001Good afternoon everyone. We'll call the Tuesday, February 17th ASD schoolboard work session to order. It is 3:00 p.m. on the dot. Uh present uh here in the boardroom are members Donley, Jacobs, and Hollowman. Joining us online are members Wilson and Bellamy. We'll note uh member Higgins and lessons in attendance as they arrive. U we've called ourselves to order and conducted a roll call. Uh first up for discussion is a budget update. Dr. Bryant, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh so I anticipate this presentation will take up to about two hours. We have a number of things to discuss. one of which would be deep diving into areas of interest on the budget proposal specifically healthcare services um student activities um and uh student athletics and also uh we'd like to walk
002the board for the first time through the consolidation proposal that was released on Friday. Um but before we get started with that presentation, I want to take a moment to speak a little bit to the why we're here and the context for this discussion and then um we'll repeat this discussion um at the regular board meeting. So last fall um after extensive discussion and research, the community um likely recalls that the board initially voted to not close any schools this fall. And that decision reflected a wide variety of information, conditions, projections that were available at that time. And understandably, many families in the community felt a sense of relief. And for some, they felt that there was resolution on that conversation. But it's important for me to connect the dots as to where we are
003today. So since that time, we have an even stronger sense of the district's long range financial picture. So, as the community is aware, ASD is facing a $90 million structural deficit for next school year and at least another $42 million structural deficit the year after that and at least another 30 million structural deficit the year after that. And at the same time, our enrollment trends continue downward and revenues have clearly not kept pace with inflation and the cost of operating the system has increased while our purchasing power as a district has declined. So what's happened is that we now have an urgent need to make some structural changes within the Anchorage School District. So to catch the community up to where we're at today, last week the board adopted a resolution that directed the administration
004to revisit some elements of previous analyses for right sizing in light of the urgency of the fiscal conditions. That also gave us the opportunity to look at the most up-to-date data and to review other options um in light of the board's directive. One of the core challenges that we face in ASD is a need to make some structural decisions and changes. So from my vantage point, I do need to be clear that ASD is currently operating more facilities than our enrollment and long-term funding levels can sustainably support. And that reality affects everything that we do, ranging from staffing flexibility to program offerings to class size pressures. And it also impacts ASD's ability to maintain consistent academic opportunities across schools. So in other words, when resources are spread too thinly across many underutilized facilities, the entire
005system feels the strain. So this conversation that we're about to have is not new to Anchorage. It's not unique to anything that we haven't previously discussed. Um but for several years um right sizing we've examined changes in enrollment patterns facility utilization and cost structures and these underlying dynamics are what we're discussing tonight but these things have been building over time. So what has changed is not the concept or this idea of consolidating buildings. That part is not new. What's new is the urgency to take some action. So, the board's resolution asked the administration to re-examine our prior analyses as well as the most current up-to-date information including academic impacts, enrollment trends, transportation considerations, equity implications, service levels, and long-term fiscal sustainability. And I want to reiterate that we completed that review under a very compressed
006timeline consistent with the direction that was provided to the administration last Monday. And I want to acknowledge something just naming something that I see in the community from the district's perspective. What we're about to talk about this afternoon reflects years of data and analyses in various ways, shapes, or form throughout the right sizing process. And at the same time, from the community's perspective, this understandably feels very fast. Both of those things can be true at the same time. and for the families and staff and students that are connected to some of the buildings that we'll be discussing. Um, this moment could feel deeply emotional and deeply personal. And we recognize that because every school building represents relationships, routines, and um, our school communities deeply matter to members of our community. I recognize that and we
007did not make these decisions lightly. And at the same time, um, we need to consider the long-term health of the entire district and we need to also consider the educational experience of students across Anchorage. So based on the updated analyses that we've conducted, we're recommending three elementary schools for closure at the end of the school year. Fire Lake Elementary, Lake Otis Elementary, and Campbell STEM Elementary. and with the associated repurposing and program adjustments outlined in this presentation. So, there's more details to come on that front, but the bottom line is that the recommendations that we're about to look at align facilities with the enrollment realities that we know. They attempt to strengthen levels of academic service in many neighborhood schools. It attempts to improve our operational efficiency. And we are also going to um show
008the board what short-term savings emerge from taking action on this proposal. And we have suggestions actually on the very last slide for how those short-term savings can be redirected towards urgent student priorities that we've been made aware of, particularly over the last several weeks. So I know that these proposals will all generate on their own strong reactions and deeply felt perspectives and that is expected and completely understandable. These school communities are important to many members of our community and people care deeply about them. So in a few minutes the team will walk through the analyses, impacts and rationale in detail. And like I mentioned, we're also going to focus on topics of particular interest um that have emerged and that's namely specialist staffing, healthc care services, and student sports and activities. Um this is difficult
009work. It requires balancing stability, equity, and our long-term sustainability as a district. This is extremely challenging, but we will get through this together. And with that said, uh I will hand it off to our team to walk us through this presentation. >> All right. Good evening. I'm Sen Gustoson, the deputy superintendent. And we have a pretty long presentation for you all, and we'll have different spots in it where we can answer questions. Um, we're going to start off. We have a team up here that's been working on the elementary specialists um, program over the past few months. And I'm going to kick turn it over to Kirsten and the team so that um, we can kind of dive a little deeper on the specialists and give you a little more information about uh, this issue.
010>> All right. Thank you. So, for the record, my name is Kirsten Johnson, deputy chief of schools. Uh so I um daily uh work with our schools very closely and our principal supervisors and one of the areas in this year's budget uh that we are recommending is a change to the elementary specialist model. Um we uh have spent some time um this winter and um before the winter break uh really analysis analyzing our schedule around elementary specialists for um how we can make it more efficient and and I the thing I want to emphasize before we even start is as our class sizes have risen and our population has decreased it's created a a very complex challenging scheduling process which is not nec necessarily the best use of our funds um as structured. And so
011the the task that we um analyzed was how do how do we fix essentially a broken schedule um so that students still have a quality experience. And I'm going to turn it over to the team here that has really dove deep into this topic so they can explain the rationale um and some of the the details around um this new proposed model for elementary specialists. So I'll just start with some introductions. We have Leica McCaulay who is a elementary senior director. Uh David Crystal who's the principal at Creekide Elementary. Um Helena Batman who's a senior director for elementary education. And then Anna Walker who is the principal at Beayshore Elementary. Um and I would consider all four of these folks very um they have a lot of expertise in the area of elementary education and
012scheduling. And so I'm going to turn it over to Leica first to get us started today. Good afternoon. So, as we start to talk about this proposal, we wanted to just very transparently and directly share a few things to set the stage. And the first is that um this proposal does not reflect a belief that arts, health or any other enrichment for our students is expendable. We deeply value the work of our specialists, both their content area and the con um and the specialists that provide that work. However, in terms of the budget and the fiscal reality, um this is an attempt to preserve as equitably as possible across schools the contractual obligation that we have to provide all A.EA members um planning time, including our specialist educators, as well as try to tackle a
013long-standing problem with um inefficient sharing and pairing of our FTE allocation in situations that we have different specialists shared among many schools and multiplied across the system are really using a lot of FTE that could otherwise be directed into either the classroom or other p types of activities. And so as we go into this proposal um really this existing model has not been easily sustainable for some time now and our goal from the very outset has been how can we retain the ideal ex student experience as much as possible despite our budget constraints. There are some structural imbalances that we're attempting to tackle in this. Um again, a lot of inefficiencies in our budget and a lot of disruption in our school communities trying to share um specialist educators and build schedules um among across
014the district. And so it's really taken a lot of discipline to really step back and see how can we rebuild the system in which we can sustain and do things well with fewer moving parts. And so with that to explain the actual proposal, I'm going to kick it over to senior director Helina Bman. Good afternoon. The revised model streamlines how specialists are scheduled and shared across schools, improving efficiency while also generating cost savings. It consolidates once again five specialist categories into three. And by reducing the number of schools each specialist shares, we can strengthen the relationships with students, maintain clear expectations with our students, and create more sustainable workloads. And as we know, having a permanent person in a school building without having to travel between sites is a really valuable experience, not only for
015the school and the school staff, but also for the communities and the students. and then I will kick it off to David. >> So, just to talk a little bit about what we currently see in schools, um, in our special schedule, we think of it both monthly and weekly. We think of it weekly because that's kind of what kids get into, but we think of it monthly because art and health go two weeks at one school and then two weeks at the other school. And so, the only way you account for all that instructional time is to look at on a monthly basis. So, as you can see on the slide, the the change really goes from health and PE to 400 minutes versus before they were combined together in separate specialist schedules. Our library
016increases to 200 minutes and um our fine arts is combined to 400 minutes. When we think of it on a weekly basis, what we're proposed doing is moving that to each 50 minute blocks. And those 50-minute blocks give us the ability to say, okay, if every kid, in an example, in my school, second and third grades at their specialist from um 10 to 1050, every day they're going to have a different special that week. Whereas currently, right now, because some of our specialists go 30 minutes, some of them go 60 minutes, that adjusts back and forth. As schools, we try to create as much consistency as possible, but that's the proposed changes. Um it would mean that we look a little bit different about how we provide that instruction. Um but it would also re
017increase the efficiencies. When we were looking at um all the changes we were thinking about also stand state mandates, board policies and um meeting uh content requirements as well. So we reviewed a lot of uh different information prior to that. Um this model would provide more stability in the buildings just as everyone before me said the reduction of itinerate staff which will allow for flexible SK or better scheduling within the elementary schools. Librarians in the building will still be full-time uh and that is um there so we can meet the needs of individual buildings. Um those job duties will be refined and um if the budget goes through or proposal goes through more adjustments will be discussed at the time going ping pong here. Um so again uh cost savings are made on based on
018this current uh budget with approximately 600 hold 600 16 it felt like 600 after getting them across the different schools but 16 holdbacks were needed last year and this was due to like the different budget allocations that we were given with the increase of FTE um enrollment changes and again I've had the experience in the last few years to work specifically with the specialist schedule and And that in it in in of itself is like a domino effect. And so when you're changing FTE allocations for one school, you have to consider who they're paired with. And so those changes have to be made. And at some um some of these sites, there's up to four specialists that are shared within uh PE, let alone. And so again, these additional savings um are related to mileage.
