Anchorage School District names 7 elementary schools for proposed closures over 3 years

Nov. 1—The Anchorage School District announced Friday that it aims to close seven elementary schools as part of its strategy for dealing with declining student enrollment, its budget shortfall and other challenges.

The proposal, which will need to be approved by the school board before it can be implemented, calls for staggered closures over the course of three years. The schools identified to be shut down or repurposed in the first year are Bear Valley Elementary, Lake Hood Elementary and Tudor Elementary.

In year two, the district is proposing to close or repurpose Fire Lake Elementary, Nunaka Valley Elementary and Wonder Park Elementary.

In the third year, the plan calls for Baxter Elementary to close and be repurposed.

"This is a really difficult time for our community and right now my focus is on listening to our communities," District Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said in a Friday interview. "This is one of the most difficult conversations a community can have."

On Friday afternoon, the district sent a letter to families with students at the identified schools, as well as another letter to staff members, informing them of the plans.

"Our community is changing. We have seen a decline in enrollment that mirrors broader trends within the Anchorage population. Additionally, more families are opting for different learning modalities, with correspondence school enrollment doubling over the past decade," Bryantt wrote to families.

Between 2010 and 2024, the district's enrollment declined by nearly 12%. The number of homeschooled students nearly doubled. And, according to data put out as part of the district's "Rightsizing ASD" initiative, the number of students with intensive needs in the district has gone up by 61%.

All seven of the named schools have enrollment numbers well below their capacity. Fire Lake Elementary and Lake Hood Elementary are at 47% and 39% enrollment, respectively.

According to Bryantt, the district aims to retain almost all of the staff members at the closing schools, moving them into positions at other facilities.

"When we consolidate the building, the intention is to add more adults and educators to our buildings," he said.

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As education funding from state lawmakers has stagnated in recent years, the list of deferred maintenance projects at district facilities has "skyrocketed from under $170 million to over $1 billion, putting additional strain on our resources," Bryantt wrote to families.

The district's budget shortfall is daunting, estimated at $65 million to $85 million next year, depending on how much money is drawn from savings, according to district spokesperson Corey Allen Young. The structural deficit overall for ASD stands at around $111 million.

As a budget reduction measure, however, school closures don't save much money. In 2022, when the district proposed shutting down six elementary schools, officials projected that each closure would save roughly $500,000 a year.

Next month, the school board will begin analyzing the proposal. It is expected to vote on the proposal's implementation on Dec. 17.

"I think everyone on the board understands that this needs to happen," Anchorage School Board President Andy Holleman said.

In 2022, the board reduced the number of schools proposed for closure from six down to just one, Abbott Loop Elementary. This time, Holleman said, the community at large and elected officials are likely to be more willing to go along with a bigger closure plan.

"It's not a happy thing for anybody," he said. "I think it makes it a good idea that we do this kind of slowly."

Holleman said he thinks that the Abbott Loop closure last year was an important trial run that showed families, students and the school community ways to minimize the negative consequences.

"It hadn't been catastrophic to their kids and things were going along nicely," he said.

One of the biggest current challenges for the district, and one creating urgency for proponents of the closure proposal, is short staffing at ASD schools.

"When we get down to a certain size, it's very hard to balance class sizes ... it's hard to have the specialists on hand that you want. So unless we actually could elevate salaries to where we could attract more people, we can't staff all these buildings," Holleman said. "At what we're paying right now, we can't fully staff up."

Corey Aist, president of the Anchorage Education Association, the district teachers union, said that the layered approach for suggesting school cuts was better this time around than in 2022, but will still create challenges for communities losing their elementary schools.

"Closing three schools at one time is a much different experience than closing six," he said. "A leveled approach, it gives time for things to change, possibly in the Legislature. It also gives time for communities to have more input. But it's going to be a struggle either way."

Crystal Hans, PTA president at Tudor Elementary, said in a statement Friday afternoon that the school community is "completely devastated to hear of ASD's decision to close our amazing neighborhood school."

"The closure will disrupt the lives of many students and parents, forcing families to seek alternatives far from home and diminishing the close-knit community we have built around the school," Hans said. "Our children thrive in familiar environments, and this decision undermines their stability and growth."

Bryantt said that since the last time the district proposed closing schools, officials overhauled the selection criteria and process for soliciting input from community members, including surveys that were sent out to parents.

The district plans to hold five community conversations on the proposed school closures, scheduled for:

—Nov. 12, 6-8 p.m. at Chugiak High School

—Nov. 14, 6-8 p.m. at Dimond High School

—Nov. 16, noon-2 p.m. at Bartlett High School

—Nov. 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. via Zoom

—Nov. 18, 6-8 p.m. via Zoom

Proposed school closures for 2025-2026

—Bear Valley Elementary would be permanently closed. Its students would be sent to three different elementary schools: 121 to Huffman Elementary, 104 to Rabbit Creek Elementary and 80 to O'Malley Elementary.

—Lake Hood Elementary would be repurposed as a charter school. Its students would be sent to two different elementary schools: 113 students to Turnagain Elementary and 62 students to Northwood Elementary.

—Tudor Elementary would be repurposed for a "special program," the district said in its announcement. Its students would be sent to two different schools: 179 of its students would be sent to Lake Otis Elementary, and 124 students in its Montessori program would be sent to Denali Montessori.

Proposed schools for 2026-2027

—Fire Lake Elementary would be repurposed as a charter school. Its students would go to three different elementary schools: 40 to Birchwood Elementary, 108 to Eagle River Elementary and two to Chugiak Elementary.

—Nunaka Valley Elementary would be repurposed for a "special program," the district said in its announcement. Its students would be sent to two different elementary schools: 39 to Chester Valley Elementary and 57 to Russian Jack Elementary.

—Wonder Park Elementary would be permanently closed. Its students would be sent to two different elementary schools: 103 to Williwaw Elementary School and 78 to Ptarmigan Elementary School.

Proposed school for 2027-2028

—Baxter Elementary would be repurposed as a charter school. Its students would go to three different elementary schools: 17 to Chester Valley Elementary, 99 to College Gate Elementary and 53 to Scenic Park Elementary.

Jenna Kunze contributed reporting.