06/03/2025: School Board Meeting

001Good evening. Welcome to the 6 PM ASD school board meeting. Today is Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 at 6 o'clock p.m. on the dot. Welcome to the boardroom. Present this evening are board members Jacobs, Bellamy, Donley, Higgins, Hollerman, Lessons, and Wilson. Me um member Wilson's joining us online today. Right, we've called ourselves to order, conducted a roll call. We'll now um engage in our flag salute and land acknowledgement. Um Student Representative Madison, would you please lead us? Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We acknowledge that we gather here today on the traditional lands of the Dina people of the Cupcook England. For thousands of years, the Dina 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. And again, welcome everyone. We want to uh 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. We've completed our call to order, roll call, flag, salute, land acknowledgement, and opening statement. We are now at the um A3, approval of the agenda. Uh member Bell, do you have a motion? I do. Uh Mr. Chair, I move to a uh amend

003the agenda. Member Bill, would you like to move to approve the agenda first? Oh, yes. I I do move I do that too also. I move to approve the agenda. Okay. Before I make my amendment. Sorry. Sounds wise. Made by member Bellamy, seconded by member Higgins. Um it's now before us. Member Bellamy, do you have a subsequent motion? I do. Uh I move to post I'm sorry. I move to amend the agenda by moving the superintendent update as item number B3 under reports. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Second. Great. All right. Any opposition to the amendment to move the superintendent update as item B3? Hearing and seeing none, the agenda is amended. Is there any opposition to the agenda as amended? hearing. Seeing none, we have an amended agenda that's been adopted. Thank you

004everyone. Then wait just a second while we get our agenda updated online. All right. Now that our agenda has been amended and approved, we'll begin with reports under uh B1 or student representative report. Madison, the floor is yours. All right. Thank you. So, as we know, many of our students are very grateful and happy right now ending on this school year. It's the end of the school year. So many are just getting out and having a great summer. And most importantly, as in my experience and many others, it's great to be surrounded by such amazing graduates this year and acknowledging their hard work. And right now, we do know that a few of our ASD graduates are actually interning with Lisa Marowski right now with her internship program, which is really amazing. So a few

005of our graduates got into that program which is really prestigious. So really great to recognize them in their hard work in applying for that. But other than that, closing out this school board meeting for the end of the school year tells me that there is even more to come next year that it's bigger and greater. And I was most excited to be around such accomplished people, my peers as much as the graduates as well. And I can't wait for my own class and those besides it to do the same. And I think I've been really moved by each other's characters and aspirations of my peers this year. And next year is going to be a really amazing year of learning to lead stronger and more pers perseverant and especially having such a rough year this

006year coming from a stem of issues like the BSA or losing our activities. But our student body is really happy right now to see that we did get at least some type of an increase that could affect our budget a little bit more positively next year. But other than that, I'm happy to be able to serve this next year. I'm excited to take this summer as a break and use it as a learning opportunity then to come over and do even better to represent my peers next year. Thank you. Thank you, student representative Madison. Are there any questions? Hearing seeing none, thank you for your report. Um, are there board conference or committee reports uh from any of our committee chairs at this point? Member lessons. Yeah, I mean all three committees met. I'll speak

007just briefly about the finance committee. Um, again, we all met on the 29th. We had three items on our agenda. Me pull this a little closer. Um, the first was uh sort of a historic uh audit. It was a correspondence aotment and uh board members received a hard copy like this. Um but the the audit as well as supporting documents should be posted to that agenda. At a high level uh there were a number of findings uh with regard to uh about a total of $5.6 million in reimbursements as well as requisition requests. And uh there were a number the findings included um some inconsistent practices in reimbursing educational expenses. Some concerns that some curriculum was purchased from religious organizations with student aotment funds. Um there were instances where reimbursements appeared to the auditors as

008excessive and did uh there was some some language uh they shared which said those reimbursements do not always appear to serve the public's interest. And we we did explore that a little bit. Um the auditor's review revealed that the correspondent schools did not always require the non-consumable materials to be returned to the district when students withdrew from the program. They identified correspondent school purchase request procedures were not always followed. And they also found that there were no clear guidelines to define core course requirements. And each of those findings was addressed in this. So, I'm not going to get into um uh the details, but it is um a thoughtful document and uh it is publicly available. So, I appreciate um administration uh uh cooperation with the board and with the auditors uh to navigate the

009delivery of that important audit. We also had a very brief legislative update. It sounds as though um we're still waiting for the governor to uh address the issue of the state's operating budget, which we can expect to uh hear his decision by um this the 19th of June is what we shared uh in the meeting. And then we talked a little bit about the the board's budget timeline for FY27. That's the 26 27th school year. Notably, we talked about the pro-forma, which we normally engage with um in December in a two meeting cycle, uh becoming an information item, but having that be accompanied by a separate uh guidance memo that the board would have to pass. Um, so and then we also talked about um just really opening the floor throughout the fall to uh

010ongoing conversations about board members priorities, concerns um making making sure that we have good uh communication with community members, legislators uh throughout the fall. Uh so that was the gist of the finance meeting. Thanks. Thank you. Member lessons. Are there any other board conference conference or committee reports? hearing. Seeing none, we'll move on to B3, our reordered superintendent report. Dr. Bryant, the floor is yours, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, in full cander, I I do have a pretty lengthy report today, and I want to take a few moments to walk you through why. Um, so in a normal year under different conditions, we'd probably be using this time to discuss the end of the year and to celebrate the successes of our students and also community that most recently came together to um make

011a step forward towards adequately funding public education. Um, unfortunately, I'm going to pause on the celebrations for this particular superintendent update. Um, because I have a very important update regarding something that came to my attention regarding the state board of education's annual meeting. Um, and it actually started today and it concludes tomorrow. So, I'm going to start off with the impact and then I'm going to walk us through exactly how we got here and um, why ASD is going to take the position that I'll be sharing later today. Uh the bottom line is that the commissioner's office, the commissioner of education has made a stunning move yesterday that would result in ASD potentially losing $15 million just weeks before the new fiscal year. This is a situation that doesn't even just impact ASD. This impacts

012dozens of districts that have municipalities and have the opportunity to receive additional funding from municipalities. And um I I credit the Anchorage community for consistently um showing that they're interested in funding public education. We really see the strength and power of our public schools as a way to make change uh for the better in our future. Our state depends on it. But you know, I just made a very um very big assertion that the state has taken action that would result in $15 million being taken from ASD. So, I want to talk a little bit about how we got here. So, a conversation's been happening for years, um, as far as I'm tracking about this conversation about whether or not municipality should be capped in terms of how much funding they provide to districts. This

013has been a conversation exchange that has taken place again for months and um, ASD has been proud that we've been a positive partner in those conversations. It's a very nuanced topic. Um, but in good faith, we've been exchanging our position with the state and others to come to some sort of resolution that would ensure that our schools are set up for success. Um, however, um, the other piece that I'm tracking is that repeatedly the state has shared that even if these changes were to happen, um, they would go into effective um, fiscal year 27. So, in other words, we would have had over a year um to figure this out and to have a transparent, robust public debate on this very technical topic that I will not be going into great detail during these remarks.

