001test. All right, we're going to call ourselves to order. This is the um work session for the Anchorage School Board. Today is Tuesday, January 20th. Uh present uh online we have uh President Jacobs. Uh I'm sitting in the room for him today. Uh also in the room we have uh members lesson uh Wilson and myself uh and of course our superintendent is with us. So to kick off our work session and I'll announce other board members when they join us either online or in person. We have two items for discussion. I'll turn it over to Dr. Bryant. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So our first item will be the Oceans Academy. So I anticipate this will be our final work session on this topic. Um as the board is slated to deliberate this application at
002the next board meeting in February. It's currently on the agenda as non- action. So at this time I'll invite up the applicants for the Oceans Charter School and uh related staff and then once they're at the desk I'll ask if they have any opening remarks and then from there um the the board is able to ask any questions you may whenever you're ready. >> All right. Um before we jump fully into the the details and the nitty-gritty stuff, I kind want to just back up just a little bit. It's our fourth time being here and um I I realized I didn't really talk about the the wise in a lot of ways. Maybe from a personal level, I think it's probably important to mention that a little bit. Um alternative schooling for me has always
003had a pretty big influence on my life. Growing up, I went to a uh I I had a lot of trouble in in school in terms of being a pretty disengaged student. Never connected with school all that well. Um when it came to high school, I was really fortunate to come across an alternative school and art school in Tacoma, Washington. And that had a huge impact, changed my life. Um it was hands-on, it was community oriented, it was it open campus. um project based. It was incredible and it made me realize what education could be and um it it's a long path but ultimately that was one of the reasons why I became a teacher is finding an alternative way to to do education. And there's so many different ways to do education. And for
004me that reason is is also what keeps me in education and keeps me doing projects like this. Um we all know that the the landscape of education is changing. It's constantly changing. Um I think there's some some issues with boys in education that's particularly difficult. And I think many of you, none of this is necessarily new, knowing that boys tend to have lower GPA, higher rates of disengagement, um higher rates of suspension, higher dropout rates. And time and time again, there's been studies, there's been enough research to to prove um pretty conclusively that hands-on community oriented project-based learning is one of the best ways to address this this growing issue. Uh secondly, the issue of um AI is changing the way we think about school and a lot of the traditional practices of school have
005um are being challenged right now. One of the things that AI can't do is hands-on learning, community oriented learning, project based learning with teachers acting as as um as mentors and coaches for their students. I I've been in education now for almost 10 years. Almost all of it has been in alternative schools down down in Sika and Highland Academy here. And and it's it's challenging doing doing education that that's sometimes um against the grain. And I think as a board, I I want to thank you for for considering this project and bringing it as far forward as you have. Um, not only is it incredibly meaningful for me, um, and and what I see is like the the purpose of why I'm here, what what we can do. Um, it's providing an option for for
006students who who are like me when I was a kid and who and I want them to experience the same not the frustrations but the the same joys and challenges um and and um options to create meaning from education that I was able to receive. So, I just want to thank all of you so much once again for for bringing this project to this point and getting this far. >> Anybody else had comments? Oh, yes. Go on. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, >> Madame Chair, thank you. Members of the board and Superintendent Bryant. Um, Adam Okeelki, principal of stream, I think you know, but just to make sure, um, I want to tell you why I'm here. Um, because I haven't been here for the past meetings. I'm sure you've seen my name
007on the documents. And so, I I have been a part of this committee, um, since the beginning, but I've I've very intentionally taken a backseat role and supported and advised these folks because I think the real value and and power of a charter application comes from the teachers and the parents who are driving it. and and so I very much did not want to be on the forefront of this and let this this process play out and just play a support role and that's what I've done. I wanted to share why so that you're you know you're you're clear on that and I and I'm upfront. This is the 10th year of stream academy. I think our program has been highly successful. I think all of the evidence shows that our charter school is a
008strong successful charter every year for the last nine years and now it's starting for the 10th year. The number one question I get from eighth grade parents is what now? What do we do now? I want you to know with full faith that I start with talking about how amazing our neighborhood schools are. We have the highest proportion of students at school within a school of east of any school. Um we're we're disproportionately represented because that's the first program I recommend. I um you know our our students are 70% zoned for baggage and Clark because we serve the East Anchorage community and so 70% of them go to East and and Bartlett and I can't say enough good things about those programs and that's where I start and where I'll always start. Uh of course
009we recommend Highland, we recommend other alternative programs in the district and we help our students find home. That doesn't change the fact that the number one thing parents ask me every year is what do I do now? Where do I go to have the same experience as stream academy and why won't you expand to high school? We've entertained that option over the years and our school was founded by middle school teachers at Begitch. Scott Cleaver, Scott McKim, Andernell Brown, many of you know our founders and it was founded on the middle school model and our I assured our founders when I was hired it would always be a middle school. So the next most logical thing was to support something similar but with its own identity the stream academy to meet the needs of our
010parents and our students. So the short answer is this is my support and the reason my APC fully supports this and supports my efforts um and supports Oceans is this is what's best and what our parents and our families have asked us for for 10 years. So I I just wanted to share that and be explicit. Um, I'm really thankful to be a part of this committee. They have done amazing work. Uh, I've been honored to support them and on behalf of stream, on behalf of my APC, because my APC has been very explicit, um, they have our full support and and our program is going to continue to do everything we can to help support oceans to get oceans started and to help oceans be successful. So, I wanted to share that was my
