Wrangell is No. 16 on the statewide priority list and unlikely to receive any school repair money this year from the state’s Major Maintenance Grant Fund.
The list, prepared each year by the Alaska Department of Education after reviewing engineering and condition reports on school buildings, determines which districts receive state funding for their priority repair and rebuilding projects.
The Wrangell School District had requested $6.5 million in state money that it would use with $3.5 million approved by voters in 2022 to make $10 million of repairs to all three schools in the community, fixing or replacing roofs, heating and ventilation systems and controls, windows, siding, insulation and other parts of the decades-old buildings.
Legislators and the governor each year set an appropriation and the Department of Education covers the state’s share of project costs on the list until the money runs out. This year’s list of 97 projects totals almost $250 million in requests for state aid, similar to past years.
It would take almost $43 million in funding to get down to Wrangell’s 16th-place ranking on the list — the department has not had enough money to make it past No. 10 in recent years. Legislators appropriated significantly more money to the program in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy used his veto powers to eliminate or reduce funding for school repairs each year.
The governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 — which legislators will start reviewing when they convene in Juneau on Jan. 16 — would fund only the top two projects on the list. Legislators could increase the funding in the budget, but the governor could veto down the amount as he has done in the past.
The borough, which owns the school buildings, paid for a comprehensive engineering inspection of the structures as part of its application for state aid. The report identified more than $40 million in potential repairs and improvements, which the school district narrowed down to $10 million as its top-priority work.
After voters in October 2022 approved a $3.5 million bond issue to cover the local share of the $10 million for repairs, borough officials sold the bonds and invested the money while waiting to see if the state contributes anything to the work.
But the borough cannot wait too long. Under federal law, the borough has to spend most of the $3.5 million by January 2026, explained Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma, who also serves as the borough’s finance director.
If Wrangell does not receive any state funds this year, it could try again next year for a higher ranking on the Department of Education priority list. But if it falls short again in 2025, it likely would need to go ahead and prepare a work plan that fits its limited $3.5 million budget.
“We’ve got a little time,” Villarma said the week before Christmas. If nothing arrives from the state, “we’ll have to spend what we have and make do with it.”
Rather than put all its hopes on the Major Maintenance Grant Fund, the borough has designated the Stikine Middle School roof replacement as its top priority for a federally funded Community Development Block Grant this year.
Most of the middle school roof is almost 30 years ago. Replacement is estimated at almost $1.5 million.
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