete. The second elevator is working and ready to go at the hospital. We just are waiting for the state inspection. Our fuel spill assistance— that work has started at the long-term care center, and WFF is beginning to schedule work, and Three Tier Alaska is beginning to schedule trips out for Karluk. Um, we thought at the end of May or beginning in June for Karluk.

Our picnic tables have been removed and the contractor is working on replacements. We have an ITB issued for the Port Lions School painting project that will happen this summer. We did not get any bids on the UST removal over at the annex building, so we're going to reissue that ITB. The boiler gun replacements at Northstar is complete and we're awaiting closeout documents. Mill Bay— Mill Bay Beach stairs and picnic table replacement.

The contractor is mobilized and the project is underway. We're also looking to replace the citric acid skid at the leachate treatment plant. That has been ordered and we're waiting on arrival. And we are also working on the main building roof here. It has some warranty work to be done and we're waiting on a schedule from the contractor.

Uh, there's a list of contracts that are coming up that we're working on and where we're at on those. Um, and upcoming meetings— our next Health Facilities Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for May 26th. Tonight, attached to the packet, you will have the Alaska Waste Annual Report. You will have a Lutig Museum Archaeological and Historical Site Conditions Report, a flyer for the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority inviting you to an event that they're having, and meeting notes for from HDR, which is something Sima told me was requested at the meeting last week. There was something in the manager's section, and so I included the latest meeting notes from them in there.

And then because I— we moved this right to the front and we had so many public comments, I wanted to comment on Marion Owen. I got to spend a couple hours with her on Tuesday where she showed me the pictures and all the lessons learned of her trip She really did learn a lot, and I'm excited that she has applied to be on the Solid Waste Advisory Board. So you'll see that on the agenda for next week, and I think that's a really good fit. She introduced me to a lovely tea, and I did not want to leave her house. It was sunny, you could see the channel.

It was hard to come back to work that morning, but, um, Marion's gonna be a great addition to SWAB, and I'm very excited that she's interested in helping out. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Great. Um, any questions for Manager Williams? Pertaining to the report.

Okay, seeing none, we will move into our agenda items. Agenda Item A, we are going to have to postpone for another day.

They are not here. So we will move into the FY 2027 budget discussion. Here's how I want to start. I'll let Amy begin first, especially going over kind of the overview you gave us through email. I have a couple of things, and then I'm going to invite representatives from the school district to talk about their— talk about their ask, see if there are any questions from you, and then we'll start to kind open things up.

So, Amy, would you like to start us off? Sure thing. Last night I sent the assembly an email just to go over some of the budget assumptions that were made when we were developing the original Level 1 budget. We had the assumption that the school district would ask for the maximum amount of local contribution, and they did. The budget was built around that.

We made the assumption the state of Alaska will pay school bond debt at the 75% reimbursement level. While there has been a lot of discussion at the state level about funding major maintenance projects, there hasn't been a lot of discussion about funding school bond debt, so we've left that at 75%. I talked to our local experts and found out that our Sea Product Severance Tax would likely be down between 35 and 40% that projection has not changed. However, in our revenues, we had $465,000. That was based off of taking— I split the middle and took 37.5% off, and I took that off of our budget amount.

But as our actuals have come in, we can see that we've made a lot more than we were budgeting for. So Dora had his historical trends that went from 2007 to 2026. Using those historical trends, our forecast would be a little over $1.2 million. If we take $37,500 off that, that gives us a better revenue estimate at $4— sorry, $700,067. $767,000.

That's a lot of numbers in one paragraph. So I recommend that we move that revenue from $465,000 to $767,000 to better reflect what the actuals are for fiscal year '26, because the severance tax has come in a lot stronger than we expected. That's the only one that's really hard. Okay, um, in my budget I did not use interest from the facilities fund. The estimate for accrued interest for this year will be $1.7 million KIB Code allows for the use of 85% of that interest if we choose to use that interest.

There would be $1.45 million available for that. PERS contribution levels have not yet officially been increased. If they do go from 22 to 25%, that will be about $85,000 in additional expenses to the borough, which we could cover in a budget amendment later in the fiscal year if that comes to fruition. I met with you in executive session about union union negotiated salaries, and I'm not going to talk about amount, but I do plan on adding that later after negotiations are over and covering that in a budget amendment as well. And finally, in our budget, no funding was added to the renewal and replacement fund.

The projects office is planning on moving forward with a roof replacement for East Elementary, which is currently at 65% design, in the summer of 2027. So that will be at the very end of this upcoming fiscal year. And then this summer we're painting Port Lions. Next summer we're looking at painting, or depending on the condition of the siding, replacing the siding out in Old Harbor, and that would likely begin at the end of this fiscal year as well. We do have an MOA with the school district for just over $600,000 that will go towards the roof project at East Elementary.

Thank you. Funds will also need to be identified for the roof project at the Old Harbor projects. Some of that will probably hit fiscal year '27, and some of the work will be done in fiscal year '28. And then we have an upcoming major maintenance project for the community pool. However, there seems to be some consensus on using remaining COVID-era funds to cover the pool project when it's time, and those monies are inside of our general fund fund balance.

There's about $4.7 million from the— acronym is Lak'tfa, but I don't remember that local area tribe, something. Assemblymember Whiteside also mentioned that he was interested in hearing what the trade-offs were going to be if we fully funded one thing. How are we going to pay for the rest and what we could do and what we couldn't do with the available money?

We have the capability of funding everything at the levels that are presented, but in order to do so, that would cause a mill rate increase. But depending on policy decisions— I gave you a list of things that might need to happen— the interest from Fund 276, that's the facilities fund interest, the $1.45 million I just mentioned, raising the mill rate, not funding some of the stuff we regularly fund like nonprofits or the college, changes to the general fund budget as it has been presented, delaying large major maintenance projects, selling borough land, or using fund balances. And then there's MAPTR, and that's a whole different subject on the importance or value of fully funding that in this fiscal year to protect the tax that we would be able to collect in the next year. But again, that all depends on policy decisions. And so I, I do have an Excel spreadsheet that Dora has taught me how to use, although Ms. Moore is in the building, so if I need her, if we need to actually talk about mill rates, I would ask for a break so I could walk downstairs and talk to the master.

I've ruined her formulas several times and had to go back. I've learned to copy and make a new sheet now, but still, if we're going to actually have a mill rate discussion later, I'd like the chance to talk to her so that she can weigh in on that. Um, right now, as the budget stands, um, I would have us at around a 9.4 mil rate to fund everything that's in there currently. So, and we're currently at 8.91, just as a reference point. So that's what I know to get started with.

And as we make decisions, you'll see we'll be able to fill out those very blank ordinances for introduction later in the packet and have a better idea of what the mil rate would look like based on policy decisions that you guys want to make.

Clear? Okay. All right, thank you. Um, so to kind of help maybe guide our big wide discussion tonight, I have a couple of things I would like you to consider. Um, is that we've got like, you know, 4 or 5 kind of policy things to, uh, to talk about, um, tonight, uh, right?

Fully funding the school request, um Some of you are interested in reducing pressure on the mill rate. We need to protect borough operations and staff and, of course, avoid maintenance deferrals. And so I think— so our question tonight, I think, is whether or not— or whether the borough can responsibly kind of bridge this very difficult budget year with With, you know, with that keeping in mind, that pressure that we might be feeling on the mill rate without cutting, you know, staff capacity, without creating new maintenance liabilities, there seems to be some pathways forward, right? One is fully funding the school district because the budget is, you know, already kind of built around that assumption. That assumption turned out to be accurate.

Use, right, use that allowable facilities fund interest as kind of a first, or as kind of a pressure valve, right? This is using earnings, not principal.

And the pressure that we're feeling, right, it's state-created, it's federal policy-created with this cost of living, cost of expenses. Uh, uh, rev, uh, explosion that we've experienced this year. So, um, and I personally, I think that this is the kind of year where we look at interest income and how that we can make that, how we can make that work for taxpayers, um, right? Not spending down the corpus, but using what's the legally available earnings, um, to avoid forcing some very difficult, um, choices, um, onto the, uh, taxpayers, um, in one year.

And I'm coming to this from years of nonprofit budget experience. The government budget is much more similar to a nonprofit budget than to other kinds of budgets. So I know about what those triggers are to use interest income when you need to, and those triggers when to look at fund balance. This is a year that I, I, you know, I don't have a vote, but I'm comfortable with a limited one-time use of fund balance, but only after we first use allowable interest earnings and corrected revenue assumptions. Again, with the economic situation created by the state, federal policies that are out of control, I think that this is an appropriate use of kind of this bridge, bridge year for for us.

Um, and— but, right, I don't want to solve a school funding problem by creating a facilities problem, um, or a staffing problem, or deferred maintenance problem that is going to cost more later. So what I would like to see is whether there is a package here that, uh, that we can agree on that gives, right, each member something important. Some members want full school funding. Some want to reduce the pressure on the mill rate. Some want to make sure that borough operations and maintenance are not being cannibalized.

Those goals are in tension right now, but they are not necessarily mutually exclusive this year. So I, I think the way through is, is to treat FY27 as, as a bridge year. There's going to be new governor, there's going to be a new legislature.

Can we, can we avoid all-or-nothing choices over the next couple of weeks?

It's not a structural solution. The problem is with the structure that we've been given. And so Is it possible that we can think of this as a 1-year kind of bridge using one-time resources for a one-time uncertainty while we wait to see what the state does come back with next year? And then if the state does not change course, then we come back next year and then we have a really honest structural conversation with us and, and with the school board. So, so with that, uh I would like to, if they are comfortable, bring down representatives from the school district.

They said they would be available to answer questions. And just like we do with the service area budgets, I want to give them a couple of minutes to talk if they want to.

Thank you. I've asked Krista just to give you an overview since it's been since March 5th since we were all together of what our budget ask is and then how we got there.

Good evening. Is this still on? Yeah, okay. Good evening, everybody. So a few of you were not present at our joint work session, and you're not going to hear my 3-hour ramble on how to run through the foundation for— did you just say thank you?

How to run through the foundation formula, but I will start start with, um, yes, we are coming to you for the full ask, um, and that is an increase from last year. A few things— a bunch of people have already addressed it— a few items that have led us to where we are. Um, the staffing— we— steps and columns with how we— our staffing is a big one. Our staffing is 80— over 80% of our budget. That is not unusual for school districts.

We are not outside of the norm for that one. I understand that that is a lot to put towards staffing. However, with steps and columns every year going up through the negotiated agreements that we have, there is an increase both if you move to the right and if you move down. We have 4 different groups that we work with. We have our certificated, which is our teachers.