014Um but the the thing that happened that really took me and a lot of stakeholders by surprise is um the fact that ASD learned yesterday morning from the state that it actually intends to move forward with an emergency regulation that would make these changes effective um essentially immediately. So I want to walk the community through what does an emergency regulation mean? How is this different than the conversation we've been having for years with the state? Um, let's talk about the term emergency. An emergency regulation would mean that if the state board of education convenes tomorrow and votes to adopt the commissioner's recommendation, essentially um this would go into effect um very quickly. Um in fact, it's the intent of this emergency regulation to be effective FY25. That's the current fiscal year that we're in. And

015just so the committee's tracking, we're less than four weeks away from actually a new fiscal year. And that's where the $15 million impact comes into play for ASD. So in my opinion, this is effectively the commissioner choosing to unilaterally not only just rob ASD of $15 million, but more importantly, we're choosing to evade an opportunity for the public to become engaged in this conversation. So the difference between an emergency regulation and a regular uh non-emergency regulation is very important because if this would have been a regular a standard regulation and that's how ASD understood it. In fact, I I'm not just making this up. I actually have the receipts from DED that states repeatedly as recently as um November of last year is what I'm tracking that explicitly states that it was the intent for

016this to take place FY27. But um there is a key difference between an emergency regulation and a non-emergency regulation. The only difference is that we get to keep the public out of the conversations when it's an emergency regulation because uh regular regulation would have meant that the public would have at least 30 days to actually see the full writings of what the commissioner has intended. And frankly, there are a lot of questions that are still unanswered even today um in terms of, you know, what would be allowed um to be collected from the municipality, what would not be allowed. And uh to make a long story short, there are a lot of nuance conversations that are still unanswered even to this day, even though that we're faced with an emergency regulation that would strip ASD

017of tens of millions of dollars and also millions of dollars from other districts, too. So with that said, it should be no surprise that municipalities, districts, communities were stunned and I, as superintendent, am frankly furious. Um because I feel that the only reason why we would pursue the route of an emergency regulation is to essentially take the public, myself, mayors, concerned assembly members, um board members across the state out of the conversation. So, before I acted too hasty, I did take it upon myself to look at the state law on emergency regulations. I actually have a copyright here that I'm willing to share with the media or whoever else is interested. But essentially what it says is that um a state agency must make a written finding including a statement of facts that constitute the

018emergency. This is uh Alaska statute 4462250 emergency regulations for those of you following along to this conversation. and the reasons need to be for the immediate preservation of public peace, health, safety, or the general welfare. So, upon reading this statute, it became clear to me that I don't believe an emergency exists. But more importantly, we didn't actually receive a justification from the commissioner as to why was this an emergency. actually until about um 4:30 today is when I saw a document um from the commissioner that states why she perceives this to be an emergency. So, long story short, I did look at that document, too, and so did my attorneys. And before I talk about what uh what I believe to be the best path forward, I want to bring up another complication to this

019conversation. Um, it's not lost on me that actually last month it was the governor himself that put together an administrative regulation that actually pauses all new regulations moving forward. Um, he does provide some language to agency heads to pursue an exception. Um, that's spilled out clearly in his administrative regulation which I also have and I'm happy to walk us through. Um but the point is is that in order for this regulation to even be considered by the state board of education, the commissioner would have had to request um this from the governor's office in writing. And I'd like to make it crystal clear that superintendent and the community did not see this waiver. There was a document that was put on the record um earlier today from the commissioner's office. It's a statement of fact

020findings for this emergency that she claims it to be. I I did do my due diligence and um before this meeting I I had my attorneys review it and really just to assure myself that we're not mistaken and I don't believe that we are. I do believe that this situation does not qualify as an emergency. And I also have questions as to where is this waiver that was supposed to be submitted to the governor's office that's spelled out in his administrative order. I haven't seen it. And given the fact that we're talking about taking tens of millions of dollars from school districts, what is so confidential or secretive that it could be shared in writing with the governor's office, but not to the superintendent that we'll be losing again tens of millions of dollars um

021as soon as, you know, four weeks from now when the new fiscal year comes into play. And let's not forget that we don't even know what our budget for FY26 is because the governor is still sitting on the operating budget. Um, and many of us anticipate that he's seriously considering a veto of that appropriation because he did state that to myself and other of my superintendent colleagues a few weeks ago. So, with that said, um, I do have a couple of other things that I would like to share, but um, I actually want to direct this message to the state board of education because I want to make a couple things crystal clear. I do believe that the education commissioner's maneuver of making this an emergency regulation is unlawful. I also believe that the state

022board of education that has members, many of which are very new, they're probably missing key information because I've not even gotten into the technicalities of the actual issue that we're talking about, which is around the municipalities, revenue, all of that sort of thing. That's actually a very separate issue from what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that there's a lack of justification that's been provided to superintendents and stakeholders about why this is an emergency and a justification for why this merits taking one tens of millions of dollars from districts across the state and two robbing the public of an opportunity to even know that this is going on because again if we would have pursued the normal regulatory route we would have had a month at least to discuss the merits of the technical conversation

023but we've bypassed that and I demand an explanation So my message to the state board are two things. So one, my attorneys and I have reviewed this information and we still uh believe that the commissioner's attempt to make this an emergency regulation is illegal. It is unlawful. And for that reason to the state board of education, I want this message to you to be crystal clear. I urge you tomorrow morning to consider withdrawing this regulation from your agenda and let's let an actual public process begin. And I want to be crystal clear. If that is not withdrawn from the state board of education agenda tomorrow morning, ASD will be pursuing legal action to ensure that this public conversation takes place. So there's a lot of information that I'm requesting from the state on this matter

024and I hope that the state board of education can realize that the complexity of this conversation cannot be rushed through in a process that uh removes the voices of our mayors and assemblies and schoolboard members and superintendents that have a lot to lose. Not abstractly speaking in FY27. I mean within the next four weeks. So, if anything, there is a fiscal emergency, but I believe it's been manufactured by the commissioner's office, the Department of Education, and if I'm mistaken, I request that information to be sent to me and all superintendent as well as the media tomorrow because based off of what I've seen today, I don't think that that designation is justified nor lawful. So, with that said, I um I will be testifying first thing tomorrow, and I want the public to understand this.

025So, um, something that, uh, schoolboard members and the public can do is to tune in to the state board of education meeting tomorrow and we have a very brief window of time to testify on this issue. I will be testifying to share with them um for me directly that I do intend to take legal action if something is not done by the end of the day tomorrow. But to also let them know the stakes that are at play and the information that if it's not in front of me as the superintendent, they'll be losing tens of millions of dollars. Does the state board of education have this information? Does the governor's office have this information? I'm still not in receipt of the waiver that's actually required in the administrative order to request this even happening

026in the first place. So, there's a lot of questions that I'll be asking over the next 24 hours, but I felt it would be important that I share this with the board because the bottom line is the biggest pet peeve of mine as superintendent are attempts by our public officials to keep the voices of the public out of conversations of this magnitude and consequence. And the bottom line is I will not allow the Anchorage community to be silenced on my watch. So, that's why we're moving in this direction. Thank you, Dr. Brian, for your report. Um, I'm going to open it up to board members for questions or comments. Um, if we could have the emergency finding of emergency rationale um, displayed, I think it might be helpful for any other follow-up questions or comments.

027Um, so we've got that displayed. I'll just add on briefly that I um, Dr. Brian, I appreciate your comments. Um, and I support legal action to the to the extent that it's required to compel the state to act in a a process that is um lawful. And there's I think there's fair and significant questions as to um what's happened thus far. Did I personally have significant concerns about a a public process that is not transparent and and being engaged in in a um competent manner and that's disturbing from a department that our young people depend on. Um our community deserves better, our students deserve better. Uh the state needs to get its act together quickly. I will say that as a school board member at the local level, I understand the process um and the

028underlying facts of why this determination is uh attempting to be sought. But I know for a fact that the state board of education can't possibly be prepared to discuss this uh finding in a meaningful way with such short notice. Um and with some of their members being relatively new. I plan on joining um Dr. Brian, other board members, I believe in in testimony to ask the the board to um permanently um put cast aside any attempt to adopt either an emergency regulation or frankly a uh a a significant revision to the regulation. Um that the commissioner appears to be in intending to introduce. Uh it's it's not to the benefit of Alaska's communities um to our schools and um is frankly unfair. With that said, we'll open it up. I see member Lessons has a

029question. Thanks. Um, I really appreciate u beginning with the impact um the timeline uh sort of the longer reflection on how we got here and ASD's position. I feel like the one one thing I haven't heard but maybe uh being invoked in this letter um is why Alaska failed the disparity test in the first place. And to me that seems interesting and relevant and maybe peculiar because the conversation predates the failure of the disparity test. And now I'm seeing the disparity test being the uh maybe the key a key component of the rationale in this emergency uh com regulation. So can you help talk us through why Alaska failed the disparity test and why that is or isn't relevant? Sure member lessons. That's an excellent question. So I'd like to hand this off to our

030chief financial officer. So really the question is based off of this emergency declaration that we see before us is the disparity test issue even remotely related to the issue at hand here. Um is it relevant if not and and why and what's going on? Sure. Thank you. And I'm going to read from the actual letter from the federal government to the state of Alaska that describes why the transportation or the disparity test was not met. Um it says because the state improperly excluded transfers between each LEA's general fund and its special revenue fund for transportation and improperly included transfers from the transportation fund to the general fund as revenue. The disparity calculation on which this determination is based removes these transfers. So the feds removed the transfers for them and then they failed the test.