019And let me clarify for mileage. When we have different allocations in buildings that cause them to be split within the day, that's when they're able to provide that mileage reimbursement form. Um, other expenditures include things like uh like the programming of different schools, like what is the focus of of of that outside of the um strategic plan for those content areas. And then you've got the different supplies and materials that are needed for specific sites. and then the increase of positions that we had to use. >> So, um, as you can see, there's been a lot of thought processes um, put into this new proposal. Um, if we look at where we go from here if the board is to uh, approve this plan moving forward, we would do a lot more uh, curriculum work
020around the different subjects of specialists and um, we would gather content experts. um we would start to look at standards and all the different specialist areas and how those are adequately addressed in the classroom. Um we have the schedule really fine-tuned in this proposal. We have the FTE and the budget planned and the next step would be figuring out some of those curricular components that need to be figured out particularly in art and music and health. Those three particular areas. We believe that all of it can be feasible and done. um and we have the right people in our district to do that work. Um but the first step is the structure of the model which is the schedule and the budget. Um and that's why the proposal is before you uh today and next
021week um when you ultimately make a decision. So our planning um when we get to that point will definitely consider staff expertise and the quality of the student experience as well. So I really want to emphasize that. I know you've heard testimony in the past that um people in certain content areas haven't been consulted. We're not at that point. It's not that we're trying to keep them out of the planning, but this was a fiscal decision and a structural decision that had to be made for the budget. And the next step is that curricular piece. So, that's where we stand with our specialist model. At this point, uh President Jacobs, um we would be willing to take questions on elementary specialists if it is a good time for you. For the record, I want to
022note member Higgins joined us at uh 3:01 p.m. and member Lessons joined us at 3:04 p.m. I see member Hollowman with his hand up. >> Um I think the thing I've gotten the most feedback on is combining art and music. That those are two things that don't really go together. I'm wondering what the difference in FTE would be required to to keep those specialists separate. So without considering the whole um because as as Helena explained there's partners that are paired together. So it's it's more than just considering those two individual subjects together. We really have to consider all five at once because of the intricate pairings that happen. So if if we put those in separate um staffing scenarios um we're back to a paired model which creates all the complexities of the specialist schedule
023that kind of got us here which creates a lot of a lot of uncertainty I would say. [laughter] Um, so it's really hard to predict if um a school needs a half-time teacher or a 6 teacher or a point eight teacher at this point until we start to see that enrollment and then how those are paired together based on regions and who is an expert in which topic and so it gets very complicated very quickly. So I I don't have a clear answer on that for you. Yep, Helena can definitely add something. One thing I'd like to make uh a note for is that art and music are not equitably delivered at schools right now. So art is uh bi-weekly and so um they're I think half the time that music is. So balance th
024balancing those two content areas and then working with a work group from there to figure out how we can make that sustainable um is one of the uh benefits for that position. >> Member Higgins. Thank you. Um I just came back from Juno and I had a chance I was think I was the only one there from ASD meeting with the legislators and what they discussed was that the possibility of getting $30 million which is what they said the superintendent said we need it for the staffing u and that they thought they could get that and maybe some more. Uh we don't know. We you we're in the same boat we are every year. We have to do three budgets or one at least two. One when we do this one, one now if the
025leg if the local uh vote is positive and one with the legislature when they finally come out. But there's a high degree of confidence that the 30 million is going to be a doable and that that would keep the PTR from going up and that would make a difference. Is this proposal uh something that would be pulled back if we get the 30 million or is this something you want to go forward with? Even if we get the funding for additional teachers you want to pull back. We've been through this discussion before when we went sixth grade to middle school. There was discussions about arts and music and all that we do in elementary. The school took a position the board did. We didn't want to see that dam, you know, reversed or damaged or
026not, you know, kept up. And now it looks like is is that's why I'm asking is this >> contingent upon or would it change your recommendation if we got the 30 million or are we going to keep going the way it is? >> Uh member [clears throat] Higgins I I can probably answer that we would be bringing you this even if it wasn't a budget issue. We feel like there's so much inefficiencies in our specialists um model that we have right now. There is so much that is due to um travel time. There's so much just lost FTE that we don't believe we're using our specialists in an efficient manner. This new model would be a much more efficient manner and we believe it's going to actually have more stability in schools because of the
027amount of time individuals are in the school as far as the teachers. So even if we got additional money for uh staff, we would not we would still reduce the staffing in this area. I >> I believe that we have other areas that we think are more um much more >> be part of this proposal where we're weighing one against the other is >> well that's going to be what you guys decide and the recommendations that we would have for you when if we ever get those monies. >> Okay. You all right? Then at that point, we'll decide whether to go back to what this was or to go forward with some other change. Is that what I'm hearing? >> Yes, we're th this particular thing won't be discussed as a way to come back
028today. >> So, okay. So, regardless of how much money we get, we get the money from the from the municipality, which I know this is a hot topics out there. You can't help it but read the emails or hear the phone calls or things like that. Uh same thing true with a lot of other issues out there. So this one you're asking for even if we get additional money we're going to cut back on the timing associated with how much we spend of music and all. >> We're cutting back on the timing of the travel and the extra FTE that we aren't able to use. >> Yeah. And if I could go back to the slide that shows um the the monthly schedule and the instruction time. I just want to clarify that we're actually
029getting more instruction in fine arts um in the new proposal than we are in the previous proposal. Um the difference is that that fine arts is scheduled as one block in an elementary um schedule. So there are many different ways that we could we could look at scheduling art and music in that 400 minutes that's allocated per month in fine arts. It could look like a school having an art teacher for part of the year and a music teacher for part of the year and then you switch um to another school where the schedule is opposite. It also could look at a at a multidisciplinary fine arts model. There are variety of ways for us to look at fine arts instruction. But I just wanted to be clear that in this new proposal you actually
030get 400 minutes of fine arts whereas pre currently students are getting 240 music and 120 minutes of art wi in a month which is less than what they would get in fine arts total in the new proposal. So I think that's a an important distinction >> and and that's where my confusion's at. Looks like you're adding more time but you're going to cut back staff. And I'm I'm trying to do the math. I think the other the other part of um the the inefficiencies that's somewhat unclear is yes travel time is one of the inefficiencies. The other inefficiency is that we have schools that because of the increase in PTR are only allocated essentially a 7 or a8 specialist teacher in a particular area. Say it's music as an example. So rather than a full-time
031music teacher, they only need enough coverage at their school for 08 or 7. So the complication and the lost FTE in that equation is that if we were to have that teacher paired with another school and travel, we actually have to pay them a point. 02 for that travel time. That's a contractual obligation that we have to meet, which means they're then staffed up to either a 1.0 or a 0.9. But once they get to that other school, they have no time left in their contract to do teaching. So what happens when stu when schools are allocated a 7 or a point8 in the specialist model is essentially we can't pair them with another school for a full-time job. And so a school who only needs 8 FTE actually has a full-time teacher with extra
032time in their day for teaching. and instead of doing um other music instruction in front of students um that's used in different ways, but it is a lost FTE for us in the specialist model that is inefficient. >> Thank you, Dr. Johnson. We'll go to member Bellamy. >> Yes, thank you. Um All right. So, this model sustains us into the future. uh you believe it's it will uh it it's equitable and I guess I'm I'm used to the PE health piece. I mean I middle schools have always uh had to do something creative with their elective schedule. Uh but I'm struggling. I'm still struggling. What does fine arts look like in fifth grade? I know you I know people are going to get together and they're going to uh work work it out, but we
033will have music teachers teaching music and we will have art teachers teaching art. Is that correct? >> Yes. And and the so it's it's complicated because we haven't exactly done that work yet, member Bellamy. So that's why there is it is a little bit confusing that way. What I will say is that every student in this new model would have two 50inute blocks every week that would be fine arts related. It could be art, it could be music, it could be a combination um of those fine arts disciplines. Um and that's the work that we have to do. But we know that the schedule would be equitable for students. We also know that um both music and art are are subjects that are extremely important and we want students to have that experience because it's
034historically been what we've offered students and this is the way we can equitably and affordably do it which is very different than what we're used to. >> Okay. And I guess may I Mr. Chair just one followup? >> Yeah, please proceed. the the um I know you said the librarian's position would be re uh I forget the word you use but you it's going to be a little different. What what tell me what what what would that look like? Uh oh just high level 10,000 foot level. What what would it look like different than it is now? >> Sure. So typically now students go to library for 30 minutes per week. Um so in the new model they would get a 50inute uh block per week. So the instruction uh actually increases for librarians students
035get more contact time and that additional instruction time we are hoping to use more for technology or STEMbased activities because that's the way that um many of our librarians and the field of study is moving. So rather than learning the Dewey decel system all the time, you would move towards more of a STEM type um of instruction. >> Would that vary by school though or would there be a are you saying it's a minimum of 50 minutes library? >> Yeah, it's a minimum of 50 minutes. It could be more. Um we also would utilize in some of our schools um our librarians to help with our Ignite uh win needs as well. >> Okay. Thank you, [clears throat] Mr. Chair. Thank you, uh Dr. Johnson >> member lessons. >> Yeah. So, thank you. Um, number
036one, I'll just say it to put it on the record. This broke my heart last spring and it's doing it all over again. I come at this with the perspective of the specialists who have supported um my own kids in the same building for a decade. They're there. They're constant. They provide all the things and they know every student in those buildings and they know the kids who come back as high school seniors to take pictures on the playground. Right? These people are um fundamental parts of our school ecosystems. Um that said, it strikes me that schools are statutoily required to deliver certain amounts of opportunities for physical activity, really nuanced health lessons, um and a lot of other things that quite frankly I believe we could aggressively elicit grant funding from the Department of
037Health uh to pay for from this $272 million grant. According to coverage in the ADN this weekend, the Department of Health is soliciting letters of interest in this new federal grant. Starting today, it must award all 272 million uh by October, and it has to be spent within a calendar year. I don't know exactly the number of students that ASD educates in relation to the state's population, but a little bit of back of the envelope, you know, math over the weekend suggested that we have, I don't know, 5 and a half% or so of all of the states population here in ASD. If we're required to deliver health and um health and PE to our students, are we aggressively pursuing this line of funding? because I would gladly approve a memo receiving grant a DHS
