Anchorage School Board restores 16.5 nursing positions

On Tuesday February 24th, the Anchorage School Board, through two amendments sponsored by member Kelly Lessens, restored 16.5 nursing positions to the Anchorage School District. We were relieved and heartened at this turn of events. The future remains uncertain and many schools will suffer the impact of cuts. Our presence in each school will be more important than ever.  The One Nurse/One School vision lives on!

Stay tuned for more posts.

School board to deliberate cuts and closures Tuesday

This Tuesday, February 24, 2026, the Anchorage School Board will be meeting to vote on ASD-recommended closures and efficiencies, and apparently, the budget.  This seems to be more than they will have time to do in one night, since there are likely to be several amendments to the proposal, however we plan to stay tuned and show up in person, too. The meeting will be at the Ed Center, starting at 7 PM.  If desired, you can visit the link below to submit written testimony.  There will be no in-person testimony, except for five individuals who were unable to testify last week.

The amended draft budget, introduced last week, would reduce the nursing cuts from 25 to 18.5.  This remains unacceptable!  No matter what model is proposed, these cuts will make full time nursing coverage in our schools a thing of the past.  

Below are some samples of written testimony. You may send your testimony individually to school board members at the emails below. For more examples, visit the Talking Points page. Be sure you focus on how damaging the current number of cuts would be in ANY model.

One Nurse/One School in the News

Both the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU TV have done spots on the Anchorage School District budget crisis, including a consideration of the importance of having nurses in schools, full time.  Read the article and watch the TV spot below.

We Testified at the School Board

Feb 18, 2026 8:01 AM

The February 17th school board meeting was well attended by our nurses and concerned families, who testified on school and program closures. There was so much testimony that the meeting did not end until Midnight, and even then, 5 in-person testifiers will have to wait for the next meeting, February 24th. The District rolled out an amended budget and proposed cutting only 18.5 nurse positions, instead of the 25 originally proposed, but still supported a regional model.

Read more »

Important upcoming dates 

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 6 pm (PLEASE ATTEND EVEN if not testifying. Wear your One Nurse One School T shirts)

  • Administration will formally present consolidation and financial efficiency options to the School Board.
  • Public feedback may be provided before or during the meeting, including in-person, telephonic, and written testimony.
  • If you are going to testify in person, you MUST sign up by midnight on Feb 16th - For more information on this, click here.

February 17-24, 2026

February 24, 2026

  • Special School Board meeting is scheduled where the Board intends to vote on a final budget. However, the Board still has not voted on consolidation measures, so we would not be surprised to see the final budget vote be delayed, again. Stay tuned!  There will be no public testimony at this meeting, aside from the five individuals who could not give their testimony on February 17th. 

 

See Talking Points and Testimony on Talking Points page

See Research supporting One Nurse One School on Research Page

Our message

School-based nursing care, with a dedicated nurse assigned to each school, is the best way to promote the health and safety of our children.

Please tell the Anchorage School Board that, in this time of budget cuts, they should NOT abandon the One Nurse: One School policy, NOT lay off 25 nursing positions, and NOT move to a Regional Model of school nursing. 

The Regional Model of school nursing, in which a team of nurses serves a regional group of schools, is a way to hire fewer nurses to do the same amount of work. It has been tried in other jurisdictions and has been shown to be deficient in providing optimal care for our many students with chronic conditions, for our students with mental health challenges, and to address emergencies as they arise. We believe that a change to the Regional Model will not only reduce the quality of our care for students, it will have many hidden costs not yet revealed.

Please follow the links on this site for access to research, talking points, and for news on how and where to testify. Information will be updated regularly.