011role and that that's why I'm here. And the reason I haven't been to the past meetings is because I've met with and advised them and then intentionally let them lead this charge. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. Thank you so much for your support of charter schools and for your support of oceans. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> I don't think I could top any of that. Um yeah, I'll just echo what they said and say thank you um for your time and support. We've gotten overwhelming support um from the district uh and you guys and your feedback. Um yeah, I'll just say thank you. We'll leave it at that for now. >> Questions from the board, member lessons. >> Um thank you. And I I have a I have a
012number of questions. So I will maybe share a couple and pause and then I'll get back in line. Um before I ask anything, I want to say that I spent time with your application. Um it is sound. Your efforts are sincere. Um I think you just said thank you for our work in in bringing us to this point, but you all have done the lion share of everything. Um I think our work begins now uh in in asking questions and evaluating. Um so I have some so I think the application is sound, the effort is sincere and the core idea would serve students well. Um but I do have technical and financial questions. So I don't know if those are going to be for the min administration or the applicant um themselves. Um on page
013five, the charter uh proposal said that it would be revised annually. If it were revised annually, would the board need to review and approve it annually? Maybe that's maybe I I'm sort of misread things. Um, >> can you ask the question again? Um, so when I looked I mean I read through the the document and on the page listed five it says updating the goals and charter each year the APC principal and staff will work collaboratively to establish things. Um I'm summarizing now and two to revise the language of the charter for clarity and to reflect OSHA's best practices. So this is we have not as a board approved a new um charter school but if the language of the charter is revised on an annual basis it I would hope it doesn't need to
014come back to our body. >> Uh great question. Um Miss Harris you uh can definitely elaborate on this. My understanding is that the board will be asked to approve Oceans Academy for a specific term. Typically, it's 5 years or so. And at that point, the board would be asked for a renewal, and there would only be some sort of interim board action needed should there be some extraordinary circumstances is how I understand it. But this is also my first charter application that we're receiving. Miss Harris, is that accurate? >> Yes. And it is also my first charter application. So, but absolutely, if it is approved for five years, there are some tweaks that we do bring forth to you. For instance, last year when Aquarian decided to move from K6 to K5, we needed to
015bring it in front of the board for you all to approve that to move on to the state so that that would change. I'm thinking it might be the academic goals or strategic plan that you may have with Oceans that you may be looking to revise on a regular basis based on the data that we receive from our students academically, etc. But I'll leave that to to you all to talk about that piece. Yeah, I think I think you're both correct. Um, and also we would would be keeping a running list of things that need to be uh kind of changed or revised over time. It's not the rewriting of the whole thing. I think Highland has the same thing. >> Okay. So, it sounds like changes that you might make would stay within really
016the domain of the APC and not necessarily be elevated to this body. >> The second question actually, Dr. Ryan, you um just spoke to it because I I didn't see in the memo itself, which is non- action tonight um or the application, unless I missed it, like a duration that the charter would be good for. So, where would we see the recommendation for the duration of number of years that it would be chartered for? >> Is that not stat? >> Sure. If it's the same as the process stream went through, if it hasn't changed on the state level, that's determined by the state. And there's an initial three-year charter and then so when stream opened, we had to renew three years in and then that that full renewal is for 10 years. My understanding is
017that's still the same process with the state. It's a three-year initial and then a 10-year renewal. >> Thank you. Because we have seen multiple renewals, the 10-year cycle, and it's very clear on those memos. So, um, I appreciate that clarification. I will pause there and let others okay cycle in. >> Let's see who who else has a question. I would like to uh recognize uh members Higgins and Hollowman joined us. Member Higgins is in the room. Hallelu is online. All right. Questions for the team. I mean they have you guys have done a lot of work and I guess I'm I'm I'm interested in timeline. So what what is that timeline that we're trying to meet? >> So I can speak to the timeline of the state and so if approved here then it moves
018forward to the state which their next meeting is in March. So it's March 10th and 11th and then once that is approved then they can move forward with the charter. Considering that our lottery opens up February 1st and ends March 19th, that's a very small window for a charter to garner those applications. It's not impossible. It's just a very short window. So, um, from there, we would look at possible alternatives as to what that might look like, whether it's a special lottery for Oceans itself so that it can move forward successfully to be open next year. Um, or maybe they will have the applications. But we we if if we move forward to another lottery just for Oceans, it would be probably outside our lottery timeline. So it doesn't affect any of the other schools
019that are in the library. >> Um member Hollowman, I see your hand. >> Um yes, thank you. Um, I did just want to take a moment to say to the team presenting, uh, gave me a flashback when you thanked us for all our hard work to about 1970 when as a high school student, I was actually approaching uh, foundations for funding for a group I was part of and befriended someone that was head of a foundation in my town. And I was asking him about his job and what that was like. and he explained, "Well, it's really a great job. I just sit here and people come and tell me their wife's work or their greatest passion and their greatest projects." He goes, "It's it's amazing I get paid for doing this." And and I
020want to say to some degree, I feel that way that you guys have done all the hard work. We we get to sit and cast a ballot, which is about the easiest part ever. But also I I do have the concern about how we spread more of our experience from charters through ASD because indeed one of the things people have always talked about is that our charters are incubators or our our laboratories and and I don't think there's any way we can make our programs more like stream or oceans is destined to be. But I I was also struck when you mentioned that it was started by teachers from Begage that we do have great talent spread all across the district and and I would hope as we potentially authorize another charter. We recognize that
021perhaps autonomy to our neighborhood schools could put a little bit of that uh charter enthusiasm into more of our buildings. Uh when people know that they can pursue an idea and implement it because it may not be as revolutionary as it would need to be to be a charter. um you guys make a real break from what our neighborhood schools do. But I I do think our neighborhood schools can do more if we as a board and administration simply let them. But thank you for doing all this. Thank you for having the vision knowing that that there's a a couple hundred students out there that it's going to be a marvelous fit for that might not do very well otherwise. And that I think is the real goal for for what we're doing on charters.