We have our administrators, which are our certificated administrators. We have our exempt group And we have our classified, which is our support staff and our aides. So each of those groups has a different salary schedule that they follow. And every year it is negotiated that there is a percentage increase on their salary schedule. Additionally, that is when you move down a step.

Additionally, if they get certifications, if they get additional education, there is a range that goes this way and that is a column. So between steps and columns alone, each year we're looking at about $1.5 million additional in salaries and benefits. Additionally, they have— we have returning stipends for those who come back. We have retention bonuses. We pay quite a bit in the insurance benefits.

We pay 97% for two of the groups and we pay 99% of the insurance for the other two. So we contribute heavily to our staff's benefits. Again, all of those, all of those costs are increasing drastically, and we, we're not shielded from that. Nobody is shielded from that in the state of Alaska. So that is a big reason for our increase despite our cut of roughly $2.7 million in positions and pay.

So additionally, we've— we're starting to exhaust our fund balance. We are on schedule this year to use— we have $5.8 is what we started out with this year in fund balance. We are using $3.1 million to balance the budget this year, which will take us down to $2.7 million, and we're using $1.8 million of our fund balance to balance next year's budget. And that is on the assumption with the full ask from the borough. That leaves us with less than $1 million in our fund balance.

We are also self-insured, so what that means is that if there is any additional any overages for our insurance, any high claimants, we pay for it ourselves. It is not covered by the plan, it is covered by the school district. So we do set aside money to cover ourselves for high claimants. The supplies, I mean, again, we've talked, we've— that's been discussed tonight. The shipping costs, the supplies, the inflation, these are all contributing factors to why we are coming to you guys for the full ask.

I don't know, I'm so sorry. Um, so that, that's just, that's where we are. Um, with our impact aid, we continue to see our impact aid dropping because our student enrollment declines. Um, again, I know that's been addressed, our enrollment decline. However, our teachers are not declining.

We still have to fill the classroom with the teachers and the staff and the aides. So yes, we are seeing enrollment go down, but we're not seeing the class sizes or the class— the number of classes offered go down. We are cutting programs, but that doesn't mean we are cutting classes. So we have that. But it is all— this is where we are with our budget.

Yeah, you want to chime in? Thanks. So we are actually reducing a few classes. We're— if you imagine when you see a decline in enrollment, it's not all at one grade level. So if we see a decline of 20 students, that might be across 13 grade levels or 14 because we also serve pre-K students.

And so we may not be seeing enough decline in one year. Year to drop a whole teacher at a grade level across the district. This year we are reducing, um, um, 2 grade level teachers that we know we can reduce due to the enrollment of the students that are matriculating up. And so we have— those reductions are included in our plan, but that's not always available, especially since last year we, we closed Northstar Elementary and we reconfigured. The reason why we were able to save so much money in that one school closure is because it allowed us to reconfigure so that all of the students this side of Mattson were consolidated into one school for the grade level, and we were able to see maximum savings because, for example, 2 years ago in one of our kindergarten or first grade classes at one school, you might have only had 10 students in a teacher's classroom, while at another school you would have seen 18.

Well, that's because it was dependent upon where they lived, because that's how our boundaries were. But because we consolidated when we closed Northstar and all of our kindergarten this side of Mattson came into one building, we were able then to consolidate and we were able to reduce kindergarten teachers, first grade teachers, second grade teachers, because we were all serving them under one building. Going into next year, we're able to reduce, I believe, a second grade teacher and a fourth grade teacher because we have hit that level that we're able to see more reductions. And so we— what we do is we roll up our students that are currently enrolled, and we look at those that we know are coming back. We— our secretaries hand-call parents and say, what are your plans for next year?

Are you coming back to our schools? So that we will know who's going to be in our— enrolled in our system. We also ask them to early enroll. And so using that is how we came up with the, the elementary school positions we could cut. Our secondary is a bit more difficult to explain because it's run on on opportunities for students and what our certifications are for teachers.

But we do have many teachers that are not just teaching one prep, meaning Algebra 1 or geometry. If they're a math teacher, some of them— most of them are teaching two preps and some of them are even teaching three preps, which means that they have to prepare lessons for three different courses taught every day. So secondary is a bit more difficult because it's not based on a grade level specific, but rather what you're certified in. But I would— so I wanted to clear that up. We are reducing as we can with our enrollment decline.

But as you see an enrollment decline across the board, it's across every grade level. And we can't say you've reduced, you know, 50 students. They're not all in first grade or second grade, so you can't reduce those until you see that optimum number at that grade level. It takes about 4 or 5 years, um, at the rate of decline we are to actually be able to see a grade level, uh, teacher, um, being able to take off the list. We still have to educate the students at those grade levels.

But we are here for any questions that you might have. Great, um, thank you. So, um, what I'll do first— I'm sorry, I'm a teacher, so I scaffold things. Um, so first, um, are there any questions, um, for Superintendent Micah and, and her team here that will help you make a decision, um, that will help clarify information? Let's just kind of, um, start there.

Any questions for them? And then we'll— geez— then we'll, then we'll open it up a little bit more. Um, Mr. Woods. Oh, okay, can we hear me?

Sweet. Uh, first and foremost, thank you guys for coming out and spending the time tonight. Uh, y'all had to walk in here knowing there was a far greater than zero chance about having to have some uncomfortable discussions, and that to me is an incredibly big integrity move. So, uh, I appreciate you all greatly for doing that. That said, and again, I'm not an educator, I've never worked in education.

Is there some— and as Miss, uh, Micah, or Dr. Micah, sorry, I bet previously stated, we all like to share wins at the joint work session. Is there a win I can point to that says trajectory is improving in some way, shape, or form? I would love to know about that because that helps me justify a whole lot of decisions a whole lot better.

I only have one copy, but this is in our board book, and if possible, I can walk it up to you and you can flip through it. But just so that you can see our trajectory, when we look at results, it used to be that we only looked at that year's data on those year's students, and so it didn't— it paints a colorful picture— red, yellow, green, blue. Okay, red well below, yellow below, and then green and blue at grade level and above grade level. And so one of the things that I tried to start doing is we know that as we have different grades of students and they matriculate through our system They come with different needs and they're coming in at different levels when they begin with us and at different levels of the school year when they go to the next grade level. But how are we doing with that same cohort of students from when they enter our system?

And so that is one of the ways that we're starting to— we have started to look at data. So when you first look at the first page, it's labeled what it is. So this is all of our K-3 reading data. BOY is beginning of year, MOY is end of year, and EOI— I mean, MOY is middle of year, EOI is end of the year. We assess our students in reading and math the first 2 weeks of school in either the last 2 weeks of winter break, before winter break, or the first 2 weeks when we get back depending upon what our schedule is like.

And then we assess them during the state assessment timeframe. In May— late April, early May. And so these results will also be reflected in our state official results that we will get in August, but they are based on these assessments that we just took, and we have that data. And so we're able to analyze it immediately instead of waiting for the state to give us our results in August or September. So when you look at this, you know, we've tried to break it apart.

These are our— this is our K-3 DIBELS, which is our reading assessment for our students, 3 years ago, last year, and then this year. Just from looking at it, the red is starting to go away and the blue and green is starting to grow. So what does that mean? This is, this is the entire district, right? What does that mean for our cohort of students?

And so that's what we've started breaking apart. So our kindergarten students that entered this year entered— 62% of our students at the beginning of the year were not reading as they should have been, or under— not reading, but understanding letters as they should have. Entering as, um, 5-year-olds. And that's based on national norm data. 62% Of our students on the first 2 weeks of school weren't where they should have been coming in.

But at the end of the year, we dropped that from 62% well below to only 24% well below. Is that good enough? No, we want all of our students proficient by the end of the year. But, you know, in 9 months' time, that's what we did with these kindergartners. That's amazing.

That's amazing. You want proof? That's proof. That is on the backs of every single one of our kindergartner teachers and every single one of our aides that is working with this these students day in and day out. As you move through the packet, um, we can't show you cohort data for kindergarten because this was their first year, but this year's first graders, I'm showing you their data in kindergarten when they entered.

This group of first graders when they entered were 61% well below. When they left us at the end of first grade, they were down to 20%. But we also went well above expectations. 28% Of our students are well above— performing above grade level expectations. So as you move through this packet, do we have areas of weakness?

Yes. Do we have areas that we need to still grow? Yes. But can I stand here as the superintendent of schools and say the data that we are presenting to our board is the best data that I'm able to present in the past 4 years I've been here, and I'm proud of it.

Is this where I wanted us to be? No, because I want all of our students to be in the proficient, the green, or the above. But am I proud of the growth that we've made? Yes, because when we're taking students that are well below, if we grew them 1 year, they would still be well below at the end of the year.

The fact that we moved them to another band, either below proficient, proficient, or advanced, that means that we actually invested more more than one year's growth in that child on a national norm. So every student that we were able to move from one of those color bands, either well below to below, or below to proficient, or proficient to advanced, that means that we actually— that child's growth was more than the nationally normed one-year growth in order to move up one of those proficiency bands. And of that, I'm proud of. So I can give this to you. It's also on our board book.

But when you want metrics, this is them. It's our end-of-the-year assessment data.

Thank you. Any follow-up, Mr. Woods? Yeah, you're welcome to come up. I won't bite, I promise. Thank you so much.

I guess my follow-up question is, yeah, just, I guess I have a question and interpretation of some of the state data. And I, again, not an educator. I look at the high school data and that terrifies me. Um, looking at the 20— again, this is just the state stuff that I can Google online quick. And again, I don't know how the data is collected.

I don't know what we're looking at there. 5.2% Of high school students showing as proficient in math.

Am I interpreting data incorrectly? Am I missing a factor? Can somebody please elaborate? I can elaborate on that. So the state of— thank you.

Back to— through the mayor. I don't know how the official way to do this is. It's a work session, so, you know. You know, when I talk to the state legislators, it's through the chair to the— but yeah, no, that's correct. You saw that correctly.

But also, are, um, the state only assesses freshmen, okay? And so on one day, and that's our end of the year data. And so, um, any number of factors feed into that. Are we proud of that? No.

But the data that you're going to see this year for our freshmen, and you'll also see that we are also self-assessing because we've chosen to do so and our school board asked us to. We are also assessing sophomores and juniors beginning this year, and that data is showing that we are growing them because we're looking at that cohort data. Lots of things factor into the assessment data, and I'm not going to try and play it off because, yes, that's where we scored last year, but I can say that's not where we're going to score this year because our data shows differently. Also, that same group of freshmen that are now sophomores, when you look at that data, you'll be proud to see that we have improved those. Um, it also, um, students don't have to take an assessment in Alaska, and their parents can opt out of it.

