Alaska offers college possession to cash-strapped rural districts : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5d%2F9b%2Fcd3ee6bf4676b93f5a2e8b814677%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03716.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5d%2F9b%2Fcd3ee6bf4676b93f5a2e8b814677%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03716.jpg" class="img" alt="A girl in a yellow jacket with long black hair is the only child swinging on an outdoor swing set. " fetchpriority="high"/> The primary week of faculty in Aniak, Alaska. Alaska's schooling division has transferred possession of 54 buildings to rural public college districts since 2003, together with Aniak's elementary college. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK For greater than a decade, the Kuspuk Faculty District requested Alaska's schooling division for the cash to repair a rotting elementary college. The college, within the small and predominantly Indigenous group of Aniak in western Alaska, was in deep want of repairs. The close by Kuskokwim River had flooded the 88-year-old constructing a number of occasions. The partitions had been moldy. Sewage was leaking into an area under the college's kitchen.

In 2018, the division lastly accepted the college district's $18.6 million funding request to construct a brand new elementary college wing onto Aniak's center and highschool constructing, which was owned by the state.

However on Web page 4 of the funding contract for the challenge, Alaska's schooling division included a catch.

"The State would solely construct the brand new college if the native college board agreed to personal it when accomplished," former superintendent James Anderson mentioned in an e-mail to KYUK Public Media, NPR and ProPublica.

In the long run, Anderson agreed. He nervous that if he did not, it will jeopardize children' well being and security. However he mentioned he additionally nervous concerning the monetary and authorized implications of the settlement for the college district, the place practically 30% of households stay in poverty. If the state owned the constructing, it will be chargeable for repairs and legal responsibility. Anderson nervous that if the district took possession of the college, it is perhaps on the hook.

In keeping with a evaluate of deeds and challenge funding agreements, Alaska's schooling division has transferred possession of 54 buildings to rural public college districts since 2003. That is practically 4 occasions as many in contrast with the twenty years prior. That very same 12 months, a brand new clause appeared within the funding agreements that districts signal with the state: In return for the cash to make repairs to run-down faculties or to construct new ones, college districts must conform to personal the buildings.

Alaska schooling division spokesperson Bryan Zadalis mentioned in an e-mail that the division did not have documentation about why the contract language modified. He wrote that "the primary clauses of the challenge settlement are boilerplate language" and had been final reviewed by Alaska's Division of Regulation in 2019.

Seven present or former superintendents representing rural college districts with pupil populations which might be predominantly Alaska Native mentioned it is unclear whether or not a change of possession additionally adjustments a college district's duty to take care of its amenities. The districts cannot use tax income to pay for schooling as a result of the communities they serve are unincorporated. Consequently, the state is required by legislation to pay for development and upkeep in lots of rural college districts, however it typically takes years to safe that cash. As a result of the funds are arduous to return by, superintendents have additionally mentioned they really feel stress to signal the contracts.

"We're all kind of looking for one of the best, most optimum use of very lean assets," mentioned Hannibal Anderson, superintendent of the Decrease Kuskokwim Faculty District, Alaska's largest rural district, masking an space practically the scale of West Virginia. "There's little or no room for negotiation."

Final summer time, after practically twenty years, two extra Kuspuk district faculties, upriver from Aniak, acquired funding from the state to treatment extreme structural issues and severe well being and security dangers that the district has reported to the state's schooling division for years. In each instances, the cash wasn't sufficient to repair all the things, however superintendent Madeline Aguillard mentioned it was higher than nothing, so she signed contracts that additionally required the district to personal these faculties.

"What selection did I've?" she requested.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8e%2Fed%2F0b67aa184b92a9dd22af4dfbdfce%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-04333.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8e%2Fed%2F0b67aa184b92a9dd22af4dfbdfce%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-04333.jpg" class="img" alt="A woman with blond hair and clasped hands stands in front of a wooden building, wearing a teal and green top with moose decorations." loading="lazy"/> Madeline Aguillard, superintendent of the Kuspuk Faculty District, is negotiating with the state over possession of faculty buildings. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK Over the past 12 months, KYUK, NPR and ProPublica have documented a well being and security disaster inside many rural college buildings throughout Alaska. Water strains and sewer techniques are backing up. Roofs are leaking and foundations are crumbling. Till this summer time, at the very least one college was in peril of collapse. The state has largely ignored lots of of requests from rural college districts to repair deteriorating buildings. Among the worst circumstances exist at state-owned faculties.

Dropping Sleep Over Legal responsibility Not like most different U.S. states, the place faculties are owned domestically, Alaska's schooling division owns practically half of the 128 rural faculties open within the state in the present day. Generally, college districts personal the rest.

In an interview, schooling division workers mentioned shifting possession from the state to districts cuts crimson tape and provides districts extra native management over how the constructing is maintained and used.