022Thank you. Okay, we'll go member Higgins. I >> I'll just jump in real quick because 10 years ago I was involved in approving the the um stream and what really stood that out is not the enthusiasm from parents. It was the teachers who were just total owners of the system. Uh they were um in baggage. Uh I tried to get them to just take over half baggage. They didn't want to do that. uh and I understand why uh within the group because you so much independence really makes a difference but I think um it was the enthusiasm of the staff that really drove the success of stream more than anything else. I mean the parents were there they got the support but it was the it was the teachers when I hear the presentation here
023in regards to the owners being the teachers and really committed to this type of learning process that's what convinces me it will be successful. uh that is what's critical and um have a lot of appreciation for the commitment that's there for the kids and the reason why you want to do it and the success of stream is to me without a doubt um very proud of the fact that they're being getting everything they've got and they've been successful with it so I appreciate that the only concern I always have been and always been is a safe environment obviously east is a safe environment trying to move from there would be an issue to me uh because it just it just isn't the same uh in case of some sort of disaster or something happens. Um
024but u uh and it also helps financially. It's going to help you be successful more. So thank you for being here today and I appreciate the enthusiasm. Thank you. It means a lot. >> Okay. Member Wilson. So, um, member Bellamy asked about timeline and can you go through what an ideal timeline would look like? That that would be helpful for me to to map out. I mean, best of circumstances, what would an ideal timeline look like? What students ideally would would be applying at, what grade level would you be accepting? That that would be helpful for me. Um, I think we're all kind of chuckling because timeline has been has been at the forefront of everything that we've talked about lately since July. Yeah. Um, and maybe even before that, but but definitely since July.
025Um, our goal from the beginning back uh almost exactly a year ago when we started this whole process was to open in the fall of this year. Um, and with that idea in mind, we've built our timeline around that. And then we've learned to be extremely adaptive. And so roll with all the punches. Um, and and overcome hurdles at the same time. So I I I do feel like our timeline is constantly changing um as far as, you know, oh, this didn't happen by this date. That's okay. We can make it work for this one. Um, ideally at this point we would like um we would like to have approval on February 3 from you all. I that's um that's extremely critical. We're we're right down to the wire now. um and then getting approval
026in March from the state and then um and then everything kind of kicks into high gear and I feel like we um we're aware of that but we're we're like we just need to get approval first before we can start doing some of this other stuff. Um talking about the lottery of potential special lottery would be um would be definitely at the top of our list at that point. Um because obviously without students we don't have a school even if we have approval. Um and um do you want to sorry do you want to jump in? >> Yeah. Just for a moment. I I think if we're talking about the ideal Yeah. Um, then we then put us in the lottery. Like put us in like the initial lottery with everything else. And I know
027that we aren't like fully approved yet, but I and I don't even know how possible this would be, right? If if we were in the lottery with all the other schools, that would be even though like, you know, we're two days away from a vote. I know that this is not realistic that you know we have to be approved by you all before we can actually enter the lottery. Um so maybe the second best thing is you know as soon as we're approved then the next day put us in the lottery >> so we're with everyone else. followup >> and and the ideal ideal ideal again number of students and in which grades would you want to start with? >> Um so our our goal and what we've built our budget off of is 100
028students and we are aiming to fill that number with freshman and sophomores 9th and tth grade. Um that allows our teachers to kind of get their feet under them. It allows the principal, whoever that is, to get their feet under them. It lets us um lets us work out all the all the snags and that sort of thing. Um but also it's it starts us with a really strong foundation because then those ninth and tth graders become the upper classmen and they become the mentors for the other ninth and tth graders that are coming in. Um and it it allows us to really emphasize community also within the program which is super important to us. Okay, member lessons, we'll come back to you and let the record show that member uh Donley has joined us
029at 422. Um, well, I appreciate the the question by member Wilson. Um, I did want maybe a little clarification. The memo suggests that it you're looking for a minimum of 75 students. The financial section says 100 students would be projected and then on page 21 and it might be an error. It says 150 minimum. So um I just you might want to I guess >> for the memo it is required from the state that you start with no less than 75 students. >> Okay. So there >> so their goal was 100 yet but there is a minimum of 75 students. Okay. Okay, begin. >> And the page 21 um item it says the charter school shall enroll a minimum of 150 students. This is like in the it looks like the form that gets filled
030out. >> Um that is a typo which we will correct right now. >> Okay, great. So I can cross that off of um and if I can maybe pivot a little bit towards a financial question and this might be for the administration and maybe our finance team specifically. So in the um appendix on financial information there is an item that sort of says 117,000 that oceans would um you know use for facility right and I assume that it would go and help pay to keep the wing the Benson wing at Betty Davis East you know heated lit etc. Does that if we fund Oceans with that $117,000, does that then lower the overall um does that change, you know, the item in the Betty Davis East budget for utilities, right? Does that lower is there
031a savings there? We shouldn't be double charging 117,000 of heat and the light. >> Correct. And it's not all heat and light. It's also I believe the custodial cost. So we just charge that's based on the square footage that they would be utilizing times the ops ops and maintenance cost for the facility and that would include custodial I believe. >> So >> I think unless they have it separated in two different lines. I forget the the split between like utilities and labor on there. So I guess in essence an investment here would lead to a full offset >> correct >> in the Betty Davis East sort of budget pages. >> Yeah. Because the facility is going to cost the same whereas they're paying for a little bit of the space they're using now. So east
032budget would go down by that amount. >> Okay. So um I guess in a way that makes a $1.3 million investment a little less. So >> right. Yeah. >> Okay. That's helpful. Um, and then this is maybe a follow-up question. Um, back in December when we I'm looking at, uh, Mr. Riff. Um, but back in December when we talked about the proforma and we got a revised picture of our overall deficit, was this investment part of that number or is this essentially layered on top of that? um this would have been layered on top of it for how we're going about the budget at this point because frankly we don't know exactly where these students would come from. Um so it's kind of hard to decrement those schools. While a lot of them may be
033at East um or have gone to East, we don't really know. So until we got a kind of clear picture of where their students are coming from, we didn't actually take students away from other schools for the purposes of calculating like supply money and staffing. And if I may follow up, um, so would that in, you know, I don't know, August of 2026, would that sort of be incorporated in a revised uh adopted revised budget? >> Uh, I mean, >> I'm not exactly thought that far forward on it yet, but depending on how far how much it's skewed. If it's a few students from every school, then no, we wouldn't go back. And typically, there's some margin of error on our enrollment projections as it is. >> Okay. Um, I'll pause it. >> So, we
034have another presentation. Um, but anybody else have anything quick for this group before we let them go for the fifth time? No, I'm >> We do appreciate you guys coming forward and um being patient with us as we get through this. >> So, I'm not going to ask a question. I just want to Oh, >> I just want to say this will be a non-action item tonight because I haven't had a chance to continue to ask questions because I understand we're rushed for time. I will pull it I will ask to pull this >> for continued discussion. So, um I just I want to get through all of these questions before the next meeting. >> Okay. >> But I understand we're in a time limit. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you guys
035very much. Um, member lessons has already forecast that she's going to pull it tonight for more discussion for the board. So, um, if you guys can call in, hang it, hang hang around, that would be great. >> Well, what does this mean? That's not going to be a non- action item. >> No, it is non action. We're gonna have more discussion. Got it. Yeah. >> All right, guys. All right. Thank you so much. Don't panic. Thank you. Good to see you. All right, moving on. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, next we'll move on to a topic on uh, teacher apprenticeship. This is a very exciting initiative that could pay long-term dividends for the district and creating a brand new talent pipeline for educators. Uh, so I'm very excited to hand it off to Mr.
