On May 21, the Borough Assembly voted 5-2 to set the local contribution to the Kodiak Island Borough School District for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1. Assembly member Bo Whiteside proposed the final amount.
“This funding level represents an increase of $800,000 from FY’26. This amount balances the need for additional school funding, which I agree the state contributions have not kept up with standard inflationary pressures. This amount also allows the borough to deliver services, preserve revenue for large capital projects, fund our nonprofits, and set a reasonable mill rate for FY 2027," Whiteside said.
Generally speaking, the more the borough contributes to the school district, the less it has for borough services, capital projects and support for nonprofits. And the more pressure it puts on property taxpayers.
Assembly members Dave Johnson and Jeremiah Gardner voted no to that funding level. Gardner argued that the Borough’s contribution to the school district should be about $800,000 less than last year at $12.2 million. Or that it should at least come with more oversight.
“I believe that the school district needs some more financial oversight, the level of technology spending, the fact that we ship in off-island sports teams," Gardner said. "There's so much financial review, and as the public has stated over and over to me, a lack of transparency.”
KIBSD School Board President Kerry Irons told KMXT via email that it can be difficult to know how and where to access information regarding the school district's budget, especially if one is unable to attend school board meetings.
But she said one of her goals is to, "make information about the budget more accessible to our community members. It is my hope that the recently established Community Budget Advisory Committee will help with the expressed concern about transparency."
Gardner said the Borough, the City of Kodiak and the school district all need to tighten their belts financially.
In a letter, KIBSD Superintendent Cyndy Mika said the $14.6 million the district requested would partially offset revenue losses tied to declining student enrollment and increasing health insurance costs. Mika said in her letter that the school district’s budget overall for FY’2027 includes a projected 3.5% decline in student enrollment, a 4% increase in the cost of health insurance premiums for school district employees, and a draw of $1.8 million from its fund balance or savings. That’s in addition to the school district deciding earlier this year to cut more than $2.5 million in personnel and programs.
Irons told the Borough Assembly on May 21 that the school district will have to make more staff cuts. She said the school board already has a contingency list ready – on top of the ones it already made.
“We've already cut positions that are important to our students, families, and staff to meet our target deficit amount: administrators, teachers, aides, counselor, mental health clinician, school psychologist, instructional coach, nurse, gifted and talented program, secretarial staff," she explained. "These cuts are not good for kids, our district.”
With the borough’s school contribution set, the assembly is a step closer to deciding the property tax rate for the new budget year.
Borough Manager Aimee Williams said the property tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year will be discussed at the Assembly’s next meeting on June 4.
Editor's note: And for transparency, Borough Mayor Jared Griffin is also the general manager at KMXT. Per KMXT’s policy, he does not have any editorial influence over news stories and he did not review this story before it was aired.
