001Good afternoon everyone. We'll call the Tuesday, May 5th ASD schoolboard work session to order. It is 4:01 p.m. in the boardroom. Present are board members Higgins, Lessons, Jacobs, Hollowman, and Bellamy. Uh, member Wilson hasn't joined us online quite yet, but she will. And I understand member Donley will be joining us soon as well. U, we've called ourselves to order and engaged in a roll call. Item B1 uh is for discussion. Uh, we'll actually uh go out of order and go to item B2 first, which is the student nutrition update. Um, and Dr. Brent, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'll ask our uh student nutrition um team to um come up and present a brief presentation to the board on some positive developments regarding student nutrition. >> Welcome everyone. if you could
002introduce yourself for our record and then begin. Okay. [sighs and gasps] Hi everyone. My name is Marcy McIll. Uh first of all, Mr. President, board members, thank you for letting us have time here to talk about the good things that are going on in student nutrition. Um I am Marcy McIll. I'm the senior director of student nutrition and I'm going to I'm co-presenting with Juliana and Katie and I'm going to have them do uh an introduction. Hi everyone. Good evening. First, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today to present to you all. I'm Dr. Juliana Cohen. I am a professor of nutrition, director of the center for health innovation research and policy at Marramat College and professor of nutrition at the Harvard Thchan School of Public Health. and I have have
003had the immense pleasure of collaborating with Anchorage School District um since 2019 now um when they've originally piloted the wellness initiative that we'll be in part discussing today. Um and one thing I was saying earlier is that I've had the opportunity to work with school districts across the United States for 20 years now and Anchorage School District is by far one of my favorite school districts I've ever worked with. And hello, my name is Dr. Katie Qua and I'm an associate professor at the University of Alaska. My primary appointment is at the Center for Alaskan Native Health at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but I'm also affiliated here at UAA at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and I'm also faculty at John's Hopkins with their center for indigenous health and I've been a
004collaborator on this product project and our local lead. So, our UAA team has done the data collection on this work um since things began and it's been such a fantastic thing to work on. I do a lot of community- based participatory research. So, be working in partners partnership with the Anchorage School District and with Marramat College on this study. All right. Well, I want to dive in. Um, first I want to talk a little bit about this first slide. I am so proud to be a part of a team where over just under 300 people come together with a unified mission and that's to fuel student success and our vision is to be recognized as an essential pillar of the education environment. And we have been busy doing that for the past three and a
005half years intentionally accomplishing both. We've expanded access. We've expanded or improved our quality and we're building a system to support both. When it comes to expanding access, this past year we've added 13 C schools and that's community eligible provision schools, meaning over 22,000 students have access to free meals, breakfast and lunch every day. We're improving quality. And when it comes to quality, that means that we're we're shifting away from processed foods to more ingredient focused foods. And then when I think about a system, you know, we're the biggest restaurant in the state of Alaska. There's about 80 franchises. And when we think about hiring people, we're now competitive in the food service, the local food service industry. And we're also becoming who we want to attract. which really we're looking for culinary professionals to continue
006this mission and we're investing in those that we do have. We have a lot of phenomenal staff and I want to recognize them. I want to pass it over to Juliana and Katie for just a a second because they're going to take us through the research that that demonstrates the evidence that school meals have on academic and student outcomes. Do we manage the slides? Okay, next slide, please. So just want to give you a little bit of about the broader evidence base around kind of school meals and not just nutrition outcomes but also the broader outcomes that um that students have when they eat school meals. And so first there is a very strong research base that when students not only receive but eat the healthier school meals available, this is associated with improvements in
007academic outcomes for students. And this is in part because we know that there's a lot of benefits to the nutrition that they're consuming that have direct impacts on executive functioning, including things like impulse control. So thinking about their behavior in the classroom, working memory, things like that. So school meals can have a really profound impact on children's academic outcomes. So, for example, one study that was conducted in New York City among about 150,000 students found that when students had on average school meals about um two to I'm sorry, 3 to five days per week, there were gains not only in math and English, but also in school readiness, which was the equivalent of about two months of additional learning per year associated with that consumption of school meals. And so this is in part why
008the environment that Anchorage School District is creating with its school meal service is so incredibly important when we think about not just child nutrition but these learning gains. Next slide please. Okay. No problem. Um, so as I mentioned over the past several years, we've had this opportunity to collaborate with Anchorage School District. Um, and so one of the things that we've been able to do is go to 22 elementary schools across the district and directly measure how much are kids actually consuming. We do something called plate waste, which is the gold standard for measuring what kids eat. Um, so our team at University of Alaska Anchorage, um, has been going in, we collect every single food item and then we weigh it at the end so we know precisely the percent consumed on every single
