Members of an academic policy committee for a proposed Nikolaevsk Charter School presented an initial application to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education last week for consideration of the school’s establishment.

The application comes after the board’s vote to close Nikolaevsk School, which took effect June 30, due to low student enrollment and the district’s continued grappling with a multi-million dollar deficit and lack of state funding. Nikolaevsk School was one of nine schools in the district considered for closure for the upcoming academic year. The idea of transforming Nikolaevsk School into a charter school was discussed between Nikolaevsk residents and district leadership during a community meeting in April.

Blake Sawyer, a Nikolaevsk parent and president of the charter school academic policy committee, presented the APC’s application to the board during their work session on Monday, Oct. 20. Also present to advocate for the charter’s establishment were a number of other Nikolaevsk parents and members of the APC.

According to a video provided to the board, the charter’s model will provide three “distinct pathways” for enrolled students — a Montessori-based program for kindergarten through eighth grade, a high school program centered around career and technical education, and a program designed to support and provide in-person education opportunities for local homeschooled students.

The charter’s application also includes in their institutional beliefs “genuine respect for the local culture, which was founded on freedom and autonomy by the Russian Old Believers in a rural, agricultural setting.”

“By affording flexibility for subsistence and agricultural lifestyles through integrating homeschool with on-campus learning, we support the educational needs of Nikolaevsk,” the application reads. APC members later clarified that they did not intend to pursue a formalized Russian immersion program at this time.

Sawyer said that since Nikolaevsk School’s closure, the only alternatives area students have are to be homeschooled or to transfer to another school in Ninilchik, Anchor Point or Homer, which parents in the past have also said brings additional burden to students and families because of the lengthy commute — particularly in inclement weather — and limited access to existing bus routes.

“We just felt like it would be so amazing if we could do something,” he said of the APC’s formation. “This isn’t a competition of … a school that’s there — there’s nothing there anymore. What we’re trying to do is fill a void that exists for the community that was left there.”

KPBSD Assistant Superintendent Kari Dendurent sought additional information regarding the proposed student body makeup according to intent-to-enroll forms provided by the APC, as well as some financial aspects of the committee’s application.

“The reason why I bring this up is just to find out a little bit more information,” she said. “I know that you’re looking into doing that CTE pathway — I recognize that some of those students are traditional and some of those students may be hybrid, and some of those students also may be the homeschool or correspondence, but I just wasn’t sure if the conversation has been had in meeting the graduation requirements for those students.”

School board member Kelley Cizek asked if there was a model in existence elsewhere comparable to what the Nikolaevsk APC was proposing in their multiple pathway curriculum plan.

“Why not just keep it a K-12, with a transition into CTE?” she asked.

Sawyer said that the charter’s model was based on a combination of existing schools, including Twindly Bridge Charter School in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District.

“It has to be tailored for our community,” he said. “So we’re unique in that.”

Mariah Kerrone, another Nikolaevsk parent and APC member, said that other charter schools in the Valley are now taking in homeschool students in addition to their regular enrolled students.

“One of the reasons we decided to incorporate the homeschool program was, after speaking with as many parents as we could in the community, a lot of them just weren’t quite willing to give up the freedom that comes with homeschooling, or because of our geographic location and and dealing with bad roads and no bus transportation to and from the school,” she said. “A lot of parents just aren’t willing to completely give up homeschooling, but they do want in-person participation for their kids, and they’re really craving programs that they can go to close to home.”

The Montessori pathway, she said, came out of the community’s efforts to “get a better model for the community started.”

Cizek had additional questions on how homeschool enrollment at Nikolaevsk Charter School would bring funding into the district.

Natalie Thomas, vice chairperson of the Nikolaevsk Charter School APC, said homeschool students would be enrolled in the charter school and “funded at 0.9 BSA.”

“So from that funding that comes to our budget, we would then give them an allotment. It works similar in the way Connections brings in funding to KPBSD and then that’s reallocated to the families,” she said.

Thomas also said that the charter would intend to have a certified homeschool advisor on campus.

Having a number of additional questions — largely budgetary — following their initial charter application review last week, the board requested that the APC address a list of concerns and bring answers back to another work session on Nov. 3, ahead of the school board’s next regular meeting.

The board’s final deadline to issue a decision on the charter application is Nov. 26. A special meeting is scheduled on Nov. 17 for this purpose.

Per state requirements, the school board must forward the application to the State Board of Education and Early Development for review and approval no later than 30 days after issuing their decision. Dendurent said Monday that the board’s decision is currently expected to be sent to the DEED by the final week of November.

A full recording of the Oct. 20 work session and the Nikolaevsk charter application are available on the KPBSD BoardDocs website.