Anchorage School District warns of roughly $90 million shortfall, outlines sweeping staff and program cuts

Superintendent Dr. Bryant and district finance staff told the Anchorage School District board on Feb. 3 that the district faces an estimated $90,000,000 structural deficit for the coming fiscal year and proposed a package of staffing and program reductions to close the gap.

"There is not a financial path to operate the status quo that we have today," Superintendent Dr. Bryant said as he opened the public FY27 briefing, calling the budget ‘‘structural’’ and warning the board that decisions this month will shape FY28 as well. Andy Ratliff, the district's chief financial officer, told the board ‘‘we are facing about a $90,000,000 deficit,’’ citing flat state funding, exhausted one‑time reserves and rising labor and operating costs.

The presentation outlined how the deficit emerged: several years of largely flat state base student allocation funding, declines in adjusted enrollment, and a recent increase in the municipality's required local contribution that, staff said, shifts costs to local taxpayers while reducing state shares. Staff said the district has drawn down reserves and used one‑time funds in prior years — including about $50 million from fund balance in FY26 — and now has limited unassigned balance remaining (staff projected about $8.1 million available at year end).

To close the FY27 gap, the administration proposed a mix of measures: reducing the district office footprint and academic services personnel (Sven Gustafson said academic services includes 219 positions and the proposal would reduce about 48 of them, or roughly 22 percent), trimming school‑based positions tied to enrollment declines, changing specialist…