Um, we have many homeschool students whose parents choose not to assess the students, so they're not included in our data. And any of our students in our brick-and-mortar schools, which are our neighborhood schools like the high school, if their students choose— if their parents choose for them not to take the assessment, we can't give it to them. And so their data is not included in our data set. So when you look at the state data that they release, 100%— that's not 100% of our students. And, um, but we are committed to growing.

We have had a massive grant for the past 3 years that has infused millions of dollars into professional learning. We have a strategic plan. We work that strategic plan. It is, uh, the first priority of our strategic plan is teaching and learning in the areas of reading and math. And when we applied for the grant and were awarded it, that is what we focused on.

We focused on changing the instructional practices that happen inside of our classrooms on a daily basis because we knew that we needed to— the best way to impact our students' achievement was to change what was happening in the classroom with our teachers. And the best way to do that was to actually build their capacity and put more in their tool belt. And so we have focused on what we call the Common Vision for Learning, which is our instructional framework. And that has been our focus for the past 4 or 5 years. And so that and our reading changing to the science of reading at our elementary levels is what is really truly making an impact.

Today we met with all of our principals. And our elementary principals were like, just wait, middle school, they're almost there. You know, when you see our K-1, 2, 3 students coming through the system, our 4th grade students, those are the ones that we first teaching science of reading with. And they are moving up through our system and we are producing readers that are about to change the complete trajectory of this district. But we're not forgetting our high school.

We're working on it, which is how I can say, you know, unequivocally, we are making changes. Because when you look at the— this year's end-of-year results, you're able to see that.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Okay. Oh, Mr. Gardner. A couple things. The— I've heard a lot of, um, aggressively negative things from parents about the iPad situation, uh, and from my recollection, and there has been a lot of numbers thrown at me over the last couple of months, so excuse me if I'm a little off, but I believe there was $1.3 million allocated in this budget towards some sort of iPad situation. Can you extrapolate on that for me and educate me?

Yes, that is incorrect. There is no money for iPads in this budget. What it is, is the past 3 or 4 years we have been talking a technology refresh, but we have never funded it. So when we talk about technology refresh, we talk about end of life of our equipment. And so The equipment that we have, the iPads, the teacher computers that are in the district were bought the year before COVID So I believe in 2018 or 2019 timeframe.

And so as the superintendent, it's my responsibility to let the board know that we're at end of life and we've been at end of life on our devices for quite— for several years. That we have not spent any money doing a technology refresh since I've been here, and it's not included in this year's budget. Do I talk about it? Yes. Do I tell the board the options that they have?

Yes. Same as your manager tells you the options that you have for your different facilities. You know, I know that, that she was talking replacing elevators for many years before it was chosen to do so. I know that she's been talking about the East Elementary roof since I moved here, and so it's my responsibility as the superintendent to give the Board of Education the entire picture.

You're almost— you're at end of life. You're at end of life on your student devices if you choose To fund it, these are your options. You can fund only secondary, and this is what it's going to cost you. You can fund secondary and teachers, and this is what it's going to cost you. You can just fund teacher devices, and this is what it will cost you.

Or you could fund all devices, and this is what it will cost you. And so that is what people are seeing. But there— I don't think that people are truly listening to our board meetings. They're making assumptions. And so, but at the board meetings, I'm giving options because I have to.

It's the same when I talk about our maintenance projects. This is what we need to do.

This is what I think we need to do first, but that doesn't mean the rest of this doesn't go away, but this is what it costs. And so I can 100% tell you there is not a technology refresh in this FY27 budget. Um, that is not true. Um, okay, that's great to hear. Um, and this isn't necessarily coming from me, it's coming from a community.

I would love to give you an opportunity to defend, um, iPad usage in the classroom. Um, it's from—. Quick point of order, is this a question that's going to help you make a decision on this budget? I Okay. I can defend it because after we started hearing that at the board meeting a few board meetings ago, I personally, with the incoming superintendent, without anyone knowing, started to do walkthroughs.

I walked through the middle school and the high school with the new superintendent and went through all of those classrooms. It took us 2.5 hours and we saw iPad usage in 3 of those classrooms. Um, one was a special ed classroom where there was a student with an aide one-on-one, and they were working specifically on that student's IEP goals. Another one was another classroom where the students were getting ready to prepare a meal, and so they were looking up lemon bar recipes and deciding which recipe they wanted to use and what groceries they needed to, to buy in order to make X times that recipe. Um, and then there was one class in all of the classrooms where I saw iPads how I wouldn't have wanted them to be used.

But that's out of the entire high school and middle school over a 3-hour time frame. Um, about 2 weeks ago, our elementary director, secondary director, and one of our, um, professional learning consultants as part of our WITBAC grant. He was on island for a full week. They walked through, I think, 48 classrooms. And because I had asked them to, it wasn't part of the walkthrough for the grant, but I said, "Will you just note how many times you saw student iPad use?" It was very minimal, and we spent 5 days, they spent 5 days 5 days walking the classrooms across our district.

Do we have students, teachers, students and teachers sometimes not using iPads how we want them? Yes. Is it addressed by our principals? Yes. Do we teach better instructional practices?

Absolutely. Do we use technology? We do. In fact, with our reduction in staffing and our reduction in aides, we have had to rely on some technological platforms for reading interventions. And so, not 100%.

We still try and do it one-on-one, but we do have programs like Lexia, and where it is a reading intervention program. Part of it is on the computer, but part of it is face-to-face with the teacher, but it's the computer diagnostics of the kids that immediately feeds that teacher's one-on-one work with that student. And it's maybe about 10 minutes of the computer work, when you have a student, but it's written into their intervention plan that we meet with the parents on and they sign off on at those primary grade levels because that's a requirement of the READS Act and the state law is that the parents have to agree to the intervention plan that we're doing. And so are we using iPads? Yes.

Do they go home with the young kids? No, they're in the classroom. And very rarely— we're not really using them whole class. They're being mainly for intervention or what we call Tier 2 instruction, which is that intervention piece. And we use it specifically because the computer-adapted technology can meet the student where they are and can help us see the gains when the teacher is meeting one-on-one with another student.

And so, you know, people are going to feel different ways about technology. I control my kids' technology and he's 22 years old. But every night he plugs it in in my bedroom. He's not allowed to have it after 8:30 at night. So, you know, I believe strongly in technology and hands and I'm not one that's going to let it harm kids.

And so you're always gonna hear two sides of the coin, but I We have started taking better data on it. And in those walkthroughs, we're just not seeing the iPad usage that we're hearing. Now, are there one-offs? Yes, there's one-offs in every business.

I just have one very last question. And I'm just a lay mechanic looking for you to educate me, so I'm very much not being confrontational anyway. And again, I appreciate you guys being here as well. Um, one thing I just kind of struggle to wrap my head around, and I mean that, and I want you to educate me, is when we closed Northstar last year, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me that we have a budget increase ask even though we're down a school. And so I, no matter how many numbers I look at, I just can't get answer, that answer in my own head.

Yeah, and so we saw the savings that we needed to see at Northstar, but even so, seeing those savings, the board chose to utilize fund balance, which was our savings account. We used— we, we have set aside about 3 point— 3 point something million dollars out of the fund balance was our savings account. All of you have a savings account, I would hope. You have your monthly bills, your annual bills, you have your mortgage. Let's use your mortgage.

If you are— if you dip into your savings account monthly to pay for your mortgage, that means that you aren't able to pay for your mortgage out of what you are bringing in and you are dipping into your savings account, your personal savings account to pay your mortgage, what happens to your savings account over time? It goes away. But does your mortgage go away? It doesn't. You can cut, you can start reducing, you can downsize, different things, but you still have that mortgage to pay.

But if you are using your savings account to pay for that, at some point you run out of savings account, which is what, what is happening with the school district. We used over $3 million to balance this year's budget. That means that with the savings last year of closing Northstar, we could have, um, um, cut another $3 million to stay at zero.

We just didn't— it was an impossible task for us at that point. And then this year, with inflation going up, utilities going up, oil prices going up, everything is costing so much more.

So that's where we are. And that's how you come with us closing North Star last year. Us reducing 35 positions roughly and $2.7 million, I think, is what we ended with right now, and then still having increased costs because we have to make up that $3 million that we took out of savings because we have to be able to have that to pay next year's bills.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Thank you. I think with that, um, You can probably have a seat. I think, well, that will open it up for a broader conversation now. And so who wants to begin?

I think that's a— oh, Mr. Whiteside. I'm just going to take a small bite and I'll save the rest for a little bit later here. But just for clarity for the public, we received the Majority of the testimony or public comments we received tonight were related to one position on the list at the auditorium and supporting our local arts. I agree the local arts here are incredible. I have never bought a season pass to an arts council before until I lived here.

It is fantastic. I have spent way too much money at the auction, the fundraising auction. Probably after the bottle of champagne they put on your table. But, um, point being, joking aside, I think that that testimony from folks supporting that position was misdirected. I think someone said it very clearly during public comment today that the assembly's role is to prioritize the needs of the borough.

It's the Board of Education's role to prioritize the needs of the school district. So that position isn't under our purview whether we retain it or cut it. That's a decision that the school board makes, whether or not they want to keep or cut that position. So just wanted to make sure that was clear from the many people that took the time out of their day to come out and communicate that concern to us. But I'll pause there and collect my thoughts a little bit.

So I see Mr. Woods and Mr. Garner's hands up, but it's okay if I ask for others since you've already had a little bit of a bite. Mr. Smiley. I believe that the director for the auditorium position is on the cut list if they don't get the full ask, and that's why those people were saying that at this meeting.

Mr. Woods, and then I have Mr. Garner, and then Ms. Roberts.

Yeah, this is no small pie to take a bite of.

One thing that I've heard repeatedly is that we're proposing a funding cut to the school district. That's not necessarily what's being asked here. I mean, not give you— you're asking for a $1.6 million increase approximately. That's not a small chunk of change, and I have some serious concerns with what we stand to lose. Taking interest from our facilities fund, cool for now.

What happens later? Raising the mill rate, we have heard repeated public testimony at this body about how much our current property tax rate impacts businesses, uh, and homes and personal budgets. It's a difficult spot to be in. Believe Mr. Roar— Mr. Roar, please don't tell him I said that— uh, informed us— I'm just making it funny— uh, informed us that it costs him roughly a month's revenue every year just in property tax. Uh, not funding nonprofits for me is simply at this point not an option.

Uh, I appreciate the work the school board has done and is doing in moving forward and trying to better the position that we find ourselves in. That said, we still have high school students graduating unable to count back change. I have seen that as an actual problem I have personally encountered with recent high school graduates. That said, it's a really hard pot to be put in if we're proposing additional funding increases, cutting nonprofits such as something like KW RCC with the incredibly important advocacy that they provide. I'm understanding these are options available.

