001Good to go. Good evening everyone. We'll call this meeting of the Anchorage School Board to order. It is 6:07 p.m. on Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 here in the boardroom. Uh, roll call. I see member Higgins, Lessons, Donley, our student representative Madison, myself, Cher Jacobs, member Hollowman, and Bellamy. And then member Wilson has joined us online along with Superintendent Bryant and Associated Staff. Um, Madison, will you please lead us in the land acknowledgement, uh, flag salute and land acknowledgement? Thank you. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We acknowledge that we gather here today on the traditional lands of the Deniman people of the upper Cook Inlet. For thousands of years, the Denina people have been and continue to
002be the stewards of this land. ASD is committed to diversity and inclusion, and it is with honor and respect that we recognize all indigenous people who live and learn in our community. >> Thank you, Madison. We want to welcome you to our meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the work of the Anchorage School District and this board. The board thanks students, parents, teachers, staff, school business partners, and the entire community for your investment in our district. with your time, your talent, and your tax dollars. That said, we'll move to A3. Um, approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as drafted? >> Mr. Chair, I move to approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Made by Hollowman, seconded by made by Balamy, seconded by Hollowman. Um, is there
003any objection to approving our agenda tonight? Hearing and seeing none, we have an agenda. Thank you, everyone. Uh, we have a special presentation tonight of a legislative citation. Here tonight is Representative Ted Aishide. Um, thank you sir for your service and being with us. The floor is yours. >> Thank you, Mr. President, members of the school board and supporting staff, uh, members in the audience attending and online. Uh, my name is Representative Ted Aishide. I represent northeast Anchorage, North Mod, just a little bit to the north here. And uh I'm a new legislator. I've just finished my first uh session. And a couple things um I would share from that is I'm really proud of the Anchorage School District and all our school districts and all the folks that work so hard to educate our
004kids and nurture our communities. Of course, I'm a little biased. Uh I was a teacher, a middle school science teacher for 25 years. So, I know the hard work uh that the education team at all levels does and I really appreciate the school board because I'm also an elected official and it's not easy. So, I appreciate you. Uh one of the great honors of serving uh House District 22 and serving in the state legislature is uh we have the ability to recognize folks that that we think have done good work. And I I know that there are so many people that work for the Anchorage School District that do good work every day. They are heroes. But I'm here today to recognize a hero that is my new friend. And so uh without kind of
005getting too uh too verbose here, I would ask one of the Anchorage School District staff members named Clara Baldwin if she could come up here and stand next to me. So, um, Miss Baldwin, of course, uh, works for the Anchorage School District and she does good work. I want to read part of this citation, uh, that we are presenting her and then I want to say a few personal words and then I'll be done. This is a citation from the Alaska State Legislature. Uh I'm happy to say it was unanimously approved, something that is rare these days. And it says, "Honoring Clara Baldwin," and I'm just going to read uh just a couple of the short paragraphs, not the whole thing. The members of the 34th Alaska State Legislature honor the advocacy, leadership, and vision
006of Clara Bodwin, a strong Alaskan voice for inclusivity and community. Clara is currently the assistant director of the Alaska State School for the Deaf and Heart of Hearing, which provides education to students from around the state and is hosted at Russian Jack Elementary School, Ora D. to Clark Middle School and Betty Davis East Anchorage High School. Clara is not just a educator, she is a visionary, a connector and a driving force for transformative change in the lives of the deaf and heart of hearing community. She was born deaf and learned American Sign Language as a child and credits American Sign Language with allowing her to be her most authentic self. Her vision for Anchorage is bold and inclusive to make it the most deaf friendly city in the United States, a welcoming place for all,
007both speaking and non-speaking through empathy, as ASL integration and community engagement. Clara is not only imagining change, she is creating it. And this is signed by the House Speaker, the Senate President. Uh I am the main sponsor and was co-sponsored by Senator Bill Wilikowski and Representative Jamie Ellard and I I just want to say a couple words uh and and that is you know all my life I had a I had good teachers growing up. Uh, I want to credit all the people that helped me become the person I am today and they inspired me and I continue to look for pockets of inspiration. And I met Clara Baldwin when she came to Juno this last s session and to advocate for the deaf and heart of hearing and I trust my intuition and my
008intuition was this was somebody special and I did more research saw her TED talk and you know she makes a difference in the lives of students from around the state and particularly here in Anchorage. Uh Clara is somebody that I believe very sincerely deserves huge recognition for all the good work she has done, is doing and will do. So uh I want to just present this to Clara and um and then I want to say something to her directly in American Sign Language. So, Clara, uh, on behalf of the Alaska State Legislature and the many friends you have, I'd like to present you with this presentation. You can clap now and then, uh, I'll put this mic down. I'm just going uh, Clara, if you can stand over here, maybe. I want to make sure
009people can see this. Uh, I have a lot to learn, but I'm going to do my best. Let's let's stand up. >> Yeah. And uh let's let's stand up for uh my friend Claire Baldwin who inspires me and many others. And uh you know I just simply said you inspire me and I really appreciate the opportunity uh Mr. president and to all members of the school board uh the Anchorage School District community. Thank you so much. Uh it's an honor to serve you. >> Thank you, Representative Aishad. >> Great. >> Okay. Thank you everyone. It was a great way to start our meeting tonight. We'll move on to our reports under B1. Uh first up is Madison with our student representative report. >> All right. Hello and good evening to all with the Alaska Association
010Students of Government with their fall conference coming up that will be on the 23rd through 25th of October at Alaska Pacific University. I'm happy to say that we have 12 ASD schools coming. This will help aid our regent in hopefully winning the most spirited award at that conference and teaching new student governments how OOG works. I was also able to help out Polaris student government with handing them an OSG handbook that our school wrote in order to assist their new adviser so they can have their first meeting and come to OSOG successfully. Now our last SAB meeting which stands for student advisory board was on the 9th and the meeting went very smoothly and welcomed lots of new middle and high schoolers. It was my first time of course presiding over the meeting which I
011feel very grateful to have done as it went so greatly. All big high schools and middle schools attended except Frontier Charter School and Mirror Lake Middle School. We asked them what was one success and one challenge from their new student orientation day. The average answer seemed to be that success consisted of connecting new students, but scheduling and planning were the biggest challenges for them. In other news, I would like to proudly announce that I was accepted into a national but also international program called Civics Unplugged. This acceptance rate too is about 10 to 14% or even less every year. So I'm also extremely proud to say that I am an admit to it. This means that I am now a quote fall fellow in their virtual fall fellowship of 2025 and I will attend weekly
012lessons for eight weeks while learning to create an impactful case study and project that civically innovates around my community. This includes learning about AI, housing, technology, road systems, transportation, education, and more. If any student is hearing this right now, I strongly encourage them to also apply for Civics Unplugged for their spring fellowship, which that application window opens in December of 2025. I feel very strongly that I'm going to be able to make long lasting, impactful relationships and change my community with solutiondriven projects and research. And last but not least, the next student advisory board meeting will be on October 1st, which will be on a Wednesday, not as usual. Other than that, that wraps up my student report. Thank you. Do we have questions for our student representative? Okay. Thank you, Sen. Uh, thank you,
013Madison, for your report. Um, is Colonel Hansen with us this evening? Okay, not seeing the colonel. We'll check in with him next time he's here. Uh, next up is B3 board conference and committee reports. Is there a board committee chair who wishes to make a report at this time? Member Hullman. um not a report but just a reminder that the governance committee will meet a week from Thursday. Um I will attend remotely from somewhere with very sketchy connectivity. So either uh President Jacobs or member Higgins or member Wilson will be chairing the meeting. I will try to be in attendance. >> Thank you member Holland. I think I agreed to chair that meeting on your behalf. Member Higgins. >> Do you want an update at this point on cube with confidence or you want to
014do that later date? Okay. >> Is there any other member comments regarding their board committee work? Okay. Hearing seeing none, we'll move on to C1, college, career, life ready goal on track credits grades 9 through 11. We're now going to have our goal monitor conversation on the technical report that was given to us at our last meeting. Tonight the conversation will focus on our CCL life goal and more specifically goal interimm goal 3.1 which reads the percent of students graduating college career and life ready as measured by four-year graduation rates will increase from 81% in 2023 to 90% in 2028. And interimm goal 3.1 the percent of students on track to graduate which reads the percent of students in grades 9 through 11 who are on track for graduation will increase from 66.6% 6% in
015June of 23 to 90% in June of 28. Uh on track is defined as the number of credits earned by the end of 9th grade which is 5.5 credits, 10th grade which is 11th credit which is 11 credits and 11th grade which is 16.5 credits. I want to confirm that all components of the monitoring report are present. The report clearly shows the following. What is being monitored and focused on is a specific goal and interim goal. Uh two data for the previous reporting periods. the current reporting period and the targeted reporting period are present. And then third, the superintendent's evaluation of performance is also present. With that said, um Dr. Bryan, any remarks to open us up? >> I am very excited to start this conversation to zoom out for the community. Uh the board
016solidified its goal for CCL to be graduation rates just a couple of years ago and then in response to that and now we're monitoring the percent of students who are on track to graduate based on the number of credits that they've earned. There's research that suggests that this is correlated with success from graduating um in post-secary. We have some new faces at the table. So, if anything, how about we go through with some introduction starting with uh Mr. Opitz. >> Thank you, Dr. Bryant. I'm Chris Opitz, senior director of assessment and evaluation. >> Good evening. Uh Jason Hassy, director of special education instruction. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Eric Bachmann, senior director of high schools. Good evening everyone. I'm Julie Sanda, director of micro education. >> I'm Bobby Laferty, director of the English language learners
017program. >> And Jamie Galvin, director of indigenous education. >> Welcome all. We'll start with board member questions. I'm going to go to member lessons. >> Thank you. I didn't even push a button for the record. Um, thank you all. I've I've really thought about this a lot for the last six or seven weeks or so. Just maybe knowing that this conversation was coming up. It's really important. I think it's helpful that you know we've just articulated that we have a under the the student outcomes focus model of governance that the board adopted. We have our board goals which are pretty clear and direct and then the administration has the prerogative to choose the interim metrics to monitor progress towards those goals. So I understand I just wanted to acknowledge that framework. Um you know that
018said I have really felt and the administration is aware um that this is a helpful glimpse at student progress understanding the aggregate credits earned. Um but my own personal sense is that um it's it's not a complete picture and maybe we saw a very complete picture earlier today in the accelerator project in the shape of you know a multi-dimensional worksheet um or or spreadsheet looking at all of these many different metrics that shape our students outcomes at the end of the day. Um, so I guess could can you help me understand why and for other people here um why the administration is still um supportive of confident in this metric and in particular you know just to be transparent as you know I've been also thinking a lot about course failure rates and especially core
019courses because I guess I feel that you need to have an aggregate number of credits to graduate and you also need to get all of your English credits in and all of your math credits in and all of your social studies credits in. So, in my mind, you know, having a dipstick into those sort of progress on core courses is important perhaps as is the aggregate credit number, but that's not what we're presented with here. So, maybe if you could just reflect on that as an opener, please. Yeah, thank you, board member lessons. Great question. Um, I think there's a a number of ways to respond. I I'd like to lead with um, you know, the district has led its selection of interim goals really with national research. So, our commitment began there. Um really