031So they were counting some of these transfers as revenue and some of them weren't. Um, so I guess the feds fixed that for them and then they failed the test. Member lessons, you have a followup, I guess. Thank you. Okay, so that was that recent information, but the conversation that Dr. Bryant was talking about regarding should municipalities be capped for what they can contribute really goes back to a longer term trajectory. So, are we fixing anything? Right. So, uh Mr. Ratliff, would this remedy of an emergency regulation actually, uh address the issue that the federal government has on impact data? Are these two things related? It doesn't appear to like right now the state for at least for transportation funds, the state has a waiver to exclude those from the disparity test calculation from the

032federal government. Um it's just the way that they have uh processed the transfers which is causing this which this regulation does not address how interfund transfers are recorded or displayed for the disparity test. Um so really it kind of gets down to as they were trying to they included as some districts that had excess transportation money. It wasn't certainly wasn't ours, but the transportation money was transferred over to the general fund and that counted as local revenue or state revenue for the purposes of this calculation. Um, and it shouldn't have because that transportation revenue again should have been excluded. Um, so really I don't believe that this the regulations being proposed to limit any excess contributions to transportation or other stuff that is already excluded from that disparity test calculation would have any effect on

033um the reason why they failed the test to begin with. Thank you member Lessons. I see member Bellamy. Thank you. Uh, I also plan to join the superintendent in opposition to this um emergency quote unquote. Um, I guess I have a So, I think the the emergency part of this still confuses me. I mean, I know there's guidance in the statute of what constitutes an emergency. Uh, what I don't see this as an emergency. Um, I see that it's been tied to the department of to the federal issue, but I don't what is the emergency as you understand it or somebody help me understand the emergency part of it. So, so based off of my reading and uh staff, please correct me if I'm missing key information. She recently the state did fail the federal

034disparity test, but number one, that's not the first time it's happened. And number two, um, I don't believe the state has actually even attempted to appeal that decision. So to me, on that basis alone, I don't believe that this is an emergency if you've not even tried to resolve this through all channels, including the federal government. So to use that as a justification to rob the public of an opportunity to even understand what's going on before their children lose tens of millions of dollars in services to me feels one, unethical, and two, likely not constituting an emergency. But what have I left out, Mr. Atliff? I think it's supposed to be an emergency of safety, health. What does the statute Can you just review what the statute says about emergency um regulation? Um I don't

035have that in front of me, but I I was going to get to the point to and I can I can do that. Well, Andy, so uh again, this is 4462250 and basically the agency must have a written finding including a statement of facts that constitute the emergency and it needs to be for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or general welfare. And we did receive the emergency finding from the commissioner, but again, I want to remind the public, I didn't receive that information until 4:00 today, literally in the middle of the state board of education's meeting. And it remains to be seen when that was actually posted because it was not posted yesterday. I can tell you that much. Um, so with that said, I believe the justification would be because

036of the failure of the disparity test, that's the justification to rush this through without public comment. And I guess my question to Mr. Ratliff is, is that an appropriate use of this remedy? I think the state believes that's an appropriate use and the why the reason they did it as an emergency so they could have it effect in FY25 which is going to determine the disparity test for if they can deduct these revenues for FY27. So the FY24 test what actually happened in 24 affects what happens what the allowable amount we can or if they can deduct the amount in FY26. So by making an emergency, that's the only way they can affect FY25 at this juncture because then it has to go through the comment period and wouldn't be in effect until our fiscal

037year 26, which would then lead to like FY28 implement disparity implementation. So there's kind of this two-year lag between what they're testing. And so uh Dr. Bryant, in the best of your information that you have, what constitutes a local contribution? I mean, is that defined in this regulation? My understanding is that the um the regulation that's being proposed is very vague and and that actually I think is more of a justification for why we need at least 30 days for the public to understand this. This could impact funding for everything from transportation to early childhood services to all sorts of different things. Municipalities offer services to district in many ways. Sometimes it's a school resource officer. Sometimes it's various things. And if it could mean all of those things, it could mean some of those

038things. But the problem is is that if you have mayors, assembly members, schoolboard members, and superintendents that have no idea what the intention of this law is, that's a problem to me. Yeah. And I think that's probably one of my I mean, the process is not a public process is one concern. My other concern is that this really does handicap communities who really want to invest in their ed in the education of their children and um I mean to to tell pe to tell our assembly and our partners that they can no longer do and we don't without clear guidance on what this local the contribution is. I just think it it it I I just see it as um something that's gonna really harm our kids. And if I can add, there are a

039lot of complexities to how municipal funds are used within districts. And there are ways that other districts may be going about this that I don't necessarily understand the nuances about. And the point is is why am I to believe that the state board of education has enough information to vote on this issue in good faith when when my attorneys and myself and others are reading this and it truly does not one does not seem to fit the definition of an emergency. But two, it does seem like we're completing two things that aren't even necessarily related to one another and using this almost as a justification to push through without getting that valuable feedback. And that's my chief grievance of this entire situation. And I think the impact, my final comment is the impact of urban

040districts like Anchorage and Juno and Fairbanks. Um I mean they I look at our in Anchorage, our assembly has historically stepped up to pick up where the state has not in terms of funding. And if this passes, so I will be urging the state board of education to not pass this regulation. Thank you. Thank you, Member Bellamy. We'll go to member lessons. Thank you. Um, so on the screen right now in the third paragraph, the middle of it, there's a sentence that reads, "The emergency regulations would provide clarification to school districts to ensure compliance." I wonder and I did find the regulation itself. I sent it to Miss Sullivan. Um, I wonder whether the ASD administration um believes that the regulations provide clarification for our district or ambiguity is in essence, do we agree that

041the regulations make the water clearer or murkier? I don't believe it makes it any clearer for me and frankly they redefine the value of inind services which before had specific definitions for insurance, utilities, energy audits and maintenance of facilities. Now it's just a blanket you have to record the inkind value of services. Does this mean like when someone who works for the city health department comes and gives a talk to a health class that we have to record that as an inind service? We don't know the scope into which we're going to have to go back and try to calculate these things and record them. So, no, it doesn't give us sardine. If that's going to come out of the actual cash the city can give us, then you know, we're going to have a

042lot of trouble and probably need a lot more manpower to track some of these things. Thank you, member lessons. Member Bellamy, I see another question. Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to All right. Um, thank you for the uh report, Dr. Bryant, in the spirit of discussion. Not seeing any other questions from the superintendent for the superintendent. We'll move on to our goal monitoring which relates to reading proficiency, student growth, and grades three map growth. We're now going to have our goal monitoring conversation on the technical report that was given to us at our last meeting. Tonight our conversation will focus on our early reading proficiency goal one and interimm goal 1.3 which is the percentage of third grade students proficient in English ELA uh on the state sumitive assessment assessment currently AK star will increase

043from 32.4 to 46.4 for in May of 2028. And the interim goal 1.3 MAP growth reading catch-up growth, which is the percentage of grade three students below the 40th percentile in the fall interim adaptive assessment in reading who achieve catch-up growth or better in spring will increase from 39.8% in 23 to 45% in 28. I want to confirm that all components of the monitoring report are present. The report clearly shows what is being monitored and is focused on a specific and interimm goal. uh shows data for the previous reporting periods, the current reporting period and targeted reporting periods, and the superintendent's evaluation of performance. With that said, uh Dr. Bryant, any opening comments before we jump straight into questions? Nope. We've received some great questions, so let's dive in. Perfect. Board members, we'll turn to

044you. I'll start with member lessons. Great. Thank you. Um, I thought this was a really interesting report and it I noodled on it for a number of days and I really um at the end of the day it brought me back to being a parent with um our youngest child who was in preschool in spring of 2020 and that child just finished fourth grade and we're now talking so really we're talking about kids who were in third grade this past year who were four in the spring of 2020. And to me, that's um like the that's like the heart of of where we're at. So, [Music] um I'll just sort of begin. What I noticed from the data starting on slide three was just that there's this little slight dip. you know, we have the

