Anchorage School Board still ‘wide open’ on proposed school closures

Anchorage School Board members are seeking more information from the school district before their scheduled Dec. 17 vote on whether to close or repurpose seven elementary schools over the next three years.

The proposal, if approved, would send about 1,380 students from under-capacity schools to larger ones in what district officials have described as an effort to consolidate strained resources at a time of declining student enrollment and flat state funding.

On Tuesday, after 2 1/2 weeks of collecting stakeholders’ testimony, Anchorage School Board members held a two-hour work session with school district administrators, including COO Jim Anderson, Chief Academic Officer Sven Gustafson and Senior Director of Special Education Instruction Pamela Momany. Board members asked them questions about school capacity and enrollment, the geography of the schools selected, student impact, next steps and more.

The conversation was the most in-depth on the “Rightsizing ASD” plan to date, thanks to the huge amount of information received through public testimony and community conversations, said board member Carl Jacobs.

“Everyone came to the conversation … informed on the sentiments expressed by our community, and came with related questions as to how to square the testimony provided, with the rightsizing plan, with our goals and guardrails — which are focused on improving academic outcomes,” Jacobs said of Tuesday’s discussion.

Here’s a look at some of the questions raised at community engagement sessions and at the school board’s work session.

Where exactly will students go if their school closes?

Under the proposal announced by the school district Nov. 1, Bear Valley Elementary, Lake Hood Elementary and Tudor Elementary would permanently close next school year.

The following year, in 2026-27, Fire Lake Elementary in Eagle River as well as Nunaka Valley Elementary and Wonder Park Elementary in Anchorage would close. In the third year, the proposal calls for Baxter Elementary to close. The facilities at all but two of the schools proposed for closure would be repurposed for charter schools or special programs.

Although the district initially projected where each school’s displaced students might go based on their distance from other neighboring schools, some parents have said that projection doesn’t reflect their reality.

For example, the district initially assumed that Tudor Elementary’s 124 Montessori students would all be absorbed by the Denali Montessori program. But without district-provided busing, many Tudor Montessori parents have said they would instead send their child to the closer Lake Otis Elementary, which could potentially put Lake Otis over capacity. Anderson said that the district is still exploring other options for where Tudor Montessori kids could go.

Several board members asked staff if they could send a survey to families at each of the seven schools asking them where they would send their child, should their school close.

“I think there is useful information that we could glean about how families would adapt should the recommendations move forward,” board member Kelly Lessens said.

Why would East Anchorage be affected the most under the proposal?

Board member Margo Bellamy said that her east-side district includes three schools — all Title 1 — that see themselves as “taking the brunt of the resizing.”

Nunaka Valley Elementary, Wonder Park Elementary and Baxter Elementary are each slated for closure in the second and third years of the proposal.

According to Anderson, East Anchorage may bear the brunt of resizing because of how it was built — densely, with many houses and schools in close proximity to one another.

Declining enrollment affects smaller schools more quickly and worse than larger schools, Anderson said, because they already started at a smaller population.

“So it’s not really a surprise that when you have this dense concentration of schools … that it’s more likely that those are going to be the ones that are easier to close than in an area where you’re dealing with 15 to 20 miles (between them),” he said.

Gustafson added that, for Title 1 schools, funding is allocated on a per-pupil basis, and that combining Title 1 schools could beef up money for programming to make a greater impact on students.

[Previously: Anchorage parents speak out against elementary school closures, and in some cases plan to fight them]

How do school closures affect student performance?

School board member Pat Higgins asked: What research exists that shows the impact of rightsizing. Are there studies that show a benefit for reducing combination classes, versus the impact of moving kids to a new school?

“I’m trying to put it all together and say, ‘Are we going to help kids academically, or not, by closing these schools?’ ” he said. “That’s what my challenge is.”

According to district data on Abbott Loop students, who were moved when their elementary school closed two years ago, student performance maintained, and attendance improved, on average, said Chris Opitz, ASD’s senior director of assessment and evaluation. The district tracked students’ MAP math and reading test scores, and class attendance at the end of the 2023 school year, compared to 2024.

“We would never suggest that there’s some sort of causation, or that it’s a good thing. Really what we were looking for was a red flag that might suggest, ‘Hey there’s something going on here that we want to look at more deeply,’ ” Opitz said. “What we can say is that, on average, we did not see any significant decreases in performance that would cause us major concern.”

One of the benefits the district has cited with the proposed school closures is a reduction of combination classes, which combine two different grade levels into the same class, making it more difficult for teachers to focus on individual student needs, the district said.

Board members asked to see more data about how kids in single grade classes perform against kids in combination classes.

What school board members are saying

School board members are saying that they’re still collecting information, and encouraging parents and community members to get involved if they haven’t already. Several members said they have traveled or will travel to communities they’ve heard from the least, to remove some of the barriers for folks who can’t attend work sessions or community meetings.

“I think this is wide open,” Higgins said. “I think we are supposed to be the voice of the public, and we have been listening to the public. I can’t help but believe that we won’t approve all of these.”

Lessens said she plans to sketch out what information she needs to match up what she’s been told the school closures will do against the model the district provided, including how combination classes would be affected.

”If improved outcomes for students is what has been promised through the ‘Rightsizing’ initiative, I’d like to review whether I think that’s possible,” she said.

Moving forward, the board plans to meet for a Saturday working session on a date to be determined. At their Dec. 3 School Board meeting, the “Rightsizing ASD” plan will be on their agenda once again as a no-action item, and they’ll accept public testimony. Board members can decide, ahead of their final vote on the closures, to remove schools from the proposed list without adding more schools, Anderson said.

Their final vote is slated for Dec. 17.

[Anchorage School District pauses controversial schedule change for high schools]

[Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Anchorage School Board member Kelly Lessens planned to seek information on how combination classes would be affected by the school closure proposal, among other impacts.]