This is not flat pass we're taking, but these are something we have to contemplate. Um, I look at stuff like Kodiak Reentry where I have personally seen the impact in the people's lives. And not to say that good schools and funding schools wildlife isn't important by any means. I'm just saying these are real tangible considerations. Uh, places like KRA with fisheries enhancement, I have seen the revenue brought by some of these different programs and would potentially be up for discussion about whether they get funded or not.

Um, college CTE, as far as I can encounter them, they are taking great strides. So is cutting college funding a good option? I don't particularly think so.

Delaying major maintenance projects. We all have houses. How well does that work out for you financially? Never good. Selling borough land.

Absolutely great option. So totally support it. We should sell a whole bunch of lots, but our current infrastructure doesn't support it. We've got KEA coming close to capacity. Sewer and water is basically at capacity.

Using fund balance and waiting for better days. I can't think of an example through history that any example I'm aware of where waiting for better days has been an actual positive tangible experience. It certainly didn't work out for the Confederacy during the Civil War, waiting for Lincoln to not get reelected. I was watching a podcast, give me a break.

Those being said, education is important, but we're gonna have to paint in shades of bad here. In my opinion. Thank you. Mr. Gardner. Um, I think it's going to be a long one, folks, so strap in.

Um, I'm going to give my comments, uh, I'm going to parse them through the course of this discussion and try not to tackle, uh, so many subjects at once. I want to go back to what Mr. Whiteside said about the auditorium, and not exactly my idea, credit where it's due, but I think we should absorb that position into the borough itself, and that takes a little bit of chunk off of the piece of the pie there. And then, um, you know, we definitely want to support the arts. That's a community meeting space. It can't— no matter what, it doesn't go away.

We can't do that. Um, and, uh, my overarching thought that I want everyone to remember is for the last several generations, people in the state of Alaska have kicked the can down the road over and over and over. And we've all heard that phrase far too many times. The uncomfortable, unfortunate thing is that we are going to have to be the people that start picking up the can. And so we are going to have to find ways to make savings with one another and ways that we can interact and work better together.

Um, When I was at Swampsea back in March, I spoke with Lyman Hoffman, and his exact words were, "No help is coming. Tighten your belts." And the borough, the city, and the school district, we all need to work together to tighten our belts. There's just no way around it. I wish I could make more money, but I can't. Um, like I said, I'm going to parse my comments over a period of time so as not to overwhelm and control the floor.

So please, next. Thank you, Ms. Roberts. Thank you. Um, after listening to public testimony tonight, it's pretty obvious that the auditorium is a pretty huge concern of the public when it comes to funding the school district. Um, I emailed Amy during that and asked if it would be possible for the borough to assume assume that position under the borough instead of the district.

And that way it could provide some relief to the school district while ensuring that that service is still available to the entire community, because it's obviously important to everyone. Um, I also have lots of notes that I can just break up over the night, but my big thing is I really want to make sure we're being— we're bringing long-term sustainability to both school district and the borough as a whole. And with revenues trending downward and cost increasing, it's just really hard for me to see this being sustainable.

Thank you. Mr. Johnson. Thank you. I'll try to be brief because I don't know what we're discussing.

Um, we're— we've, we've all said our same points now 5 or 6 times. But we don't have any concrete proposals that we are debating. So absent that, it is kind of difficult to not just reiterate something I have said previously. I will do that a couple of times though here briefly. You know, we talked about that burdensome mill rate.

But the other— the counterpoint I have been trying to make here for the last year, year and a half Um, goes to property tax capitalization, what we talked about last week, and how, um, don't quote me on the numbers, but I believe the research shows for every percent you decrease property tax rate, you increase local home values by somewhere in the ballpark 1.9%. So about a 2-to-1 cut. Conversely, if you raise interest rates, every percent it's like a 0.9% decrease in in home values. So you can only really turn the spigot one way. We keep cranking down the rate, prices keep going up, at some point prices stagnate, and we have to look at raising the rate.

Well, we're not going to necessarily lower home values at the same rate that we saw them go up. So that's something to— I think this MAPTR thing and how it's absolved us from talking about the rate has— as my colleagues had kicked that can down the road for a number of years, and probably to our detriment. The other thing I think is worth addressing, you know, I share my fellow assembly members' feelings that what is done by the Care WCC is amazing work. What Kodiak Reentry does is phenomenal.

None of those are spelled out duties of the borough in Alaska statute. Funding education is, um, it's one of the only two, uh, obligations of the borough that I could find in Alaska statute. So if we don't have the funds, um, to pay the district what they've said, what our, our counterparts on the board who are also elected to their seats have, knowing our community, have looked at and said this is what we hope to get.

If we're saying that we don't have the revenue to do that, then I'll be saying we don't have the revenue to do any of the options, the optional spending, that is. The final point I wanted to kind of get to, again, in my now weekly reiteration of the same points, is that, um, we love to point at education and its failings as a reason why it shouldn't get more money. Um, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't think anyone has ever seen improvement to a system by spending less on it.

I also think, you know, the natural counterpoint then becomes Well, why are we just throwing money at it? And I think all of our administrators would, would tell you with tears in their eyes, we would love for you to try throwing money at it, because that's not what's been done. So I thought I'd compare and contrast a little bit to another large state bureaucracy, and that's the Department of Corrections. I had to thank a school board member who earlier used, I think, 2011 as his benchmark. I don't know why, I think it's because of the pencil chart, but that's the same year I use.

So I went back and looked at the Department of Corrections budget between 2011 and now. Their budget's up 54%. At the same time, state spending per student is up 14%. So back to some of those numbers cited earlier, if we just kept pace with the Department of Corrections, I don't think we'd be having this discussion. Yet our state is still 49th in recidivism, 50th in violent crimes, 50th in crimes against women.

That sounds like a failing system to me. I don't know why they get 40— 54% increase at the time our schools get a fraction.

Anyway, a lot of that's to say I don't know what else we're going to do besides make our points and counterpoints. I really hope we can get get to the part where we discuss what we are actually going to support. Thank you. Mr. Smiley.

I believe the school board asked the city to fund the director of the auditorium. I don't know how that stands with the city at this point, but the auditorium is a community function and is— deserves a lot of support. Just like the pool is a community function, and as Northstar is now being used not as a school but as a daycare facility, that should be something that's supported as a community function. And all three governments, the school board the school district, the city, and the borough should help support all of these. I think that they're— I mean, try to imagine Kodiak without the auditorium.

I think it's really idiotic to try to, to try to imagine that. It's so important to everyone, as is the pool. I mean, it's just a central function for families in this community. So I think that one of the things we should do in the future is try to formulate a three-way or two-way in the case of everything— two-way in the case of North Star, three-way in the case of the pool and the auditorium way of functioning together and supporting these facilities.

Thank you. Okay, I'm going to take a little, uh, stab, uh, and toss it over to Amy. So, um, to I think Mr. Johnson's point, we, we do have a proposal. Um, it's the ordinance FY 2027-01. Um, it's a balanced budget.

Um, expenditures don't ex— uh, don't exceed anticipated revenues. There are some planned use of fund balance in there. So I think that's that's the thing that we can manipulate or not manipulate. And if we don't manipulate it, then the manager's budget becomes the FY27 budget. So that's— that is our thing.

And let's just start there. Amy, you've heard some comments. Do you have anything to add before we—. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, well, just is there a general consensus in agreeing to increase the revenue for the seed products?

Such a good idea. It's more— it actually reflects what the actual numbers are for this year. Okay, that helps. That's the low-hanging fruit, but I just, um, I know I stumbled over introducing that, but I— that's $302,000 extra just right there in revenue news, which is a good step in the right direction. Thank you.

Mr. Whiteside. Thank you, and, um, I agree with Mr. Johnson and kind of cut into the chase here. We're running out of time. I will have to reiterate some of my talking points, but, um, thinking about everything in front of us, the school district has done a very good job, and the school board, of walking us through the process. I have been listening, streaming, attending every single meeting, every minute, every second.

So I know how you got there.

We have also received testimony from the public which touches on every bullet we have in front of us as far as the tradeoffs if we are to grant the full ask. So I am going to touch on them again quickly here. Taking interest in the facilities fund. Have one roof coming up. We have another roof we have to place— replace the North Star roof.

We have the siding project in Old Harbor. I visited Old Harbor my first year on the assembly. The first thing their maintenance specialist showed me was the siding, and how he showed me the condition of the siding without saying a word was he took his fingernail and he carved the siding out. Didn't— paint is not going to fix that. This is going to be a siding replacement project.

You can't paint over that kind of rot. If not, you're going to paint it again the next year and the next year and the next year. So we have large projects. We have a parking lot we haven't mentioned recently. We have a parking lot that needs to be replaced at East Elementary, I believe, is the one with the sinkhole problem.

That is going to be millions of dollars to fix that parking lot. We have a crumbling hospital facility that could be tens of millions, upwards of $100+ $1.2 million. These are coming. We have to think long term. I get really nervous when we hear people say just this year, next year we're going to have a new administration.

There's no guarantee that that's going to change anything because the state has a revenue problem. If more people who get elected think the same as the current administration, that changes nothing. So I think that's a very risky and bold assumption to make that if the next administration comes in, our problems are solved. I can't take that risk for our community. So I'm thinking long-term with this, and I'm thinking about it in a way that represents all of our community and all of the testimony we received and the incredible need from the school district.

So my proposal is going to be to grant an increase for my portion of the vote. I'm going to make a motion to grant an increase in school funding, but I can't support I would support the max for all the reasons I just mentioned. I would support an $800,000 increase from last fiscal year to this year, and that would be spreading the burden. So we, again, we share the benefits as a community, but we also have to share the burden. And this is where the tough times of picking up that can, we all share that burden.

And that's where I'm at. It's painful to do. I don't take any joy in doing this. Everyone here has lost sleep over this. Um, and so that's where I'm going to be at, um, an $800,000 increase over last year's ask for the school district funding.

Uh, thank you. Mr. Woods, uh, a couple things, and let me preface this with I am not going to any way, shape, or form recommend this number. Uh, what is the minimum mandatory requirement, like, distribution for the school district? Just over $6.8 million. Okay, um, obviously that's a ridiculous number.

Okay, but if we're talking about just doing the bare minimum, like, I, I think funding a women's shelter is probably just right about there as being equally as ridiculous. Um, a comparison was made between budgets going up. Absolutely, we all know stuff hurts on the state, across the state level, and I'm not just saying this because I happen to work for DOC. In my day job. DOC is the end of a very long chain of events where a lot of stuff has gone very sideways for a very long time and where you really don't get to pass off expenses any longer.