045hope for a gentle increase, um, in, you know, the rate of catch-up growth, uh, which is admirable and important, and we want to see that accelerated growth for for all of our students. But it went down a little bit. So, I said, "Huh, why is that? Where are we seeing, you know, are we seeing the dips across the that dip across the board or is it amplified in um, you know, certain certain areas among certain students?" And when I looked at slides five and six, um it's a little bit hard to tell just from this year's data alone. So I pulled up the report we looked at last year and um though these are my observations and I could have made errors. What I saw was that um the the largest declines uh in the

046percent of students who fell below benchmark who demonstrated catch-up growth um were among black and Hispanic students. uh and uh also among English learner and special education students. So those to me are like the high-risk students who who in this report didn't make the same catchup growth that other students did or that they did a year ago. That was where I saw the biggest um difference. And so I guess I would be interested whether this is something that the administration also saw. And maybe I'll pause there. Thank you, member lessons. First, I'd like to uh introduce some new people coming up and uh make sure that they have a chance to introduce themselves. My name is Claire Pulp and I'm a senior director of the Central Region for Elementary. Patrick Freeman, senior director elementary education

047north region. Nicole Somerville, director of uh teaching and learning for elementary and Carol, director for assessment and evaluation, and I get the privilege of supporting the work that you do by preparing these goal monitoring reports. Um, but I believe that uh Miss Somerville has a response for you. So before we get into the specifics of our different groups, I want to make sure we all have an understanding of what this data is showing us and what it's not showing us. So this particular um set of data is looking specifically at our students that at the beginning of the year were performing below benchmark, specifically our third graders. So this year's third graders that at the beginning of the school year were below the 40th percentile on their MAP assessment. So the MAP assessment is an

048assessment that typically um starts it's a leveled assessment. So it's it starts where the student is at, but the lowest level is still going to start at a comprehension. So, the students need to read passages, answer comprehension questions about those passages, and then the um test is adaptive. It'll get harder, a little bit easier, harder, easier depending on how the student does on the questions, but it's definitely dealing with language and reading comprehension questions. And then we've looked at those third graders and we said of those third graders that are below the 40th percentile at the beginning of the year, how many of them are still with us at the end of the school year? And of those students that are still with us at the end of the school year and took the test

049again at the end of the school year, what percentage of those students made catchup growth? So over a year's worth of growth in one school year. So, I want to make sure that we're we're really understanding that one, this is a small percentage of our third graders, not all of our third graders, and that this is students that were already below and they may have made growth, but they may have not been able to make catch-up growth, like a full year and a half or a year and a quarter's worth of growth. One of the things we also want to look at is what intervention do we do for students that are behind? And typically, especially with our students who might have ELLL concerns or special ed concerns, we do know that those students often

050have phonics gaps. So, they are missing some of their foundational reading skills. They may not be able to blend longer words. They may not know some of those basic reading concepts, letters, sounds, all of those pieces. So the interventions that we put into place often address those issues and may that may not totally translate onto a MAP test for a year and a half worth of growth for comprehension questions. So they may have made growth in their ability to read and comprehend but it may not relate exactly to that overall growth. So I want to make sure that we're keeping all those pieces in mind. Not to say that it's not important that these kids also don't need to make catch-up growth, but there's some nuances with this reading and those two assessments that we

051just want to keep in mind when we're discussing this. And I believe did you two want to answer anything specifically about um those target groups? Well, I just want to say um to echo Nicole, you know, a lot of those kids are still developing their foundational skills. That's why interventions are needed. They are still uh learning to read rather than reading to learn. So a lot of the things that Nicole said is something that we have to do with our interventions early on. So in order to do catch-up growth, that's really critical in order for kids to really perform in the MAP assessment when they are beginning to take in the beginning of third grade. Member lessons followup. Yeah, thank you. Um, I guess I want to sort of circle back to the this after

052I at least raised the some reading that I've done to the board's attention. Um, and I shared this with the superintendent and President Jacobs, so they weren't totally um, surprised. So, one of I I ended up um spending some time with a report from the curriculum associates group who produces I Ready uh dating from May 2024, which identified that students who were in kindergarten and first grade in the fall of 2021, who right now just finished third and fourth grade, were a year ago, you know, our youngest learners were failing to recover from those COVID learning losses in the same way at the same rate that older students have been recovering. Right? There are disparities by grade really by you know when you look at a child's development right there may you know our youngest

053learners appear to have been more sensitive to learning disruptions to lost learning opportunities and a year ago curriculum associates was seeing in their data nationwide that we have a problem with our youngest learners and so that to me you know is important and concerning. And then I looked a little bit more at some of their citations and I found a report on on those young learners dating from August of 2020 looking specifically at preschoolers, right? Thinking about these are this year's third graders. Um, and just to to give you a sense of um you know this the long tale of COVID is a conversation that I think has come up again and again in these school monitoring conversations. And I guess I don't want us to lose sight of that because the interventions are still

054needed, right? The funding to do the interventions is still needed. And I think that's maybe why I like to bring this up because um we don't have adequate funding and we certainly don't have intervention level funding. Um but in this August of 2020 report by the National Institute of Early Education Research based out of Rutgers, they looked at um preschool participation of 3 to 5y olds sort of in that spring of 2020. And what they found at a nationwide level was that preschool participation fell from about 61% to 8% in a matter of you know days, weeks and months. And this meant that the percent of children who listened to stories or engaged in math or science activities daily um fell dramatically. And so I really see those formative experiences um as being central to

055where we are right now. And I'm trying to look at this openeyed, cleareyed with compassion, but also a strong sense of urgency. But I wanted to share with the board this report's uh sort of warning that um the consequences of the pandemic's effects on preschool programs were going to be long-term. Um they predicted negative long-term consequences for children who would be entering kindergarten in the fall of 2020. That was this year's fourth graders. And they saw the pervasiveness on of the impacts on learning learning early learning activities. um which implies that the consequences would be borne most heavily by those who are already disadvantaged, already struggling with significant headwinds. And they said that unless preschools and schools uh provide compensate compensatory uh compensatory services with a strong focus on the most disadvantaged, inequity and educational

056success will rise even as the overall average kind of declines. Right? So, we're they predicted growing disparities five years ago, which I think we're seeing now in our data. And that's just like the big picture. I mean, that's one survey. It's one report. Um, but I but I see it here in that little that little dip on that first slide. And I just I wanted to to poke at that a little bit more. I don't know. Member lessons. Um, you bring up a good point. Um I just want to highlight another uh article from the NWA. Um they also had key findings that ASD's um data matches and mirrors the national data with that. Um basically postco the average student will need the equivalent of 4.8 additional months of school to catch up in reading

057and 4.3 months in math. And what we're seeing is um I know when I attended a a great wonderful title one conference a year ago it the attendance data also there was some big gaps after co um on a national level and Alaska mirrored that as well. So, as far as the cause, you know, it could be many things. And I think you bring up our youngest learners like zooming and those fundament foundational reading skills. We know that in front of in a classroom, in front of a teacher, kids needed that. And so, um, but to Nicole's point, I think with this assessment, it's assessing comprehension. And so, some of those gaps are in decoding or blending. And so the the MClass and different assessments like that are going to gauge whether they're growing in

058that. But um we just want to validate that yes um and there's a report from NWA um it's called achievement and growth post pandemic and it that ASD data does mirror that as well. Member listens any followup? All right we'll go to member Bellamy. Thank you. Uh, thank you for uh your explanation right off the bat because I didn't miss it, but I I kind of made it in my head. I made things bigger than what I really wanted to. Um, having said that though, you know, I love that we have these conversations, but I also know that people are joining us at different levels. Um and so you know we we use science of reading, we use MTSS and what can you just kind of like do a quick um recap of of this

059in in just in layman terms so those people who are just joining us for this highle conversation can understand why we why we why we kind of do this and the way that we do it. So I think that would have been kind of my first question. Uh for the benefit of those who may be new to our monitoring conversation, please provide more insight um on on on instructional strategies that are being uh implemented and along with that, you know, what specific professional learning kind of coaching things are we doing with our teachers because I we can't change COVID. We know we've got to get those kids through. So, I I I really just I want to know kind of what what what what are the boots on the ground uh doing with our third