020important to acknowledge that last year we engaged in our own research basically to see if the national research rang true in Anchorage School District and what we found is that ninth graders who finish the year on track to graduate graduate in four years at a rate of 95%. and we looked at three graduation cohorts, not just one, but three really reliable data. So, there's national research which we proved to be true in Anchorage School District. I think it's also important to recognize that the ontrack metric sits alongside other metrics. It's not a standalone metric. And so alongside it we have the 2.7 GPA which is really designed as a threshold benchmark that measures college readiness sort of the bottom line if you will of college readiness for a high school graduate. We also have the
021CTE concentrator metric which is really designed to get students ready for the workplace. And before that, of course, you're all aware we have early childhood literacy and numeracy. Taken together, I think all of those serve a system that supports very well-rounded students. >> Member Donley, >> thank you. Um, you know, we had the uh graduation percentage long before we had goals. Um, and that was one of our primary for a while, like only goal, primary goal was increase the graduation percentage. And in addition to those ones you just mentioned for this particular uh goal, college career life ready, I want to go back to my original advocacy for the personal finance courses being part of curriculum. That's there now. I think we need to acknowledge that it's there in in the curriculum. I've also over
022the years I've advocated that we have more fundamental type things about life included in this too. And so the report doesn't really reflect that. But my you've testified here before that well baby care is part of the curriculum. Now, I think that's really important because we know that uh our hospitals do a really good job of of of successfully uh getting babies home. Um but then the first year of their lives, Alaska is not doing well uh protecting those babies in their first year of life. Um and there's a lot of uh kids that are being put in charge of babies and it really is helpful if they have some basics about that. Uh, also u something we haven't been able to accomplish is the ability to swim to save yourself and other people if
023you're put in that position. I mean Alaska loses more people I think to drowning than almost any other state on a percentage per capita. Um, so life saving and first aid which I understand is incorporated in some of the classes now too. So, those are the things I would like the report to continue to reference because I think they're fundamental things that we ought to be uh giving to our students when they and when they graduate. And I would love to be able to expand our swimming classes because of just the safety factor. At least letting kids be able to make it to the side of the the shore or to the side of the pool and and not have that a chance to survive if they do are put in that circumstance. U member
024Miling. >> Thank you. So, I did send in uh several questions. Some of them I've since answered on my own, so I'll try I'll try not to uh ask those again. Um but I I my question I think this is very important. I think it's it's a very important uh guard rail. Um, and it's a very important goal because if we lose kids, if if by n if if we don't transition kids well into ninth grade, we lose them. And that that that has always been um a a a concern for me as a middle school te uh uh principal. How do we get set kids up in middle school so that they can handle the rigor and the distractions of high school and then how do we check on that periodically to see how
025they're doing? This does that for me and so I thank you for it. Um and I think I guess my first question will be what what are what are we learning along the way? I mean, what's what are we learn what how are we closing the gaps, especially with our ELELLL students, and then what have we learned along the way that we might be able to duplicate at other schools? >> So, I'm going to get things started here. Really appreciate your question, board member Bellamy. Um, as you can see, we have a larger committee than we had last year at this time. >> Yeah. >> And that speaks to our learning. Um, if you look at the the page with the demographic breakdowns, which Chris will bring us to, one of the things I would
026like to point out is that in addition to two years of growth at every grade level, we're really excited about that, acknowledging that we have lots of work to do to get to 90%. But we're making progress. And on this particular report, every subgroup has made progress. some more than others. In my brief tenure in this position, I haven't been able to present such a report where there's progress for every subgroup. Now, we have to acknowledge that the overall growth exceeds that of some of our subgroups, which means some of our subgroups continue to fall behind. And a number of board members presented questions sort of related to that. What are we doing about those those groups falling further behind? Which is why we have the larger committee here. and it's one of our key
027learnings. The universal strategies that we have in place which include developing nth grade teacher teams, our increased proficiency using unified insights, um our uh use of PLC's at every school site, the academic um academy coaches that are that are working at at the big eight. All of these things are universal. um we're seeing really positive and high growth among certain demographic groups and not so much for others. And so we've learned that we need to focus, target and strategize our support for those student groups which is why we have representatives here from special ed, migrant ed, Indian ed, ELLL and so on. So I want to invite sort of beginning with Jason and moving to my right each of these department leaders the opportunity to share briefly how they're working with their departments to strategize
028and focus on that particular group of students. >> Thank you. >> So through the chair to uh member Bellamy. Uh great question. In special education, we're we're very focused, laser focused if you will, on student learning. That is, uh, inclusive practices, um, access, our our high quality instructional materials. We are working hard to have all students access grade level materials. That's we're really focused on inclusion. And we see through co-eing, accommodations, modifications, and just collaboration with this team, if we work together and align around our, you know, strategic action steps, our board goals and focus on that, that will move the dial. So, uh, we're excited. Uh, we're going to continue our efforts and just keep focusing on metrics and student learning and access. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, member Bellamy. Um, my
029focus is on migrant education. Um, we have started uh working with PLC and looking at data to be able to target our um students and work with our student success coaches um so that they can help um focus on the students and improve um there. And then there's two programs that I would like to um highlight. Our Wednesday night classes um is a collaboration between child and transition, migrant education, ELLL, and indigenous education. Um this is a program that is funded through federal grants um that are at risk of losing funds for next year. Um these programs um provide academic supports for students in grades 9 through 12. Um they are done over Zoom um and students receive credit throughout the year. Um last year we were able to uh see over 100 students through
030Wednesday night classes. Um in the fall about 20% of those students earned some kind of credit and then in the spring we had a 10% increase of 30% of our students uh receive credits. And then the other program I wanted to highlight was our federal programs back on track summer school also in collaboration with the same federal programs but in addition we have United Way back on track program working with us. This program has been running for 20 years. It's a credit recovery program for 9th through 12th grade students. Um in that program we had 154 students receive credits. Um they were able to earn credits in 400 courses. And then at the end of that for migrant education we had 12 students that were able to graduate uh due to participating in that summer
031program. >> Thank you Melanie. I'd like to also um before I I talk a little bit about ELLL, speak to something that Eric said about um who's at the table. So, we close every meeting when we discuss data like this and strategize and those all of those kinds of meetings when we come together to look at these things with the question, is there anybody missing at the table? And I I just have really appreciated that um that attitude and that um just team mentality has I think really made a great improvement in terms of just making sure we're all pulling in the same direction, making sure everybody's voice is heard and there's equity of voice. It's been >> really collaborative. I'd like to highlight two things that are um that we're seeing in ELLL. One
032of them is um in terms of of a question that was given from the board uh about participation in AP classes. >> And that is one of our um our program goals for the ELLL plan of service is to increase the um the number of students that are ELLL or exited ELLL that are participating in AP courses at the high school level. And our goal that we set um when we established our ELLL plan of service was to increase that to 15% because ELLL students are 15% of the ASD student body. So in order to reflect that percentage and at that time we were at uh 4.8% and our goal was to increase that by 2% each year and this past year we're actually already at 10%. So that's been a a huge improvement. Um,
033obviously I can't take credit for that. Uh, ELLL can't take credit for that. That is a huge um a huge lift by all of the high schools and all of the administration teams. And when we reached out to um principles to say what what made it made it possible for you to make this this big change, you know, in in ELLL students that are attending and finishing AP classes, they credited the um the equal opportunity schools work. So, kind of a shout out there. The other thing that um that we've been and I know I have like uh way too much to say, so I'm going to try to be brief, but um last year was our first year uh implementing the high school ELD courses. So, um we've implemented three different courses. That's a
034ELD one, two, and three. and they provide targeted support to teach students directly the language acquisition skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing that make it possible for them to access that core content in addition to core courses that are being provided. So they don't replace that core content. It's a support course that they can also get credit for. And um we've seen some great improvements. One of the improvements that we've seen is in the number of students that are receiving direct ELLL supports at the high school level, which makes an impact. Um the if we look at fall 2023, the number of students who are in ELLL coded courses was 55 at the high school level. >> Um because there was a um we've expanded the uh the criteria for students to be able
035to um attend those courses, be enrolled in those courses. And then with the implementation of the EL courses in the fall of 2024, that went up to 223 students across the district. And then this fall, uh, we're up to 248 so far. So, we've really increased our our reach in terms of making sure that the students who have those highest needs have those addressed. Also, in high school, um, we are implementing at the middle school level those um, same three levels of courses this year. So, we're hoping to address a lot of those language acquisition needs before they get to high school. So, there's fewer students who are um where we're seeing those gaps. So, close the gaps before they get to high school hopefully. >> Thank you. >> Um really excited to be able
036to share some information with you guys about the work that my department is doing. Um I was fortunate enough to present to you all a few months back. Um, so you kind of have a good understanding of um, how my department operates and the support that we have in the schools that are there for indigenous students. Um, so our student support specialists, they are, you know, the go-to people for um, our indigenous kids that are coming in from rural Alaska. So, you know, they help with the transition support. um they're doing the check-ins with our students when they're falling behind, whether it's attendance or, you know, they're um not doing well in a class or they just need a place for support um if they're having a a rough day. Um, so I just I
037wanted to start off with that to to say that the work that we're doing um around our around PLC's, this is the first um year that we've been able to offer PLC's to our staff and it's led by um my teacher expert and our supervisor that we have in our department and essentially what we're doing with the help of data and assessments team is identifying students that are not on track to graduate. So um what what Deian and Carol had presented to us was essentially if we can identify three students at every grade level at every eight uh the big eight high schools um and we pushed all three of those students to um get back on track to graduate, we would be at the benchmark that the district is hoping that we could be
038at. So we um have been meeting every Monday. they're um learning like the data literacy piece. So using unified insights like Eric had mentioned um and being able to create subgroups in there so that they can monitor these individual students to be able to provide them the opportunity to get back on track to graduate. Well, how are we going to do that? So um working with my GRED and Wednesday night class and being able to offer that as an opportunity is something that we're going to be looking into. um really thinking outside the box on like what else can we do if a student is not eligible for migrate um or to be able to join Wednesday night class. So we're looking at the option of all the various different things that our students are