038grant to help cover this gap. >> Yeah. So, I do know that we are looking at that grant in ASD. I'm not sure that the award of that grant would get us to a balanced budget by statute at the end of this month. >> I'm I'm sure. But if we got $5 million to pay for, you know, or whatever, we it would fill our would backfill things, I think, is my point. >> I'm going to kick it over to Jim and Andy because I know they've been working on this grant. Um, more specifically, >> we we are working on two different aspects of it. Um, and it's going to take a little bit to to pull everything together, but it's close to ready to for submission. We did not include um specifically PE and health
039in it. If you if you read the document that the state wrote, it's 88 pages long. It starts with the first probably 15 pages. It mentions repeatedly the only nonrural city in the entire state is Anchorage. And it it doesn't mean that we don't qualify. It's where you have um tendons out to the rest of the state where um it certainly makes you more competitive to be able to get grant money. So, we do have a couple proposals set up um where there's clear linkages away from Anchorage because I think most of you know we get students in from all around the state all year long. So, um as we write these two first submissions, those can be very cleanly tied to not just Anchorage residents, but those who come into Anchorage from all around
040the state. And as we get it pulled together in a future board brief, we'll brief those. Um, we we did not prioritize PE and health over something that we thought was very competitive and advantageous to the district. Not that we can't after we do these two and get through the next however long we're talking about this. Um, it doesn't mean we can't go back and and look again. >> All right. Well, thank you for um that information. It's really helpful. a question regarding the um the engagement that got us to this proposal. I think I heard it described as a something that was generated due to our fiscal picture and then something that we would continue to recommend uh even if additional resources were allocated. Can I confirm where we land on this and if
041this is something that the administration stands by regardless as of our level of funding? Um, I I think at a certain point what I heard from Miss McCauley earlier in the presentation is that if we had adequate funding in Alaska, it would be wonderful to have an art teacher, a music teacher, and a PE teacher at every campus. Um, but that may not I mean that isn't the reality that the funding in Alaska provides um at present from Juno. And so where do we land on is this something that we recommend based on current resources and enrollments and the number of buildings we have versus something that's purely budget driven. And then separately um well I'll ask a follow-up once we're done with this. >> I I would I I would say that we feel
042that this new model is the one that we should probably move forward with. Um we started this work prior to knowing exactly $90 million. Um, we have just this last year we allocated 16 more FTE through holdbacks just to be able to make it work for this year. So the way we have it going right now is much a much more costly measure than it would be in the new system with the same amount of kids in schools. we uh we are looking at this as a way to change the way we do business. Now, if we were to get money back and you ch so choose to put it into this, we would still use this new model because we feel like the new model is the thing that we need to go to
043rather than what we've been doing and hodgeging and taping stuff together. There are some schools that have been lucky enough like member lessons to have the same teachers in the same buildings, but we have schools that have four PE teachers going in to teach partial PE classes in these buildings right now. And there's just no way for four different PE teachers teaching one grade of a class to be able to make those connections. And this model allows us to be able to get more stability in these schools. you know, one person I I would ask the the two principles that are up here um if they've because they're here, they're doing the work on a daily basis. They're building the schedules and um I don't know if Mr. Crystal or or Miss Walker would be
044interested in mention what they think about this as well. I think one of the things to think about is when you're splitting up and going to multiple different schools, um the way you build relationships with kids is getting to know them. And so if you're at a school of 300 kids, but you're going to four different schools, you now have 1,200 kids to know that you might see one day a week. And so the more efficiency that we can get staff in the building that are consistently at the building, that's how you build those relationships. whether regardless of the content, the instruction that you provide is about getting um staff to get to know kids and build relationships with them and then present the content. And so I think part of the reason that this
045is brought forward is that our inefficiencies of where we're splitting with between two or three different schools has a negative impact on kids and we can do better. the more the staff are at the building and the more consistently they're at the building regardless I'll use the example of whether it's music or it's art, the more consistent they are building those relationships with kids is what produces the best results. And so that efficiency I think is something that shouldn't be forgot irregardless of the budget >> and I would absolutely agree with that as well. Um, I think when the staff is at one building, they make those connections. It's very difficult sometimes to make connections with over a thousand kids because you're traveling between two, three buildings. Um, when staff is u in one building,
046they're more dedicated to to the students. They know them. they um they feel part of the staff rather than being pulled be in many different directions. There was travel time mentioned as well and quite often again between the travel time, the lunchtime, the planning time, you might be left with just one hour of what you can put on that staff schedule. It's very inefficient as well. um when we talk about um fine arts and um and PE, I think there are different things that we actually build in and provide more opportunities for students to move or to experience um music or to experience art. So again, um we need to consider those opportunities for our students which currently they're not um as expanded as they would be with the new model. >> Just one final
047thought I would also add to the efficiency of the specialist model is in our current system, our specialists are in many different time frames. um some are um two weeks a month, some are once a week, some are twice a week. In the new system, it creates um blocks that are much easier to schedule in an elementary building as well. Um so with every specialist going 50 minutes, that also allows us better instructional blocks for reading and for math when we're planning an elementary master schedule. So that's something else outside of the specialist realm that is a benefit in this model. Um, so I have one quick follow up on the original question I asked regarding um this proposal. So a question on engagement. I'm grateful that we have uh current former principles here presenting
048on this topic. I also am tracking that we're essentially saying that there we haven't begun our engagement with educators on this yet. There's a certain level of confidence that administration must have to have gotten to this point which didn't it sounds like involve um broad broad educator involvement. Can you speak to who was involved and and how we got here? And I the question I have I guess is we've heard sincere pleas from educators who would be impacted by this proposal um indicating that they want to partner with administration. If that partnership reveals that there's another path forward or there was an aspect of the proposal that was overlooked, how do we handle that? >> I well so I'll start with the first part of the question which is who who was involved? Um the
049entire elementary team here at the ed center was involved um to include senior directors of elementary education, some of our teaching and learning directors and senior directors. Um I will also say uh and and then also the principles more than just David and Anna who you see here tonight. There were additional principles that um were a part of the brainstorming around this specialist proposal. This proposal however was built on previous work that has been in front of the board before around changing the model of specialists that that ultimately did not go through in at that time. So this has been a thought process in our district um over many years. It's not just this budget cycle. Um and in those iterations of looking at schedules um we did do a lot of um engagement with
050our specialist teachers to have a foundation to start with on this particular proposal. Great. Thank you. In the interest of time, um, we can come back to questions later, but I know we have a long slide deck. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, thanks. You guys don't have to stay up here for the rest of it. Um, so, um, to keep us moving, um, I am going to discuss a little bit around the the regional nursing model. I know that this is another topic um that has had a lot of questions and I wanted to provide some additional information to the board for their consideration. So, as a reminder um our existing model, I just wanted to talk a little bit about um what we're currently doing and um some some things that we
051need to consider as we look towards the regional nursing model. Right now, we do have a one nurse per building model. So, um, in that model, um, we have schools that are as small as 147 students and schools as large as over 1,700 students. And so whether you're in that very small school or that very large school, there is one nurse that serves all the needs. And what this creates is a very inequitable workload for our nurses. Um and so one of the the reasons beyond the budget that we really want to look at regional nursing is to balance the workload for our employees um who are nurses. The other thing that is becoming an increasing um increasingly a problem for us is um filling positions around nursing. And um that's not just an ASD
052problem. That is a nationwide problem which I'm sure everyone is pretty well aware of. And so currently we have four unfilled nursing positions in ASD. In addition, finding substitute nurses is also very challenging. Um and so uh one of the things when we look at absences for nurses, which um as you would expect, we do have some absences with nursing. They're they're around six children. Germs are a petri dish at a school. Um and so often we do have double-digit absences on a daily basis in our nursing staff um across the district. So when those those positions are opened, our process is um currently to fill everything we can with a sub nurse. Often there are still unfilled positions in our district um that aren't filled by subs. So then we have six nurses who
053are health care specialists here at the district office that we then deploy based on student need across the district to those open positions. Even our director of healthcare nursing goes out to schools and serves in that capacity. Um we also then get down to a a situation where maybe it is a low medical need school um and we don't have a person that can be there for the full day. And so we have a buddy system of schools where nurses cover each other essentially. So in that buddy system, if if we've exhausted all the people that we can deploy to fill open positions due to absences, then we work on that buddy system. So a nurse essentially covers two schools at once um and meets the needs of students at both. So the bottom line
054is even in our existing model on a daily basis we're we're essentially putting a band-aid on a problem and operating in a regional model that's not as efficient as what we could be doing. And so that gets us to the next slide which is our proposal in this in this new model of regional nursing where we can efficiently staff based on student needs um across our district. And so just as a review, our proposal is to look at a six region model. Um we would have 9 to 11 nurses per region and they would serve 12 to 14 schools within that region. This is all student need focused and I'll get into what that means here in more detail. So we would do an ongoing acuity test or needs assessment of each region on a
055regular basis based on students moving in and out of that region um or schools. So um there are certain tasks that you are not able to delegate if you are a nurse um such as tube feeding or catheter needs or certain types of diabetic care. And so we would ensure that those high needs are met in this model. Um so [gasps] um that that acuity or a needs assessment also would include enrollments u medications that students need and and we would staff accordingly. So in the end nurses would be assigned potentially one school, they could be assigned two schools or three schools depending on the need of the students in those schools and region. So on the next slide I want to just clarify what what the region model is and is not. The region