009child's tray. Um, and more recently, we've had the ability to examine the change um, looking at the traditional meal service um, that's been spearheaded recently. And so this model uses the efficiency of the central kitchen that already exists. Um, but it also enhances temperature control when heating the meals. Um, and also enables children to have more choices and flexibility on the cafeteria line. And what we found when we measured school meal consumption that this resulted in about a 30% increase in both entree and vegetable consumption which translates to about one and a half servings of vegetables additionally consumed per week by students. Additionally recently we've been um surveying teachers getting their feedback on it um and it's been so overwhelmingly positive. Some of the things we've heard is they talk about how like fresh and
010healthy it is. We even had one um teacher say that it makes like makes it feel like they're getting a meal from home and they talk about how excited the students are to eat these meals and literally use the word love. They love these meals and as a nutrition researcher I never hear that about school meals. So that's been really exciting to see. Um we've also been examining the elementary schools that have implemented the wellness initiative. So, as a very brief reminder, this was in the initiative to ensure students had at least 20 minutes of seated time. So, typically achieved with 25 to 30 minute lunch periods. Um, ensuring um 30 minutes of recess and then also movement break opportunities throughout the school day. Um, and so what we found was first we saw significant
011increases in entree, milk, and fruit consumption with this initiative. We've also been interviewing um teachers and consistently have been hearing about the improvements in the classroom as well with behavior, focus, and attention. Um, additionally, in one of the interviews when a focus group with teachers, I actually had a school nurse come by and say, you know, I feel like nursing visits like hunger visits have been going way down since you started this. So we actually worked with Anchorage School District, got the data and in fact what we found were statistically significant decreases in hunger related visits to the school nurse. On average 30 fewer visits that were hunger related per year within the wellness initiative schools compared to other schools accounting for how many kids were in each of those schools. Um, schools also noticed
012that when um, they scheduled recess first, it created this calmer environment that kind of um, helped as a complement to the longer lunch periods. And again, we saw significant increases in school meal consumption um, with this really easy policy change of just having recess before lunch. Um, Katie, is there anything else that you would like to add? >> So, just one note on our study design. So, as Juliana mentioned, you know, our team was in schools weighing leftovers from school lunches, and this has been a long partnership. So, these numbers that you're seeing here are the result of several years of study. So, we're looking at changes within the same school before and after they implemented the wellness initiative or before and after they implemented the traditional service as well as comparisons of schools that
013have implemented a wellness initiative to those that did not. So, there's a very robust data set. about 10,300 school meals that were weighed over the course of the study. >> Thank you. Um, so I'll turn it back to Marcy to share about how Anchorage School District has been able to kind of apply these findings in practice. All right, next slide. I love this picture. It really says it all. And when you look at this, it really isn't just an operational change. We have changed how students experience how we do food and we've not only shifted from a preack model which has been in existence for just shy of 40 years and now we are able to offer better choice, better presentation and expand our menu. Now, of course, to improve the quality, the shift hasn't
014all just been participation and consumption as Juliana and Katie presented, but it also now creates a pathway which you'll be able to experience for our evening meal in the hall. uh expand our scratch cooking initiative and we're on track for the next three years to expand our menu to reflect 75% from scratch from our central facility and that's pretty impressive. So, we've not only moved from limited choice to increased choice and student autonomy. Students are actually choosing broccoli and carrots and beans and they're eating it and we have hardly any leftovers in the kitchen. That's unprecedented. They've increased the consumption as also indicated in this study. That's more than calories. That is complex carbohydrates, that's lean proteins, that's vitamins A, D, C, and all of those nutrients for health and focus and behavior. So, we
015see the impact that we have on student success. And ultimately, we have moved away from the prepack. We've saved not only food waste, but material waste. And we're now able to redirect those dollars to our food purchases, of course, to focus on ingredients versus pro processed foods. I have a couple of statements from students that are my favorite. The most recent, which is when we served our retro pizza that um our executive chef pulled together very quickly. Uh scratch made dough, scratch sauce, and mozzarella cheese. And it's better than Moose's tooth, by the way. So you have to check it out next time we serve it. Next slide. So at scale, we're also seeing the same pattern. Not only is consumption up, participation is up significantly. In fact, 20% over the past three years. This
016is unheard of. When you look at the national average, it's 3 to 4% at school districts that have intentional growth. We're up 20%. That tells me and that tells us that students are choosing us. There's a lot of competition out there. They can bring their lunch. They can not eat lunch. And that does not support academic success and and the health of the whole child. And with this graph, you see the trend. We all know that enrollment is going down, but we see the contrast of our meals going up in spite of that to the point where where we're on track to serve almost 3.6 million meals from our central facility. That takes a lot of hands to do that work. And it takes intentionality to approach how we accomplish that. So that is a