039engaged in on a daily basis and how we can um get them the amount of hours to be able to receive whether it's elective credit um or potentially Alaska Studies. So, for those of you that don't know, Alaska studies is one of the highest um failed classes from our in our indigenous um population. And so, looking to see if there's something that we could potentially do next semester around like Alaska studies just for Wednesday night class for those identified students that have potentially um failed that course, whether, you know, they're a sophomore, junior, senior. Um so, it's really exciting work. I'm looking forward to the outcomes and um if you guys have any further questions around that PLC work, I'd be happy to meet with you guys um and our teacher expert to really dive
040into um the more nitty-gritty um stuff that that we're hoping to get gain out of um doing these PLC's. >> Thank you guys very much. >> I did have a followup. Thank you guys. Uh there's a lot that we don't get to know uh but we And I really want to thank um the team for these universal actions. And so I just want to make sure that I'm understanding that everyone every high school is implementing the universal actions. >> So I'll I'll comment on that and it really um segus nicely after hearing from these uh our these committed colleagues. um every high school um what we are looking at really clearly are the priority action steps on top and that was developed across every department with all of these voices in the room. We've spent
041a lot of time um really aligning our work asking how does our work connect to this? How do we stay coherent? So if you recall um through the uh through Marty's work in HR on the retention work, there was there was a sense of not knowing what was most important. And so we've really committed as a a team across all departments to identify these priority action steps for 2526. When we go to the universal, these are happening more intermittently based on the context and unique needs of the school. So the priority action steps are what we're trying to lift districtwide. The universal action steps are examples of different strategies individual schools are doing. Um and just to kind of one last comment is you mentioned the middle school transition. So you'll notice on the one
042of the priority action steps that's a new um uh strategy that we are looking to go deep on this year in terms of the importance of um you know building that bridge to high school from our middle school and uh just to my final comment is you know the the the the reports that we share with you with on track metrics are are are a snapshot or a dipstick I can't remember who mentioned that but but each and every school and each and every staff member and each and every PLC team has tools at their fingertips where they're looking at current progress FS. They're looking at all kinds of metrics like attendance and we call those leading indicators meaning it's not too late to act right now and people have that at their fingertips in
043real time. So this particular report is a great dipstick to present at a global level but please rest assured that our staff members are monitoring this in real time. And my final uh request would be uh to is to just let the board know, you know, I mean, we want our resources. We got diminishing resources. We've got to if we can do things, if we need to do something different, um we need to know that. And if you're not, you might not be prepared to tell us what that is tonight, but uh I'll be in contact. I'll be in touch. I'm I'm going to comment really quickly and pass it off on that because we actually talked about that and you know the world that we live in has many urgent needs all around us
044at all times. And so one of the greatest things this board can do is to help this team stay focused on these priority action steps because we know when we stay aligned and we stay coherent and we we dig in day after day after day, that's where we're going to make gains. And there's often urgent needs that just that sort of take away. And of course there's a you heard a couple of colleagues talk about, you know, funding and in terms of some of the practices they're that they're implementing, but I don't know if anybody else would like to comment on that. >> Just to piggyback on that, Chris, um I would say that it's it's because we've remained focused on this goal. This is our third year at it. We are seeing progress, but
045we're also seeing the team grow into this large really creative and dynamic collaborative team. And that doesn't happen if you're switching goals from year to year. And so I appreciate the board's commitment in supporting us in our focus on this goal. We're building momentum. We're not losing it. And we're in year three. And I'm really excited to see what this team can do over the next couple years. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah. >> Um I'm going to jump in with a a question that seems to be related. Um when looking at the the growth by grade level, um our ninth grade saw I think the most significant increase. And so um what do we know about why and how that occurred? >> Yeah. So, I actually did some compilations just looking at the three-year
046trend really since the board and district leadership adopted this interim goal. So, you know, for our 9th graders districtwide in the last three years, we've seen over 7% growth, by far the largest growth. Um my friends and colleagues in assessment and evaluation would say it's it's too soon statistically to say for sure that it's the freshman academy work. So I won't say that. But what I will share is that the freshman academy work has been a very high priority and it's come at the the ontrack work from many different angles. You know, it includes the staggered start, making sure our incoming ninth graders feel welcome, have a sense of belonging, and a sense of where they're going on the first day. I think that's very important. Uh it includes our academy coaches who are interfacing
047with nth grade teachers and nth grade students and counselors on a daily basis. Uh it includes the new course with which uh board member Donnelly mentioned now includes personal financial literacy. um really trying to make education relevant to the interests and attributes of each student. Um we've got the career expo which is coming up next week. We have the visit to UAA. Um and of course the nth grade teams, the teacher teams who are organizing around um students monitoring the data set that Mr. Opus was just talking about progress FS attendance GPA. Um, all of these things are in play with this new heightened focus on prioritizing the ninth grade and nth grade success. So, is there a correlation? Perhaps it's too early to say, but this is where a lot of our focus and
048resources are going and this is where we're seeing the most gains. >> Thank you, member lessons. >> Um, thank you for these thoughtful responses. Um, the question that's maybe most pressing that came to mind as each of you were talking about the important critical work that you're doing is how vulnerable is your work to our funding reality? We've gotten a glimpse of the next year's deficit. We've been briefed in a couple of settings. We'll get into the budget cycle later this fall. It's the ballpark of 70 million, give or take five or 10 on either side. Um, and inflation is real. Um, federal funding is pretty volatile. Could you I see my role on the board as advocating as best I can for our students needs through what I see from reports and what I
049hear from leaders and from what I see when I visit schools. So, how vulnerable is your work to the lack of inflation adjustment to our funding reality? We did receive a historic $700 veto override. It is, to borrow from Senator Wowski, and I've quoted him before, about 39% of what we needed to be back on track. If we don't have another sizable increase to the BSA in a timely manner, how vulnerable are we? >> I can go ahead and get started with that answer. Member lessons, this priority, any of these priorities are as vulnerable as the school board allows them to be vulnerable. And what I mean by that is that when the board adopted student outcomes focused governance, we said that our community wants more students to read on grade level. The community also
050said that we more we want more students to be uh to essentially have basic numerousy skills and to perform better in math. And they also said that when a student receives their high school diploma, we want them to have that ASD promise of an entry point into a college, a career, or something that will allow them to have a fulfilling life. I don't know what else we should be investing our dollars in if it's not those things because it didn't come from me. It didn't come from the board. It came from the community. So these priorities are as vulnerable as this group of eight people allows it to be and I hope that we can protect our progress in this area. >> Thank you. Member lessons, you have a followup. >> Um, thank you. And
051I guess perhaps this is one of the questions that I I sent your way ahead of time. Can you articulate any site-based examples that have gone exceptionally well with the emphases that ASD has placed in in these and other critical areas specific to the the metrics that we've been given here of students becoming more on track. Uh, I mean, I rummaged around in the dashboard and you can see that, you know, some schools had a greater growth over the last year or two than others. And there probably lots of complicated reasons why that could be so as far as students having that aggregate number of credits to graduate. >> Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to do my best with that question. I really appreciate the question. I I do for a number of reason
052want to avoid talking about specific schools by name, but I do want to identify a few practices that are really um are really presenting as best practices and um they inevitably involved um schools that dedicate teams or individuals to making sure they're tracking the data to making sure they're tracking unified insights, developing those lists of students who are in jeopardy, as Chris pointed out, as a leading indicator. We don't want to do it after the fact. We want to do it beforehand. So, a student who has two or three progress FS in combination with um a 75% attendance rate and making sure we get that information into the hands of a teacher or teachers. And the most important thing there is a commitment to action. It's one thing to appreciate sort of the the problem,
053if you will. It's another thing to commit to action. One of the best practices we're seeing at schools are the schools that are generating lists with a column that shows which staff member is responsible to follow up. Back to uh board member Bellamy's question about things we're learning. One of the really important things we're learning about this work is identifying the difference between students who can but won't versus students who won't because they can't, right? And a number of students can do the work when they know a staff member is paying attention and believes in them. And it's another thing to identify a student who lacks the requisite skills and the educators around them recognize and know that and put adequate supports in place. And that's the power of this list. And you've got to
054have individuals at the school taking responsibility for knowing who the students are and handing off to other educators. >> Member Bellamy. >> So, uh, I took a training this morning from the ACP. I don't even know why I took it except because I don't have kids but I was curious about you know where does it fit within our goals be meaning ASD goals and so um you know being on track you know so so so it brought up a thought about how are how are we using the ACP and I didn't send this one in so you may have to get back to me but how are we using the ACP resource force to not only um help families get through the college preparation piece, but to show kids how they can actually go to
055college. And I know that's not that's a little different than being on track. Uh but it certainly does fit within our our you know the overall goal. So I'm not so so and I don't I'm not sure where it would go if it would be a priority action maybe in the future that we could look look at that. And one thing that I took a a picture of one of the slides. It was on the um I think it's what is it the Alaska performance uh scholarship and it said one thing and I think I think we already do this but one school action item would be a school district action item would be create if one does not already exist a list of all APS eligible courses available in the district. distribute that list
056of courses to students and families and ensure it is readily and publicly available. And I think I think it's already being done, but that that so to me it just connects the work that we're doing to keep them on track to graduate and then providing a pathway at least some options for kids to go to college. And I don't know if it goes in 3.1 or somewhere else, but I'd like for us to kind of explore that and I'm thinking we're already doing a lot of that. I didn't get to talk to Holly um before the meeting today. >> Yeah, let's agree that we'll follow up with you with a detailed response. I I think a lot of that work is happening. Um the redesigned uh 9th grade career exploration class certainly addresses a lot
057of it. Uh and then the roll out of school links, this interface platform for college readiness and career readiness is going to help a lot as well. >> And the kids to career was part of that. I mean, it's it's it's an amazing um I was just blown away. I did not I knew it existed. I had no idea uh to what extent. But >> another important member of this team is Ally Susell, of course, our our head of counseling and mental health. She would have a lot to say. Um, so we'll um we'll send in a detailed response to that. Good question. >> Great. >> I think I'm done. >> Member listens. >> I've got one more and I'm springing this one on on you. Um, to what extent is the district, is the
058administration, our teachers, uh, reflecting on, you know, where we are um, as far as recovering from the disruptions of the pandemic. in the spring of 2020, the fall of the fall of FY, you know, I think about the years of disruption. Um, are students back in your judgment to where they were before the pandemic? Are they still in recovery? Does it depend? And if we're not back on track, what do we need to get there? >> I'll I'll take a stab at that uh to begin, but it's it's really more of a national research um perspective. Um so, NWA, which um is the vendor of MAP growth, has done an extensive um amount of research on millions of students across the nation. And the cold hard truth is our students are growing at a slower