056model is adaptable to student needs. So we can flex our staff in a more systematic way and a more efficient way. It's equitable to not only the nurse and the workload, but also to students who who have the most need. And it's also very much based on students and what what medical needs that they have that need to be met. What I want to just really emphasize is that the regional model is not a new nurse in a school every day, okay? Or on a weekly basis. Nurses are still going to be in schools on a regular basis forming those connections. Some of them may even still be a full-time nurse in the the current situation that they're in now at their school. So to get into the details, I want to just kind of
057explain what this uh this chart um ex looks like. So this is an example schedule of what a region staffing metric would look like. So in in the very lefth hand column you'll see the schools listed by high school, middle school, elementary, and alternative schools. you'll see the number of um high need medical cases or students that are present in those buildings and then it shows you the number of FTE or full-time employee equivalent um what would be assigned to that building. So, for example, at the high school, the first line, um, there would there's a student there that is tubefed on a daily basis. That is an an item that is a medical need that is not able to be delegated to someone who isn't a nurse. It's a high need situation. So, because
058that student is there all day, we would need a full-time nurse at that high school. Okay? If you go down to the middle school A and B, they also have high needs that are not able to be performed by someone who is not a nurse. So, those also would require a full-time nurse, but then when you get down to elementary A, there's not those highlevel needs that need to be delegated um specifically to a nurse. And so, we would be able to cover part of the day there and also share it with elementary B who also doesn't have high need student medical needs as well. So essentially, if you go down this chart, you'll see that even if you're a smaller elementary school and there's a high medical need at your school, a full-time nurse
059would still be allocated in the regional model. Um, what this also does is allows us to shift things. So, for example, if um we don't fill a substitute position um and there's an opening in the region, we're able to move the staffing around based on the staff we already have in the region with nurses who are familiar with students in that region to go cover those high medical needs that are necessary every day. So, it is a complex model, but it is much more nimble than the situation that we have now with our current model. So, the last thing I wanted to provide the board is just um some perspective statewide uh around nursing and how other districts are staffing nursing. So, you'll see in this chart um the four other large districts in the
060state, Fairbanks, Juno, Kenai, and Matsu. Um, you'll see the number of schools that they have, the number of charter schools they have, and I have a note on charter schools that I just want to clarify, and then the number of full-time and part-time nurses that they have on staff, and then additional staff that meet health care needs in schools, such as uh a health assistant or a tea nurse. There are many different things that that districts do across this the state, but the bottom line is you'll see that across our state that not um most districts are not operating on a one nurse, one school model. Instead, they're looking at the region of needs and meeting it in many different ways. And so, I just wanted to provide that perspective to the board that there's
061not just one way to meet the needs of students. So with that I will charter school. >> Um oh last note on charter schools I do want to point out because I do think there's some confusion around charter schools and how nursing would affect this model would affect charter schools. Charters will have the option to either cons keep their allocation and and work within their budget to keep their nurse at their school but they also have the option to opt into the regional model if they want to. So that is something that we are working on with our charters currently depending on how this board decision goes. So President Jacobs. >> Yeah, thank you. Um we talk we talked about uh some duties at least some duties that our school nurses fulfill can be delegated
062in this regional model. Who are we delegating those duties to and how often will those duties be delegated? So the first part of the question is we we already have a model in place um where we have certain identified staff members that will cover um basic needs such as a student coming for an ice pack or a student who needs to use the nurse's bathroom. Those those types of things that aren't necessarily a duty that a nurse needs to perform. Um typically it is your office staff. Um and and we do recognize that this this is going to be something that is another task that we do need to to address um as a district. Our office staff is typically the ones in those those scenarios and we're because the this is being presented to
063us, we're confident that our campus front office staff have the bandwidth for this work. So, it's currently a practice we already use. Um, in most cases, um, nurses are afforded a duty-free lunch and planning time. Um, if a sub is not available, they take over as well in many cases. So, it's it's a system that we already have set up and is is actively in use. This would um be just an extension of that. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, we'll go to member lessons to member Holland. Um maybe I have sort of two thought bubble and a question really building on um what member Jacobs was sharing. You know I'm envisioning sometimes a nurse is just sitting with a student in the nurse's office while they are going through whatever it is that they're going
064through. It' be very hard to sit with a student in the nurse's office in a safe private space while also answering the phones and monitoring raptor out front. Those are that feels incompatible. Yeah. >> To me. >> So I I would say yes, it probably is. You can't be two places at once. Um we do typically have multiple clerical at the front office. We also have paras that are often with students um as well. So we do think that there is a way to to work this so that it's it's doable. It it's not ideal and we recognize that, but it's it's doable given our budget. >> Um right. this all of this is given our budget. Um >> it's all astounding. Um the question I have Thank you. The question is I guess maybe
065about the charter schools about you know they could opt into the regional model. Would they use their budget to contribute to that regional model then? >> Yes. >> Okay. So there would be it's not just um coming out of the district's 4%. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Member Hong, >> um I know when this has been discussed, one of the points made is if we have a true medical emergency, we call 911. I'm wondering if and I'd be surprised if anyone had the statistic. >> The number of incidents where by virtue of having a nurse, we don't call 911. say like someone gets a a moderate cut on their finger, >> if if we don't really have anyone reasonable to assume liability for for patching that up, does something I mean, it's not life-threatening,
066but >> I one thing I would say is, you know, all of our principles and many of our office staff are first aid and CPR trained and they'd use the same skills that they get in that to make those determinations probably about the 911 phone calls. I don't believe we would be able to have any kind of data to be able to say how many. >> Yeah, >> it's understandable. That's not something you'd record even when it happened. >> Yeah, >> I just have no idea if it almost never happens or it happens occasionally. >> It's not data we track that to my knowledge. But I I would also offer that there is the good Samaritans law. So if you're stepping in to aid somebody from a liability standpoint, our staff would be covered in
067that way. Um, and that's just another note. Um, >> and I think they're protected in terms of covering aid. It's just that um, the decision to say, "Okay, this is good enough and you don't need it." Yeah. Or you should probably have this looked at. I >> I I feel like that standard is much higher when we have a nurse on duty doing it versus um, someone who's has just got some training and and may not be able to make sure there's followup and and all that stuff. I know it's a it's a complicated thing. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Member Higgins. >> Thank you. Uh, how many nurses do we have right now on the district? How many nurse positions? >> Do you have that off the top of your head, Andy? I'm
068going to ask Diana Beltran. Um, she has a microphone in the back if she has that information. >> We have 86. >> Thanks, Kathy. >> What was that? >> 86. >> Oh, okay. >> You have a followup. Number Higgins. >> Yeah. Looking at number two, huh? Yeah, I was just I was just doing the math of the six regions and how many each one and trying to figure that out real quick. All of our positions are not LPN. So, is that correct? >> Um, no, we have both. Um, so we do have RNs and we also have LPNs in our district as well. >> Okay. LPNs are not supposed to do assessments, I know, compared to an O. So, I know how that factored into it. >> Sure. So, I I do know that our
069RNs are supervising our LPNs. Obviously, that's part of um state statute and nursing practice. Um and and if Kathy wants to chime in with any more details, I'll let her do that. >> We actually just have one LPN in a school setting now and that she got moved from a base school to the school she's at now and does a fabulous job and I over am oversight. We have one other LPN that works out of out of our office and she does a preschool assessments. So yes, most of them are um are RNs and they're all part of the A.EA union and they have to have a BSN to be part of AEA. And I I stand corrected. We have 84 AEA nurses, but we have four schools unfilled at this time and then two
070nurses that are doing a job share. >> And I'm imagining offhand that these come up as an issue for special I mean for IEPs as well for accommodations. Is that right? >> Yeah. I mean often nursing care is a requirement as a part of the students educational experience if if they have the need. >> Okay. And and and just what am I going to hear from the negatives from the staff on this? I listen I got to tell you when I went to Juno this was the number two nurses are [laughter] issues they they've they've their voices are being heard. Okay, that's all I'll say. And they've been strong. But um >> yeah, I don't deny the value of a nurse in a school. um and the integral part that they play. Um I I
071don't argue that fact at all. >> Only reason why we are here with this is because we have a $90 million budget deficit. >> I I I understand that. I'm not disagreeing with that. And if we had it, would the question is would one be more efficient than the other? Would you be pushing it or not? I'm not going to go into that particular area at this point in time. Let's wait. >> Would we want all of our nurses? Yes. Um we'll move to member filming. >> Okay. I think you might they you might have just answered my question. My question had to do with whether this would be a temporary mitigation during uh budget during this crisis budget thing. Um and could it is this is would could we revisit it in light in
072the f you know in light of um [sighs and gasps] you know uh getting more resources So it it see it seems this seems temporary to me. So help me. If it's not, if this is something we're going to vote to do forever and a day, uh then I'm going to have to really struggle with that. But if it if it is deemed temporary while we evaluate um and we closely watch to make sure that we are not violating our uh FAPE we're not uh causing um we're not overworking staff. We're I mean I we >> I I'd go back to that one slide that shows what other school districts do with nurses. We are the out of the five biggest school districts in the state of Alaska, we're the only school district that has
073one nurse in each of our buildings. And those buildings aren't like smaller buildings. They're the same size buildings as ours except for maybe bigger high schools. Um I to say we'll go back to or what have you. Um later in this presentation, you'll see a recommendation from us on some stuff. If we can get through to that, it might answer some of the questions as how we feel what we feel are important. Um, >> okay. And and I appreciate this slide. I wish you put put Anchorage on there, too, but um uh and I know that other districts do it different, but I also know Anchorage has some different values than other districts and how we care for our kids and how we we got to do that even in tough times of budget crunch.
074So, I'll wait till we get to the to the end. Um, can I ask one more question? I'm sorry. Uh, c I think Kathy Bell's on the on the um deas. Is she on is she sitting on the DS? >> I'm I'm here. on. So, uh, Miss Bell, can you just give me an uh in your in your uh um and I don't want to put you on the spot, but would this model serve our students uh effectively, safely, and uh uh you know uh if you have any concerns about the model, do you mind sharing them? >> Well, the model hasn't been used before. Models similar to this have been used in other states. I just created this model based on other models, but I think it will work um because as um Dr.