017two-fold source. We have seen that by adding 13 schools to our C list, that's over 22,000 students or half of our enrollment that now has access to a free meal and our traditional meal service. So when we see that all of these come together, students are going to choose eating over not eating and the outcomes are in the numbers. Next slide, please. All right, I just want to wrap us up. Um, we see here the the trend that the re it's in the research shows that students eat and when our research shows that they're choosing us and all of this together ultimately shows that improved access um improved quality uh shows that it's really a student success strategy and that's where we see ourselves along with the many other support services. Um, and we appreciate
018the support and advocacy. So, unless Katie and Juliana have anything additional, that's all we have, unless you have questions, of course. >> Thank you um for the presentation and for joining us today. I see member Bellamy. >> My grandson came home the other day and he said, "Nana, they had forget what he said they had." And he said, um, they ran out, but they had a they have a table, you know, where you don't throw the food away. He said, I looked and looked and I didn't see anybody put it on the share table or something. So, whatever it was, it was good. And he was looking forward to it. So, uh, but so, thank you guys. Thank you for this. I love the fueling student success because we know when kids eat and uh
019have time to eat, we know that that's a good combination to improving their out their their their outcomes. So the data is it across all uh divisions, elementary, middle, and and high school or is it just more elementary, middle, the data that you've shared with us today? So what we did is we evaluated the wellness initiative which was specifically in those elementary schools. Yeah. So we've been um evaluating that and then because we were already in elementary school has had the opportunity to look at the traditional um meal service as well and then the same with the hunger related visits to the school nurse. Um but I know we are always um we love collaborating with the school district and would welcome any opportunity future collaborations to be able to look at it at the
020higher levels as well. Yes, absolutely. I was about to say the same thing that I know I think we're already talking about next steps or future possibilities and certainly if there are questions that the school board has that they would like us to look into, we'd be open to that. >> And I know that as a nana, I'm really happy that the it's fresh fruits and vegetables and uh and you're right, he's seen somebody eat broccoli besides us. So, he's eating broccoli now. So, thank you for that, too. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Bellamy. Want to know for a record that member Wilson joined us online at 4:03 p.m. Member Donlay joined us uh here in the boardroom at 4:12 p.m. We'll go to Member Hollowman. The member lessons. I just want to say
021I appreciate your outlook on it, the competitive nature of it. Um you as we've learned, you can't make kids eat and as a teacher you can't make them like science either. you can try and every now and then you win, but um I've always wished that there was a state law that said we had to serve salmon once a week because this is Alaska and that's you know, but we're not there yet. And I've always recognized you guys operate under really difficult constraints. Um I hope it shifts in the future to where we can put more money into food service and do this even better. But uh the the results you're showing are fantastic. Thank you. >> Member Hullman. We'll go to Member Wilson first online and then member lists. >> And I don't have
022any questions, just comments because I've I've commented in the past about the work that our student nutrition has done to really expand options for our students. Um like the salads they've done. Um it it has really made a difference in the schools. I've I've heard from from multiple staff. Um my kids of course don't share as much as as uh Margot's grandson, but uh I I absolutely appreciate the the work that's being done, and it's really good to see that um so many of our middle school students are receiving so many fresh fruits and ve vegetables. Um and the the way the food is being displayed is um it's it's beautiful and appealing. So, I really appreciate the work. I know what you your department has done a tremendous amount of work over the years
023um to get to this point and I know you're still working and pushing forward. So, thank you for that. >> Member Wilson. We'll go to member lessons. The member Higgins. >> Um I just want to say what a total joy it is to sit here and listen to another year of fantastic news and science and service of our students. And um this was only possible because back in 2019 the board listened to parents and community members and yes I was one of those parents community members but there are members of this board who listened to me and listened to other people and launched this and that the collaboration has endured and offered cuttingedge results. to districts across the country is extraordinary. So, if we can um pardon the pun, cook up, you know, a new
024research project for you to continue this collaboration with um I would be very happy to um put my thinking cap on and and ask more questions. So, I just I appreciate all of the work. 10,000 plates getting weighed is a lot and I know that there have been fitness devices and there's just so much going on behind the scenes. So, thank you. >> Thank you, member lessons, member Higgins. >> Thank you. This is the best presentation I've I've had on diet really by far and I was got first school board in 2008. So, I do appreciate this. There's been a lot of issues out there in the past with this and I'm just wondering what else may be out there. For example, in the past, we had the issue of the emergency response with the
025water system backup being able to be there for the community because that's a big issue. If we had a big earthquake, what we're going to do um and is that is that under control now or where is that at? Do you know? >> I would have to get more information on that. I would have to refer to our support services team on that. >> And that's fine. Just that it was a it was a big issue out there. We had problems. I know about 12 years ago, 14 years ago on the pumps where they were so old if they needed to be replaced, they don't have them. They have to manufacture it. Take two months. It was really in bad shape. Are we in good shape now within the dietary? Are there any issues or