059rate postcoid than they are precoid. And you you may see some of that come out um in uh some of the reports that are uh up and coming from NWA um which we can talk more about at a later time. Um but also uh along that front we have been thinking about that again mostly from a research background but also you'll notice it in our pri priority action steps. So TNTP um I think we shared some of that research with you um has looked at this extensively. it and longitudinally. They they've looked at schools where students have been struggling over over a decade or more where where the some schools about 5% nationally only h have become labeled what they call trajectory changing schools where students grow at 1.3 years for one year of instruction
060over the course of up to a decade with um with populations where the average student is performing below grade level. And and some of the key findings are, and this is this goes a little bit against sort of someone's intuition, but one of the key findings is that every single student, no matter where they're at, must have access to grade level material. Um, in addition to interventions, but if students don't get access to grade level material in each and every day, then we unintentionally create and further gaps. And so you'll see that in our priority action steps in reading and math where there is a focus on core instruction. A good lesson for every student every day. And it's not a focus on an spectacular lesson. It is a good lesson, a solid well-prepared lesson
061every single day in addition to that that wind block, that intervention to focus on some of the foundational skills. And so, Miss Lessons, that's uh it's it's more of a a researchbased background, but we have been thinking about that and and and really um you know, wrestling with it. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions from the board before we wrap up our conversation tonight? Hearing seeing none, thank you all for an insightful conversation and we'll see you guys in a couple weeks. >> Thank you all. Okay. Great. All right. Public comment is up next. D1. Welcome to the board's first opportunity of the meeting for public comment. The board has set aside a 1-hour slot at the beginning of our meeting for public comment. Public comment in excess of one hour um could be
062heard at the end of the meeting. Uh public comment. Uh during the public comment period, board members will not answer questions or engage in discussion with members of the public. This is the public's time to speak and the board's time to listen. The board welcomes uh the public to observe and contribute to our meetings through their comments. However, to be productive, our meetings must be structured and civil. ESD conducts public meetings under Robert's rules of order, a set of rules for or order orderly meetings that have been used since the late 1800s. Those rules require the board and the public to be civil and respectful of each other's opinions and statements. Here are a few requirements under Robert's rules. Do not attack a member speaker's motives. No profanity or foul language. Refrain from disturbing the
063meeting. No cheering, applause, outbursts, or waving of signs or posters. If you have handouts you wish to share with the board, please give them to Miss Sullivan who's seated to my left. As president of the board, it's my duty to enforce the civility and decorum of the boardroom. Um, reserve the right to rule speaker out of order. And additional details can uh be found at the within the handout uh near the door when you walk into the room tier. Right. First speaker tonight is Danielle Kovaric. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. >> All right. Hello. My name is Danielle Kavar and I am the librarian at William Tyson Elementary. Um, I've been at Tyson my whole career. I was a classroom teacher for 10 years and now this is my 10th
064year as the librarian. Um, I'm here today to talk about the value of school libraries. As I'm sure you guys are all aware of, but here's my take. In my opinion and experience, school libraries are the heart of the school. They are a safe place for all people in the school and community to go and feel safe and accepted. I believe that one of the most important jobs of a school librarian is knowing their community, truly understanding all the children and adults that are a part of it. The reason we do this as librarians is because we are constantly building our book, our collection of books. The collection is a living and growing thing. Library books never end up on the shelf just because. As librarians, we do our best to pick books and build
065library collections that reflect the backgrounds and personalities of our specific student community, their families, and our staff. This is why you will notice that many of our ASD librarians are longtime members of their school staff. Cultivating a library collection is no small task. It takes time and lots of care. That being said, libraries are not only about books and reading. They are also gateways to technology and innovation. In today's everchanging world of information and technology, librarians are leaders in navigating the massive sea of information we all face every day. It's essential as educators that we stand on the cutting edge of technology. Our students are already masters in their own ways and it's our responsibility to guide them and keep them safe. Librarians are at the heart of this practice. I pride myself in creating
066a space in my school library where people feel safe to come and learn, find deeper understanding, and take risks to explore new things. I work on reaching my students on platforms they're already exploring themselves with things like our library YouTube channel, our website, social media accounts, and our fifth grade podcast. Libraries are a place for clubs like chess club, student council, and battle the books, providing a place for our school communities to come together, learn, and grow. And it's a huge part of what myself and all the other ASD librarians do. I want to leave you tonight with this thought. A strong school library program is never an optional add-on. It is a cornerstone of educational equity and excellence. Investing in our school libraries and librarians is investing in our students, our communities, and our
067future. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker tonight is Corey East. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. >> Thank you, President Jacobs and schoolboard members. Uh I'll second. We love our librarians. Thank you, Danielle. Uh over the past two weeks, Courtney, Jessica, and I Courtney and Jessica are UNISER directors I work with over at um over in the office. Uh spoke with more than two dozen educators who are considering resignation. They've told us they do not feel supported. They the the lack of a contract, and many are facing financial distress. The message over and over is I cannot believe the district is treating us this way. In these conversations, several educators ask me to share their stories with you. As a non-tenured staff, they feel
068vulnerable and fear possible repercussions if they speak up directly. Still, they want their voices to be heard, and I believe it's important that their concerns reach you. So, uh, voice number one, in their own words, is a third-year classroom teacher. I am speaking to you today to address the struggles and hardships that I am currently facing as a new educator in the Anchorage School District. I am in my third year with ASD. After my first year with the district, I was displaced. Upon completing my second year with ASD, I was displaced once more, necess necessitating a return to the demanding and emotionally taxing process I have previously navigated. Now, in my third year with ASD, I've been assigned to a third school site, starting over in another new environment. This ongoing instability has made it
069difficult to build con continuity in my teaching practice, foster lasting relationships with students and colleagues, and grow professionally with in your district. I'm exhausted physically, emotionally, and professionally. I am deeply passionate about teaching. Yet, I now question whether I can continue in this profession. At what personal cost can I continue to endure this level of disruption and stress? I want the district to understand that given these ongoing challenges, I'm actively weighing my options and beginning to explore alternate career paths, ones that offer greater stability and opportunity for long-term personal growth. Uh, number two is a secondyear special educator. I took the $10,000 bonus for a four-year commitment and I year I am in year two. I will leave ASD as soon as I can. I may even return the money so I can just get
070out of here. I've spoken to many others who will also leave. uh at their earliest opportunity. ASD believes it can continue to defer the needs of its employees. Please know your employees have other opportunities and are taking them in just two years. I do not trust ASD and I will not give them more years unless something changes. You hold more power over whether these educators stay than Courtney, Jessica or I. You do up there. So I ask you, what will you do? How will you show them this is a district worth working for? How you show them they should stay with ASD? How will you prove to them so that they are seen, heard, and valued? Courtney, Jessica, and I are exhausted. Effing exhausted. Because let's be clear, your educators are watching right now, and
071so are the legislators. They're [Music] >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Don Buckleman. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. Hello, my name is Don Buckleman. I come to you as a parent and as an incredibly concerned community member across the nation. This past week, we witnessed a heinous crime, the public taking of a life over a difference of worldview, the great loss of Charlie Kirk. Immediately following, social media was flooded with an outpouring of love. Unfortunately, it was also flooded with vile and disgusting comments stating that he deserved it or that it was his own fault. This behavior is abhorrent and unacceptable. And unfortunately, ASD employees have engaged in this behavior in the days since Charlie's passing. and some even before. In public view for all to
072see on social media, one employee has welcomed others to manifest a heart attack upon our sitting president and has also in no uncertain terms called for his assassination on August 15th, the day of his meeting in Alaska. As if it weren't bad enough, this employee has also repeatedly spewed their open hatred for the president, as well as his or her demand through vulgar language that all Trump supporters stay far away from him or her, which considering considering there's no avoiding being around people you disagree with as an education professional. Another employee has stated on their also very public page that Charlie himself was to blame for his assassination along with dozens of instances of obvious racial hatred for white people and those who disagree with him or her. Just this morning, a local news article
073stated that the district is still fighting for more money, but this folks is what your citizen tax dollars are paying for. After months of pleading to fully fund education, this is the outcome we are receiving. We cannot and will not accept this behavior from educational professionals. We all agree that everyone's entitled to their opinion, but suggesting that a person should assassinate any person because they disagree with them is a hard line in the sand. These are people with incredibly poor decision-making skills and cannot be entrusted with our most precious assets, our children. I am calling for swift action to be taken on any and all employees engaged in this behavior. I am not asking for suspension or a slap on the wrist. I am asking for their immediate removal from our children's classrooms and permanent
074termination of employment due to the clear and present threat they present. The precedent has already been set for you and if you don't move on this, the message to our community will be that you that you value assassination culture over the lives of our kids. It's up to you. I thank you for your time and look forward to your answer. Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Ashley Kubalinski. >> Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. >> Good evening. My name is Ashley Hobalinsky. I'd like to start by reading an ASD board policy. All employees are expected to be professional in their attitude and behavior towards students, parents, and fellow workers, and to abide by the code of ethics of the education profession adopted by the Professional Teaching Practices Commission
075and the Municipality of Anchorage Code of Ethics. And I'd also like to read from the Anchorage Municipal Code of Ethics, which states, "Holding public office or employment is a public trust. The proper functioning of government requires ethical behavior by public officials and employees. Ethical behavior involves the commitment to take individual responsibility to avoid improper conduct. Considering this policy and code of ethics, I want to ask how you plan to proceed with the ASD employees that have clearly violated this policy and code of ethics by making public statements, very public statements, calling for the death and assassination of our president and celebrating the assassination of a very public figure. This is unacceptable behavior. It would be unacceptable behavior for anyone, but extremely unacceptable behavior from someone teaching our kids. Is this what they're teaching in their
076classrooms? That you should kill someone you don't like. We should celebrate the assassination of someone you don't like. I sure hope not. But how do I know? How do you know? I am a strong supporter of free speech, but these employees need to be shown that free speech does not mean free from consequences. In your positions, you are responsible for upholding ASD policies. You have officially been made aware of the willful conduct, misconduct of some of your employees, teachers. So, I ask, what are you going to do about it? The precedent has been set. No action or weak action on your part makes you complicit. I look forward to your response. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Stacy Lang. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready.