036Marty Lang and team to inform the board about this. >> Thank you, Dr. Bryant. I am also very excited to be here tonight to share an update on our work around developing a teacher apprenticeship pipeline for the district. Uh I am joined today uh by Jen Bloom who is a teacher expert in teaching and learning. Uh Eric Visty uh senior directors on special assignment and uh Jackie Garcia who is a director uh with the department of labor and one of our partners on this project. So each of them will uh share a little bit more about themselves and their part in this work um as we work through our slide deck. Um I think in general just to kind of set the frame then I'm going to turn over the team. they've been doing all
037the work and and I want them to share uh the progress. But um just to frame it a little bit, I think most folks are generally aware of what an apprenticeship program is, right? It is a paid on the job training model that's partnered with some structured learning and when folks come out the other side of that experience, they have a industry recognized uh credential in their area. So, a lot of times when people think about apprentices, they think about plumbers and electricians and mill workers and linemen and and sort of the traditional trades programs. What a lot of people may not be aware of is that in 2001, the federal department of labor added teachers to the registered apprentice list. And so teachers are now eligible to serve in apprenticeship programs. And so that
038created um some exciting opportunities. And since that time, since uh 2021, um states, um apprenticeship agencies, school districts have all been trying to figure out how to leverage that and create these grow your own programs within their districts. And uh we had some early adopters in the state of Alaska. Bristol Bay um regional uh career and technical education uh group um started an apprenticeship program as did C Alaska. Last year we were able to tap into some of their groundbreaking work and got pretty excited and realized we needed to scale this up internally. And so if you go to the next slide, um the board actually created a little bit of a runway for us to do that. So last fall when um the governor's veto was overridden by the legislature when we got the
039additional dollars, you'll remember the board set aside about $2 million for recruitment retention efforts. And one of the things we earmarked was to really look at how do we build the support infrastructure for a teacher apprenticeship program and maybe even launch a pilot cohort this year. And I am excited to say that we are deep into that work. Um in the fall we we started with uh the project management office. This is a project for them. This team came together with a lot of other support across departmentally and uh we have some exciting stuff to share with you. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Eric uh to get us started. And the one thing I'll say kind of in transition here before I hand it off to him is this is
040not work that we are doing alone as a school district. This is um something that by design is done in partnership with a number of other entities. So, that's where we're going to start. >> Thank you, Mr. Lane. Uh Eric Visty, senior director on special assignment. Um really happy to be in front of you guys and being able to present this work. This is this is really groundbreaking and really um transformational work that we're working on. So um what this wouldn't be available this wouldn't be done without all the partnerships that were liazing with externally from outside of the school district. Uh University of Alaska Anchorage has been a key stakeholder and helping us develop our program, our design of our program and implementation of our program and our enrollment of our program. uh the
041Department of Labor uh director Garcia who's with us um has been instrumental in informing us along the way helping us um understand how to make a strongest program that we can for our anchor school district. And then lastly, the Department of Education Early Development DED has been a really strong sponsor and strong supporter of this work and so we're really proud to be working and partnering with them in concert to be able to lift this off the ground. Internally, uh we have a strong team uh from a lot of different departments and areas. Our finance departments represented, our human resource and talent management departments representative, professional learning, instruction. So, we have a lot of different key people. Our communications team has been phenomenal. So, we we're really fortunate that we have a strong internal team
042as well as our external stakeholders have been partnerships with us. Now, what is a partnership? What is an apprenticeship? We we want our apprenticeship, our teacher apprentichip program to really be a fabric of the Anchorage School District, part of our program in how we develop our workforce. And as Mr. Lang said, in 2021 was when the Department of Labor really opened up the pathway for teachers to become an apprentice. And in Alaska, it really started getting going about a year and a half ago um in 2022. And so it requires and involves on the job paid on the job learning called the OJL hours um and the the employee who is the apprentice working in their capacity in the schools. It involves college coursework. So the students the apprentices are taking courses in the evenings.