Um, that in mind, the state in general is just a— I think it's a pretty apt comparison for how bad we're all hurting, which is true. I love the notion of taking over the auditorium position. Personally love that.

As far as a number for me goes, anywhere between last year's funding and the number proposed by Mr. Whiteside would be acceptable to me.

Mr. Johnson, and then Mr. Ames. Thank you. So I think just the two points I'll make. The resolution we have is for the budget, so somebody's going to have to make make a motion to amend the budget.

And that then begs the question of what we do with that savings. We'll say, since the number's been used, $800,000, does that just go back into the general fund unobligated? Um, does that go to a taxpayer rebate, which would then tie the assembly's hands the following year? Um, because if my math is right, and there's a very good chance it isn't, um, That would amount to about $10 a month for the average Kodiak home payer. Not saying $10 a month doesn't add up, but for the cost of a Subway sandwich once a month, a cheap one at that, holding on to a mental health specialist, a Providence contractor, a school psychiatrist, a psychologist, a nurse, an auditorium director, pool director.

Those were the positions we were told are next on the list. So yeah, I'm willing to spend the $10 a month to not have to cut those. And since I'm not seeing any compelling funding needs inside the core missions of the borough for this year, I'm not able to support allocating the funds elsewhere. Mr. Ames. A couple of things.

Correct me if I'm wrong, it's my understanding that if we cut some money, it wouldn't just go back to the general— well, we could choose, but because we're taking interest money, it would probably come— go back, stay in that pile and we wouldn't take it. That's something we would have to discuss. Um, I am not in favor of raising taxes.

Taxes are a burden in this town, and we have people leaving, and we have to figure out how to give the citizens of this community reason to stay. And I have seen in the Southwest in a farming area where farming consolidated, monies went down, the solution was raise taxes. And as people moved out, they still wanted the same money but you had less people, they raised them again. And slowly but surely that pretty much killed the town. There were other things involved too.

That consolidation was part of the other things, but it's also what I see happening in the fishing industry. So therefore, I think it is a fairly good comparison. So taxes to me is not an option. I could see taking some of the money out of the interest pile. We have to be careful about that because we do have upcoming projects.

Doing it as a one-time, as stated, a bridge thing, um, I side with Mr. Whiteside that we have no idea what's coming, and calling things a one-time bridge thing is very dangerous because very often they turn into a permanent thing by default.

So we have to look at this very carefully, and I— but I am not against taking money out that's interest money.

We're going to have to figure out how to fund some of these projects because that fund is not big enough to pay the multimillion-dollar projects we've got coming, and whether we have to issue bonds to the citizens. How we do it, I don't know. But again, we are going to be picking that can up on some major projects the borough's got to do, and some hard decisions are going to have to be made in the nearby future.

There's not time to do it this year, but I would be interested in a school district, borough, city, figuring out a way to work better with the auditorium. Because in my mind, that whole thing is a bit strange the way it works right now. You have the Arts Council, you have the school person, money comes in, but that money goes— it's a confusing thing. And I could see separating that position from the school And then, of course, we'd have to talk about the school using it and how that fits in. But tying that directly to the school budget and only the school budget, I just think it's an odd way to do things.

Thank you. Thanks. So, um, I'm— one thing I'm hearing quite a bit of consensus on, and correct me if I'm wrong, is to ask the manager to open up those conversations with the school district about the auditorium position. I will, you know, one big caveat with that is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, there is not a separate line item for auditorium maintenance and R&R. So taking on this position might also carry— take the burden of maintenance and R&R.

With that. Um, so maybe those are conversations to have, and if the assembly is willing to take on, um, that routine outside. But, um, so am I— am I— first, am I hearing that consensus? Okay, uh, good direction to the manager to open up those discussions with, with the school board. I saw Mr. Ames.

I'm seeing a thumbs up, and then Mr. Whiteside. Oh, question. Oh, okay. And the city, school district and the city.

I'm not so sure about that one.

I saw Mr. Ames' hand, or is that just a— Well, I was talking about the director's position. Maintenance and all that will have to be worked into it, yes. Do I see that happening between now and when this budget happens? No way. So we're going to have to come to a consensus for this year.

That would be something for the future. There's just no way there's enough time to work that out properly this year. Mr. Weisheit. Yeah, I think that's veering us quite a bit off topic.

And my quick thoughts on that are you're just shifting cost burden. The, the revenue source is the same. It's taxpayer dollars paying for the position, whether you funnel it through the school district or the borough pays for it. It's still— you still have to fund that position. So I don't see the immediate benefit of shifting the position from one entity to another.

It still has to be funded. But again, I think this is veering us way off topic. For our agenda item here. I do agree with that, but there was some organic consensus and so I wanted to make sure that we address it and that I don't ignore it. Manager Williams, did your hand go up?

No, sir. Oh, okay. Okay.

Okay. So how are we feeling about this then? We do want to open up those conversations, but we don't want to force it. Force this into our FY27 budget discussions.

Okay. I'm seeing thumbs up with that.

Okay. Any further discussion on the budget before moving on? Mr. Weisheit. Yes. So I just want to take little bites because I don't want to monopolize our time here.

So with my likely motion to amend the budget, the goal would be to preserve nonprofit funding and to preserve some of the interest that we can for future large capital projects.

And with that, hopefully a moderate— I think that— I don't think there's many, if any, scenarios where we can realistically reduce the mill rate this time around, given what we're talking about, unless someone proposes a much larger cut to the budget. Um, that's not going to add up. So if that's what someone intends to do, you're going to have to come in way hotter than I did. Um, because that's the reality. Um, I don't want to raise taxes either.

That is the number one reason out of several I ran for this seat as well. Um, but the reality is, again, Again, we're going to have to spread the burden a little bit, but my goal by what I'm proposing is to spread the burden in small increments for everyone to be able to digest versus one entity just getting hammered, the other one getting everything they need, or someone getting nothing. So that's what I'm going for here is kind of spreading the— just to put it bluntly, spreading the pain to where everyone has to just absorb absorb a little bit of it. I don't think we can preserve all of the interest. I don't think we can reduce the mill rate.

I don't think we can fully fund the school without affecting our nonprofit funding, college funding. I am— I do not want to touch funding or defer maintenance or large capital projects. That's only going to cost us more later. We keep talking about inflation constantly. That's not going away.

These large capital projects, the longer we wait, the more expensive they are going to be and it is going to create more pain later. So those are my thoughts on that. That is what I would like to see those reductions go towards preserving. Thank you. Mr. Woods.

I am going to echo some of Mr. Wiese's comments but add another one as far as concerns for upcoming costs relating to our capital projects. I think it's— we have less than 30 days left before Mattson adds a 30% fuel charge. So our cost of materials getting here is going to go up even higher. Um, that is real, that's tangible, and that's now. And I see Cody nodding his head, which makes me feel a lot better about not being an idiot.

Uh, thank you, Cody. Uh, that said, that's not unique to us either. We're still— everybody's hurting from that. Um, yeah, I— it's not going to be particularly good for anybody this go-around. I don't see it getting particularly good for anybody for the foreseeable future.

Um, but I tend to agree that further deferring maintenance costs— and let's be real, have we ever seen a fuel charge go away from shipping costs? I, I can't recall a time I have it, or just general freight rates. It cost me lots of money. Uh, these tend— these one-time increases very much tend to be permanent time increases. I have serious reservations about what happens when we hit that 100% funding cap, if that becomes the expectation eventually.

Um, that is a serious concern of mine. I, I'm unaware of example— like notable examples, at least in my life, when I've seen that stop happening after it's once— that bell's once been rung. So thank you. Mr. Johnson. Thanks, Chad.

But, but to that point, this borough consistently funded to the cap as recently as 15 years ago. Like, that I don't see as like this mythical cap being something that is a new idea. It's only been the last 10 years that the Assembly has, has been reluctant to fund to the cap. There are no rich school districts in Alaska. Like, we have, I believe, the only state in the union that funds its education the way we do, and it means that nobody can overfund their schools.

It's why a number of districts throughout the state have ended up in court with DEED because of funding things like pupil transportation outside outside of their borough direct contribution. So again, like, I'm a big fan of benchmarking, and when we benchmark what other communities are doing in the state of Alaska as it pertains to funding their education, we're not meeting the mark. It's a shame, and I realize I'm in the minority in that view, but I'll continue expressing it. So thank you. Okay, so, so next week we will be voting on the resolution for school district funding.

So please make sure you come with amendments if you, if you want. And then we'll be introducing the FY27 ordinance for introduction. So, Yes, please come with, uh, amendments, um, and, uh, we'll go from there. Um, Manager Williams, anything before we move on to our second agenda item?

No, but just as a foreshadowing of what I'm going to ask you when we get to that ordinance, I'm going to need a policy decision on using interest. You're going to see the ordinances tonight are just a bunch of X's because the roll wasn't certified before. This information had to go packet. The roll was certified on Monday, so when we— when you see an update to that, you'll see all those numbers fill in. But when we're talking next week about that ordinance, and if you want to start talking about mill rates, we don't have to because it's just an ordinance for introduction, but I really don't like leaving it until the last night.

We'll need to think about whether or not we want to include that interest or how much of that interest into the budget at some point.

Okay, thank you. So we're going to take a 5-minute break. Thank you again for joining us. Yes, Mr. Mayor, if I may also remind the assembly, if you're going to propose amendments and you know ahead of time what those amendments are, if you can have them written down so that we're not lost during the process.

I would appreciate also if you can email them to me ahead of time, that would be great.

But if you can't, that's okay too. We'll manage it during the meeting. Thank you. Okay, uh, 5-minute break and we'll be back with Lance. Thanks everyone.

Thanks, John. Where is this exactly?

I know I'm— there. You know what I tried to do with this earlier? I went like this. Um, hold on, is there a— there's not a link to the GIS, is there? Oh.

Okay. The mic is on now. So work session is back in session.

Next up is an Assembly review of parcels and recommendations to the Coney Island Borough Lands Committee. And this is Mr. Whitesides.

OK. So I will try to be brief here. I know that we are going to potentially spend some time discussing this. So the Lands Committee met and just to reiterate what the suggestion was, was to have the Assembly package up a group of parcels that we are interested in the Lands Committee reviewing because concern from the Committee was they spend time including forwarding parcels to P&Z, which also costs, you know, takes time from that body. And then it reaches the Assembly, and the Assembly has no interest in disposing of that parcel.

So what the Lands Committee would like to see from us is us to package up candidates for disposal to then send down to the Lands Committee to review and then rank in priority using the matrix that Mayor Griffin developed for us to send it back to us, and then that is how we should prioritize disposal based on that process. So I think where we are at now is considering we have kind of a blank slate. What parcels do we want to package up for the Lands Committee to consider? We don't have to identify them all now. We are going to meet monthly with the Lands Committee.