060graders? So, member Bellamy, did you want me to go over kind of the MTSS structure and that uh first or do you want me to talk about what it is we're doing for kids that might be struggling or kind of do one and then the other? Sure. And then I'll I'll be quiet for somebody else. Please. So um MTSS is a multi-tered systems of support and basically that means within our schools we offer supports for students that have varying needs in both academics and behavior. Um and those supports look different depending on the needs of the child. Um and so if we're talking specifically about reading, the first thing we do is we need to assess what's going on. And so we do benchmark assessments three times a year for students in all of our

061elementary schools uh for our youngest learners K through three. We do the MClass uh assessment which gets into those foundational skills. And then as we start in third grade and up we do the MAP assessment which then gets into more of those comprehension and language skills. Um for our English language learners we have the WEDA which is uh assessing their English language learning. So we have a variety of different assessments that we use to see how the students are progressing um one in their growth like how they're growing from the beginning of the year to the end of the year but also then comparing them to the national norm. So how do a variety of students across the nation you know also how are they progressing? So, we're we're looking at all those kind of

062pieces. And then to determine uh our core instruction, tier one, which is our our baseline, that's what everybody gets. All students at in the Anchorage School District get hopefully their regular grade level instruction. And then those students that need a little bit more, they might get some more support. uh it starts out with maybe a little extra time with the teacher and then it gets what we call our win time or what I need time where they have a separate small group that's targeting an area of need. Then we look at students and maybe they need even more than that. Um and then they might get additional support through ELLL special education or with another wind group or reading interventionist or outside of school or or or whatever we can we can provide. um summer

063learning our reading air reading for our third graders. All of those are different interventions that we provide that are part of our multi-tiered systems of support and that's systemically throughout the district. That is systemically throughout the district. Now, it might look a little different at each school depending on the needs of the school um and what kids at each school need what, but we try to make sure that there are supports at every single school to address the needs of all of our students. Schools that have a greater need often have more supports, but maybe not enough. But we do make sure as much as we can to have a variety of supports at all of our schools because we have students with needs at all of our schools. And I'm going to let Patrick

064talk a little bit about what that might look like. Well, in addition to that, I think we all know that great teachers make the difference. And when we have a great teacher in front of students, that's even huge. That's even more than interventions can provide and the Anchorage School District is doing its best, the administration to identify those teachers in order to deliver the best instruction for students. But in regards, Nicole articulated very well our MTSS system throughout the district. What we're trying to do is continue to provide accommodations for kids, not just modifying them. Tier one instruction is very critical for our kids. We're realizing that our kids need more direct tier one instruction rather than always intervening because if our kids get grade level standards, they're able to to be able to test

065um they're they're able to basically find a way in order to answer the questions and comprehend the questions better on a test rather than just trying to develop their foundational skills. So modifications a lot of times allows for students to get a different curriculum and likewise not get grade level standards. So our job is to always um provide accommodations for kids and likewise getting them the tier one instruction they need. Right. Thank you. I'll I'll pass. Thank you. Member Bellamy. Member Hollowman. Any questions for the team at this point? Okay. Member Donley. Any questions for the team at this point? No. All right. Uh, student representative Madison, any questions for our team regarding this report? Not at the moment, am I able to make comment at all? Absolutely. All right. Um, I will say, um,

066listening in on this and as a student who grew up taking MAP tests and STAR tests, I know a lot about what these standardized tests look like, what their questions look like, and how exactly they target the understandings of the student who is taking these tests. And I will say it it's very hard to try to determine, you know, how else and what more can we do to keep educating these kids and getting them to higher skills because I mean at the end of the day it is a standardized test and I think we all can recognize that and besides that it's still a great thing because you know these types of tests they help fund our schools they do provide a scope of understanding of what our students do know. But I mean, I

067think I was looking at the data over here and I I do notice a lot of common patterns with how a lot of these students take these tests and the different demographics that take them and how they're impacted. And it seems that like, you know, doesn't matter what the test is. Most of these standardized tests themselves just being taken by students, you know, that are economically advantaged, non-economically advantaged, different demographics of race or ethnicity, we seem to see that the most disadvantaged continuously struggle each time. And when we're looking at these different benchmarks that we're trying to track, I think it's really important to keep in mind that, you know, as much as we can keep trying to improve with our students and improve their learning and education, there is still a lot to struggle

068with and trying to do a lot with a standardized test. You know, it's like the SAT, it's like the ACT. There's a lot of different students that experience different curriculums, different teachers, different learning strategies, and they don't necessarily see that everything turning out the correct way they want to on a standardized test. But nevertheless, these type of growth benchmarks that we're trying to target are great and it's great for our students because we want classes to improve. We want teachers to improve and it's a great thing because these skills are important, reading skills are important, you're going to use that when you're older. But I will say that as a student and myself and hearing from many students around me, there will always be that impact of it being a standardized test and the like

069it's I can hear sometimes you guys talking about how there are struggles trying to understand like what more can we do at home? You know, what more can we do with our programs? Cuz it's very true. There's only so much you can do to help a student. And I recognize your guys' work. It's really amazing cuz I know that you guys are doing so much to improve these students. But I will say that a lot of the student body does see that given a standardized test, it can be hard to try and improve as much as we want to see with our skill levels, especially maybe specifically in reading. But still, there is a lot to improve with our kids and hopefully that can happen. Thank you for your comments. Member lessons, floors. Um, we

070have a huge focus and I think it's rightfully placed on K through three. These kindergarteners, they're off to fourth grade next year. Many of them have made that catch-up growth. Many of of them are are on target, which is fantastic, and others are not. And so, and the same has happened of last year's third graders who finished fourth grade and are going to be starting their last year of elementary school. Um, they again were the youngest learners, K1, in the fall of 2021. Um, what happens to them in fourth and fifth grade to support their learning journeys? So, glad you asked. Thank you for your questions. Member lessons. um you know the power of an excellent teacher. The research um there's some research from trajectory changing schools that uh Chris Lopez pointed me to the

071other day and it's quite inspiring because it's really about being good every day and teachers being prepared every day. And when teachers they this um trajectory changing schools they they looked at 1300 schools that turned around and it really was nobody was winging it and everyone was ready to teach and everybody um was using curriculum and the students who were struggling and the students who were above grade level made growth. And so the three things that this uh the key findings of this research were belonging, an emotional climate that activates students ability to excel, consistency, teachers who are delivering good teaching and coherence, unified instruction program that everybody's on board with. And so when we talk about interventions, we know those are so important, but at the end of the day and from my experience,

072um, being at a high need school and a and a school that was high performing, the power of a teacher, a good teacher, um, out always any program you can buy, any um, and so, um, that's really where the meat is. Um, this research showed 1300 schools, and I'm happy to send that on to Dr. for Brian's office to to send on, but um it's basically the idea of bringing good to every day is greatness. And so I don't know if anyone else wants to chime in. Thank you. I would like to say specifically for um some of the things that we're doing within um ASD is one of the pieces that Claire mentioned was having that strong curriculum. This is our first year with uh this was our first year with CKLA within our

073fourth and fifth grade which is a highly rigorous evidence-based um curriculum for uh first year was with K3 and so this past year uh was our second year for K3 but our first full year for fourth and fifth grade. Uh it is one evidence-based but highly researched and aligned with the science of reading. And so our fourth and fifth graders for our fifth graders this year it was their first year in it. And I think a lot of our teachers and our kiddos were like whoa this is this is hard. This is we're we're doing Midsummer's Night's Dream. We're reading Don Kote. We're talking about the Reformation and the Renaissance. And we are talking about the Middle Ages and not just knights and fluffy castles. We're like really getting into the meat of why it

074all happened and those that background knowledge that understanding and then applying it to reading and writing and how it all fits together. That's what we're doing. So we're using our great teachers and are belonging with a high quality instructional materials. We're at 95% or more of our teachers are using the curriculum and using it the way they're supposed to be using it. And we're checking on them. We're going in, we're looking, and they're using it. And now we can get into refining it to that next level. And then we've added some interventions beyond what we do with our younger kids, but some interventions that are working for our older kids that get beyond the basics of phonics, but into some of those comprehension skills. So, we're kind of doing this two-pronged approach of how we

075can get there, but it takes a little time. And so, we're we're going on both ends. How can we work with our teachers to make them stronger? How can we work at the curriculum and then add those pieces and and fill those holes? Can I I'll just one more member just a follow up. So, and so I hear in terms of the board uh allocation of resources and and this was not one of my questions, but it was kind of embedded in it. How how do we what is your how are we going to get the biggest bang for our buck? I guess when it comes to our to the kids, especially kids who are who who are have different um I mean they they have different uh needs, special ed, Hispanic, black, all those.