043Um in our cohort that we're working with it's through UAA at this point in time. Um and then there's mentorship and in the anchor school district we're calling those people who are the mentors our journey worker teachers. These are our master level teachers who are excited. They're really, really excited to be able to lift and sponsor and grow our future educators, our current employees. So, all this is woven together to really create the tapestry that we have of certification Alaska to lead to have a strong and robust teacher workforce. Now, why do we need this program? We know because we want every student to have an opportunity to have a highly qualified teacher, a strong teacher, not just some, all students. We know that the teachers are our pathway to be able to have success
044and teaching students for success in life. And we also know that our teacher pipeline right now is really not quite producing enough teachers to meet our workforce demands. There's barriers there. There's time barriers. There's financial barriers. There's the cost barriers. All of those things are considered within the apprenticeship program to really create a pathway for people to be able to access and become a teacher. Our staffing vacancies that we have right now, we're relying on emergency certifi certified teachers in some cases. We're we're utilizing our substitute teachers. We have classroom openings. When we opened up our pathway and our pipeline um for our first cohort, we really focused on elementary because we knew at the time we had 50 openings. We knew that we had to help and be able to support that. And so
045we have a high demand. In August when we surveyed our te our pair of professionals who we're targeting to be able to have the opportunity to do this, we had 85% of our paras who responded said yes, they want to be a teacher or maybe yes, they do. I need to figure it out more. Only 15% said no. So we have a workforce in our pair professionals that want to do this. >> The lead team when we were looking at it, we're like, well, you know, what are going to be the barriers? What's going to be the roadblocks, right? And so we're looking at it and we were like,"Well, maybe we're not going to have the teachers that want to be mentors. Maybe they won't that we won't have that pe those people coming out."
046We were blown away because we had over 40 people apply and want to be mentors for people who are pursuing that K3 endorsement with University of Alaska Anchorage. And lastly, we had community coming out. We had people that even work for us were emailing, "How can I jump into this program? Can I be a part of this?" Like people want to join into this apprenticeship program. And we also know that with like growing our own, it leads to stronger retention rates. People stay with us. Our pair professionals are in our classrooms right now. They're working with our kids. They're in our hallways. They're they're they see what's happening in our schools and know how to support students. And so you we're creating a stronger and more skilled workforce. And you're creating pathways that provide opportunities
047for advancement that otherwise they don't have access to. So all this leads up to our teacher apprentichip programming programming having the opportunity to build our highly qualified educators. >> Thank you for having me, Madam Chair. You can hear me, right? Yeah. >> Superintendent and members of the board. Thank you for having me. Wow, Eric is a good teacher of this because at the end of the day, I mean, this is everything that I've regurgitated over and over to him and this is the benefits of registered apprenticeship, right? And he came out and said everything just spot on. >> So, at at the end of the day, one thing I can say to you is that this is what I see as as the federal director, right, for registered apprentichip. When I ask any of my
048apprentices across the border, you know, why did you want to become an apprentice versus why not go to college? Okay. It's that whole wage progression and the earn and learn part of it all, right? Because they are earning a wage while they're learning basically. So it's like that's that's one. And then just the skill set and the clarity as to do I want to really become an electrician? Do I really want to be a teacher? Do I really want to be a surgical tech? that clarity comes in you know I mean so once they they have their mindset in that occupation they move ahead and they complete it with you know with a lot of enthusiasm and that's the whole idea of a registered apprentichip at the end you know at the end of the
049day okay so I mean I wished that I I mean I went to college and then I had to decide which pathway I you know I was going I graduated in hospitality degree I was a chef for 15 years and then moved on and today I'm the director Well, you know, if you look at the occupations, they're two entirely different occupations, >> but I have also 30 years of workforce development in under my belt. And so, this is what I see with with registered apprentichip is the on the job learning part of it all where the baby's on the hip. Okay. And then little by little by little, the baby starts crawling and then sooner or later you have, >> you know, a journey worker. >> Yeah. >> Right. And so I I what I
050say to my sponsors is you know if it's not important to the parents it's not important to the child. >> Okay. And so at the same time here when we are starting a program it has to be important to Anchorage school district or to any school district that this has to be successful. >> Okay. So that's where that's where basically all the encouragement will come from me is that okay your co- teachers your mentors you know pick your mentors make sure that your mentors love to teach >> and and as a teacher who wouldn't want another person in that classroom co-eing with them >> at least I mean I understand they're going to go away maybe in four years right or in two years or three years because they're going to be teachers themselves but
051at least for that four years you're going to have a core teacher you know so I mean so you have more attention that you can pay to all these students >> it's it's probably what 25 to 30 students in a classroom I mean just having a set of eyes on all the students at the same time is a difficult task >> and now you have a a an apprentice by your side okay who is also once that apprentice graduates it's an entirely different perspective as to someone who graduates from knowledge and comes in as a teacher >> because it takes that college person two to three years to become familiar with the classroom with their students and everything else. But here is this apprentice who has now graduated who knows the students who's familiar with
052the school who knows you know literally everything that can notice everything that's going on. And so that skill set is right there for you know for a teacher apprentichip program and that's exactly what >> we have heard and what you know our out states have told us for their success. We have um Arctic Committee, Arctic Community, Arctic Slope Community Foundation that has the most amount of tribal educator teachers >> and it's amazing what they're doing. >> Mhm. >> Right. So, I mean, so this is where my selling point is that yes, this is another pathway. We're not taking away the college pathway. For those that want to go to college and complete it in that manner, just go on ahead. But this is another pathway to help those that prefer to go the on the
053job learning, the wage progression, the industrial, you know, the industrial recognized credential. They will have a mentor from day one, co-eing and they are for sure going to be successful because because at the end of the day, think about the clarity. I do want to be this teacher >> and um so you know, I was I was hoping that I could find a small state, right? Because we are a small state. I mean we 750,000 people on a good day. Okay. So I was you know I was not going to compare us to some somewhere like Tennessee or some place like that. I was trying to compare us to a small state and see how successful we could be if we really wanted to do this and start this. Okay. So and fortunately today this