077Okay, I'm ready. Good evening, members of the Anchorage School Board. My name is Stacy Lane and I'm here as a concerned parent and community member to call for disciplinary action including termination regarding two ASD educators who work with children between the ages of 11 and 13 in our local middle schools. Their conduct violates the Alaska the state of Alaska code of ethics for educators, the Anchorage Municipal Code of Ethics and ASD policy. As parents, we entrust our children to this district every day with the expectation that they will be able to learn in a safe, neutral, and professional environment. That trust has been broken. The evidence is deeply troubling. One educator has used their position to pro promote political and sexual ideology in the classroom in open defiance of district neutrality requirements. On public social
078media, the same individual has reportedly posted obscene and hateful rhetoric, including expressions of hatred toward families with different political views and even encouraged violence against the current president of the United States, Donald Trump. The other educator has posted on social media celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was ruthlessly murdered last week, leaving behind a wife and two young children. The glorification of political violence is completely unacceptable from someone entrusted with the education and care of our students. These are not isolated incidents. They represent ongoing and repeated violations of the professional and ethical standards required of all ASD educators. Let me be clear. This is not about politics. This is about professionalism, safety, and trust. When educators openly celebrate violence, express hatred toward the families they serve, or misuse the classroom to advance personal ideology,
079they forfeit the trust required to influence and educate our children. And I want to emphasize, under ASD's own policies, the school board bears responsibility for ensuring accountability. If district leadership knowingly ignores policy violations, this board risks legal and civil liability. Failure not to act not only erodess public confidence but also places this district and you as a governing body in jeopardy for neg neglecting your duty to enforce standards that protect the students. I respectively urge this board to investigate these violations thoroughly and take decisive dis disciplinary action specifically specifically immediate termination. Our children deserve classrooms led by adults who model respect neutrality and responsibility. The time is to act now for the sake of our students. With the time that I have remaining, I would like to highlight several violations of ASD policy uh that
080have been committed by these educators. Professional conduct and social media. Employers are required to uphold professional conduct both in and outside of school, including online activity. Hate speech, harassment, and attack on families. Employees may not harass or express hostility towards students, parents, or community members based on political, religious, or personal beliefs. Number three, advocacy of violence or celebration of assass assassination. ASD strictly prohibits statements that threaten encourage. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Theo Ransom. >> Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. >> And hello board. Thank you for your service. My name is Theo Ransom. I am a property taxpayer and a bipok educator. Although as a bipok educator, I do not believe the Anchorage School District is a breeding ground for white supremacy. I do not
081believe that as some other BIPO educators have addressed you uh in previous board meetings. On that note though, hypothetically speaking, let's just say that I was that teacher who also happens to be your child's teacher. Knowing that I have publicly spoken out my disdain for white people, wouldn't you, as a parent of a white child, have a concern about me as your child's teacher? Wouldn't you wonder if I'm teaching and evaluating your child equally? and fairly as I do the other diverse children in my classroom. Now again, hypothetically speaking, as a bipok educator, let's say I lived an entirely different lifestyle as I do while teaching your child at ASD. Now, I'm a very public person, very publicly have stated my hatred for President Trump, posting hate about him on my social media media pages,
082even calling for him to be killed while recently visiting Alaska. Now, again, hypothetically speaking, your child enters my classroom wearing a MAGA cap or maybe even a what would Jesus do t-shirt. Should you as a parent be concerned about me as an educator who has differing opinions or values as you and your child does? Wouldn't you wonder if I am if I'm teaching and evaluating your child fairly as I do the other diverse children in my classroom? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Robert Mislec. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. >> Good evening, board. Um Rob Misulich, Omali parent. I'd like to take the board back to February 18th when dozens of parents from Ali came here and urged you to maintain
083funding uh for FTEES in the French immersion program. Uh we emphasized the unique challenge of hiring French language teachers from overseas. Recruitment must begin many months in advance as the J1 visa process is lengthy and complex. Uh despite a widespread consensus that a base student allocation increase was on the horizon, the decision was made not to preserve Ali's FTE count, which prevented the hiring process from beginning on time. In May, as I understand it, ASD went out on a limb and allowed the hiring process to start. Uh but as forewarned, this was far too late. Uh it took extraordinary efforts from Mr. Lockach and Omali principal Lucy Foster to identify candidates at this 11th hour. Uh while teachers were eventually secured for second and fourth grade, the results illustrate the consequences of this delay. Uh
084the fourth grade teacher did not arrive until a few weeks ago and the uh excuse me, the second grade teacher did not arrive until a couple weeks ago and the fourth grade teacher will not begin until January 2026 because his visa could not be processed for fall semester teaching in the US. Uh because of this breakdown, my son and his classmates will be without their teacher until January. This outcome was entirely preventable had this board given due consideration to our request to take account of the unique hiring needs of our program. As we move into this this next year's budget process, I implore the district to approach these decisions with greater foresight. The trench warfare dynamic between ASD, the legislature, and the governor needs to stop. Families and children are being caught in the middle.