"We're very a lot a hands-off landlord, because it had been," mentioned Lori Weed, the schooling division's college finance supervisor. "So the hope was that districts would take title to websites in order that they might have the management, as a result of we have been so fingers off."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe6%2F84%2F845970cc493ba7845bec941598ee%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03566.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe6%2F84%2F845970cc493ba7845bec941598ee%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03566.jpg" class="img" alt="A large hole in a ceiling with paint peeling around it." loading="lazy"/> A broken ceiling in Aniak's highschool in August. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK There are a number of overlapping Alaska legal guidelines governing college possession. Collectively, they permit college districts to take over supervision of faculty development or upkeep tasks and to provoke a switch of possession. None of these legal guidelines require faculties to just accept possession; one says a college board "might" take that motion.

Nonetheless, in some instances, the schooling division's contracts say that college boards "shall" take over possession so as to obtain funding.

Howard Trickey, an lawyer who has spent most of his profession representing public faculties in Alaska, mentioned the state may very well be misinterpreting the legislation. "'Could' means you do not have to do one thing," he mentioned. "So to interpret that statute to say it is obligatory is overreaching."

The contract for Aniak's elementary college challenge says the district "agrees to conform" with a number of circumstances and "shall request title curiosity of the brand new facility." In keeping with the schooling division, districts are permitted to request the removing of this provision, and it would not require the switch to ensure that a district to obtain challenge funding.

Aguillard mentioned she's nonetheless making an attempt to barter with the state. Data present Alaska's schooling division nonetheless owns the amenities used for schooling in Aniak.

Trickey additionally believes that such possession adjustments might create large dangers for rural college districts in Alaska.

"Suppose a facility was in such disrepair and had such life questions of safety as insufficient electrical system, and the college catches on fireplace and burns down and kids are injured," Trickey mentioned. "If the state owned it, the state could be chargeable for these accidents."

A workers member with the schooling division mentioned there hasn't been a current case the place somebody acquired harm. "I might argue that if one thing occurs, it should develop into a authorized battle," mentioned Heather Heineken, the division's director of finance and assist companies, who beforehand was finance director for a district in Alaska's Inside.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F28%2F89%2F797bb88841b5a88cb94df7ed722c%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03761.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F28%2F89%2F797bb88841b5a88cb94df7ed722c%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03761.jpg" class="img" alt="Three kids climb a rope structure." loading="lazy"/> Aniak college students play exterior on the playground. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK Rod Morrison, superintendent of the Southeast Island Faculty District, mentioned he loses sleep over legal responsibility in his faculties, which endure from leaking roofs, black mould and, at one college, a nonfunctional fireplace suppression system. The state transferred possession of that college, in Thorne Bay, to the district in 1998.

In August, Morrison requested the state to permit him to make use of $300,000 left over from a state-funded challenge at one other college in his district to deal with the hearth suppression system. In September, Michael Butikofer, amenities supervisor for Alaska's schooling division, denied the request, saying it might not be authorized. He inspired Morrison to submit a brand new software for the funds to repair the suppression system as a substitute.

"Once they denied the switch of the funds or refused to repair my fireplace suppression system, then I requested the state to take legal responsibility of that facility," Morrison mentioned. "Then in fact they mentioned no, they don't seem to be going to take legal responsibility for that."

In a response letter, Butikofer instructed Morrison that the "final duty for day-to-day security and facility operations lies with the district."

The district has made 17 funding requests to the state since 2009 for the cash to switch the system. Throughout a Senate Finance Committee listening to in Juneau this spring, Morrison offered lawmakers with an enormous gentle bulb, blackened by a brief within the electrical wiring within the college's gymnasium ceiling. Morrison mentioned it is not a matter of if, however when, a hearth may eat the constructing.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2920x1280+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2F9c%2F895b10e54250b11b151d7773d7eb%2Frod-morrison-trio.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2920x1280+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2F9c%2F895b10e54250b11b151d7773d7eb%2Frod-morrison-trio.jpg" class="img" alt="Three images grouped together. The photo on the left shows a person's hand holds a burnt out and blackened light bulb. Center: Water leaks from a ceiling and floods a room with ceiling tiles on the floor. Right: A close-up of broken wood." loading="lazy"/> Rod Morrison, superintendent of the Southeast Island Faculty District, mentioned he loses sleep over legal responsibility in his faculties, together with fireplace hazards (left), leaking roofs (heart) and structural harm (proper). Rod Morrison cover caption

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Rod Morrison A long time of Contamination Alaska inherited dozens of faculties from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) within the three a long time after it gained statehood in 1959. Throughout these a long time, state officers complained about being burdened with faculties that had been already in dangerous form.

