Mat-Su voters to decide on charter school funding, fire service changes

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su Borough Assembly is sending a $58 million charter school construction bond measure to voters in November. A second measure will ask some voters to approve an administrative change to the Willow and Caswell fire service areas.
• The measures were approved for the ballot during an assembly meeting Tuesday. If passed, the school bond measure could increase property taxes by up to $31.40 per $100,000 of assessed value, although the final amount could be reduced by school payments toward the cost. The fire area change would lower property tax rates for Caswell residents.
• The school construction bond measure may still be amended before going to voters to add funding for maintenance at some neighborhood schools in the district. That change would have to be made by the end of August to appear on the November ballot, according to borough rules.

A proposal to fund nearly $60 million in building construction for three borough charter schools will go before voters in November. The proposal was approved by the borough assembly on Tuesday.

A second ballot measure, also approved Tuesday, asks voters to greenlight an administrative change to fire service areas in Willow and Caswell that would result in lower property tax rates for Caswell residents.

Both measures passed the assembly unanimously. The school bond measure will appear on all borough ballots in November; the fire service area measure will appear only before voters in Willow and Caswell. The measures will go into effect only if approved by voters. 

Consideration of a second proposed bond measure, which would approve and fund more than $30 million in road projects, was postponed to Aug. 20.

The school measure asks voters to approve the sale of $58 million in bonds to finance the construction or expansion of facilities for Academy Charter School in downtown Palmer, Birchtree Charter School between Palmer and Wasilla, and American Charter Academy in Meadow Lakes.

Approval of the measure could increase property taxes by as much as $31.40 per $100,000 of assessed value, although the final tax increase could be lower because the proposal requires the schools to make payments toward some of the costs.

Charter schools in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District are independently operated public schools that receive the same state and borough funding sources as neighborhood schools.

While neighborhood schools are typically housed in buildings owned and operated by the borough, most Mat-Su charter schools lease their buildings and use a percentage of their annual funding to cover the costs.

The proposed construction is designed to improve charter school facilities, move them into buildings owned by the borough, and make room for more students, according to the proposal.

About a dozen parents, teachers, and administrators representing the three schools spoke in support of the ballot measure during Tuesday's assembly meeting, describing overcrowded classrooms and waiting lists for enrollment. Parents and officials at the American Charter Academy, which houses its school in buildings off Parks Highway designed as a strip mall, said they regularly face uneven heating, rodents in classrooms, and vagrancy around the building.

If approved by voters, the bonds would fund new buildings for American and Birchtree and an expansion for Academy.

Read more about the proposed construction and related costs.

As approved, the school bond request includes funding only for charter school construction. A proposal by Assembly member Stephanie Nowers during Tuesday's meeting would have added more than $15 million for major maintenance projects at about 20 neighborhood schools throughout Mat-Su, bringing the total bond request to $73.4 million.

Adding those projects could create buy-in for the proposal among all borough voters, not just those with personal ties to charter schools, she said.

Some assembly members said adding the projects would make the measure’s price tag too high.

The maintenance proposal was defeated 4-2, with Assembly members Nowers and Tim Hale voting to approve it.

A selection of the maintenance projects could be offered as an amendment and added to the ballot measure during the assembly's next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 20.

Measures proposed for voter consideration must be approved by the assembly by late August to appear on November ballots, according to borough rules.

-- Amy Bushatz can be contacted at abushatz@matsusentinel.com.