026concerns from a mechanical standpoint of processing that we need to be aware of? >> There are no risks at this time. >> I appreciate that. Um um I I remember a video National School Board Association on kids going to bed hungry and at a school conference where it's probably 4,000 people there at least it wasn't a dry eye. Uh it was really touching. Do we do we connect with other community members in regards to these things or or how do we how do we do that? >> Sure. And we invite you to uh follow us on Facebook. We post about two to three reels per week about the good things that are going on and and the access to meals that students have and the improvements that we're making. So, the community outreach is uh
027is weekly if not daily uh between our cafeteria staff having engagement with students and even improving their life skills. Please, thank you. So, the impact is broad and wide. Another concern in the past was with breakfast because some kids low income, they're coming in there, they have they're entitled to a free breakfast and parents drop them off right at the last minute and some schools give them a chance to eat in the cafeteria which you know first grade is not going to want to do that. Some let them do it in the classroom and then they go for it. Is that an issue out there by schools or not or how we might stand on that issue? Is that something that the board needs to be concerned about? Are you referring to breakfast access? >>
028Yeah. Yeah, that's right. >> Um, so we've expanded breakfast access for free meals. Um, as far as the meal model, uh, that has not been a hindrance. >> Okay. Yeah, I'm thinking of where they have to eat it. That's that's the issue. It's not getting the free meal. It's the, you know, kids eat it in in a classroom. They [clears throat] won't go in a cafeteria by themselves in first grade. That's my experience. So that's that was it of it. Um the um uh some of our schools still do not or do they still not have lunches or the the the process or because we don't have the staff. Um how many schools are in that category? Do you know >> we are fully operational? >> Yeah. All the schools getting so plus is one
029I know at one time didn't do it and some of the others they all get the regular hot lunch kind of thing. >> That's correct. Yep. >> Wow. I am most impressed. I was going to say, can we work it with volunteers, but you've already taken care of it, so I I greatly appreciate that. And then last is just a ranking with the council of great city schools. We were always in a very we were in dismal location, but you're giving indication. Do we know where we stand with the council of great city schools? They do a ranking of all the all the districts, all the school districts that participate with them and give you a rank or whether you're in the first quartile, last, or anything else. We were always dead last before whenever
030I used to look at it regularly. Do we know how we stand right now on that? >> I do not. >> Okay. I'll get that separately from them and and that's really all I have to say. I just say I really appreciate the presentation. I like the direction you're going and lot to be proud of. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Higgins. I don't see any other questions from the board and so thank you to each of you for the presentation and your work and um I I noted from legislators when we did our tours um early on in the school year that there was a night and day difference in the level of service even then. And so your program is earning um much deserve recognition and um I'm glad that ASD can be
031demonstrated as a leader in this area. Thank you. Okay. Uh, that completes item B2, which is a student nutrition update. We'll move to B1, budget and legislative revenue bill recap. Dr. Bryant, >> thank you. And before I pass it on to the team, I first want to thank the board for setting a clear vision for wellness and ASD, and then for Marcy McIll for really um taking that vision and making it actionable for kids and connecting the operations to student achievement. Rare quality. very thankful to have Marcy on our team. So, this next item, uh, I would like to, you know, make sure that we're being as proactive as possible by recapping for the public what's been happening with the ASD budget, what's coming. So, first off, I'd like the team just to recap for
032the board and for the public the decision that was made uh at our last meeting to u maintain the middle school 7 period schedule. There's some positive impacts to staffing as a result of the board's decision on that. So, we'd also like to provide a highle overview of where are we at with staffing uh and and displacements, layoffs, and so forth. And then lastly, I want to set the stage for the next several months ahead. So, I'd like for Andy Ratless team to share a little bit about um what we expect to come from the legislature because I do think there's a realistic possibility that onetime funds are coming to the district. However, um the time is coming very soon for the board to chart a path for how those one-time funds will be used
033and why. So, I want to set the stage for that multi-weeklong conversation today. And that conversation will be ongoing, especially as we on board our new board members later today. So, I'll hand it off to our team. Just working through a quick technical difficulty here. Get sharing privileges. All right. We wanted to go through what Dr. Bryan said and just kind of talk about the middle school schedule update. Um, we are moving forward with the seven period schedule at 34 ptr. Um, just a reminder, we're doing this in order to be able to take some time to get things in place, get people on board, make sure the public understands, the parents understand kind of where we're going, be able to get any kind of policies updated in order to if we're going to sixth
034period day after next school year. This was a one-year um use of some uh funds that we we were able to figure out. And uh so just a reminder about that, we did have some uh wanted to give you an update on kind of the impacts. So what this did was allow us to hire 26.6 FTE. Um and this ended up retaining 22 positions from displaced employees, six positions from the middle school layoffs. the content restored, 10 in the core content such as language arts, math, science, social studies, 11 positions of elective choices, and then eight positions where a teacher may have said, "I'll go to 0.8 or 6, we were able to make them back to being full-time positions." Other impacts that aren't necessarily middle school impacts, um, nine high school teachers were retained