085Please take a collaborative bridge building approach and make thoughtful, timely decisions that put students first. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Priscilla Hurley. >> Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. Good evening. My name is Priscilla Hurley. I'm a taxpaying grandmother for students at ASD. I'm outraged over some ASD teachers who wrote hateful rhetoric through social media about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Kirk was a brilliant scholar and uncompromising Christian, who maintained a respectful and caring posture in the face of hostile debaters on college campuses. He challenged young people to critically think while considering his views. I contend he did what any professor or teacher should do which is to get the students to encouraged critical thinking and take to take place with respect of all
086viewpoints. Kirk was hated by many for his ideas and work and worldview. Hatred fueled into violent action and murder. We have learned that the shooter engaged in violent rants on social media which likely fueled a hatred that went too far. So, here we are. Where do we go from here? Accountability is required. According to NPR, so far at least 21 educators have been let go or placed under investigation. One teacher in New York likened Kirk to a Nazi. Another in Texas wrote, "Karma is a bitch." In Virginia, a school board official wrote, "Call me oldfashioned, but I remember when we used to be okay with shooting Nazis." How could these teachers ever be trusted in the classroom with students in an unbiased manner, let alone treat students who express conservative beliefs fairly? Since his death,
087the organization Turning Point USA has had tens of thousands increase in new chapters on high school and college campuses. The death of of a martyr usually magnifies the voice that was silenced. There is change coming. You can prepare by knowing who your dangerous, untrustworthy teachers are and hold them accountable to the ASD and MOA ethics code under which they work. Investigation and termination are my expectations. This is not a game. The ASD board and superintendent and teachers and administrators have been entrusted with the often unguarded minds of children. It's time to be awakened to the moral brevity of this responsibility. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is William Baxter. I'm William Baxter and uh I uh volunteer for FFA and 4. The other there's another one up there. It's it's
088called a uh rodeo uh for high school and junior high kids here in Alaska. And it's another good organization for kids, too. And I I last year I went to my first rodeo and it was I love it. You know, I'm not a much much sports fan, but I love uh rodeo now. And uh one of the things I like like about rodeo is in Alaska, his sports his sports agriculture here in Alaska. And a lot of I've seen a lot of kids that are are in FFA or in in this rodeo group and they are a lot of times they they they go lot a lot of times they go like 4 or anything. But I think the another one is the rodeo Alaska. It's a good It's a nice group here and it
089and uh a lot of times people don't know that there's there's a rodeo here in Anchorage and there's rodeos out a rodeo in the thing and the the kids uh Kodiak people don't realize there there's a rodeo pl place but I think a rodeo the rodeo is another good one for kids too. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Our last speaker tonight is Stephen last initial S. Stephen, last initial of S. I can't read the rest of the name. So, if there's a Steven who signed up for testimony, this is your time. Perfect. I can't No, three of us tried, but Well, thank you for coming up to speak. Could you uh state and spell your name for our record and then once you're done you have three minutes and you can begin
090your testimony. >> Stephen Simmons SM Os. >> Thank you. >> Um just first time coming out. I have uh participated in the the visual or the online version of this once before. So I'm new. Um it would be helpful if we had an idea what these acronyms meant for first timers. I had asked people what ELLL and ELD is and PCL and I am all turned around. Um, are all you guys board members too? Okay. Um, I heard a lot of talk about preparation for college. Um, I'm I'm concerned that there's there's nobody preparing anybody for trades. Um, I'm a bit of a hybrid. I've been in the trades and I've gone through college. Uh, nobody's preparing kids for um, radio and television work. If it's not in a computer, they don't have a clue
091what the hell's going on. Uh secondly, I'm here to uh also express my concern that there are some politically motivated um twisted ideologically persons in the employment of the Anchor School District. Um if I was to act like that on my job, I would have been let go yesterday making statements and horrible comments. So I'd urge you to take action to these school district employees that have made some vile and horrible comments and make spectacles of themselves. So that's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. That concludes our public testimony for this evening. We'll move on to item E, our consent agenda. Is there a board member who wishes to pull an item from our consent agenda for discussion? hearing and seeing none. Is there a motion to approve
092our consent agenda as drafted? >> Mr. Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Motion made by member Bellamy, second by member Hollowman. Uh, if there's no discussion on our consent agenda, Miss Sullivan, could you please call the roll call vote? >> Student Representative Madison? >> Yes. >> Member Higgins? >> Yes. >> Member Bellamy. Member Lessons, >> yes. >> Member Hollowman, >> yes. >> Member Donley, >> yes. >> Member Wilson, >> yes. >> President Jacobs, >> yes. >> Our consent agenda is adopted by a vote of 7 to zero. We have no action items this evening. We'll move on to G. Non-action items. Is there a board member who wishes to discuss a non-action item before it comes in front of us at our next meeting? Hearing and seeing none,
093we'll move on to um the superintendent update as we have no other public comments. Uh Dr. Bryant, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'll give the team a moment to pull up a PowerPoint that I've prepared. Uh so my report will be a little different today um because I do have some um breaking news about a grant that the district has received. Um but before I get into the details, I want the public to know that, you know, we did have a whirlwind summer of challenges. We had a federal funding freeze. We had a flurry of vetos and and other setbacks. And what I'm proud of is that ASD emerged from those setbacks stronger on the other side because our community came together in support of our students. Um there's another opportunity
094for us to emerge stronger on the other side. So just hours before today's school board meeting, I was made aware um that the US Department of Education has defunded a grant that was used for um themies of Anchorage and more broadly speaking the district's broader work on increasing students access to high wage high demand careers in Alaska. Um to say that this is a a setback is an understatement. It is a setback. Um, but it doesn't mean that we can't emerge from the situation stronger than before. Now, we live in an environment where all sorts of stuff can be misconstrued in the press and in Twitter and that sort of thing. And the last thing I would want to do is to alarm our families more than they need to be alarmed about what this
095news means and what it does not mean. So, um, to take a step back, the amount of dollars we're talking about for this current fiscal year that will not be coming to the Anchorage School District is about $3.3 million. Now, the most urgent two things that are being funded from this money are one, um those dollars were supporting six CTE classroom teachers who are in classrooms every day at school um and will be there tomorrow. And it's also funding uh eight positions that we call academy coaches. Those are certified teacher positions that are also in our schools, though they're not directly in the classroom with students. They're supporting this important project work and the successful implementation of themies. So, like I said, this is a setback, but our kids are going to be okay. I
096will make sure of that. Um, for example, this grant will not affect the personal finance and college career exploration course, those are funded with general funds. I want to be very clear, if your child's in that personal finance and college career exploration course, you are not affected. It does not affect things like the career expo. We're very excited to invite hundreds of potential employers to meet and greet with our ninth graders. We had a successful event at Dina last year. We'll have another successful event in just a few weeks. Um, and additionally, you might be wondering, does this mean thaties are over that our progress is over? It's not. Um, remember this funding was funding six CTE teachers. ASD employs over 50 teachers that teach CTE classes, either full-time or part-time. And this isn't happening
097just because Dr. Bryant wanted it to happen. For years, we've prided oursel on having high quality career and technical education programs that prepare our students for success in life.Mmies was meant to really accelerate what we know is successful for our kids. So, this is a setback, but this is far from over. Offering these types of programs is the right thing to do. This is something that we need to do whether this grant exists or not. Now, the other thing that I want to share, how are we going to move forward? Again, I just found this out a few hours ago, so we're doing this in live time. But I did have enough time to one, make sure that our principles and staff were informed. This is not news to them. They were made aware earlier
098today. The board was made earlier, made aware earlier today. This is not news to them, and it's not news to some of our stakeholders that directly support the work. But this is my first opportunity to get ahead of the tweets and to make sure that we know what is at stake and what's not at stake. So, like I said, six classroom uh CTE teachers were on the line because of the federal government's decision to pull a grant years ahead of schedule. That's unprecedented. That's not normal. And that's probably the um the purview of the department. That's their direction. But that doesn't mean that ASD can't protect those teachers in that classroom. So, what I have told the board is that I intend to use um what we call holdback teacher positions. These are teaching positions
099that we have in the wings to tackle bubble class sizes. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. I want to use six of those positions for those six CTE teachers because if I didn't, those students would have to go somewhere else and somebody else's class size would rise. Student schedules would have to be impacted tomorrow. I can't let that happen to our kids. So, if your child is in a CTE class, we're going to be okay. We're going to cover those six positions. Now, there are eight other positions that are also impacted by this grant. Like I mentioned, they don't directly work with students in the classroom every day, but their work is critical, and I will be transparent that I need a little bit more time to explore my options on what
100to do about those positions, but we're going to be okay. We're going to emerge on the other side in the big picture, eight positions. We're going to figure it out in a way to match the talents of those incredible individuals. Literally, last year, they were our Dina award-winning individuals, some of our most talented educators in the district. We need to figure a way to connect their talents to our student needs. And as we all know, our students have a lot of need. The other thing I want to share is that advocacy is already underway. So minutes after we got the news from the federal government, you better believe that all of our federal offices were contacted. I'm talking about our senator or senators and our congressperson. They know about this. They've known about this for
101hours. And it warms my heart to say that they're going to try to help us, too. They've agreed to write a letter of support to try to keep this grant. It's a long shot, but they've agreed to at least try because they know we've told them for weeks, months, if not years, that we're trying to turn our Alaskan economy around. If we can graduate hundreds of more students who enter into UAA or high wage high demand careers, we can truly transform this state. This is something that we need to be protecting, and I'm thankful that they are. So, they'll be writing that letter of support. The federal government has given us seven days to submit an appeal. We will be submitting that appeal. People have been working on that document all day today. So ASD
102has stepped up to the plate. When the crisis comes, this is the team you want at the table because we're going to make sure that we do whatever it takes to protect our progress and to protect our students. So advocacy is underway. The classrooms will not be impacted. The personal finance course will not be impacted. In many ways, school's going to happen tomorrow just as normal. And in the background, I'm going to figure out how we're going to get out of this mess that I didn't ask for, but it's my responsibility to get us out of it. So, with that said, originally tonight, I was going to talk about our legislative lunchon. So, just for the public's awareness, uh, tomorrow we're inviting all of our legislators to talk about our priorities. And really, um, what
103I wanted it to be was an opportunity to share with our elected officials how much progress we've made in the Anchorage School District over the last several years. and I intend to make the case that this is progress worth protecting. So, tonight I was going to give a preview of some of the slides that I wanted to share with those legislators. I'm still going to do that, but I'm only going to show a few slides because it just so happens that I was going to talk about the why we're doing the academyy's work in the first place. So, let's go ahead and go to the first slide. So, this is the theory of action behind themies of Anchorage. And again, what you're looking at right now is a slide that will be shown to our
104legislators tomorrow. And what the point of this slide is to show is that of Anchorage really fits within the ecosystem of how do we turn around this Alaskan economy? How do we connect these labor shortages to opportunity that lands in our children's hands? That's what academy is about. So at if you look at the nuts and bolts, that's the first part of that oil pipeline because again, we're trying to increase our workforce in the oil industry, right? Somies is all about giving students access to rigorous CTE classes, dual credit opportunities. We're proud of the fact that every single freshman visits UAA as part of the academyy's program. That's still going to happen this year. And all of our students participate in a career expo and they participate in a class again called personal finance and
105college career exploration where they learn about colleges in high demand careers. That's for every single freshman in the district. And they also get work-based opportunities. But big picture, our our theory of action is that if we can connect these students to these opportunities, they're going to be afforded a lot of opportunities. When you access something like a college major in a high demand field or one of these jobs that is preparing you for, you have an opportunity to gain independence, you have an opportunity for financial freedom, and you have an opportunity to truly make a difference in your home state if you choose to live here. And I hope many of our students do. Let's go ahead and go to the next slide. This is whatmies is about. And I know earlier today we were
