The equivalent of an entire elementary school worth of students is missing from the Kenai Borough School District’s fall enrollment data.
According to a new report, the district has 230 fewer students than projected. Most of the decline comes from traditional public schools like Soldotna Elementary (-59), Soldotna High (-48), Chapman (-39), Skyview Middle (-37), Kenai Central High (-33) Nikiski Middle (-28). One charter school, Kaleidoscope, had 34 fewer students than projected.
The data comes from a report prepared for the Kenai School Board for its Oct. 5 meeting. It shows that 27 of 40 schools have fewer students than expected this year.
The main bright spot is the district’s homeschool Connections Program, which is 87 students above projection for a total enrollment of 1,222. Similarly, Aurora Borealis Charter is 27 students over projection.
Additionally, the retooled Nikolaevsk Charter School, which provides unique educational options for residents of a traditional Russian Old Believer community outside of Homer, has reported 81 students in the launch of its new K-12 charter. While that’s slightly below the 94 initially projected for this year, it represents a net increase for the district, which shut down the school in 2025 when it had just 21 students.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
As reported earlier this year by the Alaska Watchman, the Kenai School District is experiencing the effects of a profound shift impacting government-run education across Alaska. Students are leaving, budgets are shrinking and the old model is rapidly losing public support.
Plummeting birth rates, coupled with the rising popularity of homeschooling and private or religious education, have resulted in school districts around the state being forced to shutter campuses, cut teacher positions and rethink how publicly funded education is delivered.
Last year, a Kenai School District report showed student enrollment had fallen by 744 students over the past 12 years – from 8,974 to just 8,230. The latest report reveals that the district is now down to 7,909 students. That’s a loss of nearly 2,500 students from the high of 10,384 in 1998.
Apart from Kaleidoscope Charter, the losses are largely coming from traditional brick-and-mortar neighborhood schools.
Proposed political solutions to profound changes in government-funded education often involve teacher unions and education bureaucrats calling on state legislators to increase per-student funding to offset the fact that far fewer children are enrolled in public schools. On the other hand, many conservatives have pushed for the state to encourage and enable greater school choice options, while embracing the increasing popularity of homeschooling, charter schools and private education.
7 Comments
Way to go Kenai peninsula, for taking your kids out of these sick, evil, woke schools. Your kids will now grow up,
with respect of others.
I’m completely thrilled that the Home Schooling campaign is gaining ground. I truly believe the big problem with the brick and mortar schools is the Teacher’s Union. If teachers would ditch their union and run the schools according to the wishes of the public that pays their wages their student population would probably increase. Their union is going to union them right out of a job and for what reason, so that Rhonda “Randi” Weingarten can accumulate more political power for herself.
Listen up Kenia Peninsula School District. Listen well. A message is being sent. We the People are tired of being ripped off, our kids indoctrinated and our tax dollars wasted on WOKE garbage. Why does the KPSD throw away (literally) brand new curriculums? Still in the wrappers and never used! We the People are going to illuminate your graft and malfeasance. We are organizing, we are prepared and we will expose the graft and corruption. Stay tuned folks. The lights are on and the rats are worried.
I’m glad you hear of the success of the purpose of Charter schools and what it means to children and families. Eaglexit has promised 12 new charter schools once Eagle River is separated from the Anchorage Borough. It appears that the charter school teaching purpose has produced what many hoped for during the fight to change education standards and learning arenas. But the questions out in the Alaska communities have never been posed to information on the charter schools of imbedded communities or what they are teaching. I strongly believe the necessity to know what sits beside our neighborhoods and education of our standards and country should have answers on this issue and discussion on what the purpose of the imbedded community’s education curriculum is with complete explanation . We have imbedded communities of illegals from different parts of the world and we have imbedded communities of Islamists from the middle east countries. I believe the charter schools of these types of communities should be searched out and reviewed. We need to know what types of standards we are looking at and the purpose of those charter schools within the boundaries of our state.
Parents do not want their children indoctrinated by deviant leftists.
Go Kenai!
The schools on the Kenai are toxic due to Deferred maintenance. Many teachers and students and teachers are positive for mold-related illnesses and other severe diseases that can be linked to the schools. My new book, “Killer Schools” by Jennifer Kindred, chronicles my illness and treatment by the same district I graduated from. It’s pretty easy to prove this these days. Perform a urine or blood test before entering school in the fall and then repeat around Christmas once you have been in the school for a while. The data is undeniable. Environmental poisoning has a lifelong impact on a person’s health and can also be passed on to the next generation. The smart famiies are getting their children out.
Parents woke up during the scamdemic and got a snapshot of what really goes on in schools. During that time frame, parents were able to monitor what their children actually participated in the class room and they did not like it. On the flip side, teachers were enraged on what they saw in the back ground of student’s zoom meetings. My nephew used his dad’s home office for his class work and discussions. The teacher flew into a tizzy that there was a gun cabinet and guns in the racks. To pour gas on the fire, there was a TRUMP 2020 banner on the wall. The teacher screeched that all of that needed to be removed. His dad said no, this is my private residence, your school grounds rules do not apply to my privately owned house. It escalated. A call to the school district superintendent and mentioning a huge law suit for invasion of privacy, settled the matter.