075Johnson said that there's lots of schools that don't um have to have a nurse full-time there based on their needs. Like I'll give an example of one of the schools that has two oral medications, no diabetics, no tube feedings, no TRA, no nothing. um just the students that come in to be seen and um looking back at their records, they don't see but five students a day. And that might be the two med students. Also, I'm not saying that that's true every day. But there's some schools that have way more needs than other schools. And based on that, we're going to have to look at who has the greatest needs. And we're changing the model. It's not one nurse per school now. It's one nurse to meet the needs of the students that have the
076greatest needs. And that is very helpful for me. Thank you very much. You're welcome. >> Okay, we can proceed. >> Okay, real quick. Um, >> Dr. Brian started talked about the uh >> we go next. Could we just have a three or four minute break? >> Um, >> it's been an hour. If if you'd like, member D, we might run out of time for the other topics, but >> uh we'll take a five minute uh break to accommodate members. Okay, we'll call ourselves back to order. Um, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Gustoson, please proceed with the slide deck. Sorry. Um, okay. So, Dr. Bryant did start at the beginning of the meeting. Um, but for those online or for those who want to look at the slides later, this is the resolution we got Monday night from
077the school board Monday last week and um really it was I think the the board recognized it was incredibly short notice to do um a full analysis. So, we did reach into um everything we had looked at before. Um it specifically directed to bring back Fire Lake and Lake Otis, look for additional near-term efficiency oper opportunities which um we'll talk about shortly. Um the repurposing um really didn't change and um in about 4 days we had uh posted it Friday publicly and and this is the recommendations that we came out with. Close and consolidate three schools. Lake Otis, Fire Lake and Campbell STEM. Repurpose Fire Lake for Eagle Academy, Lake Otis for Rico. Relocate the Tutor Monastery program to Denali Monastery. We had talked about that last year in depth. It really did go back
078and forth. Um, we ultimately settled on um keeping it where it was, and I I'm sure we can discuss that more in depth as we get to those slides. Um we did look at um the government hill boundary first to move those 50 plus kids uh that were non-emersion students to a different school and then we did have time last week because one of our board members mentioned um 14 schools I think it was that had some type of school within a school. We couldn't do a deep dive on 14 schools because it takes it would take weeks. Um but we were able to look at a handful of them and we did settle on um those 90 plus students at Omali that were non-emersion. Um and really the best place to move them in
079terms of levels of service was Huffman and Sven can talk about that. And then finally at the bottom the last recommendation was to declare both Abbott Loop and Campbell STEM properties as excess to the district needs after they've been vacated. Ultimately, when we look at um you know what whatever you want to call it, right sizing, um closing schools, consolidation, ultimately the only way to change long-term capital costs because we've gone from about 472 or 172 million back in 2010 to 1.5 billion is to remove some facilities from the from our books that require those long-term decades long costs to maintain. Um so we did um recommend to to have both of those as excess. All right. And so as we move forward, um granted we are bringing back both Fire Lake and Lake Otis
080elementary schools um for a proposal for um closing, but the actual plans for each as we started looking at them last week. We have a different plan for each of those than what we had in November. So, looking at Fire Lake, um we heard from numerous people, especially the SLC teachers at Fire Lake, that they didn't feel like they would be able to um be su as successful at Birwood in the ABC curriculum. And so, we have adjusted and we have looked and we are proposing to have those three SLC classrooms moved to Alpenlow Elementary. they would then move into Greening and then Eagle River High School. Um we're making the shift later at the middle school level uh to make that um a pathway. Looking again at Chooak Elementary. In November, it was five
081or less students. Now it's eight that live in the little neighborhood right close to Chooak. We've proposed that they go to Chooak Elementary. It's pretty expensive to bust those that few kids down into Eagle River. But then instead of splitting the population between Fire Lake between Birwood and Eagle River Elementary School, we are proposing that we send all 153 students that would be left to Eagle River Elementary School. There's ample space there. That school would go from 55% to 88% full. they'll still have a preschool program that's there. Um we would we we do know that in Eagle River of course um about 37% of the parents or the families choose to send their kids to other schools. One of the things that we have done with this proposal is kind of at well not
082just with this proposal but we are extending the lottery application period to March 31st. Parents would then learn if their applications were um if they won their lotteryies on April 7th. Remember last fall we talked that the lottery um our lottery program is no longer going to have weight lists that last for years and years. Weight lists are called at the end of January each year and then new weight lists would be for a yearly basis. So this allows for an equity of any student being able to be considered for a school um when they apply for the lottery. Another thing that this does is Eagle River Elementary School will be a C school. Jim has figured out how that that works. He's done the analysis. Some people are some questions have always been, how
083can this still be a C school, but or or will this Eagle River be a C school? And yes, it is. It will be. Um, so looking at the next slide, this is kind of the map. It's a little hard to see, but the upper part has the eight students going to Chooak Elementary. The lower part has 153 students going to Eagle River Elementary School. Then when we look at Lake Otis, there's a pretty significant change in what we are doing here for this recommendation. We have 197 students at Lake Otis Elementary School. Um, our proposal is taking Tutor Road and if any students are north of Tutor Road, those students would go to Rogers Park. Any students south of Tutor Road would go to Tutor Elementary School. With the Monttoauri moving to Denali, we
084open up quite a bit of space there. As well as removing the uh developmental preschool component from Tutor Elementary School that was just put in recently. We'll have those students go to Rogers Park as well. So the developmental preschools that are at Tutor would go to uh Rogers Park. Another piece I before I move on, we do have talked about the non the monastery program moving to Denali. Another piece to this is that we are recommending that the sixth grade at Denali move into middle school that came from uh the administration at Denali asking us to look at that again. So we are um going to go ahead and move the sixth grade to middle school that we're at Denali. So Rogers Park ends up getting 35 students um regular education students, the ones north
085of Tutor and they pick up four development preks. That's going to pretty much with the programs at Rogers Park fill all the classrooms at Rogers Park. We have done an analysis in our four days last week. We did analysis room by room. We worked with principles. We looked at any of these recommendations. We we literally pulled up maps. We had them colorcoded. We had people sometimes walking into buildings and looking in the different rooms to make sure that these would all fit. The other thing that was um that did not change for Lake Otis this proposal is that the there would be three life skills classrooms moving to Russian Jack and one life skills program classroom moving to airport heights. Tutor Elementary School with these changes will move from 62% capacity to 99% capacity if
086all students move there again. And and the other thing that happens at tutor is the title one designation they'll go up to about 74% which will put them in a window where tutors always been on the window on kind of on the line. Are they title one? Are they not title one yearly? this would put them well within the title one um percentages. And looking at the map then um anything north of Tutor, those three ovals on top would go to Rogers Park, the oval below. So this proposal does not have anything to do with Cassoon Elementary or Ocean View Elementary like it did the first time we brought it because and this does not include any construction. Remember in the fall we would have had to put build SBBS rooms in Ocean View. This
087does not have any funding to do with that. So now looking to the new um proposal Campbell STEM Campbell came onto this list um and they haven't been on the list yet. This is the first time. Campbell's had a lot of mechanical issues this year to the tune of missing five school days because of either sewage backing up into the school, sewage lines being frozen, boilers not working, heat not working, HVAC systems. So Campbell kind of got our attention this year. Um, CAP, there's currently um a budget SA a capital project slated to go on at at Campbell. It does not include the sewer. That was that's new. Um, closing Campbell will save $9 million in bond funds that can be utilized in other capital projects. And then it also has $2.2 million from that
088project that is school bond debt reimbursement. And you'll see that later in this proposal um later as we talk through this. The students at Campbell STEM 120 students will go to Willrest Elementary School. That's pretty much the Campbell zone north of 76th Avenue or 76 I think it's Avenue. Glattis Wood would take 84 students. That's 84 students that are between 76th and Diamond and they would go to Campbell and 45 students would go to Clatt. Those are the students that are in the Campbell zone that are south of Diamond. Now looking at how they progress, the students that go to Willrest all go to Rome West. This group of students were already going to Rome West. So it has no change. A student in this part of the zone would have already gone to Rome
089West. So it has no change in middle or high school. Glattiswood, those 84 students are already slated to go to D mirrors and diamond. So that has no change. The clad elementary ones, those 45 students, we are proposing that that part of the zone for Campbell that's south of Diamond will go to Mirs and Diamond. So that's a boundary change. The reason why we looked at this, I mean this is kind of an interesting uh deal. If we were they currently that neighborhood goes to Hansu and service. If we were to put them into a school that goes to Hansu and service, we would have had to have two more bus um routes at the tune of $260,000. This proposal here um or we would have to have two more. This proposal uh doesn't these
090the these these houses are pretty close to or right um next to Diamond Estates and it would be able to pick up in the same bus routes. Taku Elementary would pick up three developmental preschool classrooms that are currently at Camp Campbell and San Lake would pick up three developmental and one general ed preschool as well. So looking at the percentages of capa capacity will crest in increases from 64% to 87%. Glattiswood increases from 62% to 80% and clad elementary goes from 68% to 79%. So looking at these sure willrest goes from 64% to 87%. Glattiswood goes from 62% to 80%. And clatt goes from 68% to 79%. So, um, again, we'll talk more about that school bond debt reimbursement in a here here after a bit, but uh, that's the proposal for Campbell. We do
091have some maps. Um, the first one is the Willrest. you can see or this is the general one and then if you go to the next map it shows which neighborhoods would be going to Willrest. Um the one thing about Willowrest too that isn't on this chart is it one there is a prek general prek at willrest that's going to move to Ocean View for their space. So the prek at willrest will move to Ocean View. Remember prek it's a one-year thing. It's different kids each year. Glattis Wood, those 84 students are in that part of the neighborhood and of course they still go to N Mirrors and Diamond. And then the Clatt Mirrors and Diamond move of the 49 students or 45 students that live in the Queensgate Nuland um subdivisions. Um and those
092we would be changing their middle school and high school boundaries also to Mirrors and Diamond. So the next school is more of a levels of service change and that is this is a new one elementary school. Um there's between 88 there's like 88 students that live in the zone but there's some other zone exempts in. So it's little it's n over 90 students that um go to Ali in the neighborhood program. Our proposal is to have those students go to Huffman Elementary. Um it becomes a more efficient building. Huffman then becomes goes from 62% to 84%. It allows those students to have less chance of uh combo classes. Um just all those levels of service that we've talked about. Um, Ali Elementary would turn into a French immersion school only um as an alternative school
