“We’re here. It’s real. We’re facing a $17 million deficit.”

That’s what Zen Kelly, president of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education, said during the board’s meeting on Monday.

During Monday’s meeting, the board opened the conversation around its next budget, for the year beginning July 1 and running through June 2026. That budget will be tackled at school board meetings over the next several months and also at community meetings set for Feb. 11, 19 and 20.

The school district last year, facing a deficit of $13.7 million, approved a budget with cuts to staffing positions, deferred payments for curriculum and equipment, and other impacts to extracurricular activities including closing pools and theaters. Those cuts were later reversed after the Legislature secured one-time funding, but the school district was still made to significantly draw upon its fund balance. Kelly and other members of the board said this year’s conversations are going to be even more challenging.

KPBSD Finance Director Liz Hayes presented a preliminary budget to the board on Monday morning, during a finance committee meeting. She projected for a static base student allocation — the amount of money each district gets from the state per student — as well as funding from the borough to the maximum amount. Revenues fall short of expenses. Salaries and benefits, per the presentation, represent around 80% of the total expenses.

“It truly is a status quo budget,” she said.

The projected deficit is $16.9 million. To overcome it without heavy cuts, Hayes said, would require a “substantial increase” to the BSA.

During the last legislative session, a bill was passed that included an increase of $680 per student in the BSA. Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed that bill, and an effort to overturn his veto failed by one vote. KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland said Monday that the $680 increase wouldn’t even be sufficient this year.

An increase to the BSA that would match inflation since it was last meaningfully increased in 2011, he said, would total $1,808 extra per student. That doesn’t account for the increases in health insurance costs borne by Alaska school districts, he said, but is the amount being advocated for by associations representing educators.

Another issue voiced by the board on Monday is their need to create a balanced budget and submit it to the borough by May 1. That’s why last year the board adopted a budget that included so many cuts to classroom sizes, programs and even staff — the increase in funding from the state that ultimately materialized was uncertain until the last week of June.

“These are drastic times,” Holland said. “What we’re looking at for reductions is serious, and we have no idea — once again — where we are with a future budget from our state.”

Echoing asks made by the board and by district staff last year, Holland called on legislators to come to a compromise and “make something happen in education,” also for people to advocate and hold their elected officials accountable.

“This is not good,” he said. “This makes last year look easy.”

He said during the full board meeting on Monday night that cuts will have to be “broad and deep.”

To drive the conversation around the budget, the school district will for the second year be using “Balancing Act,” software accessible in a web browser that “gamifies” the budget. Users can make their version of a balanced budget and then submit it as feedback to the district.

That software, as of Monday night, had not been launched publicly. Hayes said to the finance committee that she was still filling in some options, like a proposed increase of up to 10 additional students per classroom. Last year the district’s reversed budget cuts included an increase of one student per classroom.

Last year, people using the software overwhelmingly opted to budget for a funding increase from the state, meaning they didn’t have to make decisions about what to cut from the budget. Hayes said that won’t be an option this year — people will need to make the tough choices.

Members said the software will illustrate the magnitude of the task they’re facing. Many costs can’t be reduced.

Kelly said that a possible increase of 10 students per classroom “sounds ridiculous,” and may not be possible logistically — “but it has to be on the table.” Also to be discussed, he said, is school consolidation.

“That needs to be a conversation we have,” he said. “It’s awful … it rips communities apart and it is extremely contentious.”

Many members of the board addressed the budget situation during their closing comments during Monday’s full board meeting.

Member Virginia Morgan said she was feeling discouraged.

“It’s maddening that we are still in this situation,” she said. “$17 million is a crazy number for our staff to cut.”

Member Sarah Douthit said the discussion was “a big eye-opener.” She said she didn’t know where the board could cut to meet the looming deficit.

“It’s going to be real bad if we don’t get something sorted out at the state level,” Jason Tauriainen, board vice president, said. “Get involved. Be ready to ask hard questions and get ready for hard answers.”

Member Tim Daugharty said that the outlook seems bleak. He said that meetings with local legislators haven’t reassured him, and he shared a newspaper clipping during the meeting dated Feb. 16, 2006, about the same budget problems — “it could be written today.”

He said he was frustrated by the thought of doing the same song and dance, traveling to Juneau and advocating for more money. But, he said, he’s still going to do it.

“It’s time to go fight,” Daugharty said. “It’s time to go back to war again. We’re going to be positive … We have to fight for the biggest resource that we have left in our state, and that’s the kids.”

The district’s community budget meetings are set for Homer, Kenai and Seward, across two weeks. On Feb. 11, a meeting will be held in the Homer High School library. On Feb. 19, a meeting will be held in the Kenai Central High School library. On Feb. 20, a meeting will be held in the Seward High School library. All three meetings are set for 6 p.m. The school board meets next on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Betty J. Glick Assembly Chambers.

A full recording of the finance committee meeting and school board meeting will be available at the KPBSD BoardDocs website.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.