054came out in Iowa 99% of their positions have all been filled >> in teachers. Okay. And it says here, yes, the governor uh this allocated $49 million for the program, but they have 134 school districts, 1,81 registered apprentips. >> Okay. As a and registered apprentices, attain an associate degree to become a certified pareducator or a bachelor's degree to become a licensed teacher. Then they also have other flexible pathways which is the career technical, native language. uh this um and uh was it area content area specialist authorization but all four I mean all these pathways maxim maximize an individual's experience in the field maintain high standards of lensure but do not require the completion of a four-year teaching degree so they have different pathways also at the same time we do have different pathways so those
055people that just want to only become career technical education you different different pathways or those people that have a bachelor's degree and they just want to become expertise in math or science or you know whatever field we have all those >> that can be created. >> Okay, Jen, did you want to Oh, I'm sorry. You guys have that you got your speaking order in. >> We're good. >> Jen's gonna Jen's gonna rock it. >> Um, so a couple nuts and bolts of a of a teacher apprentichip program. Um, it involves educational preparation program. Um, we're partnering with UAA with our initial pilot cohort, but we're in conversations with UAF, APU has a strong program, U.A. Southeast has a program. The employer, we're the employer, right? We employ the journey worker teacher. We employ the apprentice
056teacher. At the end of the day, we and our students benefit from this program. They directly benefit from because you get teachers in our classrooms. And lastly, our sponsor, which is DED. However, as we were talking about, there's other corporate sponsors. There's Sea Alaska, Bristol Bay, Arctic Slope. I think Bristol Bay has like 14 apprentices right now or 15 apprentices right now. So, those are some of the key elements of within the apprenticeship program. Uh Dean uh Duceay from the University of Alaska Anchorage wasn't able to be here tonight, but she presented us some information for us to share with you guys. Um and they've enrolled over 115 apprentices since the beginning. They have 76 currently that are active as of the spring of the of 2026. and their their persistence and retention rate is
057holding at 70% which is pretty consistent with traditional teacher pipelines. Um originally they launched their program at fall of 22 they had six sponsors deed being one of them and now they work with 21 different employers and that that little bar slidebar graph on the right um that's just a sampling of current employers in Alaska. Um you can see Anchorage we have five now as of as of January. Um and when you look at the demographics across our educator workforce um it's largely uh female uh driven about 95 to 97% um there's in our apprenticeship program we have 14% male and you can see 60.5% of the apprentices at UA are Alaskan native so you're seeing a shifting in demographic of our educator future educator workforce through apprentichip pathways our program weaves in the on
058the job learning, the college coursework, and the mentorship to create two pathways. The two-year pathway, which is for people who have their post-bachelor degree, and a four-year pathway for people who have their um for don't have their bachelor's degree. They're pursuing it. And what happens is the paraprofessional comes from a life skills classroom. They come from a kindergarten parah, an ELLL parah, whatever paraprofessional they're in, and they stay in that job. They're still working with students. They're still doing all that work. In the evening, they're taking classes. And so then they're getting their on the-job learning hours. And so through that through the either the two-year or the fat four-year at the final year of their program and that teacher apprenticeship year, they become that co-eing teacher in the classroom, planning with the teacher, working
059with the teacher, co-eing, co-leading. And so that's really what's unique, I think, about the Anchorage School District program is we've developed a position that final year of the program where they're in the classroom leading instruction day in and day out. And so we feel really strongly about our model and I think that's one of our prize points of our model. Salaries, benefits, um the wage progression is an essential component of progressive wages is an essential component of a teacher apprentichip program. And if while they're in the pair professional position, the totem contract really drives that. But in that last year, what we've created is a a comp a compensation that goes up by quarter based off of their competencies that they demonstrate as well as the hours that they they've earned. And so as they
060move up, you can see a a chart on the right hand side that gives a description of an example of what that income and those wages would be for that that apprentice teacher that last year. And lastly, support. Um there's tuition support. Currently, DED has a grant that provides tuition assistance. Um, there's also financial aid offers. And in Anchorage, we're really fortunate because we have the we have the job center. And in the job center, if I'm a single parent and I'm taking evening classes and working as a pair professional, I may need help with child care. I may need help with with things. And so, I might go to the job center and I can go apply and ask if I can get some additional assistance. So, the job center is another resource that
061we have in Anchorage that is another lifeline for apprentices that goes beyond your traditional four-year pathway. And lastly, we've got our our lead our apprenticeship team, our project team that you saw the names people on. UAA has been central there as well as the department of ed as our sponsor. >> Good evening. I'm Jen Bloom from teaching and learning. And as a learning organization, this is really exciting that we have an opportunity to weave together our current talent with a responsive support plan and varied and strong partnerships amongst our community. As you've heard tonight, our two main roles for this project are our apprentice teachers and our journey worker teachers. And this team has really developed a comprehensive way of examining the applicants right from the time that they submit their application all the way
062through the interview process. We have uh created rubrics to determine best fits for our um different roles and really have discussed the desired dispositions that we hope to have for our educators in our classrooms. And what's really exciting is we had over 120 applicants. You've heard Eric mention that earlier. And keep in mind this is just for our early learning through third grade components because again that's the group that we were targeting. So the possibilities here are truly endless, right? And with our journey worker teachers, their mentorship has really um brought together some um hope and optimism. And in public education, we need that hope and optimism right now. And we had over 40 applicants um submit to become journey worker teachers. So that's in addition to their classroom work already, some that have even
063delayed retirement so that they can continue to support and grow our educators. Uh the team has also worked with many different departments uh to help really understand these educator competencies because this is different than the traditional pathway and we want to ensure that the apprentices when they um take over their classrooms that they are prepared and confident uh to support our diverse learners. We have been very intentional about our planning to ensure that we have reflection protocols so that we can truly examine this pilot to determine um that durability and sustainability. Uh this is the way that we are going to create more certificated educators. Right? So I did say we had 120 applicants and you will notice that we have five apprentices and that number is small and it's small intentionally because we wanted