093like our other alternative schools such as Northern Lights ABC, Government Hill, Chatch Optional, those full school um programs do not have transportation to them. So the transportation would not happen to Ocean Ocean View. It would go to Huffman. And if the next slide shows that um where the students live, the stu the the non-emersion neighborhood school students live all over the zone. We can't run two sets of buses. Um and for that the so the buses would run to Huffman instead of uh Ali in in this proposal. We also those are the new ones. We don't have slides for the government hill one but we have talked about the government hill one already as well as the monastery moving from um tutor to denali. Um and so the next and for the cost savings um
094typically it's going to be a principal librarian half a counselor ad two admin clerical and I custodial and a bo at each school and then savings for uh the utilities. Um absent there is a line item for annual maintenance. There's nothing on there. Um generally that's because we don't can't predict how much maintenance is going to be needed and it varies from year to year and however we have cut our maintenance personnel and our supplies in recent years. So with the footprint we have I think we still need our maintenance personnel support our existing footprint even after these schools are reduced. So um having to be able to on a budgetary basis trim out maintenance funds probably isn't realistic in this in this iteration. So you save about 2.6 6 million for the consolidation of
095those three schools after you taking into account a couple extra buses and then there's a little table at the bottom that shows the yearly savings over the next five years as that whole harmless provision phases out with the revenue loss. So at the end of the five years about 150,000 savings would remain after we lose the that school size factor adjustment the whole farmer that's included for that. So we would take any questions in regards to these particular closure proposals. Member listeners. >> Thanks. I have a few. Um one of my questions were on this slide is the school consolidation cost savings. It lists Fire Lake, Lake Otis, and Campbell, but the schools impacted are broader, Government Hill, Tutor, um Ali, and then all the receiving. So are the receiving sort of is the the
096movement of students beyond those three con consolidated schools included here? So, so one thing I forgot to mention, >> yeah, >> on the Ali um move, our recommendation is to take what's currently the Omali zone and make that entire school um bounded to Golden View and South because currently the French immersion students go to Golden View and would go on to South. So our our recommendation is to have that boundary for the middle and high school move um as well. And you know there's a whole process behind what we do with like the middle and high school and how do we you know move those students and when which students can stay in this current school um be it like in the Mali zone um Huo and service many of the um zone exemptions that
097go to Golden View and South are students and families from the Hansshoe zone as well. Um, thank you for that was sort of getting at maybe my next question, but I just wanted to double check on this slide. Does do the savings encapsulate really everything that has been discussed or those are the savings that are occurring simply through um the fire lake Otis and Campbell, >> right? So, the savings is generated just based on these three schools. um for those other two schools where we're going to maintain the existing buildings, the the teachers and the supply dollars for those students will follow the student. So the cost remains for by and large for all those those schools >> and where we save some money is less holdbacks for combo classes but yet providing better service
098of education like we've talked about. um we end up giving a lot of holdbacks um to the Mali Elementary School and we think this will balance things out because most of the hold a lot of the holdbacks are because we need to shore up the neighborhood side of the school if they're at Huffman or if they're at Inlet View. We won't have to shore that group up as much as what we would have to if they stay where they're at now. >> So that this doesn't include that. >> Okay. Well, this gets to maybe my sort of third question, which was a request for follow-up information. You know, at our school consolidation conversations, think Dr. Johnson, you've been especially effective at sharing um thoughts about improved levels of service and if there's a way of
099showing at Huffman, for example, prior to this proposed change under the PTR plus4, they're expecting to have x number of combo classes with an infusion of 88 new students. and teachers. This is then what would happen to the overall student body, right? Can we can we see concrete examples of how levels of service are expected to improve? I think a lot of the push back, some of the push back might be, oh my gosh, our class sizes are just going to get bigger. >> But there's additional staffing that is that's being allocated to the receiving schools, which should provide additional opportunities for two second grade classes, two fourth grade classes. >> Right. We we haven't done that detailed analysis on this because we we had three days to do all this and that's probably over
100a day of just somebody working on that because you have to look at specific classes the neighborhood kids come out of and where they go and all that kind of stuff. Um, a lot of times when we do these shifts at um, Lake Otis or not Lake Otis, Lake Hood is an example, we anticipated a large number of students going to tutor or to Turnigan Elementary School and they ended up not going. They ended up getting into the lottery and getting going to other schools and finding a different place. And so we have to, you know, we watch and we see as we go through that staffing piece later on in the year. Um, but we could probably do we could probably do it like >> Yeah, I I was just gonna to to add
101on to what Mr. Gustoson is saying. Um, I do know at Omali Elementary that we we did use two holdbacks in the neighborhood program this year um because we did not want every grade level to be comboed with large class sizes. And so that is potentially a savings. Um we would we would need to do the detailed class analysis at Huffman which I I do think that we we could do just I don't have it on on hand right now. >> Um thank you. I can continue. Um I think with both the Ali handsh students and then the students um coming out of um Campbell STEM but who would then be zoned for the a new high school middle school situation. I guess I feel a little bit of concern for the communicate, you know,
102the time of the year that we're in right now. Um, communication that needs to happen with middle and high school families and thinking back to the West Rome make boundary adjustments. Have you guys had conversations whether you know students who are currently at their middle school and would continue next year and students who are currently at their high school and would continue next year will they have those opportunities to continue? >> They'll have the same opportunities like Romeig and West did but remember middle school didn't have any kind of transportation part of it and that kind of >> so they won't they wouldn't be transported but they would be allowed the chance to continue. Um, and I guess one thing I thought of, uh, specific to the service, I mean, there are literally houses across
103the street from service that would now be zoned for south, and you'd have to go up and around or down and around. Um, but that's going to be is that a new bus route that has to be created to to bus previously unbusted students from the zone immediately south of Service High School. >> We are going to have to do new bus routes. We do those every year anyway. Um but yeah, of course we would. >> I'll pause. >> I'm going to jump in to follow up on something member lesson said, then we'll go to member Hollowman and Higgins. Um is there anything you can tell us even if it's using current um current enrollment figures that we know for sure about what life would look like at a receiving school? I'm thinking specifically of
104to start off with like the Omali students that are in general education going to Huffman. If we had to move um those general education students today, what would what staffing would follow them? The number of FTE and what would life look like over at Huffman? How would it be different? So, um, currently in the neighborhood program, the original allocation without holdbacks was for, uh, three to four teachers. Um, depending on how the enrollment went at the beginning of the year, they could shift internally. Um, so those staff would follow students if they all go to Huffman. Um, and when we initially spoke to the Huffman principal, she she said that this would help her with her combo class situations. It doesn't mean it would eliminate every single one of them. Um, but it would significantly
105reduce the combo classes at Huffman. So, it would help the combo classes at Omali. It would also help the combo classes as at Huffman by enlarging that neighborhood population at Huffman. >> Thank you. I think that's helpful. Member Helman. >> Um, I I do understand where the the savings come from and why they diminish that because our students are in larger schools, the revenue drops. Is there a revenue increase from making a Mali a smaller school and is that inside this number or would that be something that hasn't been factored yet? >> There shouldn't be a regular change in the amount of revenue we get if we shift students from Ali to Huffman. So the students at Huffman would get incrementally less, the students at Omali would get incrementally more. Um it really the the
106big changes in revenue only really happen when you either have more buildings with small with fewer students or fewer buildings with more students. So if you have the same number of students would just shift the or the same number of buildings but shift the population you don't really get the savings or diminishment in revenue either. Then is is there any annual cost savings once we abandon Abbott Loop and is is that in here? >> Um so we've been receiving the cost savings or the hold harmless provision for Abbott Loop for a couple of years now. So that's starting to step down. Uh the savings would really be on the capital side. So what do we have to put into it to keep maintaining it? >> I'm I'm assuming we haven't had any operational expense since
107it became a charter school. Um nothing large is but whatever is kind of minor maintenance replica has been able to they funded that. >> Thank you. >> I'm just going to jump in really quick um because for a follow up on what member Hollowman was indicating we I think we have the figure for um in our packet as to what the deferred maintenance backlog is in terms of real dollars at um Campbell STEM. What is that number for Abbott Loop? How much of our deferred maintenance backlog exists at Abbott Loop? >> I can pull that up and put it in board docs coming up or uh board connect. I I can't remember it off the top of my head. >> Understood. Thank you, sir. We'll go to member Higgins. >> Yeah, bunch of questions, but
108um Ali, you've you I'm looking at the buses. What where are those two additional buses going to be? So, we had additional buses from Government Hill to Inlet View and we had um a total of five buses added and then we subtracted three. So, all of these moves, whether it was um the Campbell STEM closure that added some new buses, well, actually this one didn't, but the other schools did add some new busing. Um but we also subtracted three. So that in the total aggregate it was plus two. So we are no longer going to provide the three buses that support the um highly gifted program in order to cut it back um to be able to make this more affordable. And that's why when you start looking at the 14 schools, if you start
109looking at saying we should we should move every non-special group of students in a school like a school within a school and and do this with all 14, it's almost certainly only going to add more cost every single time. Now you get a benefit in terms of level of service if you can put them in a school where they have less combo classes and other things but anytime you split a school um I think you know Ali is different because we're not going to provide busing to um what would now be an alternative school but in most cases you you are going to add some bus costs >> so Ali right now is French immersion heavy neighborhood participation you're going to pull all the buses that they have been over 300 kids that go to
110that school. call it an optional program if you want to continue get your own transportation or go to uh change schools and drop the immersion program because it sounds like that's what's going on because I know that there only you know a certain segment that is you know uh not out not in the French immersion most of the neighborhood the kids and that's where the majority of those kids are coming from I understand you're not going to provide the busing that they've been relying upon and that's not factored in here >> what was factored Ed in was if you pull the non-emersion out and let me try to find it real quick. Um, where's Molly? >> There. >> Oh, there it was. If you pull them out, if you look at where all the students
