Kenai Peninsula Borough boosts school funding after heated public hearing, approves FY2026 budget 8–1

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on June 17 approved its fiscal year 2026 general-fund appropriation ordinance after adopting an amendment that increases the borough’s local contribution to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

The amendment, moved by Assembly member Johnson and adopted by an 8–1 vote, raised the local contribution line in the ordinance; the assembly then approved the amended ordinance 8–1. Assembly member Tunceth cast the lone no vote.

The vote came after more than an hour of debate among assembly members, a legal presentation about meeting rules and deadlines, and a public hearing in which parents, students, teachers and retired educators urged increased local support for schools.

Assembly member Johnson argued the additional funding was needed to retain teachers and sustain programs. Mayor Michicky cautioned that funding at the higher level is “unsustainable” if repeated every year and warned it would significantly affect borough finances; he said members should understand “what that means to the people of the Kenai Peninsula Borough.” Director Harbaugh told the assembly the amended budget would use a larger share of the borough’s fund balance and that boroughwide education funding would rise substantially with the amendment.

Public commenters at the hearing were sharply divided. Joan Core Kalafonski, a retired educator, said she “does not want to fund to the cap”…