076How do we I mean without targeting and we can't just take a school and give the one school all the all the money, right? We're all going to have different answers. I mean, I know I'm going to tell you number one, for me, my preference is we have a high quality teacher that is a certificated teacher that is well trained in every single classes. Absolutely. Teaching a straight grade level. So, those kids get a core block of instruction. So, but that's I'm from teaching and learning, so that's my But they're all accomplished former principles there, too. So, what would your answer be? I'm just curious. I think I know. Well, I think I mean I don't think I know instructional rigor is critical. Yes. So when we go into a classroom, we need to be

077seeing that in the classroom. That goes back to what Nicole said. As a quality teacher, we have that we get instructional rigor. A lot of times we sometimes believe as students are not meeting grade level, we reduce expectations. We do not need to be doing that. We need to continue to have high expectations for our kids. So the combination of that while intervening for our kids that are struggling is going to be the the combination for success and we need to make sure that's still happening in our classrooms on a daily basis. Dr. F. Well, um I I echo all of this. I think um a worldclass educational environment can be brought to any school and where parents are involved can be brought to any school. um excellent teachers can be recruited. Um and I

078think the sense of belonging and a creating an emotional climate where children are scholars and they're going to excel. And I think when you're putting counselors into schools and the PBIS work, that has to be part of the puzzle. Um but I um I think ASD is on the right track. And we do have a we do have several title one schools and we do have several schools who who did great on this on this metric. And so those celebrations of saying what are they doing? Um and so there was a lot of celebrations within the data um that are worth calling out. Um so okay thank you. Thank you member Bellamy. Are there any other questions from the board regarding the report? Not seeing any in the room or on I'm sorry. Student representative

079Madison, the floor is yours. Okay. I do also wonder if there are any correlations between attendance and how a lot of these skills show out in these tests because I don't think it only applies to like the tests as well, but just, you know, classroom performance. You can probably tell whether a kid is performing well in their classes. Is that going to contribute to, you know, a good score, a good showing or understanding on these tests? And I think at an elementary school level that could be valid, too. So maybe are there any correlations to students who show up to class more and understand the material more? There certainly is a lot of national research um on on this particular correlation between attendance and achievement, but we have not run currently run that for our

080group of of kiddos to see uh whether or not especially for uh the group of kids that we're talking about that scored below the 40th percentile in the fall and trying to make catchup growth um by the spring. That's something we could potentially look into if that's something the board wanted to submit as a request for information. Student Representative Madison, am I hearing your first RFI? I'll give you time to think about it. All right. Any other questions from the board? Okay. Hearing or seeing none, thank you team so much for the presentation tonight, your work supporting our students. All right. We've completed our goal monitoring. So, we'll move on to public comments. Now is the time for us to hear from the public. We welcome your comments which are very important to us. The

081board has set aside time at the beginning of each meeting for those who have signed up to give public comment. Uh please note the following. All public comments are limited to three minutes. The timer is in front of the disas. Speakers will receive a courtesy alert when there are 30 seconds remaining. Speaking time may not be given or shared to others. When your name is called, please come to the podium. State your name and direct your comments to the chair, myself. Uh please understand that this is not a time for dialogue. The purpose of this agenda item is for you, the public, to inform the school board about your views. If you have any assistant uh handouts to share with the school board members, please give them to executive assistant who is seated to my

082left, Miss Sullivan. And then finally, I want to call your attention to the detailed boardroom decorum guidelines and expectations. They're available at the door as you enter the boardroom. Please review and govern yourselves accordingly. With that said, our first testifier tonight is William Baxter. Welcome, sir. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. I went in Baxter. I spent a lot of money on my uh uh what I do. I spent a lot of on my stick on my shirts and my trucks and that and I'm being and I've spent a lot of money on it and I've seen I've gone I've been I I volunteer a lot of organizations like uh the Graange which is the agriculture organization. I've seen them give to FFA and 4. I've seen uh the uh Alaska Farm

083Bureau do a lot of work donating to the schools schools and a lot of money comes from not for the FFA and a lot of thing and 4 is more for is a different one but FFA is more for high schools and uh junior high schools and uh I was I was uh at a uh talking to I also believe uh belong to the Chamber of Commerce and I was with uh with uh some people and I was talking to them. They were the railroad and they said that they need they need heavy equipment counts really bad and and said Mrs. pouting needs them and and uh uh when you go go into FFA, you have the you have different organizations. You have uh uh veterinarian, you have heavy equipment and uh and stuff and

084uh this uh I think a lot of times people and and this is what a person told me FFA uh guys had a head of FFA chapter. He says is being a FFA uh head of a FFA chapter is like coaching football, basketball and and and uh everything at the same time. I mean this I've seen people in the FFA work really hard and really personally I think it's probably the best thing for the school to get get to have more FFA programs and uh just the way I see it and and also I'm very good at what I do and uh um I mean I go and I'm going to be in the fair the the parades I may pay I paid uh uh for 4 for uh bumper stickers. I probably paid for

085FFA P stick and I got 600 of them. I got 600 FFA stickers. I got 300 for 4 stickers. I'm be out giving in the parades uh uh three of them this summer. So, I'm working all working hard and FFA people when school stops FFA FFA still continues with kids. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Our next speaker is Mered Lutell. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready. Esteemed members of the school board and of the community, thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of myself and my fellow students. My name is Mered Latell and I'm a recent graduate of West Anchorage High School who has gone through the college application process. I think we can all agree that college is expensive and high schools could help students access

086opportunities like need-based scholarships, sports and academic scholarships, community scholarships, and student loans. However, during my time at West High School, I was given no advice on any of these routes through my school and received very little support in regards to the college application process. Besides the unit on college essays in my English class, the only advice I was given was a schoolwide presentation which briefly went over instate opportunities. All available scholarships are put into a spreadsheet too large for any person to comb through and any given student will not be eligible for the vast majority of scholarships in said spreadsheet if the link is working, which many aren't. Starting with the second one on the list, I'd like to briefly tell a story about one of my peers who I'll leave anonymous. This student was

087in multiple of my advanced classes and while never the top of the class, easily passed all of them and demonstrated exceptional deduction and efficiency skills. This was a gifted student with an A average GPA who because of his job that overlapped with school hours was not an overachiever in school. This bright student believed he could not get into college. He never took the SATs or applied to a single college. After I showed him the scholarships the state of Alaska and UAA offer, he told me directly that he would have gone to college had he known he could afford it. This student no longer has the opportunity to continue his advanced education right out of high school due to a lack of information on available opportunities. In addition to this, only one student from the entire

088class of 2025 at West was accepted to an Ivy League school. Students vying for spots at top colleges are given no advice on what their schedules, test scores, and extracurriculars should look like to gain access to these institutions. I was one of these students. I was weight listed at both Dartmouth and Colby, meaning I was very, very close to being accepted. Had I received a little help with my scheduling and extracurriculars during my freshman and sophomore years, I firmly believe that I would have had a much better shot at being accepted to these schools. This was the case for many of my peers as well. I in no way blame any individual counselor, teacher, or administrator at my school for this information void. They are working day in and day out to ensure that students

089pass their classes and graduate high school and are overworked and underpaid. However, with the raise in the base student allocation, I asked that the school board increase the funding and staffing for counseling departments at schools and place a higher emphasis on the college application process and scholarships such as through fil uh filterable scholarship lists or college prep classes. Our school system should prepare students for life life after high school and currently we are failing our collegebound students. I firmly believe Thank you for your testimony. That concludes our public comments. Uh and those who have signed up to testify tonight. The order will take a five-minute recess and we'll return for our action items. All right, we'll call ourselves back to order at 7:29. Um, we are now on our action item and consent agenda calendar.