064a high quality program. Go ahead. Next slide. As you can see we had a really ambitious uh project timeline. We wanted to launch our cohort in January. I'm happy to report that our five apprentices launched their coursework last week at UAA. It's very exciting. This first semester uh like I said is a very ambitious timeline that we went through developing uh some really important foundational components for this work. Really defining the roles and expectations. Uh the team uh built that wage structure that Eric had mentioned and really learning about all of the wraparound supports that come with this grant right to help remove those barriers. Uh we uh had our first face-to-face um onboarding meeting in December and it was a lovely time to get all of us together in the same space and the
065professional learning team. We are incredibly excited to support the work as we continue to help these educators. This the second semester is going to continue to be a lot of work because we want to create highly impactful educators not by chance but by design. We are optimistic that we will be able to launch a second cohort in August. >> Now, so state uh sustainability um we have general funds allocated for our five apprentices that we are currently in place. Um but to grow and expand the program, we have to look at fundraising efforts and we have to figure out how can we expand it, how can we grow it, how can we move for the high school level, the middle school level, elementary. Um, and that's really some of the next steps that the team
066is working on is looking at how can we approach this. And we've we're working with our finance team to look at a I'll say progressive approach and a strategy to figure out how can we fundra um because again as we've been saying the need is there, the demand is there. We have people that want to do it. How can we bring it? And so um so we're really excited about the next steps in terms of what we're looking at in the future. As a learning organization, we really get to to focus on the people, right? Um and and you'll see a picture here of Jerson. He is one of our pair professionals at Kingade. He is an experienced pair professional who has been with us for seven years. And this program has removed that financial
067barrier for him to pursue his dream of becoming a classroom teacher. >> And that's really what we're about, right? success for all students and success for all educators. And um this is not only really helping Jerson, but all of our apprentice teachers and our journey worker teachers are benefiting from that renewed hope and optimism um that will surely be in classrooms. And here, as promised, is a photo of that onboarding night. And really there was a lot of hope, positivity, and that collective belief that it's never too late to dream of your next steps. >> Thank you. >> This is awesome. I you don't know how long I have thought about how do we take people who are already committed to us. They they are in our buildings already. How do we take them and
068help them to become an educator? How do we do that? And so here we go. It's happening. So I I I thank you guys for sharing this today. Okay. I see member lessons and then member Higgins. >> I have two questions and perhaps the first you've explained it and I didn't get it. I don't understand corporate sponsors. I don't understand their role. And I guess the second question is what's the of the $2 million um that we allocated through Memo 047, how much is going towards this project? >> That's probably the simpler question to answer first. So, I'll start there. Um we set aside about $500,000 to invest in um those progressive wages during that teacher apprenticeship experience for those five folks. Um, I'll start to answer the second question. Um, you know, registered apprenticeship
069programs allow us once we have a an established program to apply for and tap into grants from the feds around apprenticeship. And so I part of our hope is to pursue grant funding that will allow us to build and scale a sustainable program over time. But we think this is also an area where there may be interest within the community. And so we have been working with Savannah and the grants office and she has put together um a package of materials that sort of frames this program and why it's a a sound investment. And we are also looking to potentially pursue um other donation sources other than some of those big federal grant programs that are traditionally pursued around apprenticeships. So it's kind of a bifurcated approach or maybe a approach a shotgun approach you
070know looking on all fronts where could we find additional funding because you know one of the things that I want to anchor on that they shared is you know we put the application out there not knowing if we would have pair of professionals really interested in this and we had 120 apply and many of them already had their bachelor's degree so they could right away start in that two-year progression and be certificated teachers in you know 24 months and fill a vacancy in our school. And so, how do we then find the funding to support this model so that we can scale it up and, you know, move beyond a cohort of five to maybe a cohort of 10 or 20 per semester and really get a lot more of our paraprofessionals in that pipeline.
071That not only um helps us fill our teacher vacancies, but I think it creates a lot of enthusiasm around that paraprofessional role, too. when people realize if I apply to be a pair of professional in the Anchorage school district I have a pathway to you know a larger career beyond that. So I don't know hopefully that at least as a start question and we can certainly have um Savannah come up and join us and explain that more fully too >> and then sorry that the sort of the first part of the question was more of like what's a corporate sponsor? I don't if if we're the employer what's a corporate I mean I get that they're the Alaska corporations but they don't understand how what their role is. So, so within the sponsorship, there's those
072three components. The educator prep educational preparation program, the employer, and the sponsor. In our case, for our pilot, we get we went with department of education as our sponsor. In some organizations, there's a little bit of the funding sponsor from our strategic plan that we're looking at. But from the teacher apprenticeship program, in some cases, like in rural Alaska, Bristol Bay is the sponsor. So, they do the reporting requirements. Um, they look at potential funding streams, pathways that could be there. Um in our case we're partnering with deed in that um so so the sponsorship in that sense would be the entity that's responsible responsible for the program itself. So cooperate I mean I I see where you got the you had the confusion is because deed is a multi-sponsor and so deed can have
073several school districts under them because they do have a big grant and then they register all these apprentices under them and then provide the funding for the schooling. Anchorage school district right now is under deed but eventually I think belief is Anchorage school district wants to come out pull themselves out and become their own sponsor. So now once Anchorage school district becomes the own sponsor then they'll begin to register all apprentices that are in Anchorage school district area >> as as you know and manage their own program their own program. This then in turn actually to a certain extent might benefit Anchorage school district because at any one time when this because there's some funding coming out and any one time the the state goes for funding you write a support letter. Now I'm the
074fed I don't get any funding. I just you know tell everybody you know write the support support letters to the state of Alaska saying hey we're willing to support your you know your your grant that you're applying for. And then what the state of Alaska does is it Anchorage school district will become a subawwardee. So they will award this much of money to Anchorage school district and say here you go this is this is your money to run the the to to manage the registered apprentichip program. So that's not just federal grants. Even if they apply for the state training employment program, Anchorage School District is able to do that, right? And especially with the par with the PAR professionals who already have a bachelor's degree, right? If they are one year into finishing that