So if you have some that jump out to you now, I have one in mind I will bring up here shortly, but we can discuss those. And then just think about it. It's not a commitment that there's a guarantee if we suggest a parcel that that's something the Lands Committee is going to be on board with or that the Assembly, once we get it back to us after fully understanding what development is going to look like, how zoning is going to look like, comes back up here, it doesn't mean it's a— once it leaves us to the Lands Committee that that's happening. So I wanted to make that clear for the public as well, that if we want to look into a parcel, that doesn't mean that it is a done deal, that we are going to dispose of that and put it up for auction. We are just expanding the process.

So that's where we are at now, unless I misunderstood or mischaracterized that, Mr. Johnson or Mayor Griffin. We have open blank slate for suggestions for parcels for disposal. Yeah, I don't think that— I think the Lands Committee just is just really wanting direction from the Assembly absent a strategic plan or a comprehensive land development plan. And so this is, I think, to satisfy the Lands Committee's hunger to release more land or at least start to look at land that we can— that might be viable later on.

And there was one more thing. And, oh, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Weisheit, I think we do want to focus, at least for today, land that is in the— can I say in the urban area of Kodiak? I don't think we want to begin— or we want to begin with lands, you know, out the road. City Center land kind of close by. So again, yeah, like Mr. Weisheit said, just recommendations so that we can work with staff to prepare memos for the Lands Committee to look at and deliberate on.

So I have Mr. Gardner first and then Mr. Woods. Mr. Weisheit, can you just help me before I start speaking so I don't get off topic? And I just can't read.

On this little guy. Can you tell me what road this is?

We've talked about— oh, Island Lake, going around Island Lake or Beaver Lake.

Okay, um, then, uh, yeah, so to be clear, I'm, um, well, you might be looking at another agenda item. This was for I believe here it is right here.

We're on— we're only on, uh, we're on C now. We're not on— yeah, this is for D. That's for that. That's it right there. I like that parcel. Um, I, I spoke before, I'm not sure how many meetings ago.

Um, if there's one thing I hate as a citizen hearing from government It's the word survey or study. And there's one that was done quite some time ago. It's the Manaska Bay Comprehensive Plan, I think it's called. I have a hard copy of it. And I think personally I'd really like to see us go back and look at the studies that we already did and do some action on them.

Our forebears thought that that was the logical evolution of residential housing in Kodiak was to move out that way. The only real arguments I've heard about it has been, you know, water and sewer. I don't understand why we can't get back to being Alaskans and build our septics and drill our wells. And I'd like to see some of that property come up. And I love the direction that we were taking with the sort of homestead situation and trying to get these as primary residences and things.

So I'd like to see that continue. But that's all I got for you. Mr. Woods.

Just to clarify, are we talking about the parcels actually in the resolution discussion or are we talking in general? This is general. Okay, super. This is to provide the Lands Committee direction. Okay, super cool.

So I'm trying to make sure I got this right. I've been interested in a while in seeing the logistics of what it would actually take to develop that chunk of property that the borough owns that is currently the Russian Ridge Trail system, uh, across from from our landfill and just due to the fact that there already is an existing basically gravel roadbed in some sections of that.

Mr. Ames. I don't have any direct parcels. The comment we had tonight, I do think we need to keep in mind. Recreation areas for the general public and for the people living in that neighborhood. And so therefore, if we do cut off parcels that go up to a lake or stream, I think we should have a buffer zone of so many feet so that access to those is still available to the general public.

And that is something I would like to see the Lands Committee keep in mind. Thank you. Well, I think that that decision actually is a— that would be an Assembly decision. Yeah. Bo, did you have— you had your hand up?

Let me—. I think Bo's was up first. Okay. I have a lot of interest in— let me scroll back up— parcel number 23766, also known as Kolarny Hills or also aka the Cannonball Field. My understanding is that this was placed on a 1-year loan well over a decade ago, according to a previous Assemblymember.

It's great that it's being used. However, looking at— excuse me— looking at this large parcel here, it is flat. It is right in the middle of town. It is next to schools. It's next to medical facilities.

So when I think about workforce housing needs, this parcel is top of my list. It's 16.389 acres. There are roads surrounding it, tapping into it. Seems— I'm by no means a surveyor or a property developer, but you have access on all sides of this property. How utilities have to be very close nearby to tap into.

I guess it would be a discussion with the city whether or not the additional load on our water and sewer systems would be feasible. But this lot to me seems if we're going to get the most value out of our very limited funding for development, and I did some squinty-eyed estimates at this lot based on the lots that are adjacent to this parcel, I would imagine you could fit 30 to 40 homes on this one parcel alone with minimal development needs. So, um, could be naive in saying that, but that's where I would put my focus.

Uh, 3 things. Um, I know a plethora of people that are going to just lose their minds if we even use the phrase Russian Ridge and talk about housing. I don't even want to go down that rabbit hole. Mr. Ames, as far as Mrs. Kitka and her comments earlier, I'm 99% sure she is talking about other parcels we were looking at that were around the Beaver Lake area. She's my neighbor.

She really doesn't want that area done. There's some good reasons why. I don't agree with her on all the points, but, you know, I wouldn't mind seeing some of that come forward. But there was a lot of studies done already to I say why we shouldn't. And then if we're talking about Caniff Field, I kind of like that, but is there a way we can preserve the field and put the houses around it?

I think you're gonna think that's maybe a slightly easier way to get that past the public and make that more attractive and preserve the green space. There's a lot of, you know, houses by the— put the houses by the roads, you know, be my idea, maybe.

Mr. Woods, a couple parcels that jump out to mind, and I understand the concern was the Russian Ridge system, um, that, that area is incredibly torn up by ATV traffic. It's, it's, it's in relatively rough shape, but it is a large amount of property, relatively easily accessible. Um, other properties that I, I would like to see at least investigated are 21582, 21582 51, 52, and 20752.

Two of them are over by the Sheraton Cut-Off. The other one takes advantage of that previously discussed partial gravel roadbed over there by Russian Ridge.

Oh, look at us.

So Intersection Sheridan and Rezanov. You can type in the parcel number. What's the parcel number?

21582. 21582. Yep. Christian school is across. It's right next to the Christian school.

It's largely residential already. It's like 3.5 acres.

Yeah. And then the adjoining parcel to the left is another one that's— yeah, 215 1, 2, I believe is 2926. Yeah, did I get that wrong? I might have.

Good. Uh, I get 21512.

21512? Yes, ma'am.

That again, it's just adjacent, so it ends up being like almost 5 acres total. Not a lot and not ideal, certainly with the second parcel, but that first one is relatively, I think, feasible. It's not crazy to build on. Obviously road access is right there, at least from 30,000-foot view. Mr.—.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you have more? Mr. Ames. Well, saying as your original statement was looking for direction. I think that, um, assembly members that have ideas should send them to the Lands Committee, and then the Lands Committee should come up with a list of proposals that they think is appropriate, and we can go from there. Um, we all have some ideas.

Somebody needs to consolidate it. And in my opinion, that's the job of the Lands Committee. And so from what you originally asked for direction, I think we ought to just give proposals, and then the Lands Committee's job is to come back with either a list or a proposal plan. And then, yeah, go from there. But I do You know, again, we talked about the Cana Field briefly and Jeremiah brought up leaving the field.

I think an important part of developing neighborhoods is having open space and parks. That's what makes houses attractive is that they can let their kids go out the back door and play. And so any larger parcel besides a single— one or single residence or duplex, I think should be— that should be taken into consideration. I mean, granted, they're very teeny, but even the low-income apartments put up little things for them to play on and on, share a teen and stuff. And so I believe that should be taken into the picture, some space for kids.

Thank you.

I have Mr. Smiley and then Mr. White. Sorry. Mr. Jones. I was on the previous edition of the Lands Committee and we looked at the Kalani Hills plot, but there were several things wrong. First was the water and sewer was problematic there.

They are pretty much at capacity or over capacity already, which would also affect the Sheraton Loop one. And the other part is there is a water feature in that Killarney Hills plot that is problematic.

Mr. Weisheit. Thanks. So I— to Mr. Ames, I believe what you are asking for is what we are doing now is providing ideas or suggestions for parcels for the Lands Committee to consider.

I don't know how far we should go down in debating individual parcels now, so I'm going to reserve my, I guess, rebuttal for suggestions for Killarney Hills for the time being. But without knowing the limitations for development, I'm still going to want to push it forward.

Ms. Williams. Thank you. Um, it seems to me a little bit confusing that the Lands Committee would say, hey, Assembly, tell us what to do, when the Lands Committee is supposed to be telling the Assembly what to do. And so I think what really needs to get done is just an Assembly policy decision on— we're looking for workforce development housing, right? Like, that's the priority.

We want mid-level income housing. And so we need to kind of draw a circle of the land areas that we want to look at. If we want to include the Flats, we need to tell them to include the Flats. If we don't want to include the Flats, then we take that off the table. We don't want Chiniak right now, right?

Because that doesn't really help with workforce development unless you are working at the rocket launch or at Friends by the Ocean at the moment, right? So, um, I think that what the Lands Committee need is just a little bit of direction on where to focus on, and that's probably enough. And then all of those properties will just come up if you say, please look at borough land that's in this designated area. Because I think that's what the Lands Committee's charter is, is to identify lands and bring the proposal to the Assembly. So it feels like we're a little bit backwards.

And I understand their frustration, and I was at that meeting where they were like, well, we don't want to go through all this work and then get it to the Assembly. And they're like, no. But that's kind of what the Lands Committee's job is. And I think if we just gave direction to focus on a certain area and with the purpose of this. And then I'd also like the Lands Committee and Amy's Dreamworld to look at what some of the other communities are doing in creating neighborhood districts, which create a higher density requirement for land.

So it's just not single-family housing. It's if you— for every half acre, you have to have this many residents and like require a developer to create higher density housing. That's how we're going to get on top of our housing crisis, not more single-family homes. So I think that, that those discussions would be great at the Lands Committee instead of the Assembly breaking down individual parcels. But if you want the Lands Committee to do something else, then I think we need to kind of re-tell them what their purpose is at this point, because it's kind of pointing back and forth on who should pick what.

So To that, so the Burroughs Lands Committee, their first charge is to assist in identifying creative, blah, blah, blah, you know, property, real property and resources. So, and I think this is them asking for assistance on how they can assist is kind of how I— and so I like the idea of keeping it broad and let them decide which parcels, I think that's fine. I think we actually have enough here to give them direction that will keep the Committee busy for quite a long time.

So, I mean, I'm satisfied at this point, but Mr. Woods and then Mr. Whiteside.