090So, we'll begin with uh E, our consent agenda. Uh, is there a board member who wishes to pull an item from our consent agenda? Member Donald. Um, memorandum 156. This memorandum number 156, paid lunch price increase. We'll pull that down to make it action item F3. Thank you. Is there another board member who wishes to pull a consent agenda item for discussion? Hearing seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended? Yes, Mr. Chair, I move to amend I mean, I'm sorry, to approve the consent agenda as amended. All right. Uh, we have a motion from member Bellamy to approve the consent agenda as amended, seconded by member Higgins. Miss Svin, can you please call the role? Student Representative Madison. Yes. Member Higgins. Yes. Member Donley. Yes. Member Wilson. Yes, member

091Lessons. Yes, member Hollowman. Yes, member Bellamy. Yes, President Jacobs. Yes, we've adopted our consent agenda by a vote of 70 to zero. All right. Um, we'll move on to action items. Under F1, we have ASD memorandum number 158, revision to SB policy, um, schoolboard policy, board policy 5123, promotion, acceleration, and retention. Um, I am asking for a a motion to postpone indefinitely, and I'm happy to speak to that if there is a motion, and it's seconded. Yes, Mr. Chair. I move to postpone indefinitely memo number 158, revisions to board policy 5123, promotion acceleration, retention and retention. Sorry. Second. Thank you. Uh motion made by Vice President Bellamy, seconded by member Hollowman. Um, as the the chair, I'll I'll note that um I requested this motion in part because there were um concerns expressed from the

092community and in looking over the U board policy that was driven from a um standard re uh revision from the Alaska Association of School Boards, uh the language change u although a very small portion of the policy appeared to be meaningful to some in our community. Uh I confirmed with the superintendent that there would be uh little to no operational change in the district and as such uh we have larger and more important priorities and so we can discuss this at a later date if uh this board or a future board so chooses. For now this is not something that uh we should be spending time on uh given the other things we have to navigate. Great. With that said, is there other discussions on the motion to postpone uh this item indefinitely? the ASD

093memorandum number 158. From a procedural standpoint, this would um mean it would not be further discussed at this or a future meeting. Okay. U Miss Svin, could you please call the role on the motion to postpone ASD memorandum number 158 indefinitely? Student Representative Madison? Yes. Member Donley? Yes. Member Wilson? Yes. Member Bellamy? Yes, member Higgins. Yes, member Hollowman. Yes, member Lessons. Yes, President Jacobs. Yes. Memorandum number 158 is postponed indefinitely. We'll go on to action item number F2. AASB executive board nomination. Uh, Vice President Bellamy, the floor is yours. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chair, I move to nominate uh our school board president Carl Jacobs for the AAA AASB executive board. Um actually this should be for the application process. Um but even the application has to be approved by the board and then we'll

094know whether he gets it in a uh by July. Second. Motion made by Vice President Bellamy, seconded by member Hollowman. Is there any uh me vice president Bellamy, would you like to discuss um why we're taking this motion up and what it would do effectively? Right. Uh this is part of the process for filling um um our former president's uh seat on the on the board. uh it doesn't just transfer, it has to go through a process and the process requires board approval before any name is put forward. So, it's consistent with what we've done in the past uh and with the process for the AAAB executive board appointments. And this appointment would end um would would actually end in November, right? I think Andy it would end in November which means that you would

095then have to if you are successful in filling the seat from now until November then you get to be nominated you get to continue in the process uh to fill the seat permanently. So that's how that works. Thank you. Uh I would be excited to serve. Thank you. Um, are there other comments regarding the nomination or at least the motion to submit the application for nomination? Member Hollowman. Yeah, thank you. I I would like to say I just think it's important for the president of the board to uh be involved with AASB. It's an opportunity to meet other schoolboard members from around the state uh as well as just be directly informed um about things that are happening in the state by AASB which has a good staff and I think puts out a lot

096of good recommendations. Um as member Bellamy pointed out they're not obliged to have two seats from Anchorage. I really think they should. Um, but I I would hope they would see fit to uh select President Jacobs as our representative. I think it it'll be very valuable for him and for us. Thank you. Thank you, Member Hullman. I appreciate your service on the ASB board. I uh for the record, I want it noted I tried to convince member Hollowman to stay on three to four different times. All right. Any other discussion on this item? All right. Seeing none. Um, Miss Svin, can we have a voice vote? Student Representative Madison? Yes. Member Lessons? Yes. Member Wilson? Yes. Member Donley? Yes. Member Higgins? Yes. Member Bellamy? Yes. Member Hollerman? Yes. President Jacobs? Reluctantly, yes. That motion is

097adopted by a vote of seven to zero. All right, that completes F2. We'll move on to F3, which is ASD memorandum number 156, paid launch price increase. Um, is there a motion before we begin in discussion? Mr. Chair, I move to approve memorandum number 156, paid lunch price increase. Second. And I'll just note it's the recommendation that the administration's recommendation that the school board approve a 50cent increase for breakfast and lunch at all levels, which is the purpose of the memorandum. Uh, member Donley pulled this item for discussion. The floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. President. As with past increases, I take the opportunity to oppose them to sort of symbolically oppose the current structure of of how we assess uh meals uh the cost of meals through the district. If you happen to live

098in a zone where the entire school all the meals are free at um then you get that benefit whether or not your family's capable of paying or not. And I just don't think that's a fair system. Um it's what we've got. Um but I don't think but in no way is it fair um to those who would probably be economically identical in another school zone that doesn't have everybody getting free lunch um it's just not fair. So that's why I have traditionally opposed these. Thank you. Member Donnelly. Is there other discussion on ASD memorandum number 156? Member Higgins. The floors. Yeah. I'll just make one comment so for the public to know that when you've got the vast majority of the of the school eligible for free and reduced launches from an administrative standpoint, they've

099done it for the entire school. It's easier than identifying and recognizing the children going through there. Um and but any child eligible for free or reduced meal in a school that is not um u in that group the title one group they're still getting eligibility for it. So I think I view this as administrative process and I think it's also um less on the children being selected when you got that larger group and I think that's really what the process is all about. It's is I think it's good for kids. I think it's good for administration. So, um, but I do appreciate the the the fact that some kids are benefiting that may not otherwise be eligible or necessary for finances, but there's some good reasons why this is being done, and I support that.

100Thank you, Member Higgins. Are there other questions or dise items for discussion um on this agenda item hearing and seeing none we'll ask for a voice vote student representative Madison? Yes. Member Wilson. Yes. Member Lessons. Yes. Member Donley. Yes. Member Donley. No. Member Higgins. Yes. Member Hullerman. Yes. Member Bellamy. Yes. President Alan. President Jacobs. My apologies. Yes. ASD memorandum number 156 is adopted by a vote of six to one. Excellent. That will conclude our action items and because this is the last meeting of this school year, we do not have any non-action items. Um, we've completed our public comments and the superintendent update. So, we will go straight to school board and administration comments. I will begin on my left with member Higgins. Floor is yours. Thank you. Got we always left, don't we? Um

101I I just want to say when we're closing this year, I know we've got a lot of people that are leaving the school district, some retiring. Uh I'll mention Jennifer Gusen, of course. She has been a tremendous resource for me on as a school board member and I know additions but there are so many people out there that have worked so long within a school district and retiring and uh it's just shame we can't find way way to recognize and appreciate them a little bit more for what they've done because it's a model for other people uh within that and um so with that I wish everybody a good summer and Um, one last comment. I know that I've got one person I know going to summer school with King Tech and it's amazing to

102watch how much these kids are excited about what they're providing at that school. Uh, they're coming back just ready to build things and do things. And, uh, for all the other kids that are getting that benefit, I think it's a great appreciation for what they're doing with the summer school. Thank you. Thank you, Member Higgins. Member lessons, the floor is yours. I ran into member Higgins in the park. I didn't run into you in the parking lot. I saw you in the parking lot at King Tech. Avoided a collision. Um it is really a wonderful opportunity uh for um many uh incoming ninth graders to get exposure to a number of um career opportunities, areas of interest. And so that's been a lot of fun to uh talk with my uh future freshmen about her

103experiences. Um so thanks to team ASD for ensuring that hundreds of students are getting that opportunity in this twoe session and then I think there's another two-eek session starting next week. Um I don't really have many comments. I express I do want to express my gratitude for the superintendent's remarks earlier this evening in the update. Uh it will be a lively and relevant week uh with tomorrow's state board meeting with our conversation um with the assembly on Friday morning and the retreat uh over Friday and Saturday afternoons [Music] um and I don't have a this is not a resolution this is not um anything other than a reflection but one of the slides shared in the um retention and recruitment uh slide deck Earlier during our work session, you know, one of the solutions from

