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Parents, teachers and students urge board to restore immersion, arts and other programs amid $90M shortfall
Summary
Hundreds of public commenters urged the Anchorage School District to restore language-immersion teachers, Bowman Open Optional seats, fine-arts staffing and other programs cut under FY27 budget reductions, saying the cuts threaten program stability and community trust.
Dozens of parents, students, teachers and community advocates told the Anchorage School District board on April 21 that proposed staffing and program cuts risk dismantling long-standing programs and eroding community trust.
Students spoke first in the public-comment hour, with a high-school student describing winter darkness and seasonal affective disorder and urging the district to teach seasonal mental-health coping strategies and consider low-cost light therapy devices. Many student speakers then testified in favor of program stability, including Bowman Open Optional (BOP) parents and students who asked the board to restore BOP kindergarten capacity to 50 slots and warned that cutting to 25 seats threatens the program’s multi-age structure…
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