Bob Griffin: Rightsizing the Anchorage School District is essential

There will be 3,000 fewer kids in Anchorage School District facilities in 2029 than there were 50 years earlier in 1979. For the sake of our kids and teachers, we need to stop wasting money on unneeded school buildings and focus those resources into classrooms.

According to ASD’s Capital Improvement Plan figures, the district is expecting enrollment to decline to 39,281 students by 2029 (down from a peak of just over 50,000 in 2003/04). Of those students, 3,542 are expected to be in homeschool or other programs — not in ASD facilities.

That brings the total expected to in brick-and-mortar ASD schools to 35,739 students in 2029. That would be the lowest number of kids in ASD facilities as far as records are published by the ASD – back 50 years, to the 1978/79 school year when 38,896 students were in Anchorage school facilities.

Since 1981, ASD has increased the facilities footprint from 5.0 million square feet to over 7.8 million square feet. For context, the floorspace added since 1981 is more than 14 time the size of the 200,000 square foot Dena’ina Convention Center in Anchorage – with a decline in student utilization equivalent to eight elementary school’s fewer students than 1979.

More elbow room for students might seem like a nice luxury – but it comes at a high cost that robs resources from our kid’s classroom operations. For example: Keeping an unneeded elementary school operating takes about 4% per year of the $50 million current replacement value of the typical ASD elementary school in long and short-term maintenance costs, or around $2 million a year.

In addition, each elementary school has a staff of non-teachers who are unique to that facility – costing around $1.5 million year. Utilities cost around $500,000 per year. That means every unneeded elementary school roughly displaces 50 teacher salaries each year.

ASD accounts for the decline in enrollment due to “lower birth rates”. There is some truth to that, but not nearly to the extent that would account for 22% fewer students (11,000 student decline) compared to 2004, when the overall population was 14,000 lower than today. Low birthrates also can’t account for an overall decline in students below the level when the population of Anchorage had just 180,000 residents in 1979.

Over the same period, the MatSu School District has seen increases in student populations and is projecting further increases – roughly in proportion to the population growth. It seems families in south-central Alaska, with school age kids, are likely voting with their feet in large numbers and migrating to school programs that are more aligned with their family values.

Spending money on unneeded schools robs resources from our kids and teachers. We should be holding the Anchorage School District accountable through tough-love measures — like refusing school bond proposals until the district demonstrates they can effectively manage their inventory of unneeded buildings.

Bob Griffin is on the board of Alaska Policy Forum and served on the Alaska Board of Education and Early Development.