035and two elementary teachers were retained. So this this not only helped middle school as far as our staffing and retention goes, it actually helped high school and elementary school as well. So that's uh kind of our just our high level look at what middle school um going back to the seven period day allowed us to bring back. Again, it is a ptr increase so that everything isn't coming back, but most is including the supports that we can give with that seven period day. All right. And with that, um, wanted to widen the aperture a little bit more and just give the board an update and the public, um, some information just in terms of what's happened with our staffing process since the board adopted the FY27 budget. Um I think uh everyone on the board
036is aware that um the $90 million deficit that we faced required us to um eliminate uh quite a few FTE because the the bulk of our spending is on personnel. We are a human- center business and it does take people to do the work um in our schools and of the district. Um and this budget in particular reduced um almost 500 FTE. Um there's a lot of us in the room who've been part of the district for a long time and that's a pretty astounding number. It's certainly larger in scale than anything um any of us have seen in our working memory. Um we sort of had a sense that that was coming. So, in December, uh, we implemented a hiring freeze, uh, really around the notion that we didn't want to, uh, even though
037we had some vacancies, continue to hire folks knowing that a few months later, we may have to notify them that they're displaced from the position or laid off for the following year. Uh, we did review each uh, position vacancy as it came. if it was mission critical, if it was likely to be something that wouldn't um be cut, we did allow um schools to hire those folks. But for the most part, we tried to hold those vacancies to offset the impact of the cuts that we knew were likely coming. Um we also have been tracking closely with the uh number of endofear resignations that we've received. Um that attrition allowed us to um lessen the impact to our current employees of those cuts. Um, and then typically we will start um making spring staffing um
038moves uh shortly, sometimes even days after the board approves the the budget in late February. Um, this year we really tried to take an approach knowing there would be a fairly significant impact to our employees of kind of single touch staffing. Uh, what we didn't want to do right out of the gate was notify folks that they had been displaced. uh reassign them to another school and then a few weeks or months later lay them off and um have multiple disruptions um to their employment. And so instead we paused. We took some time to gather information from principles to really unhand where we were uh with attrition and um opted instead to start our normal staffing process in midappril. Uh we also did that because we had the uncertainty around whether or not uh the
039tax levy would pass which would have restored 80 uh teaching FTE and so unfortunately it did not. Um and so shortly after that we began um our contractual processes around staffing. Um they're kind of three notable events and I'll talk about each of these in further detail. One on April 13th uh we held a right sizing priority staffing event. On April 17th, um we notified Aea members um if they were displaced or laid off. And on April 29th, we held our spring staffing event with principles to place those folks who had been displaced on the 17th. So if we talk look at the right sizing priority event um shortly after the board adopted the budget in late um February, the talent management team went out to Fire Lake, Lake Otis and Campbell STEM and met
040with those staffs to talk about what the um school closure at the in those buildings meant for them. talked a little about the timeline um in terms of getting them reassigned into positions for next year and provided them with a survey where they had an opportunity to um state kind of what their preferences were in terms of where they would like to work going into FY27. Um what we uh uh committed to with them to the greatest extent possible is the same thing that we've done uh with previous closures um going all the way back to Abbott Loop and that was if they elected to follow students to the schools that would be receiving those students uh we would do everything we could to get them priority placement ahead of our other spring staffing event.
041And um there's kind of two reasons for that. one, we wanted to really take care of um staff who were affected by those closures, but also um there's a real benefit, we think, to them going to the schools where um uh that would be receiving students from those closed schools because on day one, those students would be walking to school and and recognize some familiar faces. And we thought that was kind of important to the transition uh for those students and families as well as for our staff. Um it was more challenging this year quite honestly because of the plus4 PTR increase. There were few vacancies to follow kids too. Um but we were able to place 73 individuals during that priority staffing event on April 13th. Um for the certificated staff primarily our teachers
042um we were able to place anyone who wasn't placed on the 13th at the primary staffing event on the 29th. Um some classified staff are still awaiting placements as positions come available, but we've um been able to place uh quite a few of them as well. Uh with the injunction coming down on Friday regarding Campbell STEM, we do have three classified staff who are still awaiting placements and so currently we're in a holding pattern um until uh we know more about the outcome of the injunction there. on uh April 17th uh we did move forward with notifications for AEA of layoff and displacements. Um at that point we had notified a few other bargaining groups as well. So we shared in board connect this information with the board but just to review it publicly here
043um at that point we had laid off uh 24 ACE employees. We needed to make those notifications by late March um to meet our contractual obligations there. ACE has a provision that requires us to notify folks of layoff 90 days prior to the end of this contract year. Um so we did that in late March. We had three additional ACE displacements that we are um we're looking to to still place in open positions. Uh we had 43 totem employees who were impacted by displacements. Um we have a much longer runway with the totem contract. We don't have a 90-day requirement for notification or any statutory requirements to notify folks of layoff. Um, so we're we have not yet notified anyone in totem of layoff. We're waiting a little till a little later in the school