106talking about, you know, what's at stake given our budgetary deficit that we're facing. So the point ofies is to help our students access some of these professions that you can see on this very slide. Let me go ahead and call out a few. You know, a lot of people think that is about pushing students towards careers instead of college. Not the case. Let's look at the healthc care services slide. So, we're both preparing students to be a physician assistant, which by the way, you need to go to college. You need to get extra training after college and training on top of that. And in exchange for that hard work, you could earn a starting wage of $128,000. Um, or you can enter a high wage, high demand career right after high school with some of
107the training that you'll get in these ASD classes. You could be a cardiovascular technician at one of the employers in this very city and also be earning six figures. You can get a lot of that training before you even leave high school. That's what is about. And it's not just about healthcare. You see occupations in transportation, natural resources, construction. We even have a vision to start growing our own educators by putting them in education internships so we can grow the number of educators um that are alumni of this district. So, and then the final slide that I intend to share with the legislators tomorrow is that this stuff is working. We just spent our goal monitoring session talking about all of the different inputs that we're putting towards our secondary students. Whether it be a
108staggered start freshman day, whether it be the personal finance class they're taking every single day, whether it's the trip to UAA, whether it's the career expo, or whether it's just the amazing academy coaches or teachers that are in their buildings every single day, it's working. So, let me go ahead and clarify some facts as to why this is progress worth protecting. Number one, 7% more students are on track to graduate who are freshman in the district. And why is that happening? Because for the very first time, the Anchorage School District is measuring the number of classes that students are passing. We're looking at their credits earned. We're looking at their GPA and we're making sure that they're taking enough CTE classes to make a difference in their future if that's the path they want to
109go down. The other thing that's happening is that a lot of people think that is about career only. But you'll see on this slide that's not the case. Um, isn't it very interesting to see that three years later, 750 more Anchorage School District students are taking advanced placement courses? When I saw that number, I gasped was like, "Wow, that that's really incredible." But here's the thing is that I'm a cynic because I used to work um in this field for a really long time and when I see numbers like this, I worry that we're not expanding opportunity. We're just looking at the raw number. So, I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that we saw 40% growth in advanced placement enrollment amongst our underserved students, too. This is literally a situation of one tide lifting
110all of the boats in the Anchorage School District. And those are just the academic benefits. We've also seen suspensions decrease by 20 points in one year alone. These successes are not isolated stories. This is something that's happening across the district. And could it be something in addition to academy? Sure. Maybe it's their great principal or their awesome superintendent or who knows what's going on with these inputs. But the point is is that something is working and I want to protect our progress. So despite this setback from the feds, I can't control what the feds do, but I can control what Dr. Bryant does and Dr. Bryant is going to protect our progress. So that's my report for today. We're in good hands, y'all. Thanks. >> Thank you, Dr. Bryant. We'll move on to >> re
111ask questions. A question of superintendent on his report. >> Member Donnelly. >> Yeah. Uh, Superintendent Brand, thank you. I I have previously request questioned if some ASD administrative guidelines are in conflict with both federal and state board of education policy. Um, these guidelines have never been voted on by this board and they're under the jurisdiction of the administration and in particular the guideline for athletics states that all students be prevented in sports consistent with their gender identity and I'm just wondering what the status of the administration's review of this guideline is. >> Thank you, Member Donley. don't have a report for you today. And to be frank, it's because I've been focused on those achievements that I just showed you on that slide. We're back to school. And let me tell you something, I've been
112out in the community just as much as any of my colleagues in this city talking to hundreds of people, if not thousands of people, and I've gotten zero questions about that. I've gotten questions around reading, math, and life readiness. So, thank you for sharing that with me. I'll be sure to incorporate that into my planning with the president. Thank you. >> Thank you, member Donley, member lessons. >> Um, thank you, um, Dr. Bryant for your for your update. There's a lot going on um all the time, but apparently right now especially I had a question about the holdback positions. Um a and maybe I just don't have a great sense of where we are. A couple meetings ago, I thought that I was asking about our use of holdback positions that we had allocated from
113the budget revisions and that the 26 or so that we had allocated had largely been used to retain elementary specialists that had been displaced by the PTR increase. Um, so I guess my question is where are the holdback positions coming from? Um, Mr. Ratliff or Mr. Gustoson, can you speak to the holdback status? >> So, when we look at holdbacks, we look at all of the holdbacks from the beginning that we had even before we looked at adding two and we were sitting this morning, we were sitting still with 14. We usually keep some in reserve or as things happen over the first semester, even going to the second semester. So, we still had some left over. Um, but we'd given out every that we'd already that we've identified. So, we're kind of at that
114point, we're always monitoring those. follow >> and you know there was a community member who said can you please define all of these terms holdbacks is definitely a term in this case are holdbacks teachers who are waiting in the wings ready to be assigned >> holdbacks holdbacks are FTE >> so so basically it's budgeted I mean it's it's it's a number it's a figure in our budget at this point that it you're now saying there there were 14 this morning and we're going to take six of those and allocate those six FTE that were in the budget to shore up the CTE positions. So, we're not displacing classroom teachers. No >> from point A to point B, I think was my question. >> That you're correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, board members.
115Thank you, Dr. Bryant. We'll move on to school board administration comments. We'll start at my left to member Higgins. >> Thank you. Um last week I attended the uh cube conference which is the council on on urban uh board of education of school boards and um and that was I paid my way there on expenses. So I just want to make sure everybody knows that uh within it and I got to tell you it was the best conference I've ever attended. I've attended a number of school board conferences. I've attended uh a number of different ones and this one just blew me away. I had time to speak with the president of the National School Board Association. I had time to spend with the CEO for the um for cube the the that group and
116I got a lot of information and a lot of promising stuff and I'll kind of briefly go through that. First of all, in the discussions with the president, she did a great job of of the roller boards and the like and what what all the expectations are. At one point she made get out of your lane. If the public wants it, you need to be engaged in it and public needs the information. You're the you're the representative. And she did a number of things and she made an offer uh that uh she would meet with our board uh to explain from NSBA the roles of boards from their perspective which I think is a fantastic opportunity. Uh so it was a excellent uh discussion with her and uh just it was just a great presentation.
117um had a chance to meet also with the um CEO of Cube and when I talked to both of those individuals and the assistant to the president of Sherm, they talked about they were fascinated with the idea of school boards being engaged in with the audits like we are with the council of great city schools with the participation of the different school districts and the savings with it and the opportunity there to do more. Uh so they are from a board of education the group the the the board uh of uh the national school board association is going to be pursuing that uh on their agenda. So I thought that was pretty fantastic change. AI was a big conference issue and when the national schoolboard association meets in uh April with the big conference AI
118is going to be the top priority you're going to be hearing about. Uh it is uh uh show you know covering everything top to bottom. The impact to it is so great. They're pushing the issue that schools uh districts need to put the AI out there first in administration and in the classrooms. It needs to be pushed. uh there's 100,000 jobs lost already with AI, but the impact it's having and the potential of helping teachers, not with the students, but helping teachers basically provide an an IEP almost for every student is there with that type of capacity. So, it was a a big discussion issue that was pretty big out there. And the last bit is uh you know they also mentioned recognition engaging boards more in in recognizing students and and staff successes more
119frequently something we used to do a lot more but uh the last thing is we are not a member of cube right now we're a member of national school board association that's what I was told go ahead okay um being a member of coup first of all would have it it's not very much I think it's 400 more to just pay the difference is what they told me and it would have eliminated the the fee to attend the conference for one person and get discounts on the other and uh within that so it also has connections so that we would have a board out there board members could connect with other board members on different topics and the like and it's pretty um built up pretty big and I have I was unfamiliar with all
120that but it's it's being a member of cube has tremendous benefits and it's something I would recommend and last they had a good discussion with the head of AASB and and and thank vendors that just to look at board docs for a moment there's another one out there that has 180 different languages associated it has more capacity I know that the head of AASB was speaking to me pretty positively with that that's something we should consider because it's moving ahead aboard docks. So, just something I'm throwing out there that uh it's an opportunity uh and havingund different, you know, having so many different languages in the school now having a a board doc that covers all the languages like this 180 can be a real plus of our connections with the them. And they also
121said you can use it within schools when you're communicating people with language issues and your parents and all. It really works well that way. So just something out there with it. But I didn't I hope that in the future we have a chance to get administration come to these things too because it's so much discussions going on. Uh how do we handle with the issue of getting uh academics impacted in so many different ways. There's so many different classes there that they had. You can't attend all of them one person. But it would have been nice to have had you know some administration. And I know cost is always an issue, but I think there's a tremendous value coming back to it. So, um I am uh pleased to be able to give you kind
122of this overview, but I am just so impressed with Cube and being a member of Cube is not much money and having that connection that they have as well as some of the other benefits is something I'm requesting. I don't know the process, but $400 is not a whole lot of money. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Higgins. We'll go to Member Bell. Thank you. Uh, a couple of things um before I I do have a response to member Higgins, but um I this last weekend we had some amazing training going on in this whole city. right here in our boardroom, we hosted the charter school academy uh which is the uh uh Association of Alaska School Boards um training that every other year they do that particular training. All of our eight all of
123our charter schools were present along with other charters from Matt Sue from uh all throughout I think uh uh LKSD was here I think Kodiak uh there were several um people from throughout the state and uh I just want to uh thank Robin Harris for being quite the hostess and she and her team and I want to thank the superintendent for uh uh uh partnering to make that training happen. Um and I want to thank all of our charter school parents and and the the parent committees and and the principles for for attending that. Uh and then on uh that was Friday. I couldn't stay all day. I I was planning to come back on Saturday, but then I had to go I had another commitment that I almost forgot about and that was a
124community cafe training. And uh joining me at that training was uh the amazing Katie uh Parrot. And uh so we had an opportunity to um not just get some better understanding of how we can maybe put some do things a little bit different um uh but but we also learned some a new set of skills at least. Uh I I think I learned a new set of skills. Um, I've already mentioned about the ACPE and I I'll I'll follow up with uh with the staff on that at another another time. Uh, but just member Higgins, I am so glad that you you discovered uh Q. We have been a member of Cube since I've been on the board. I have gone to four uh uh uh uh of the of events. uh and member member
125Wilson has gone to two and they really are amazing. Um so um we are at a time right now where I don't I'm not sure how we are you know I I don't know uh we can't go I can't do every single uh conference uh but I will be attending the uh council of greater city schools uh annual conference in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks and I do think it's important that I do agree with you that um bringing that information back and and sharing it with the board is is very important. uh you know we use board docs and the book this the the program you're talking about is board books. It is entirely it's not entirely different but it's different and it's uh a and in the comparisons we've done so far
126which has not probably not been done in two years. We decided to stay with board docs. So we will we can look at that again. Um but so we have not been slipping in that in that in that area. We have been quite uh active with AASB uh and we have uh included them in our trainings and will continue to include them in our trainings uh and our retreats. So um thank you. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Member Bellamy member lessons. >> Thanks. Um, if anyone ever reads their budget books cover to cover, which I may or may not recommend, um, the very first sentence is relevant today. The Anchorage School District was established by the home rule charter of the municipality of Anchorage municipality on September 16th, 1975. Today is our birthday.
