By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 12, 2026 – The Anchorage Assembly is preparing to formally remind the Anchorage School Board that it asked for an equal seat at the table as the district considers closing and consolidating schools.
A resolution scheduled for the Assembly’s Sept. 15 meeting acknowledges at the outset something that the School Board often minimizes during debates over education funding: Anchorage has fewer school-age children, and some school closures may be necessary.
But the measure also delivers a carefully worded rebuke to the board over how it has handled the politically difficult process.
The resolution says the public has received “minimal notice and opportunity to comment” about previous school closures. It warns that inadequate closure procedures erode public trust, jeopardize voter support for education funding and impose costs on students, families and the wider community.
The dispute dates to a June 5 joint meeting of the Assembly and School Board. School Board President Carl Jacobs proposed creating an advisory committee made up primarily of board members, with one Assembly member serving as a liaison.
Assembly members objected, arguing that school closures affect traffic, neighborhoods, municipal planning, property values and the future use of public buildings. The two bodies then unanimously approved a motion asking the Assembly chair and School Board president to propose a joint committee with equal representation within 30 days.
That is not what happened.
On July 16, the School Board created its own Anchorage School Board Rightsizing Advisory Committee, giving the Assembly only one nonvoting liaison position. The resolution notes that the School Board committee is also scheduled to end its work at the close of 2026, although decisions about consolidating schools and reusing the buildings will have consequences lasting well beyond that date.
The School Board later discussed extending its committee’s work through May 2027. According to the district’s Aug. 4 meeting recap, board members supported the longer timeline, while discussion of a separate joint committee with the Assembly was postponed because of time constraints.
The Assembly resolution is restrained in tone, but its frustration is still clear. It refers to the Assembly’s “expressed, repeated request” for a joint rightsizing committee in which Assembly and School Board members would have equal representation and voting power.
It also cites an Aug. 13 resolution from the municipal Budget Advisory Commission urging municipal leaders to hold joint budget work sessions, consider shared fiscal trade-offs and use neighborhood listening sessions, surveys and community partnerships to reach residents who rarely participate in formal hearings.
The underlying enrollment issue is not new. Anchorage’s school-age population has declined, leaving the district with more buildings and classroom capacity than it needs. While the district regularly argues that state funding is inadequate, the Assembly resolution makes clear that additional money does not eliminate the need to match the district’s facilities with the number of students it actually serves.
The measure would not itself close a school. Instead, it would put the Assembly formally on record as again requesting a long-term, collaborative process for deciding which buildings should remain open and what should happen to properties that are no longer used as schools.
The Sept. 15 Assembly meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the Z.J. Loussac Library. The public hearing portion begins at 6 pm.
5 thoughts on “Anchorage Assembly presses School Board for equal role in school closures”
There is do much real estate property of the schools. The closed properties will make land available to developers.
As long as Anchorage politics maintains its a pro-death opinions regarding abortion and care for its most vulnerable. Enrollment numbers will not be going up. If we conservatives are lucky we’ll see more families pulling their kids out of ASD and other Alaska public schools for homeschooling or a private school.
I saw they closed Lake Otis Elementary and now the new home to that German immersion charter. I assume they moved the district students into Tudor Elementary a little further down south on lake Otis road.
That German Immersion school has moved around so many times they should just leave ASD all together and become a private school. Its students come from a financial background their parents afford private school tuition.
Neither Carl Jacobs nor Jarett Bryantt are willing to promote effective communications within the community. For both men it’s “my way or the highway” and the closure of the Campbell STEM Elementary School program. These two decided that their decision to close this high-performing school was an excellent idea and the rest of us were expected to get over ourselves if he disagreed. Now a new process with full assembly participation in school closure decision-making is too much for Jacobs and Bryantt to accept. Under no circumstances will these two men willingly give up some of their power. In response, I assert that the assembly should demand full participation on decisions such as this school closures (and probably other topics, too).
At this point, nothing positive at ASD can happen with Bryantt as superintendent and Jacobs as school board president. I look forward to the time when both can be shown the door!
This bunch of nitwits at the ASS Emblywon’t be any better. They’re just grasping for more power
Precisely.
They grabbed executive power to neuter Bronson, they’re grasping at the APD, and now the schools as well.
Golly gee, has anything like this ever happened before in the history of mankind?