044year to see if there are other positions that come available that we can move those folks into, but there may still be um some layoffs in our uh clerical and paraprofessional ranks. Uh for AEA on the 17th, we did notify 56 individuals of layoff and um a much larger group 203 AE employees that they were displaced uh from their current positions. Um as Finn just covered um with the board approving the 26.6 six FTE to restore the seven period schedule at middle school for next year. It did allow us to um pull a number of folks back from layoff and absorb folks who were previously displaced back into their current positions for next year. Um and then pretty much from the 17th on um those numbers uh change daily. We have folks who requested a
045year of extended leave. Uh we have have received additional notices of resignation. Um some schools have been able to open up additional positions with title funds that helped us uh pull folks off of that list. So it is not a static thing. Has definitely um been um sort of constantly shifting and changing since the 17th leading up to our primary staffing event which was on April 29th. Um for those who've uh not heard about these staffing events in the past, um this year it included all principles, uh elementary, middle, high school, alternative, charter, preschool, um department leads, especially those departments like teaching and learning and mental health and student supports that have A.E.A. employees. All of our senior directors were in the room supporting the effort. Uh talent management was there um as a full
046team. And we also had AEA observers in the room. And this has been a long-standing uh practice. Um it's uh particularly helpful for them when they get calls from employees after this event because if they were able to witness some of the actions in the room firsthand and help share information about how a particular placement may have come about. Um they're also there to make sure that we follow all the provisions of the contract which we we always endeavor to do. Um the goals of that event every year are primarily to take place of anybody who uh is displaced and make sure they have an assignment for the following year. And we want to notify them as early as possible about that placement so they can sort of settle into kind of what's happening next
047and and what transition they're making. Um we also as part of that event um there are some other contractual obligations around staffing um that we need to meet. Um, most specifically, we need to make sure that folks have an opportunity, a window for a voluntary transfer request. Uh, we have folks who are hoping to return to the bargaining unit from other bargaining units in the district. And we also have folks who are returning from extended leave. Uh both of those first two goals really are in service to the third which is an attempt to open up as many content areas as possible to new hires um which will allow us to fully staff our buildings for the next year. Um we were at that event um able to successfully place all 189 AEA displacements and
048um find them homes for next year. Um it's an interesting process in the room, but just to give you kind of a sense of it, um oftentimes we had multiple schools that were interested in picking up um the same displacement. We would have um a school say, "I'd like to pick up, you know, so and so." Other schools would say, "I would also like to pick up that individual." Uh what we would typically do there is pause the talent management team would go to that AEA employees uh displacement application look at their preference list and we allowed that preference list to be the tiebreaker. The goal um to the greatest extent possible is always a match match where the principal is excited to pick that employee up in their building thinks they'll be a good
049fit at a particular grade level or at a particular program in their school and that's the school that the employee also wants to go to. We were able to do that with close to 90% um efficacy um at the staffing event this year. It was a long event. We were um at it for well over six hours. Uh I really appreciate the effort on principles to come prepared for that. Uh the talent management did an amazing job. They got a lot of kudos from folks just the number of small details they had to track throughout the day and have at the ready. um they really did an amazing job um to try to help find folks um homes for next year who are were impacted by these cuts. Uh we're also able to facilitate 49
050AEA voluntary transfers as part of that process at the event. So where does that leave us? Um as of today um we've we had some vacancies after the staffing event. Um, so we were able to recall some additional folks off of the um, layoff list for AEA. Uh, but we do have a number of content areas that remain frozen to hiring. Um, you can see those listed here. Uh, the parentheticals are the number of layoff obligations we still have in each of those areas. And so until we have a vacancy and the ability to recall those folks and place them or until they notify us that they do not intend to return to the district, um those areas will be frozen to any other um outside hiring actions. Um as each res as we receive
051additional resignations or folks who are looking to go on extended leave in those areas, we'll follow all of the CBA processes for recall. Um, I didn't put it on the slide here, but A.E.A. members by contract um have a recall right for up to three years. So, we'll continue to um to offer them those positions as they come available. All other content areas besides those that were listed on the slide there are now open to hiring for return to leave, return from the bargaining unit, new hires, voluntary transfers. Um folks who are displaced um who received a placement maybe outside of what they were hoping for still have an opportunity to seek a voluntary transfer in those open areas. So, we try to keep that option open to them as long as possible so that
052they can um hopefully be in assigned to a position next year that they're um really excited about. With principles, um as you're aware, because you've been receiving notifications on principal hiring, we're continuing to work through building principal hiring as those positions come available. Um there were cuts to both assistant principles and some principal positions because of the right sizing um actions. Uh so we still still have several displaced APA members as well. Um, as soon as we've kind of played out the building principal hiring process, um, we'll assign displace assistant principles for next year. And then the instructional division will probably do some reassignment, um, to balance teams, um, across schools, which is part of their sort of normal spring process. We're just getting to it probably a little bit later this year than we
