The board’s decision to close Lake Otis Elementary for neighborhood students does not remove nearly $20 million on the bond for repairs to its roof. The building is set to serve ASD charter students in the fall.
Anchorage voters will decide on a pair of ballot propositions in April that would provide funding to the Anchorage School District. A recent district-commissioned poll suggested less support for the other, given public perception of projects the district is asking for money to complete.
Anchorage voters will decide on a pair of ballot propositions in April that would provide funding to the Anchorage School District.. A recent district-commissioned poll suggested less support for the other, given public perception of projects the district is asking for money to complete.that would direct work at 20 schools and provide major maintenance and repairs, along with structural and security upgrades at several other schools.of the state’s school bond debt reimbursement program, barring a major shift in legislative policy or a veto from the governor. Repairs at Lake Otis Elementary School are the second-most expensive project included on the bond. However, in February, the Anchorage School BoardDistrict finance officials preparing the budget for next school year were faced with a $90 million shortfall to continue providing the same level of service across schools. As a result, the school board approved increasing class sizes and approved cuts to sports, classroom programs, school nurses and administrators to balance the budget — as well as the closure of three elementary schools, including Lake Otis. Repairs at Lake Otis were finalized as a bond project in November before the board voted on the budget. The board’s decision to close the building as an elementary school for neighborhood students does not remove nearly $20 million on the bond intended to repair the building’s roof.If passed, roof repairs would proceed this summer, and the building would house Rilke Schule German Immersion Charter School beginning next school year.Anchorage charter schools operate on a lottery system that allows any student in the district to apply. If voters do not approve the bond, the district may not complete the needed repairs for all the schools included, or it could pull funding from another source.that was written by board members Margo Bellamy and Andy Holleman and board President Carl Jacobs detailed some of their rationale.“Lake Otis remains on the bond list because the building will continue serving students when Rilke Schule German Immersion School relocates there. As an active school site, safety and security upgrades remain necessary,” the members wrote. The district’s plan to lease the Lake Otis building to Rilke Schule would not prohibit the district from reclaiming the building and using it for a neighborhood public school again in the future, if population trends were to reverse and the district saw a need to add school buildings to deal with excess capacity, according toBond propositions are the primary source of funding for repair and maintenance across the Anchorage district’s 91 schools and other buildings. State formula funding for schools is meant to support student instruction, and some districts must put out bond propositions or find other methods of funding capital expenses like major school repairs.for secure vestibule entry, roof and structural repair at Tudor Elementary School• $3.5 million• $2.8 million for structural repairs to Klatt Elementary SchoolPolling commissioned by the district shows Proposition 9 — also referred to as the one-time specialabout the district’s budget, bond and the board’s response to budget deficits. Researchers polled over 1,000 Anchorage voters from Feb. 7-10. Everett Masterman, a researcher with Alaska Survey Research, said the polling“The key takeaways on this survey are that the ASD school bond would fail if the election were held at the time when we gave this survey. The one-time levy was within the margin of error,” Masterman said. As the board considered closing Lake Otis last month, members of the public questioned why repairs for the school would remain on the bond if the building was closed to neighborhood public school students. During the school board’s Feb. 24 special budget meeting, Jared Zarn argued that the survey results were too small of a sample size to show that Anchorage residents broadly support school closures, as the pollsters asserted. “The community is going to be voting on a bond in April for almost $20 million to improve Lake Otis, but we’re going to close Lake Otis as a public school. It feels like that’s kind of something that makes no sense to the public,” Zarn said.Since then, the district has sought to put smaller bonds on the ballot with more direct improvements for student safety across the district., a safety feature that requires any school visitor to wait in between a set of double doors for office staff to allow their entry. The district has completed 50 of 58 planned secure vestibule installations.Tim Rockey is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News focusing on education and general assignments. He has worked in journalism in Alaska for more than a decade, including at Alaska Public Media, Alaska’s News Source and the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. Contact him at trockey@adn.com.Lebanon appeals to Israel’s allies to intervene and says hundreds have been killed
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