A joint work session of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and the Kenai Peninsula Borough on Tuesday afternoon will formally begin the district’s funding request for fiscal year 2022, which will begin on July 1, 2021 and end on June 30, 2022.

In total, the district preliminary budget development includes about $138.5 million in general fund revenue, including $83,887,581 from the State of Alaska, $53,463,093 from the Kenai Peninsula Borough and $1.18 million in “other revenue.” According to district documentation, other revenue includes things like E-Rate, Medicaid and interest earnings, among other things.

One element of the funding the district expects to receive from the state is how much money they will receive per student, which is calculated on the state level using the Foundation Funding Formula. According to district documentation, the district is expecting to receive the same Base Student Allocation (BSA) as they have for the previous five years, or about $5,930 per student. This is expected to result in more than $72.7 million in funding for the district from the state, and is based on student enrollment projections.

From the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the district plans to request the maximum allowable funding, or about $53.5 million, including about $42.1 million in direct appropriations and more than $11 million in in-kind appropriations.

Most of the district’s general fund expenditures — about 47.08% — are expected to go toward salaries, totaling about $66 million. The second largest category — 33.35% — is for benefits, estimated to cost around $46.8 million. In total, the district estimates that about 80% of their expenditures will go to salaries and benefits.

A projected decrease in enrollment could cause a districtwide loss of about 48 full-time certificated employees and about 10 full-time non-certificated employees in preliminary budget development. Additionally, the district will not be funding the position of assistant superintendent of instructional support. Current Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Clayton Holland was selected by the Board of Education to succeed John O’Brien as superintendent last week. According to district documentation, the assistant superintendent of instructional support duties will be reassigned to district leadership.

The work session between the district and the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. on Tuesday and can be watched via the KPBSD livestream channel at go.kpbsd.org/BOElivestream, or the borough Zoom meeting with ID: 938 6524 5999 and passcode: 886199. To join the meeting from a computer, visit https://zoom.us/j/93865245999.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.