053typically would. And then um this is less a update about our current staffing situation and maybe more of a bright spot on the horizon. Um we're going to be advertising this more publicly. So I wanted to just take a moment to talk to the board about a new pipeline um that we are uh tapping into uh for recruitment for certificated teachers and that is the green tote uh Anchorage School District Skillbridge program. Um, this supports military to education transition. Um, we're partnering with uh the Alaska Department of Education to pilot this as the first district in Alaska. It's something that's available in other states, but we're uh bringing it here to Alaska. Um, it is available to transitioning service members, veterans, and their spouses. Um especially for those currently active service members when they are
054looking to retire or separate and they're in their last 90 to 180 days. It gives them an opportunity to complete certification coursework through the American Board of Certification of Teacher Excellence or ABC CTE and um complete a certificate by the time they separate which allows us to hire them then directly into classroom positions. And so, um, this is, uh, another opportunity for us to build a sustainable recruitment pipeline. We know we have a lot of, uh, servicemen, um, and women who, uh, come to Alaska, fall in love with Alaska, want to stay in Alaska after they're finished with their military service, and then this gives them an opportunity, uh, to contemplate coming and working in our classrooms um, as they make that transition. And one of the great things is there is no cost for
055those participants. So, uh, pretty excited and we'll be talking more about this and advertising this more publicly. Um, Peggy Rankin has been working directly with DED to, um, to develop this pilot and we're pretty excited to launch it. So, that is the staffing update I have. Um, any questions about staffing before Andy moves on to legislative updates? >> See no questions from the board. Please proceed. I did want to make a quick comment if I could before we uh >> member um Hman. Yeah. >> Um just want to say some historical reference because I'm old and member Bellamy will remember this too, but at the time I started with the district, it was customary to pink swipe all non-tenure teachers every year with just period full stop. Um, and then also at one point the
056[clears throat] staffing exercise really came to be viewed as as something that was handled in an incredibly disrespectful and callous way. So, a lot of changes have been made and fortunately we got to a point where routine layoffs were no longer the thing. Um, I got to attend staffing for a few years. 2016 was the last time. I also say during that time four when we had some pretty s substantial layoffs working with Rob Ber the depth of his knowledge about every person as an individual. I was talking to him in his office and he was talking about where certain teachers lived where they wanted to teach what subject they preferred where their kids had daycare. And at some point I realized his screen just had a bunch of folders on it. He wasn't reading
057anything. He had all this in his head and and as you mentioned, it all has to be done according to rules, but within those rules with effort and care, there's the ability sometimes to put people into better spots than they were in. Um, teachers can spend a long time trying to get themselves to the situation they love. Involuntary transfers and layoffs are all huge professional disruptions that that really affect people's lives in a huge way. um much like the cafeteria food. You've come a long way from a place with sort of a bad reputation and it's it's heartening to see that happen. I I hope in the future we can get the state on a path where layoffs aren't a concern and um we can go at it with a completely different set of variables
058in front of us. But thank you for everything that that the department's done over the years and where we are right now. It's it's a tough tough situation when you have to mess with people's lives that way. >> Thank you, Member Hullman. Um we have member Bellamy. >> Just a I know teachers have the recall for three years. What about uh any of the other groups have any kind of recall? >> Yes. >> Okay. One. Okay. Okay. I thought so, but I wasn't quite sure. Thank you, >> member Bellamy. We'll go to member Higgins. >> Yeah, it's we don't know what the final money number is going to be from the state. You got to have an eraser to reverse things and all that. How do we how do how does the ASD respond to
059this if we get the notice in and you know the the governor rejects something, goes back for a vote, we get the vote in June. Um, how do you deal with reversals or reassignments before the school year start or do we I don't I just I can't figure it out right now from a from an HR standpoint. It just seems to be an impossible task that you have. Is there is there a process that you you think you got worked out or it's just wish for the best? >> There's a a couple of different steps in that process, right? So once we identified what dollars, additional dollars would be coming to the district, it obviously would be the board's purview, you know, in large part how to allocate those funds and if and where we
060were restoring FTE for FY27, um we would allocate that out to schools once we knew that direction. And then from there, principles would post the vacancies that they need at their schools. Elementary, it's a little more straightforward. secondary. Um it may be in specific content areas or support positions. As those positions um are posted, if it's an area where we have folks who are laid off, folks would automatically be recalled and reverse seniority order. Um if they are areas that are not frozen, at that point we would attempt um to hire, you know, new staff. The challenge of course is with teachers specifically, the longer we wait to hire those positions, the smaller the pools are because any viable candidates are being um you know picked up in positions in other districts. And so by