104the Aea group was uh to ensure that you know the full curriculum is provided to educators prior to the summer for anything new. And I think that's a really practical solution. Um, you know, I certainly remember that it it probably stems in part from a much earlier roll out of the prior um, English language arts materials which, you know, got off the boat uh, a couple of days before the school started. Um and that was a struggle, but it does raise the one of my concerns for next year, which is that um the revised freshman academy career exploration course is is in effect still being created right now. I know that it was introduced to some extent at the ASD summer academy. I know staff are working really hard. Uh but my understanding is that

105it is not done and it's um going to be uh ironed out more over the summer which which means that educators who are going to be tasked with rolling it out um are again going to be seeing it really close to the start of the school year and I think that's going to be a challenge uh for the same folks who had to deal with a brand new curriculum at the start of last school year. So, if there's a way to expedite that material and get it into educators hands, that seems helpful. Um, and I would also offer my individual opinion that um it could be helpful to enable students to opt into that class rather than uh make it a mandatory class when it is not a graduation requirement. Just my two cents. Thank

106you. Thank you, member lessons. member Donley. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd just like to thank the board for uh voting to withdraw memorandum 158 uh which was a proposed revision to the ASD's uh promotion uh acceleration retention policy. Um this originated from the uh Alaska Association of School Boards of recommendation and I think it was just factually in error. uh my research indicated contrary uh significant contrary evidence to what the proposal stated and I'm hoping that the Alaska Association of School Boards will re-examine this issue and and look at that new evidence and possibly recommend our existing uh board policy which I think is really sound in this area rather than what they did recommend. Thank you, member Donnelly. Student Representative Madison, besides what I already covered earlier, I just want to say thank you

107for welcoming greatly welcoming me greatly onto this board. It's been awesome. From what I've seen this year serving for the term that I've already started and going into next year, I'm going to be really grateful and thankful to be able to represent in the many ways that I can. And I just wish all of these board members and all of my peers a great summer and hopefully a way easier year to deal with having to do with financial reasons and receiving a high quality public education. Thank you, Madison. Move to my right. Member Hollowman. Um I would like to echo what member Wessles had to say that uh at some point we talked earlier in our work session about retention recruitment. Um, we have to realize at some point it's too late to make some

108changes for fall and it all depends on the change uh as to when that date is. But there there should be a limit to what we ask teachers to do um in a very short time frame. Um, and it is concerning that this is the second time where, you know, we asked for the syllabus for the original face class and and I've never seen it and of course that class isn't going to be around anymore, but that it's still under construction and it's uh in terms of work days for teachers, uh, the first day of inservice days is the next work day. Um but so delivering it now um during June and July is asking a lot. Uh and we do ask a lot and I I just think we're going to have to realize

109sometimes we ask too much. Uh also like to agree with member Donley as far as postponing those changes. Uh, I do think the ASD language kind of emphasizes that it needs to be an individual decision about each child as to whether or not they're held back and percentages on whether or not it's a good thing or a bad thing really don't matter much to a particular student, a particular situation. Um, so I I think our language uh doesn't discourage the discussion and it shouldn't and it should be made uh in a meeting with people that know that student by name individually and have worked with them. Uh lastly, I'm uh as the superintendent expressed, there's a lot of concern about what the state school board's being asked to do and a lot of confusion about

110why they're being asked to do it. in such a short time frame. And it's coupled with the fact uh I I think it's pretty invisible to a lot of staff, probably not the staff in this room tonight, but staff out in the schools and to parents, the degree to which the uncertainty about funding affects our operation and consumes resources. Um, and part of this is our fiscal year starts in 27 days. We have no idea what our budget is. Actually, we we have a budget based on a number, we have no idea if that's the actual number the state is going to fund. And normally, we would be a lot further along in the process. But because the potential cuts were so severe, and I do want to emphasize again, funding the PSA as it

111stood in January was a 20% cut to education over what we were funded at this year. And so planning for that, I I think the administration ran into obstacles that were unpredictable uh because it was it was cutting an already stressed system significantly. as we restored some of that. Uh, and again, um, I think a lot of people don't realize that real planning and implementation for August starts happening in February and March. That that those are months where normally a lot of things get done as part of the process of people knowing where they're going to be, what they're going to teach. That got delayed. Uh, that adds stress to the workforce. uh it it adds stress all around and reconfiguring a budget over and over again uh is consumptive and disruptive to the whole

112organization. So on top of the fact that we're still sitting and waiting to see what a veto might look like and what funds we'll have, uh the implementation of these regulations around the disparity test is just another layer for a very significant amount of money that I again I I don't know how the administration can really function in a meaningful way with that level of uncertainty coming so close to when we start our a year. So, it it's not to always ask for more money. It's not to ask for the moon, uh but to ask for stability, predictability, uh letting our staff know in advance what they'll be doing in a reasonable time frame for them to be ready to come in and succeed and for our administrators to be able to do things like

113make schedules and uh figure out which rooms are going to be used for what and by who and which students. Uh it's all more complicated than I think a lot of people see on the surface. Uh and it is being severely disrupted by by things from all different directions. So kind of a bleak time in a way which is sad right after graduation because that's a pretty happy time. Um and you know just trying to move ahead and do the best we can under the circumstances. Thank you. Member Hollerman. We'll go to member Bellam. Thank you. I just want to wish everybody a happy summer. Uh we have this year has been horrendous. It has been uh chaotic, uncertain. We've asked people to do some amazing but some difficult things. And yet here we all

114stand. Uh we're still fighting a good fight. our kids deserve the best that we can give them. And so for those of you who um please join the superintendent tomorrow to stand up uh um against in opposition to the to the state board of education resolution on uh local contributions. I mean it's a that's a that's a gut punch I don't think any of us needed, especially not this time of year or ever. So anyway, just enjoy your summer staff. You got we we've worked you guys pretty darn hard and you've you've not complained not one bit. I thank you for that. And board members, thank you for all of your guidance and wisdom and uh have a month off after the retreat. You have to come to the retreat on th on Friday and

115Saturday and after that you can take a little bit of a break. And I hope you have an enjoyable time. Thank you. Thank you, Member Bellamy. Member Wilson, any closing comments? Yes, thank you. Um, I just wanted to share that there. Um, please join us this weekend at Clark Middle School as ASD partners with Alaska NAACP to host a free education summit. It's going to be on Saturday beginning at 3:00 and Sunday at 1:00. and uh food and child care will be provided along with information about how school funding works, special education rights, and family engagement. Also, please save the date for Friday, August 1st at at Begage Middle School from 11 to 7 for the annual Hugs Backpack Jam. And please keep an eye out for um on the back to school page for

116more information. Thank you. Thank you, Member Wilson. Um, I'll echo appreciation for um our administration and our board for getting through a a really challenging year. I was um talking with member Bellamy about how um our first few meetings were very quiet, very little um public engagement and things couldn't have changed uh more drastically as the year went on. And so, um, thank you to everyone here in the room and specifically and additionally and especially, um, our educators, our support staff, and our building level leadership that made, um, the amazing things in classroom and classrooms across the municipality of Anchorage possible all year long. U with that said, I I did want to note that this is the last board meeting that um one of um our dedicated and extremely valuable um public servants, George

117Valis, will be attending uh in his role formally with the the district. Um Mr. Vicis, yeah, please applause. All right. Um, Mr. Valis, as far as I understand, began his his public service with ASD back in 2000. Um, he left, unfortunately, for some time to go run a city for a while. um became a municipal manager amongst other roles and then returned uh 10 years ago uh to work and support districts and school boards uh for a decade. Um 19 years with the Anchorage School District is impressive. I am a local government geek and I watch way too many meetings, but I have no shame in saying that Mr. Vicas, you have forgotten more knowledge about local government than I will ever know. So, thank you for your service and uh we hope you keep

118in touch and are around when we have a question because you are the municipality's walking encyclopedia. Thank you, sir. All right, with that said, that completes our business for tonight. I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn. Made by member Hollowman, seconded by member Bellamy. Seeing no objection, we are adjourned. Thank you everyone.