111are, they're spread out, non-emersion and immersion. Um, if you were to provide transportation to all students at Omali and all of the other students to Huffman, you would probably add three or four buses because you can't hit both Ali and Huffman with the same bus in the 45minute window. And so effectively on whatever drive Ali Street where there's a bus stop, you would have two buses following each other. one that goes to Huffman, one that goes to a ma goes to a Mali and you would double the transportation. What what actually makes it more complicated is we don't provide transportation to any alternative schools. So if you start doubling for Ali then do you now have to add another 30 40 buses for all of the other alternative schools many of which don't live in
112the neighborhoods but possibly there would be some expectation of a hub and spoke and now you're talking at adding millions and millions of dollars. >> I'm going to dip completely. We do neighborhood schools to the Spanish one the government hill appeal living in that area. We do it in other areas. If you if you're going with with Russian and and and um uh to certain schools, if you're in that area, you're getting it. This is a neighborhood school where all those kids, the vast majority have participated and all participating in the immersion program. You're taking 25% something like that of the kids, moving them to a different school and and and the majority of these are neighborhood kids going to that immersion program and you're taking away the transportation. One of the it just hits
113me. I don't know what the savings is, but the impact for those families and kids is going to be huge. Does that make sense? >> So to clarify, Government Hill, it's a walking school. They only get one sped bus, >> right? So actually there's no change at Government Hill at all. >> Okay. >> Um other than we had to add a bus to move them down View. >> Okay. But but you understand that right now we're providing transportation for over 300. You know the majority of those kids are all living in that area. They get transportation and now you either drop being involved in emerging program. They got involved to it with an expectation they're going to continue to be able to um uh do that. They they've started the middle school high school kind
114of continuation which is the same area. So they're getting transportation to school and you're going to pull that away from the immersion program and and possibly gut it pretty good. >> Um I'd like to respond to member Higgins. You keep saying you're going to you're going to you're gonna >> we're responding to your resolution >> that the school board gave us. We're responding to your resolution about looking at different things. This is one where we could take some students and make it better for them at another school. Is there a thing with transportation? Yes. If you so choose to not do this, that's the school board's decision. We're giving you our proposal. It is not a recommendation. I >> I'm looking for the pros and cons, and I saw this as a con that wasn't
115included, and that's where I'm at. Uh because I think that's kind of something the board needs to know is that we're being impacted. There are uh you've got 99% at Lake Otis I mean at TUDA elementary the way it's going. What assumption do you have of how many kids will transfer with Monasoy to Denali under this scenario? Because I know there aren't that many. It seems like because >> we we have it worked out to where we've looked at the classrooms and if the majority of the students were to stay at tutor they would still fit of the monastery students >> that the majority would what now? still fit in. >> Stay at Tuda. >> Yeah. And I think that's probably what we learned last time, right? That most of them wouldn't be having the
116transportation to go all the way to Denali. >> We've heard from, you know, you I get the same emails you get. So, well, you probably get more than me on that. >> I haven't been inundated on this one. Let me tell you, I've tried to stay away from this one. Uh, but it is an important issue, you know, uh, pulling that away uh, within it. pulling sixth grade out of Denali. What's the benefit there? Is it because it's so low participation? >> Yeah, it's really low participation. I think that one is is that 14 students? >> Yep, there's 14 students in sixth grade at Denali. >> Yeah, I realize there aren't many. I don't know if it makes a difference because you got four, five, six all in the same grade in the same classroom.
117Does it really make I I think trying to maintain that probably isn't the best interest, but I'm just wondering >> we we that that particular one was brought to us. >> Okay. >> By the by the Denali Elementary. >> Yeah. the staff at at Denali Elementary seen some advant advantages to students being moved to middle school um with such a small number of sixth graders there. >> I know Campbell there's a lot of interest in that. I've got a call from someone lower 48 can't get here until 11:00 tonight, but he was trying to speed up his trans his travel just to do it because it impacts his kids so much. They live right close to it and they're so pleased with the outcome. And I looked at the academics and they're doing pretty good.
118is pretty full school. Um I I and the water I guess was caused by the city with broken man or some other issues that were out there that's creating it. We got a billion dollars worth of maintenance all over the place. Could we have selected other schools if you're doing it strictly on that? Because I saw this school is very poor. I mean, you know, it looks like it. You've got special ed issues again with cognitive abilities, intensive needs in that school. And I'm just wondering um uh is this really driven by the maintenance uh for this one school because we've got schools all over the place with maintenance uh within this group. >> You know, I can tell you that you can always pick another school. Always, always, always. If you are at a
119school on a closure list, you are absolutely correct. If you close the neighbor school, your school will be bigger. If you reboundry the neighbor school, they can close and you can get bigger. Um, a lot of our schools have a lot of maintenance requirements. If you look at um, Campbell, there's nothing wrong with the staff. There's nothing wrong with the kids. There's nothing wrong with the neighborhood, but there was a $9 million project that required the library at the front to be moved to the back of the building in order to build a secure vestibule. There were maintenance challenges. There was also um a mandate by the board in the resolution to try to find some funding solutions to mitigate some of the um challenges with a $90 million. And it did happen to have
120$2.2 million of funible money that now wouldn't have to be applied and could be applied to other board priorities. and that's the state bond at reimbursement money, the same money that went to um another school. So, um it it opened up opportunities to look at and you'll see it at the end, sports and and nurses, right? And we'll talk about that, but >> I'm looking at options, too. One of the things that the superintendent did this year made a difference is that this is not downsizing, this is right sizing. It made reference to all the need for child care and the other issues. We've got a we got a federal grant out there. I just mentioned it briefly. I it was told by senator, please do it. that we could use those funds to be
121able to make accommodations within the school to be able to have more preschool and daycare and it would pay for that and that would provide us utilization of that space critical for the for the for this for the community with 8,000 kids out there that we need to have extra capacity according to the studies and I'm just wondering did anybody look at that or at the option if we're going to do Lake Otis or we could do something like um move the administration building there eliminate made the lease. They That's one of the things being proposed >> in three and a half days. We did not come up with a plan to move >> I agree >> the education center and do a full analysis of the secondary schools and all of those challenges. Those
122really are a long-term public discussion. Um it's easy to throw out and pick two high schools and say, "Well, I think these two should close or merge or whatever." But it isn't two. It's all of ASD. And as we look at a long-term strategy, um, as long as I've been talking about declining enrollment, declining birth rates, um, lower population in Anchorage, it has never stopped going down. It's been accurate. Um, the reality is we just haven't closed schools. >> Very many. >> One last, >> Mr. Higgins, we need to we need to continue on. We've got a limited time left and more slides to go. We'll circle back to the rest of your questions when we have a moment. >> So, part of our thing that we do that we've done over the course of
123the last couple weeks is Kirsten's done a great job at looking at and seeing how we could offer sports maybe for a cheaper model and uh she is going to kind of walk you through all that and then we'll kind of give you some recommendations at the end. >> All right. I think we've all uh heard a lot of feedback from our community and our students um around how important sports and activities is to their experience. And so just as a reminder um the slide you're seeing now is the the current bud budget proposal. Um, since this proposal was developed, um, I have done, um, a a deep dive into sports and activities budgets, um, working with a lot of different people in our our district that I'll get into, um, so that we could
124look at a different way to, uh, manage the budget around sports and activities and still have um, great experiences for kids. So, our goal when we were reimagining this proposal was to reduce costs obviously because we are in a budget deficit. um while still maintaining a robust athletic experience for students. Um and so what does that really mean? Um what it means is that we we looked at activities um that we currently offer, but in this proposal that I'm about to um kind of walk through, it will look very the student experience will look somewhat different. So essentially what you get this year will not necessarily be what you get next year, but you will still have opportunity. So if we go to the next slide, we had this goal of of bringing back student
125athletic experiences while in a budget um deficit. We also um maintained the um premise that we would continue to outsource bowling, girls, hockey, baseball, and softball. And how did we do that? Um we did a a huge um collaborative effort amongst high school administrators, myself, um our director of uh student supports and activities for the district, our high school senior director, and our middle school senior director. And we really um walked through the fine the finer details essentially of the budget. So we focused on three things. We focused on revenue sources. Uh we focused on transportation costs and we focused on cost savings. So we'll start with our revenue sources on the next slide. So in our our new proposal uh we are proposing to increase activity fees to develop a two-tier payment schedule that
126is reflect more reflective of the the sport costs which I'll get into here in a second and increase activity fees in addition to non-enrolled ASD students who participate in our sports. So i.e. uh private school students and or homeschool students that are not enrolled in an ASD home school. So to take a the first um the first part of this proposal is to increase activity fees um from our current of $225 um in high school to a tier one fee of $300. Um, so the sports that would be listed as a tier one fee schedule are listed there underneath tier one. Um, in addition, we would have a $500 sports fee for swim and dive and hockey due to the facility costs of running those activities. They are much more expensive to operate. So we
127would still maintain a waiver process for students who are economically disadvantaged. Um and we would also um maintain an a by athlete um fee cap if you will. So the the fee cap per student would be $800. So you could play a tier one sport and a tier 2 sport and your your fees would be capped at $800 and then you would still get to play a third sport in the school year as an example. So you wouldn't have to pay an additional $300. So that way if we have a very involved student um it it is cost it's reflective of kind of managing finances at home if you will. So you'll see by this two-tier um fee sorry I'm losing my words the fee schedule of tier one and tier 2 sports would bring
128in those additional revenues that you saw on the previous slide. So tier one would bring in 307,000 tier 2 sports fees would bring in an additional 56,000. So then if you go to the next slide, this is where our non-enrolled ASD students um would also see a fee increase. Um so this would bring in an additional $10,100 for us. So the total revenue that we would generate by this fee schedule is $373,600 in additional revenue to ASD. So we believe that that will really help us um as we go into reimagining sports. um as as they currently look. So, one of the other things that we really looked at was transportation. Transportation is a huge um cost for us in our sports and activities. And one of the reasons it's very expensive is because we