127Why don't we have cake? that is uh so anyways there's been a lot of talk uh at the assembly level about unification I kind of feel like the Anchorage school district has been left out so comm's team I'm looking at you um anyways I just that seems relevant um we've been around longer west high school other schools have been around longer I mean we have school buildings that are 60 plus years old we've talked about this in our CIP uh but as a district um we are at 50 Um so everybody go home and celebrate. Um I just wanted to share um I've started um school visits with the community council and sort of feeder schools and that's always rewarding um to see students, you know, doing exactly what you hope they're doing. You know,
128they're engaging in the new CKLA materials. If they're in a second grade class, they're busy doing music things in a music class. They're having fun at recess. um you know, they're not without our cha their challenges. Um you know, you have students with very high needs coming into our classrooms. Um and that can take a lot of adult energy to address and support those students without detracting from other students um in the facility. Um you know, more bodies in our buildings would help our schools serve all of our students more effectively. Um, I wanted to um share that I I did see students learning about voting. There's a little civic lesson uh going on and uh I was also delighted to see students examining reading a text and looking at the evidence to support claims
129in the text. So, good old paper and pencil. Um, and I've also had the pro the the privilege to uh go visit um some of our high school athletes in swim and cross country meets and it's just uplifting to see sportsmanship um encouragement um the inclusivity and parent support. Um it's just one of the many facets for what makes our community strong and I'm so proud that we have been able to support uh that opportunity for our students this year and hope we can do so again. Um but we will need um ongoing support from um from all of us to make that possible. Um and the only question I had was from Madison for clarification on the change of date for this SAB. you said if you could just repeat that earlier from what
130you said earlier. >> Yeah. So, our next meeting is just going to be on October 1st, but it's on a Wednesday. So, usually we meet on Tuesdays and we just had to change it to a Wednesday. >> Thank you, member Hon. >> I'm thinking that we might have operations locate the oldest boiler in the district and have a little party for it. I don't know if you know the age of our oldest boiler. [Laughter] We probably bought it used, but um one concern that's been coming up in some of the community councils in South Anchorage, uh some many of our football stadiums are located in proximity to neighborhoods. A few are not. Um it it varies quite a bit, but we do have some that are really close to houses, and I've been getting some
131feedback from people in the community. Um and most of them are pretty understanding of ASD events, at least up to a point. And I also know that we we've had some really loud noises at some of our football games, and principles have been on site working to try to mitigate that. not always with a lot of cooperation from fans, but also we do lease our stadiums on Sundays. Um, recently at 10:00 a.m., uh, they started with amplified music. Um, again, some of these stadiums literally are less than 50 yards from homes and whatnot. I I would ask the administration to kind of take a look at whether or not we are being good neighbors to uh in those situations and possibly look at differentiating uh when we will lease uh some of our outdoor facilities
132and um in relation to Sundays early mornings uh with possible restrictions on amplified music and whatnot. It's not a simple thing and um I don't know if it involves just one school or if it involves a number of schools, but we're we're not being very neighborly at least in a few cases. Um I was reminded when the legislature made their presentation for the school of the deaf, we often think of Anchorage School District and you think of your neighborhood school and you think of a classroom with orderly desk. Uh the school of the deaf does serve the whole state. It's a very special institution that's gotten a lot of recognition, appreciation from people. It reminded me also that that we're the school district that serves some of the psychiatric hospitals where kids are committed. Uh
133we have Mclathon, we're the education component to Mclaflin Youth Center for kids that are incarcerated. Um, and we have a number of special schools for kids that really have difficulties dealing with their own emotions or control and different things. Just a reminder that it's not simple at all. That that we really address a lot of different populations that have unique needs that have technical needs that have a lot of demanding needs. And it it all is part of the mix for our normal and neighborhood schools as well. Um, I think all board members probably saw some of the emails asking us to have a reaction to the violence that happened in the country in the past week. I just want to say the public as a classroom teacher, I really do think that is best
134left up to our individuals because this really impacts kids in a lot of different ways. And a blanket statement from the administration pretty difficult to craft. Um, but teachers in the classroom are going to know the state of mind of the children in front of them better. Um, they can watch faces while kids are talking about things or being informed about things and that that's really where that line of communication needs to be. Um, so I appreciate the fact that there there wasn't an overarching response from the district as a whole, but I'm sure that it came up in classrooms all across the district. Some of our employees may not have handled it well is unfortunate and and does happen because there are thousands of people out there trying to do what they think is
135the appropriate thing. Um, I do want to say in the entry school district, no one just gets summarily dismissed, uh, unless they're actually, you know, creating a threat on campus and and that's how it should be. But if someone does have a specific complaint, they should make it formal and and name it so it can be researched by the the administration and the appropriate action taken on it. Um, the last way I want to say I was at Make It Monday on Monday and watch our superintendent talk about the beginning of the school year. It has been a tumultuous school year and the fact that that we're I forget how many weeks into it, but I guess about four or five uh relatively smoothly. no major incidents um because the board does get the emails.
136I know we've had a few schools that have gone to to security postures for a number of reasons out in the community generally, but no big mishaps and I I don't know one hand it's a relief on the other hand it's kind of disconcerting that that we celebrate that. But at the moment, just having a nice normal day where nothing really bad happens kind of feels like a win. Um, and that's unfortunate, but it it is the atmosphere that we're struggling under. Um, I want to say that the school district staff, teachers, administrators, counselors, everybody in the buildings every day is an effort for have people resolve their differences peacefully uh between students, between groups of students and how they conduct themselves in the classroom. Um, I'm going to say I when you do this
137180 days a year, you don't ever get it perfect on every day. Um but it is part of the culture of our school. So we we teach conversation, we teach debate, we teach um teamwork and collaboration and and all of those things I think go to establish the kind of world we want our kids to live in. Um and that's our that's what we strive for. And if if anyone's come up short on that, it's unfortunate. Um, but I do want to respect the fact that that classroom educators also get to be out of the classroom. And that was something I I worked on a lot with students was there's school appropriate, there's hallway appropriate, there's classroom appropriate, there's principal's office appropriate, there all kinds of different levels of behavior depending on where you are
138at. And in looking at our employees, they they get that kind of grace as well. So, I I do want to say thank you to our building staff and classroom teachers because it's really their effort that has made it a good start to the school year. Um there's all this stuff that everybody has to do, but there is that moment where kids start showing up and the bell rings and suddenly people are sitting in the rooms and if you get to watch people suddenly really put the energy into it to try to make it work and do as best we can with uh increasingly scarce resources. So that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Hullman. And we'll go to member D. >> Thank you. I just want to uh state again my
139concern with the uh lack of fully funding of our uh student resource officers or APD officers in our schools. Um with the events that are going on around the nation, I think it's really imperative that the municipal administration prioritize that staffing. Um, and I'm very concerned about how it might expose um, our students to some very concerning um, developments that could occur. So, I I've stated this before. I'm going to continue to state it because I think the SRO's are a pri should be a priority in our municipality. Um, I wanted to agree with some of the public the public comment regarding the use of acronyms. Uh I know the staff it's very complicated in education. There's so many acronyms but may I would just appeal you to be a little aware of it and
140and and maybe define the acronyms maybe just once for the public. It' be probably really welcome by them. So have a better fully understanding of some of the technical reports we receive. Um, I also want to ask that our principles and vice pres princ principles refresh their knowledge of existing board policy regarding sportsmanship uh at sporting events to ensure that those policies are being uh honored and followed. Um is my perception uh last school year that not all staff were fully aware of existing board policies regarding sportsmanship and I would just hope they would refresh in their knowledge of that. And in regards to the accelerator program uh to meet the goals of staff competency, it's really exciting the program that we uh discussed at the uh reports we had in the work session uh
141today. Um eight years ago when the then superintendent came to the then board uh regarding the implement implementation of measures of academic progress testing. uh it was conveyed they would be developed into a way to obtain data on the relative success in individual classrooms and today it was identified as a component of one of the three buckets of data planned to be used for the acceleration program and um that includes student growth data which maps can identify. But I just wanted to mention something I had mentioned before to the superintendent that uh for this information to be accurate, the administration must ensure that classrooms in elementary schools are balanced academically and there not be allowed to be segregation of students by ability among individual classrooms in those schools. I've been advised that this was going
142on by parents. I don't have any proof that it's happening, but it is something that's going to be necessary for that data to be accurate. I think uh for the decision-m process that's going to ensue from that. I just request the administration reinforce what I understand is the current pos policy regarding uh elementary classrooms be balanced academically. I'd also just like to mention that um my question tonight about the current guidelines and potential conflicts with federal and state law was not a surprise to the superintendent. I had discussed him with him beginning over a month ago. So, I had advised him that I was going to pose that question. Thank you. >> Thank you. Checking with member Wilson. Do you have any closing comments? >> Yes, just briefly. Um I am excited about the work
143that's being done to work with community partners um to use our schools to provide child care as the discussion um at the work session today um talked about. So, I appreciate all of the work that has been done by our staff u by Mr. Anderson um to to have that move forward. That that's quite a vision. I'm I'm super excited about that. Um also wanted to just reiterate that we have a legislative lunchon scheduled tomorrow at King Tech and it is always really nice to bring our legislators into our schools and King Tech is a a very special and unique school. So, I'm excited that they have the opportunity to come to King Tech tomorrow um with so we can have continued partnership and discussions uh about all the the wonderful things that are going
144on at at ASD. Um and also share our appreciation for their support for the the BSA increase. Um, and I am so pleased to hear that students will have the opportunity to attend a career expo again coming up and would like to thank the many business partners that are providing the staff and resources to help make that a success for our students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Wilson. I have no closing comments tonight and so that brings us to the end of our agenda. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Move to adjourn. >> Second. made by Holland and seconded by Melanie. We are returned at 8 p.m. Thank you everyone.