Just to clarify, the first parcel I was referencing is 19606. 6, Just for the sake of everybody being on the same page. It is a little funny to me, and I'm not really digging at anybody, but it is a little funny to me that we're assisting our assistants to assist us.

The wordplay aside, at that point, we— it feels like we could probably streamline the process by which this comes about. I don't know if it needs to be a change in charge or change in language. But if we're going through that process, that's probably something that we could streamline. So again, what they're asking for is direction. You know, they don't have any direction.

There's no strategic plan. There's no Lands Plan. So this is what we are doing, if I'm— you know, is giving them the direction, the strategic direction that we don't have that they are asking for so that their time is spent efficiently on this. So, Mr. Weisinger. Thanks.

I agree the process seems odd to me until I really thought about it. And I think the Mayor really nailed it there in that we are— I know nothing about land development. All I know is what testimony and opinions and suggestions I have received from the community. Based on that information I received from the community, I have identified a parcel that I think would fit those needs very well without understanding what that looks like from a surveying standpoint, from an infrastructure standpoint, and cost. I do not know that.

The Lands Committee was appointed specifically based on their expertise, so we have folks on the Lands committee who can lend their expertise to help me overcome my ignorance when it comes— so when I send that down, they can package this up, lend their expertise. Then if it— we go through P&Z, then it gets another level of scrutiny. So I think that's where the direction comes in, and that we provide suggestions acknowledging most of us don't know what we're talking about. I'm only running with what the community has asked That's what I'm doing my best to just— we're adding a list of suggestions, sending it down to people who have more knowledge than we do to take that list and say, hey, this is what I think is more feasible, rank those for us. That way they aren't wasting their time, I think, is the goal here.

I don't think we're going to make immediate progress if we punt this back down to the Lands Committee and say, well, stay within urban areas and then hit go on that. I think that is the frustration they have experienced in the past years is they are not getting enough specific direction, and this is what we can help with, acknowledging it is flawed. This is not a perfect process by any means, but we have to start somewhere. Ms. Rames. I have a question.

First one is kind of directed at Amy and Chris. If the Lands Committee, say, comes up with a list of 8 parcels, can someone check with the city and stuff to see the possibility of proper sewage, water, or is that— it's not really developable due to they're already at their limits without doing infrastructure, and then that can go back to the Lands Committee This is good, this is good, this one, sorry, but there are infrastructure problems and list that. Because, I mean, I don't think that's really the assembly member's job and the Lands Committee, I don't think, has the expertise per se. So I'm just asking whether that's something you could do. I'm going to have Chris correct me, but I believe we've already talked to Public Works and they claimed there were no areas that we could not develop.

Is that right? I mean, within the reason that there may be needs to— need to extend sewer or water lines. But, yeah, in terms of capacity, they did not tell us that there was a capacity issue. They said there may be issues site by site in terms of where sewer and water lines need to go and also could be needs to look at lift station issues, too.

I mean— But in general—. Outside of the capacity of the sewage treatment plant, they did not give me any indication that there was an issue with capacity there. But there are capacity issues with potential lift stations and more importantly, not having water and sewer lines available to some properties, so there might need for extension might be required. Yes. And when you say lift stations, you are talking about— Are you talking about lift stations specific to that property or if it dumped into— I'll just pick a number— Lift Station 4?

Yeah. At its capacity. So Lift Station 5 is the one that we recently had the rezone on and has been replaced and that one does cover a large percentage of the sewage within the city. But there are, for example, McLarney Hills, I think some of the issues I've heard there is there's the need to extend some lines. And there may be issues with the lift station that's specific to that particular site in terms of how that is functioning.

So there are some things there that— but we could check if we had a specific property in mind that the Lands Committee would want to have additional information. You know, we don't have any problem with contacting City Public Works and following up with them on that, on a specific property. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that was my question, that if they have a specific thing.

I mean, we know 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 should be fine because they've all been replaced in the last few years. Um, 1 and 2 are basically just downtown, so that is out of our picture. Um, but yeah, just to make sure that if we tap— of course we're going to have to run some lines from the road into whatever property, but whatever that jumps into check its capacity, and that way the Lands Committee would have a better idea. But first we have to come up with a list, and it's still going to stand by— assembly members send the Lands Committee lots they think are appropriate, let the Lands Committee toss around the pluses and minuses of that, and then they can kick them up to check to see whether it's possible, and if it's possible, then we can proceed. Yeah, and I think the other thing with Lands Committee is that the recommendations with what type of development are we talking about?

Are we talking about multifamily development? Are we talking about single-family duplexes, triplex situations? In terms of— that's going to be a question the City is going to give us, you know, what's the density level we are talking about for this particular property? Correct. Okay.

So we are getting off track on the original agenda item. Mr. Gardner, I see your hand is—.

That's okay. I'll just talk to both. Never mind. Okay. All right.

So the list that I see as it kind of stands now is 2376, the Killarney Hills area, the area at Sheraton and Rezinoff, those parcels there.

And let's start there. And we'll start preparing memos. Thanks, everyone. I did have one comment. Oh, Mr. Gardner.

I do think that Killarney Hills is an awesome spot to put some stuff, but I like the idea of like medium density there. It seems smart, but I definitely think we're going to get a lot of backlash if we don't preserve preserve that green space in a thoughtful and intelligent way where it is useful for the entire community and doesn't seem like it's a blocked-off zone for just those apartments or townhomes or whatever they end up being. So that's my personal opinion. Okay, uh, Ms. Whiteside satisfied? Okay.

All right, uh, next item, review of Resolution Number FY 2026-16, a resolution of the Assembly of the Credit Columbia authorizing land sale of a portion of U.S.S. 3465 Lot 1A-4 and establishing terms and conditions. Madam Manager. Thank you. Our Community Development Director, Mr. French, is here to walk us through this.

And then to help, because when I looked at the packet, I couldn't follow what the changes were, in front of you, you'll see this piece of paper that says 4.3D on it, and that's just the— what's changed. This came back from the lawyer, so I think the redlined version is easier to follow. Yes. Thank you. Well, and thank you to Chris for finding it for me.

It had been long enough that it had been at the legal team that I didn't remember, and so there is the changes in that version, and I will let Chris take over. Okay. Thank you. So on this one, let me just say that Really the two major change— I mean, there's some minor things that they found in here, but in terms of Section 1 of the resolution, uh, explanation, a little further explanation of what the manager's authorized to do in terms of the next steps on the property. I did clean that up a little bit because they just said initiate like sale of the property.

I wanted to make sure it was clear that we're talking about 4 lots, not the entire property, because as Assemblymember Ames was saying, we're talking about preserving a green space portion here and only developing 4 lots. And so I wanted to make that clear in that Section 1 discussion that they provided in terms of what the manager is authorized to do. And then the next major— and I wouldn't— I'm saying major in quotes because it's not— I don't see it as a really big change, but in Section— I believe that was in Section 2. Oh, actually, it's still in Section— still in— yeah, it is in Section 2. 2 Regarding the discussion of— well, it's not even really even a big change.

It's just identifying the 36 months regarding the construction time period. There really wasn't a big issue there. Oh, Section 3? Sorry, is Section 3—. He's talking about line 93?

Correct. Yes. Sorry. Thank you. And it's not really a big change.

It's just a minor— fixes they have in here. And the only other thing that the attorney kind of communicated to me was when we get to the point of trying to implement these particular pieces, we will have to go back to the attorney about how we do that in a deed or in a purchase agreement or whatever that looks like. We'll have to identify that in terms of implementation, the tool that implements those.

But in terms of major changes, there wasn't a lot of major changes in the resolution as it was presented to them. And the attorney provided no feedback or concerns about the residency covenant? Did not—. Did not hear anything from them about that other than they knew— they knew to tell me that we were we are going to have some— how we implement that would be important. So we would have to go back to them in terms of implementation of that as part of the actual sale process.

Okay. Assembly discussion. Oh, yes. NOVA was able to find our older legal opinion on why some of that stuff didn't pass. Did that get sent out to everybody?

So there is some conflicting opinions between our— the counsel we had then and the counsel that we have now around that. So I don't know what the solution to that is. I just want to point out that some of the concerns, you know, Mr. Rohr came in and said, hey, we tried this and we were told we couldn't do it. And then Nova found that legal decision, and then it didn't come up this time. So I think I think that is something that would be smart just to double-check just to make sure that we are identifying any possible pitfalls before we move forward with that.

Any discussion? Mr. Bowe with a little tiny index finger.

Give folks a chance there. Two things I'm curious about. Previous— as I understand it, previous auctioned land folks did the 10-10-10 approach, 10% down, 10% interest, 10 years to pay off. We have offered that previously, yes. We have someone who's just about to pay that off this year.

Okay. So we have here lines— Section 2, lines 70 and 71. 71, 72 On page 2, the successful bidder shall pay the balance of the purchase price within 30 days of notice of award. I would like to, I guess, entertain extending that substantially to broaden our bidding pool, and, and that way more folks— because I don't know how many people are sitting on whatever the fair market value for each of these lots is. I don't know very many people that are sitting on that kind of capital right now.

So if we extend the period— I mean, they have to have a deposit. There's no getting around that. But extend the period for paying that lot off, I think, would give folks more opportunity or give us, you know, provide opportunity to more residents or citizens and then just give them a little breathing room to get that paid off.

And the other one, while I have it, I'll just hog it up here, lines 150 and 151. 41, Page 4.

Property shall be exempt from property taxation for a period of 5 years from the date of closing. I, I'm curious if we should entertain, or when the certificate of occupancy is issued, whichever comes first, and if that's something that would pass muster with legal. But I view it as if the house is complete and they're moving in, I think that's a reasonable time for them to start paying their property taxes. So they build a house in 2 years but they have a 5-year exemption, I think that's, you know, finding, finding some middle ground there. Mr.

Woods and then Mr. Gardner. Going back to Madam Manager's previous comment about the conflicting legal opinions, um, there's not, in my experience, a really particularly great way to remedy that. If you ask a third attorney, you're probably gonna get a third opinion. Um, somewhere in the middle, it's— there's no good approach to those in my experience. It's just you kind of get what you get and you make your best judgment based on the information you got.

Mr. Gardner? Okay. Uh, Mr. Ames?

I, um, Um, would like to see the 10-10-10 put back in. I do think it would open up the pool. We do get our money. It's worked well in the past. As further, the topic brought up about the 5-year exemption, I could go either way on that.