129use busing for everything essentially. Um there we are proposing to use um an alternate mode of transporting smaller groups of students such as a volleyball team that is not as large as a football team as an example um through what we would what we would develop is a private transportation release of liability. So essentially it's a way for us to utilize parent and coach car pools versus paying for an entire bus for students to take um to an event. So there are other districts across the country and the state that that utilize this system. So the way this would work is athletes um as they are signing up for their sport, there would be a permission form included in that registration packet um that would give a waiver for students to be able to be
130privately transported by other parents and or a coach. So it would automatically be a part of the registration process for a sport. Um, and like I said before, it would be utilized for smaller groups. Um, we would also limit this to the Anchorage Bowl area. So, from the Rabbit Creek exit on the New Seward Highway to the Maldoon exit on the Glenn Highway, so that we can avoid some dangerous roads outside of the the Anchorage Bowl. And in those instances, if we're traveling beyond the Anchorage Bowl, we would still continue to utilize busing. So, for example, if we were going to Wasilla, we would still utilize a bus um instead of private vehicle transport. So, in like on a day-to-day operation, um the way that this would work is parents and coaches who are driving
131would load students into their private cars, they would operate in a caravan style. So, if you had two or three cars all going to the same location with athletes, everybody would leave the school together. No student would travel alone. Um they were they would always be in groups and there would be no stops along the way. So it would operate much like a bus pickup. It's just with a private vehicle. So they would go straight from point A to the competition site. They would play their their game or or participate in their event. They would load back up into the vehicles altogether and then they would caravan back to the home school for parent pickup at that location. So it it essentially replaces the bus, but we utilize our volunteers of parents and and we
132utilize our coaches for that transportation. It saves us a lot of money um if we do this. Over $400,000 could be saved with utilizing this waiver process. So the third part of what we did looking at sports and activities um to find savings was to go sport by sport through each budget. Um, at this time, this proposal would continue to recommend that gymnastics and esports not be returned to the budget. Um, the reasoning for this is due to low participation in both of these sports. Um, compared to other activities and sports within our district, we have very low rates of participation and we believe that we can put our efforts into those other higher participation sports. We also would recommend that the dome contract continue to not be a part of the the budget. Um
133while we love the dome, we have a great partnership with the dome and students do benefit from that service, it's just not financially viable for us to add it back to the budget. Additionally, we would like to integrate riflery into our JOTC programs and merge those together. Um there's a way to do that and often the rifleary programs are duplicative to our drill team in JOTC. So we would work on a process so that students still have an opportunity to participate. It just wouldn't cost additional dollars outside of the JOTC model. So moving on to individual sports and I know that we're getting short on time so I'm just going to summarize. You'll see on this sport we are on this slide that we went sport by sport to find efficiencies within each sport to
134still provide a robust experience for students while finding the cost savings. So I'll give a couple of examples without reading every single one of them. For example, our debate teams, our debate, drama and forensics teams. Um we we don't necessarily have large numbers at every school. So, as a cost savings, we would recommend combining two schools together for one team. So, we would go from eight high school teams to four combined teams. Students would still be able to participate um in all of the different events that DDF participates in throughout the school year, but it would c be a cost savings of $40,000. A sport example of savings would be um particularly in hockey, it is a higher cost sport. There are a variety of strategies that we have found that would reduce our cost
135for ice time as an example to the tune of $91,000 in savings within that budget. So the total savings when we went line by line through each activity was $398,100. So it was significant amount of savings doing a lot of really detailed work um by a lot of different people who who know a lot about these activities. So I just want to give kudos to the group that really helped prepare this. Um so looking at the whole picture because that was a lot of information. This summarizes revenue sources and also savings. So the initial amount to restore both middle school and high school sports is $5.1 million. That's the cost as it currently sits in our our current school year. So, if we um continue to have certain items not reinstated, you have 433 plus,000
136in savings. If you include the transportation savings, that's just over 438,000. If you look at the re-imagined sports savings, it's 398,100. And then because we would be bringing additional sports back, we would then generate revenue from those additional sports in activity fees. So that's an approximation of $300,000. And then if we implement the two-tiered activity fee increase, you generate additional revenue for just over 373,000. So that's a total of about $1.9 million in savings that we can take away from that 5.1 million in costs. So the if we restore the sports as is with the recommendations, it would be a cost of just over $3.1 million to bring back both middle and high school sports with some changes. So looking at this next slide, it's kind of a recommended use of the available funds. And
137I'm going to walk you through each of the different lines because it does talk about everything kind of we've talked in here. The school consolidation fund was savings was 2.6 million. The 2.2 2 million from the statemon debt reimbursement by deferring oceans for a year. That puts $1.4 million back into the mix. So the total available for redirection would be $6.2 million for the total sports cost we in order to return Kirsten just said was $3.83 83 million to restore all sports with the updated model new revenue and oh I'm reading that wrong I'm sorry to re is 3.16 million for the whole thing for sports so our recommendation would be adding back all the sports at 3.16 reducing middle school PTR which would be 2.2 2 million. What happened with middle school? The reason
138why we're recommending middle school is because back I don't know a few budget cycles ago, maybe four or five, maybe more than that actually. I was a middle school principal at the time when we brought back the middle school model after a year. We increased the PTR only at middle school. So now middle school PTR is the same as high school PTR. that middle school PTR plus the loss of the middle school model has really become a very high priority for us to fix. Um reducing a middle school PTR by 16 FTE is like putting middle school PTR to 34 instead of 36.25. So, it's still adding PTR, but it's not at the level that the others were. And then we also have on here adding 6.5 nurses at the cost of $840,000. That would
139leave the remaining of zero. So, this is our recommendation. If you were to choose to take that 6.2 million that we have found to be able to reallocate, we would have reallocated in this manner. our recommendation at this point for that. So, we are open to any questions. I know we're running short on time >> with um with if no members object, I think we can take another 10 minutes or so to have a few questions. Seeing none, member Hman >> um in making rifle part of um Junior ROC, does that limit who can participate or is it simply being run by that group? So, um, yes and no. Um, I mean, if you are part of a drill team with JOTC, you typically are practicing outside of your class that is JOTC. It's typically
140either before school, at lunch, or after school. So, we believe we can work with our instructors to make the opportunity available for for our students. Um, but it's something that we I if this proposal is uh approved by the board, we'd have to gather our instructors together and really work on it. >> And as a followup on the middle school PPR, I'm not remembering the original cut. Does that fully restore the model or that? No, >> this is just PTR. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Go to member Higgins. get uh the cost for participation from charter schools. How will that work? Will they be Go ahead. >> So for sports for charter schools um they they pay the same rate that any other ASD student pays. >> How much how much does the charter school
141and this is more for Andy, but how much do the charter schools get for each student? Um you know um you know they get money from the state and other things. Do you know what the amount per student is? It varies depending on the size of the school because they get rolled through that school size adjustment. >> Okay. Elementary. Yeah. >> Um but we can get you the range. Like a school that has 175 students is going to have a whole lot more money per student than a larger school like real push that has 500. >> Okay. Just give me for 300 students. What would what would be the amount they get per student? Do you know off hand? >> No, I don't. But I can get it before you get the break. >> Okay.
142If I could get that later, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. >> Member lists. Um, I think I really thank you for the enormous amount of work that everybody here in this building and especially the folks in front of us went through over the past week. This is a big comprehensive proposal and um I appreciate this last page because I feel like it it just sort of sums up what is at stake as we um you know over the next week. I guess I'm I want to think a little bit ahead. Um what what I see here is that you have identified $6.2 $2 million for redirection. It looks like um 3.6 of those million are onetime funds. We can only use school bond debt reimbursement funds once. We can only use an ocean deferral once.
143>> The school consolidation, however, with that that would decrease our projected deficit for FY um 28 as well, right? Because we would be cons Yes, it would for two years we get the 100%. What you what you really have is >> from principal down to custodian. It would not compete against all the other teacher FTE and all the other stuff every year because now it would not it it wouldn't it wouldn't be there next year to compete against limited resources. So, it isn't member Higgins said this many times, you you can't close enough schools to balance a budget. um the formula just doesn't let you get there. But it does take these critical positions that must be funded just to operate a school and they are no longer competitors in next year's budget. >> Well,
144I I think that that is an you know it's an important piece of the puzzle we need to think about this year. We also need to think about next year and the year after that. Um, for me personally, I think it's um I really appreciate that there were priorities made um to align possible revenues with um middle school staffing. I think that's critical. That's classroom teachers um at a really sensitive age um to ensure that middle school and high school sports and activities could be brought back under some creative problem solving next year. But that sounds like a one-time solution. Then we'll probably be have to troubleshoot things again um next year and and providing additional nurses um even if it is within a regional model at this point in time. So I appreciate the
145recommendation. >> Could I just ask clarification? >> Sure. >> Are middle school sports included in this proposal? So, middle school sports to re return are we are not the only thing that you can really save on middle school sports is transportation and we did not have the time to go look over everything >> and it's pretty minimal too as well. Um so, so we didn't do the same detailed analysis in middle school quite yet because of the limited time. But when you do a cursory look at the middle school activities budget, most of the costs are either the coaches that you're going to need or the buses um that they utilize, which are at a much lesser rate than our high schools. Um and so we could likely find some additional savings if we had
146the time to do that. But right now, middle school and high school sports are all accounted for in the proposal that you see >> to bring back. >> Okay. So, this proposal does restore the middle school sports. >> Okay. Well, I'll close this out and say that I appreciate administration bringing this forward on such short notice. Um, I also appreciate what I see is some attempted refinement at the um repurposing plans for uh Lake Otis and Fire Lake um students and addresses some of the concerns that the board heard during uh public testimony and little listening sessions in that time. Um, Dr. Brian, if there are no closing remarks, we can adjourn to executive session. Just checking in. Okay. All right. Would entertain a motion to adjurnn uh to executive session for the purpose of
147u contracts, legal updates, and negotiations. >> So moved. >> Motion is made by member Hollowman. Is there a second? >> Second by member lesson. Seeing no objection, we are in executive session effective at 508. Thank you.