ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The Anchorage School Board voted not to close Lake Otis Elementary school and Fire Lake Elementary School at their meeting on Tuesday night.
Fire Lake Elementary School survived in a vote of 3 in favor of closure to 4 against. The board voted 1 in favor of closure to 6 against to keep Lake Otis Elementary School open.
Proposed School Closures
In early October, ASD Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt announced he was moving forward with a recommendation to the Anchorage School Board to close Fire Lake Elementary and Lake Otis Elementary school. The reasoning behind recommendation, Bryantt said, was the low enrollment numbers the schools had. Fire Lake Elementary, he said, was at around 48% capacity. Meanwhile, Lake Otis Elementary, he said, was just over 50%.
“Now, why is that an issue? Because when schools continuously lose enrollment, they lose services. So, these are schools that would be more likely to have a combination classroom, more likely to share services with another elementary school,” Bryantt previously told Alaska’s News Source…