These faculties additionally got here with different legal responsibility dangers. Some buildings stand on land beforehand utilized by the navy, the place extremely poisonous and risky chemical substances have been discovered. And leaking gasoline tanks have contaminated the property at dozens of rural faculties, in response to the Alaska Division of Environmental Conservation.

That was the case with a BIA college within the Bering Sea group of Toksook Bay, which the state acquired in 1990. There, a corroded pipe leaked 5,000 gallons of gasoline into the crawl house of a upkeep constructing related to the elementary college. The town of Toksook Bay sued each the college district and the state, arguing that the leak contaminated the town's water system, broken land and precipitated sickness. The state Legislature accepted over one million {dollars} in settlement funds for the town.

In response, the Legislature handed a legislation in 1997 that restricted the state and rural college districts' legal responsibility for chemical spills on their land. Nonetheless, the legislation doesn't absolve the state or districts from paying for cleanups, which might value thousands and thousands.

Invoice O'Connell, who manages contaminated website cleanup for the state Division of Environmental Conservation, mentioned paying for cleanups is more durable in rural districts. In municipal college districts, native taxes may help cowl the fee. However rural districts depend on the state for practically all of their funding.

"The cash that the college districts get is simply to teach the scholars," O'Connell mentioned. "There is not any consideration of contaminated website cleanup. It is actually simply form of an unmet want."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0c%2Ffc%2F770b8c4b4f1ab12ec0f9b42872c3%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-04035.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0c%2Ffc%2F770b8c4b4f1ab12ec0f9b42872c3%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-04035.jpg" class="img" alt="A close-up of kids eating food from blue lunch trays." loading="lazy"/> College students eat lunch through the first week of faculty at Aniak. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F71%2Fe5%2F862a4e3743528fb4da94089014fc%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03938.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F71%2Fe5%2F862a4e3743528fb4da94089014fc%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-03938.jpg" class="img" alt="Four students sit at desks as a teacher stands behind a lectern at the front of the room." loading="lazy"/> College students in math class throughout their first week of faculty in Aniak. The superintendent says the state required the college district to take possession of the brand new elementary college. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK He pointed to an previous constructing in Aniak that served the U.S. Air Drive through the Chilly Struggle as notably regarding. He mentioned the legacy of extremely poisonous contaminants began earlier than the constructing was used for schooling. The state-owned constructing, as soon as utilized by the college district for vocational coaching, has been demolished, however its basis stands about 200 yards from the college the place children nonetheless take courses on a regular basis. O'Connell mentioned cleanup on the website was formally accomplished this 12 months, however there are nonetheless contaminants under the floor and it's unlikely any new development will ever be allowed there.

In 1997, the identical 12 months the legal responsibility legislation handed in Alaska, a bunch of fogeys sued the state over circumstances inside rural public faculties the place their children spent their days. When the case was settled in 2011, the choose's consent decree referred to as on the state to pay for 5 new faculties. On the time, the state owned 4 of these buildings. The state paid to construct the colleges however required every of the districts to just accept a switch of possession.

Ken Truitt, an lawyer who represented the schooling division in 2003, when the possession requirement appeared in development and upkeep funding agreements, mentioned he doesn't recall being consulted on the contracts or the addition of that language.

Tim Mearig, a former amenities upkeep director for the schooling division, mentioned that within the early 2000s, management believed "it was of no profit to the state to carry title, and it was a major profit to districts to handle their very own property."

Mearig mentioned a change of possession was finally "baked in" to challenge agreements.

Some possession and legal responsibility questions come all the way down to what the state's structure requires. Alaska's schooling commissioner, Deena Bishop, mentioned the structure is meant to provide native communities most management and that the division is following the legislation. However Trickey, the longtime lawyer for Alaska college districts, mentioned the transfers "do not relieve the state of that ongoing, persevering with constitutional responsibility."

"The structure says the state has an obligation to determine and preserve a system of public faculties open to the youngsters of the state," he mentioned. "And that simply essentially and principally begins with satisfactory faculties."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F44%2F55%2Ff572929a4ced888e1d1a11d5c526%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-04651.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F44%2F55%2Ff572929a4ced888e1d1a11d5c526%2F20250822-salgado-ak-crumbling-schools-04651.jpg" class="img" alt="Two students run on a dirt road toward a building surrounded by yellow and green grass and trees." loading="lazy"/> College students run towards the end line in a cross-country race in Aniak this August. Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK cover caption

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Gabby Hiestand Salgado/KYUK This story is a collaboration from NPR's Station Investigations Crew, which helps native investigative journalism, member station KYUK, and ProPublica's Native Reporting Community.

Emily Schwing reported this story whereas collaborating within the College of Southern California Annenberg Heart for Well being Journalism's Nationwide Fellowship. She additionally acquired assist from the Heart's Fund for Reporting on Youngster Effectively-being and its Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Well being Journalism.