061the time you get to July, especially in August, there are are very few available candidates in in most content areas. And so it does get more challenging. It's in many ways a race against time when it comes to hiring qualified certificated folks. And in areas where we're not able to um you know, we'll do as we've done um the past couple years, which is, you know, find the the best adult we can to supervise those students in the classroom. That might be a long-term sub um with a bachelor's degree in that content area. Um, it could be somebody that we could hire on an emergency certificate um and get them into some coursework while they're learning on the job. Um, you know, there's there's there's lots of different answer to that questions, but that's sort
062of the kind of primary phases of that process. >> Thank you, Member Higgins and Mr. um >> yeah, thank you for the presentation. We need to pivot to Dr. Bryant and Mr. Ratliff for the second half before we adjourn for executive session. >> Yes. Uh, that's actually a wonderful segue, Member Higgins. So essentially, we know that it's highly possible that onetime funds will come to the district. We don't know when. We don't know what the amount is. But what I'll need the board support on is figuring out what that plan would be for how to spend those dollars. And I hope that I can earn the board support to utilize some of those dollars for teaching positions. If anything, I think teaching positions are the most urgent thing that we would need as it relates
063to FY27. The thing that the board also has to understand is that we have a $40 million structural deficit going into FY28. So, while teachers are the most urgent thing that we need in this moment, the trade-off is it the more teachers that we hire for FY27 will increase the deficit for FY28. So, there's a lot that we need to figure out as a governing team, but I think we're on the same page that there's an opportunity here to make a difference in our classrooms for next school year. And then the second thing that I'd like to work with the board on is determining what's the best way to use these positions. So, one path would be to potentially restore the PTR. That would trigger the processes that Marty outlined just now. But there's another
064option where we can reinvest similarly to what we did when we got the BSA increase last summer where we allocated the new dollars towards teacher holdback positions which would allow us to target teaching positions perhaps in areas where classrooms have very high class sizes or perhaps the board might even want to invest in specific types of teaching positions or maybe even specific levels. So, there's an order of operations here, but I think the number one thing the board needs to decide is what is our tolerance threshold for increasing the FY28 deficit um versus restoring critical services in our classrooms for next school year. I look forward to that conversation. It needs to happen with some urgencies. So, once we swear in our new board members, I look forward to having and um perhaps some conversations
065in finance committee and others. Do do whatever it takes to make this happen because time is of the essence. So, the punch line is u Mr. Ratliff, what can we expect from the legislature? >> All right, I'll make this quick and see we're kind of running short on time here, but there's a number of bills making its way through the legislature now and a lot of them do have funding tied to it. We can go to the the next slide and just kind of walk through these. The state operating budget, it provides some one-time funds for general fund transportation and potentially energy relief if gas or if oil prices stay high enough. Uh, tune about 40 million in general funds and 3 million in transportation could be generated through that. the way it's currently written.
066Uh that has been passed by the House and is moved over to the Senate. The state capital budget had about four had four projects for Anchorage on there. That's SB214. Um about $14 million of uh revenue generated towards capital on that for us. There was an education funding bill HB261 which would smooth out enrollment from the prior three years. So really make our funding more stable and predictable so we're not coming back in October, November saying, "Oh, we lost more kids than we thought." and having to shore that up. Um the defined benefit bill HB78 is actually awaiting the governor's action that was passed by both bodies. It would include a half percent increase in PERS contributions. Um estimated about $650,000 for the district and increased cost. Uh SB278 would be the local contributions by
067school board that caps the growth on the required local contributions at 2%. That was the one we heard from uh Senator Bjorkman and Senator Tobin last last week. There is a kind of an omnibus education bill that has student loan repayment in there, transportation money, the reading grants and energy relief that were passed last legislative session, but not funded by that digital sales tax. Um, would be they removed the digital sales tax out of there. So, it like it put those essentially those reading grants and the energy relief or the the CTE money and reading programs included in that bill. Would have been about 2.6 6 million in CTE funding the last time we looked and I believe the reading grants was based on proficiency or growth. So we didn't really know how much we
068would get from that. I think we estimated at 3 to 6 million just dependence on the number of kids that would actually qualify for that. Uh there's things like CPR and civics education uh that would just change the requirements of what's taught in schools. And then there's a couple bills that would either support J1 visa workers and then create a dedicated fund for revenues for education and but that would be a constitutional amendment and go to the voters. The next slide really just shows kind of where those all those bills are at in the process. Um so do you have any questions? You know that's I think this is really the basis of it is a lot of these are moving through the process. It's going to start speeding up really quick as the legislature
069winds down. So pay attention to what's going on and advocate where we can. >> Thank you, Mr. Ratliff. Thank you, Dr. Bryant. Thank you, Mr. Lang. Mr. Gustoson. Um, that completes our time today for our work session. I would entertain a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of legal updates, negotiations, and contracts. >> Mr. President, I would move to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of legal updates, negotiations, and contracts. >> Second. >> Um, Thank you. Motion made by member lessons. Um, member Bellamy, can I have you second that motion? >> I second. >> Perfect. Thank you. Motion made by member lesson, second by member Hollman. Seeing no objection, we are returned to executive session at 5:00 pm.