Yes, if they built their house in 2 years, they get some free property tax, but On the same token, they might have spent every penny they have to get it done quickly and be very tight, and we will get our money. These lots are turning into revenue generating. It's just 5 years down the road, and I don't think we should punish someone who worked very hard and completed a house quickly. Um, I think it should be the same for everybody.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Roberts. I agree that adding the 10-10-10 to this I think is appropriate, especially the population that we're trying to incentivize to build on these. I think, yeah, I wouldn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to put down on a land sale in 30 days, so I think opening that up to 10 years, um, it would open the pool up. And then talking about incentivizing, I think the 5-year period for the property tax exemption, I would like to see that stay just because it would motivate the seller or the buyers to build a house there and stay there for more than 3 years.

So, um, I would personally like to see that one stay.

Mr. Whiteside and then Mr. Johnson. I will pull my second suggestion. It sounds like there is a low appetite. Appreciate the perspective. Mr. Johnson.

I was actually speaking in defense of it. Reading this, I think we are giving them 50 months to build the home, so I don't know why we we would extend a tax-free period further beyond that. I think, you know, if we do it 50 months from purchase and they get it built a little fast, a little ahead of deadline, more power to them, but that gives them the deadline that's laid out in this, in the terms as a tax-exempt period, which I think is a fair amount. But just my thought. Mr.

Ames. The way I read this, I do not see 50 months. I see that they have to have it completed with the shipment C within 36 months of purchase.

Line— let's see, where are we? We're talking about '90, '91, '92. Do they have an additional 36 months to finish the house, or is it 36 months from purchase? So they have 12 months to finish the house. So they have to commence construction within 24 months after execution of the purchase contract.

Or acceptance and then substantially complete the construction, obtain a certificate of occupancy within 36 months thereafter that. So they do actually have 50 months? 5 Years. They have 5 years.

60 Months. Yes. Okay. Sorry. My bad.

I'm still going to stick by the property taxing. I think you are— if someone doesn't build a house till the very end and doesn't pay any property tax, you're punishing the person who did it. And I have a feeling that if you ask the lawyer, there will be a problem with having one person get a certain extension and another person getting a different one.

I'm not a lawyer on that, but I do see a problem possibly arising. Mr. Gardner. I'm with Steve. I like the idea of giving them a reward for getting the job done quickly, and we don't have people waiting until the last minute and then begging for an extension because they need more time, because this didn't happen or that didn't happen. Everybody should get the same fair shake.

You get it done fast, then you get to enjoy it. That's awesome.

Okay, good. All right. Okay. And I agree with Mr. Weiss. I don't know a lot of people with, you know, cash on hand for this, but I know 3 families that have pre-approved loans.

They are like ready, you know, so they're just waiting.

Yes, Ms. Williams. Speaking of waiting, this is an agenda item and not a packet review item, meaning that it is not on an agenda. So is there an upcoming agenda that you would like to add that to? I think we just add it to the, the as soon as possible, next one available. So June 4th?

June 4th, yes.

Yeah, we had— we were waiting on the attorney's opinion before we actually put it on the agenda to consider. All right. Packet review. Thank you, Chris, so much.

First up is contract number FY2027-01, authorizing extension number 6 of the recycling services contract with Threshold. Lily's director has been waiting patiently to come tell you about this contract. So Cody?

Good evening. So yes, this is a— do you want me to read it all, I assume, Amy? Okay. We will expedite this. Please summarize.

So the summary of 2025, we presented this contract extension letter and it had an option for an additional year. To— for context, we're trying to align the timeline with our solid waste contract that we're reissuing as an RFP, and so this extension would buy us that time for a clean-cut expiration date for both.

Any questions?

Okay. Sorry, Cody. Enjoy that overtime.

That ended because he's the director. Oh, that's right. Oh, never mind. There's no way. Awesome.

I don't know why you're showing up to me. So sorry. Thanks, Cody. The next 3 items in the packet review are related to school district funding, adopting a budget, and then certifying the levies. I'll just take all those all at once.

Is there any further discussion or questions? The only guidance I have is, um, please come with amendments. Um, I, I'm okay with work sessions, uh, being big and having discussions about where your positions are, but next week will be time to really start thinking about the language that you want to use. Um, did you want to add something? I do.

So, uh, the local contribution for the school district, I don't think there's anything to add to that right now. The ordinance for introduction, every year we kind of do chicken egg, chicken egg. So really we kind of make this decision and then we kind of do them both together once the mill rate is set. Um, but for the ordinance for the budget, I will add that extra $302,000 into revenues, and then we'll close out Level 2. So when you go in there and look at the supporting documentation, it'll be the updated, um, with all the other changes that you've recommended and we've talked about are in there as well, then plus that extra $302,000.

Do you want to see that budget with the interest, or do you want to wait until we figure out the local contrib— again, this will just be ordinance for introduction on next Thursday, and so we will have another work session and then another, uh, regular meeting with the public hearing. So I don't have to have that answer now, but those will just be things that we need to think about as we go along. And then because the role is certified for the receiving certified role and setting the tax rate. We'll put all of the numbers in there. You'll be able to see all the service area numbers because that is based off certified roll and not off the mill rate.

It'll just be what they're paying on top of the mill rate. So that will— stuff will all get filled in over the next couple of days. So that'll be updated for the actual intro next week. Does that make sense? Yes.

Um, I know we have assembly members waiting to comment. Do you want direction on interest income use now, or do you want us to stew on it and come, come back next week? I don't need that. I just eventually need that. Okay, gotcha.

Just want to make sure. Um, I have Mr. Woods, then Mr. Whiteside, and there was somebody— was there a third? No? Okay. Mr. Woods.

Just a question this go-around. We've got the School Budget Advisory Committee meetings on the 19th and 20th before our next meeting. Is there any specific and particular types of information that would be appreciated by the body that I could collect? If we're going to be there talking, it would— it seemed like an opportunity to get any specific questions answered from that body. I believe that committee is set— I mean, you're looking at like FY28, FY29 budgets, not—.

I think that first meeting is just teaching all of the members like the foundation formula and doing a very basic overlook. I don't think they're getting into very specific questions. If there are questions that you need from the school district, like, let's go ask them. Let's not wait. So if you have— like, if you can't ask them, ask me, I'll ask them.

Yeah, if you have specific school district questions, let's ask them like tomorrow. My first go-around here, and I have—. I don't know, I'm trying to be a obliging as best as possible.

Mr. Weisheit. Just a reminder, if we come up with amendments and you would like to make a motion, the request, just a reminder to, if you can, email that to NOVA so she can help us vet those. I certainly will be doing that. Would you like to be included in that email, Madam Manager? I would.

That's helpful just because that tells me what direction, but either way is totally fine. Great. Just a reminder for folks. All right, seeing no other discussion on those, uh, the next is the, uh, in the PAC review, abbreviated and informal hearing of State of Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office new restaurant or eating place license application for Nunyak LLC, license number 60432. Uh, Nova.

So at the last meeting, you made a motion to protest subject to rescission. So this is the opportunity for the applicant to come before you and defend the application. So after hearing from the applicant, if you wish to retract your motion that you made before, you can do that at this meeting. At this upcoming meeting.

Any questions for NOVA? Okay. And then the final item in the meeting is the confirmation of mayoral appointment of Ms. Marion Owen to the Solid Waste Advisory Board. I think you heard her comment today and she is going to be a great addition to this. And then we will be going into executive session to discuss the Borough Manager's performance evaluation.

Bo, would you like to say a few words? Speak with that. Yes, please. I am missing most. Um, I have one from Dr. Smiley, one from Mayor Griffin.

Anyone else have these with them? If not, I will gladly give you my address before we leave and you can drop them off as soon as possible. My goal is to— was to get these all today. Um, if you haven't— if you don't have it today, um, please get it to me tomorrow or Sunday morning at the latest. I'm going to be— excuse me, tomorrow or Saturday.

Sunday I'm going to compile these. If I don't have yours then, um, you missed the bus. Um, and you can deliver them to me. Um, that's your penalty for being tardy. Yes, I can, once we adjourn.

Uh, NOVA— well, actually, it's public information right now. NOVA has something. Uh, Mr. Mayor, I would like to note that the confirmation to swab is proposed under consent agenda. And if anyone wishes to remove that off consent, you just need to voice that out at the regular meeting.

And also for the executive session for next week for the manager, um, I would like to ask, would you like to convene first as an assembly, or would you like to just go in with the manager? Um, because then I can develop guidelines to provide for that.

It's a lot more fun to talk about her when she's not in there. It's great for me too. Love it. Would you like to convene first as the Assembly and then invite her in later? Is that what you would like to do?

I think that's what we've typically done, but I will defer to Bo, who is leading the process as DPO. I was furiously scribbling my address. What was the question? Would you like, in executive session, would you like to convene first as a body and then later invite Madam Manager into the executive session? Yes.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. That is my question.

Okay. Clerk's comments. Keep on rolling. I am going to make it quick. You have an invitation attached to my clerk's report for the National Marine Fisheries Service, and it's going to be on May 15th.

I already put out an advertising that there may be a quorum of the assembly, so if you'd like to attend, you, you may. Also, I would like to give you an update about the REPLs in Kodiak. I received an email today that the 4— so the 4 that we— that are within the city of Kodiak, the 2 active ones are for the— for Noodles and Aquamarine. We have 1 pending, which is before you, the Nunyak, and the 4th one is now available for the public. I just want to note that.

So And then I would like to remind the assembly that my evaluation packet is before you, and Deputy Presiding Officer Whiteside would like to get those back by Thursday next week at the regular meeting.

And then I would like to note that both Lena and Irene would be out next week. They will be attending the International Institute of Municipal Clerks. I will be by myself in the office. I may be— I will maybe close from 12 to 1. So if you'd like to come by and visit, please give me a call just so you don't miss me.

Okay, thank you. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Nova. Um, all right, Assemblymembers, comments?

We'll start at the end with Mr. Woods. I'm all good. Please let me go home. Ms. Roberts?

No comment. Mr. Weisheit? If I'm not home when you deliver the evaluation, please just set it on my porch. It's a very safe neighborhood and I'm tucked away, so just set it on the old porch. Thank you.

Mr. Ames? No comment. I'm talked out. Mr. Smiley? No comment.

Mr. Johnson. Just happy to be here. There you go. Mr. Gardner.

Uh, thanks everybody. And, um, I don't know if any of you experienced the people over at Articare, but they're freaking amazing. And, uh, I don't think I could pull together anything of what I wanted to do, but if anybody has some ideas, I wanted to try to do something as community to appreciate them. I'm not sure how many more days they're here, but holy crap, did they completely blow me away. What an awesome team.

So just think about it. If you have an idea, get at me. I'm happy to try and spearhead and volunteer my time. All right, thank you. Mayor's comments.

Thanks for staying late. We knew it was going to be a long one. Appreciate the discussion, and we'll look forward to next week. And we are adjourned. Where I need to actually like throw things away.

That wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be. Um, no, I mean, not yet. Next week.