075step program will pay for them for that one year to finish to complete. >> Did you have a followup? >> Okay, great. Member Higgins. >> Thank you. Um, are there any um um uh academic outcome studies in regards to using this type of apprentichip program and what have the results shown? I mean, there's always pros and cons to everything and it tells you what not to what landmines not to step on or whatever else is out there. Uh, but I'm just wondering what type of information that that we should be aware of as far as studies done in other locations. >> I've looked up for studies. I haven't found a lot of studies on it. Keep in mind it started in 2021, right? So the pathway and then they're going to school. So they're usually
076on a two-year or a four-year pathway. So nationally, a lot of them are turning in and transitioning into classrooms now. So then I I my impression is from a time and place, we're kind of in that early stage part and I haven't seen outcome studies that are tied to it yet. >> Okay. One of the things I I attended the u the national conference with large urban school districts and that big discussion on AI was AMI is first in administration then it's a tool for teachers. Is that being incorporated in here for the benefit of this type of apprentichip program? It just seems like an ideal situation to u people coming into it for the first time taking advantage of that tool. Um the University of Alaska Anchorage is really the or the organization that
077is running the educator or the related technical instruction. So we fall under UAA and their teacher preparation program, their apprenticeship program. Um we're coming in from the support, the structure to the design and all those other layers. Um from our lane, other than looking up and looking up what is an apprentice and how to figure it out on AI, we haven't really done a part that's woven in AI yet. And one of the other comments you made was uh evaluations of the competency and and I find that interesting. Is it a testing? Is it just what what is the focus on the competency because you've got two aspects? You've got the knowledge and you got the application is the way I see it. And so the question is since this is an alternative, how are
078you achieving both of those? >> Yeah, it's a great question. The we're actually a hybrid program. So we're both based off of the skills and the and the competencies both. And so the competencies are aligned with our educator preparation competencies that were run through the appendix A that director Garcia approved uh for the state. And so um and all the universities have their competencies approved and they're using the university competencies. So it's aligned with our teacher preparation programs. And so then that educator both in the coursework that they're taking to demonstrate the skills and knowledge and then comes back on that the competencies. what what UAA's created is really like an 18 credit internship year. That final year, it's robust. It's intense. And that journey worker teacher paired with the teacher apprentice is responsible for
079making sure and assuring that the that the apprentice really is ready and and finished with that that competency demonstration. >> Okay. And and what grades are the right now uh do we have the the you know the the interns what what grades are they in? Yeah, the apprentices are um focused on K3 because UAA is a K3 and early childhood program. We was we were open to preschool, but we got um more of a K3 um lane on that group um of of teacher apprentices. >> Okay, thank you. >> I want to thank you guys. We have run out of time. Uh but Teach for America has been doing this for ever. So, some of the data you might want to look at, uh, member Higgins, you might look to see because it does work.
080The program works and it's just about time Alaska got something like this going. Anyway, uh, we are Do you want to go five more? >> I would like to request to extend five minutes. I know that Dora Wilson has a question, so Nope. Okay. >> Any opposition to go in five more minutes? Okay. Five more minutes. >> I have no opposition since I was about to talk. Okay. Um, so just for clarification, your journeyman teachers, are they mentoring only that last year where there I assume it's it's a one-on-one kind of ratio or is it do they mentor them throughout >> member? That's an excellent question. So we are um supporting our journey worker teachers as mentors right away. And so we create that bond and that trust and that partnership. So they start right
081away with reviewing those educator competencies, ensuring that um the hours are being logged correctly and really helping to grow that educator and the specific skills that they need. And so our plan is to provide that comprehensive plan and support throughout the school year um so that there is that progression that's there. >> And I'll build on that just a little bit. um our and obviously we're in the initial stages with our first cohort, but down the road our plan would be that that journey worker teacher would support up to two apprentices. So one that is in the initial stages is still working as a paraprofessional and they're just supporting their you know early work and then a second one that's in that uh teacher apprenticeship phase where they're in their classroom co-eing with them. And
082so they've always got sort of one in the queue and one that's working directly side by side with them. followup. >> Um, just actually it will be a follow-up for later because it it's more of a funding and costs and that's a bigger conversation. So, I'll hold off. >> I'll ask. Um, so this is circling back to the sort of the $500,000 ballpark. Is that has that been set aside for use in multiple years for FY26 and FY27 or we're allocating $500,000 for five apprentices in FY26? >> That will sustain those five through their entire two-year program. >> Okay. So, >> yeah. >> Okay. And so there is no cost associated when they're in that paraprofessional phase, those early years, because they're just making their normal wage through the totem contract. They're performing, you know,
083those job duties. When they transition to that teacher apprenticeship phase, they're stepping out of that pair of position potentially at one building and moving to another with their journey worker teacher. And so we have to backfill that pair of professional position and pay them during that teacher apprenticeship year. So really the bulk of the costs are around hosting them for that you know oneyear co-eing experience and then Eric also touched on you know one of the hallmarks of an apprenticeship program is that progressive wage. So the intent is by as they gain competencies and check those off their wages go up to the point where when they're in the final stages of their apprentichip they're making something close to what an initial teacher would make. And so that's really the kind of the the cost
084of the program and what will be the greatest challenge in terms of being able to scale it going forward if we can't find additional grant or other funding sources. >> Okay. Then just one quick followup. Um and then are we also compensating the the um the journey worker teachers for their role? I mean is that essentially it's an an addenda if I'm throwing words around? >> Yep. it it is an agenda and um it is uh you know based on it's one of the higher ranges that's available uh in the AEA contract because we really did want to recognize and honor their work. I believe right now that's being covered through uh a grant grant funding from DED as the sponsor. Correct. >> It is it is coming from DED actually just paid us um
085the money u on Friday. So I just got a notice that we got the money. So yes, >> maybe just as if you guys could send more information through board connect um sort of fleshing all of this out. We're staring at a lot of big financial conversations. Um it would just be helpful to see it laid out at some point in the future. Thanks. Okay. Or any other questions? All right. Seeing none, thank you guys very much. Very exciting. Okay, that concludes our work session. Can somebody get us out of the into uh executive session? >> I move that we move into executive session. >> I don't know. >> For the purposes of legal update, negotiations and contracts. >> Second. All right. Any opposition to moving into executive session?