Community schools closing

MAT-SU -- Community schools as we know them will be gone in less than two months. At the request of Gov. Frank Murkowski, House Bill 165 repeals the program under which the state provides assistance for school districts to develop and start operating community school programs, and, as of Thursday, the bill had passed through the legislature. It only awaits final approval from the governor, who proposed the bill.

In response to the impending lack of funds -- about $50,000 to the Valley -- the Mat-Su school district has prepared a new fee process for use of public schools, set to begin July 1. Scott Schwald, operations and maintenance director for the school district, presented a first reading of the new policy at Wednesday night's school board meeting.

Use of public facilities by youth groups and nonprofit organizations during school hours -- Monday through Friday -- will not require a charge under the new policy, Schwald said, but for-profit groups wishing to use the facilities will be charged a fee. During non-school hours, however -- loosely defined as when there is no staff at the building, such as weekends -- all but district activities will be charged a use fee of $60 per hour under the policy proposal, and any event with attendance of more than 500 people will require a fee of $120 per hour. Basically, Schwald told the school board members, any weekend activity that is not directly school related will require fees under the policy if the board adopts it. The fees will enable school facilities to continue to be used, he said, by generating sufficient funds to pay for after-hours custodial care and staffing of the buildings -- funds lost through HB 165.

There may be a silver lining to the change in policy, Schwald said. The proposal calls for a central tracking and accounting system that will ensure no over-booking and entail less work for individual school administrations, he said. Currently, individual schools book activities with permission from the principal, Schwald said. With the new policy in place, requests will go directly to his office where staff will verify nonprofit status if necessary, insurance and contact information before booking the group or organization. People will still be able to go to the individual school to request use of the facility, he said, but there will be less for that school's administrators to do.

"We will be doing business," Schwald said, "just in a different format."

The result may be loss of some services and increased rates, but Schwald said he feels those mostly affected by the change will be commercial users. Also, he said Wednesday, if the borough grants funding to the school district at a higher rate, they may be able to offer more later.

The proposed policy will result in two part-time employee layoffs, Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle said at the meeting, one in Talkeetna and one at Wasilla Middle School.

Although community schools as a program will no longer exist, the changes are not expected to greatly affect youth organizations such as Boys' and Girls' Club or those sponsored by schools, Schwald said.

"We are trying to make the least impact possible," Schwald said, but pointed out that lack of funding requires use of the facilities to be self-supporting.

The school board is expected to take action on the policy change at the June 18 school board meeting.