05/20/2025: School Board Meeting

001Good evening everyone. Call ourselves to order. It's the Tuesday, May 20th meeting of the ASD school board. It is 6 o'clock on the dot here in the boardroom. Present are members Bellamy, Alamman, Wilson, Jacobs, Higgins, Lessons, and Donley, as well as our student representative and affiliated staff. Um, we have called ourselves to order and conducted our roll call. We'll now um have our flag salute. If our student representative Madison would lead us, that would be great. As well as the land acknowledgement to follow 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 Denin people of the Upper Cook Inlet. For thousands of years,

002the Deniman people have been and continue to be the stewards of this land. A 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. All right, read our opening statement. We want to welcome you to our meeting and thank you for attending this and supporting the work of the Anchor 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'll now move to our agenda. We have that in front of us. Board members, is there a motion to approve the agenda as written? Mr. President, I move to approve the agenda as presented.

003Made by member Bellamies, our second, seconded by member Wilson. Is there any opposition to adopting our agenda? Hearing and seeing none, we have an agenda. Thank you everyone. We'll now proceed to the start of our Denali award presentation. Good evening everyone. All right, sounds like the mic is working. Uh, so welcome. I'm Dr. Bryant, the proud superintendent of the Anchorage School District, and I'm joined by our schoolboard president, Mr. Carl Jacobs. And it is our honor to welcome you to the 2425 school year Denali awards celebration. Denali is an Aabaskan word meaning great one. And the Anchorage School District is proud to have employees that display greatness in areas of achievement, service, and dedication. The Denali Award is the highest award offered by the district. Each spring, supervisors submit nominations and a panel of ASD

004staff select a number of employees and a team of colleagues that demonstrate outstanding commitment to the district's mission of educating all students for success in life. There are three different categories for the Denali Award, classified, certificated, and team. We are honored to recognize two individuals and one group tonight uh as the 2025 Denali Award winners. Before we recognize our Denali Award winners, the district would like to take a moment to acknowledge the winners who received honorable mention for their exceptional service and dedication. These employees were nominated and stood out to the selection panel for their outstanding contributions to their schools and the Anchorage School District community. We thank each of you for your commitment to student success and for the impact that you each make to our schools. Please join me in recognizing the 2025

005honorable mentioned recipients. Eric Elliot, Government Hill Elementary. Ryan Harris, Government Hill Elementary. Linda Corvick, Kassoon Elementary. Edward Edward Persing, Denali Monastery School. Gerald Rhos, Collegegate Elementary. He's not here. All right. Congratulations to our 2025 honorable mention recipients. Before we recognize the Denali award winners, we would like to recognize student artist Claire Kinder. Claire is a graduating senior from Diamond High School, class of 2025. Her art was selected by the Denali Awards panel to be gifted to this year's winners. Claire is unable to be with us tonight, but submitted her bio for us to share. Ever since she could remember, Clare Kinder has been the artist of her family. Her passion for creating artwork artwork started in 2017 when she was 11, and her mom put her in art classes after school. She learned many new

006techniques and looked up to her teacher, hoping someday she could be as talented as her. Clare has worked with oil paints for a little over a year now, and they've become her favorite medium of art. Around the same time she was teaching herself to work with oil paint, she was also teaching herself how to ski. She grew a love for both of these things and wanted to incorporate them together. All of her paintings have similar color palettes, but this was her first painting that didn't have a specific reference photo. She took time to study how lighting reflects off mountains and other artist techniques, then drew a rough sketch and let herself paint. Clare said, "I'm so glad and honored that the other people enjoyed my painting as much as I do, and I'm sorry I

007won't be able to make it to the award ceremony." Claire's future plans include becoming an aesthetician. She plans continuing to paint in her spare time. I'd also like to thank our community partners at Blaine's Art who have generously donated a $50 gift card to recognize Claire. Next, we will recognize the 2025 Denali Award recipients. Oh, perfect. And this is the piece of art. Next, we will recognize the 2025 Denali Award recipients. Board member board members will read their bios and the winners will come forward and receive their award and be photographed with the superintendent and I. Thank you. Thank you, President Jacobs. Uh we'll begin with the classified award. This year's Denali award winner in the classified award category is David Mayo Kylie. The coordinator David is the coordinator for the child in transition program.

008Dave has provided consistent and stable leadership in his department for 16 years, including vast community partnership and inclusion of innovative ideas to serve families that may be in some of the most vulnerable situations due to economic and housing hardship. He is often called to testify before our legislature, be interviewed by the news, or work in tandem with schoolhouse connection and local affiliated social service organizations. He has been a wellspoken advocate and respected representative of the Anchorage School District. Dave has expertise regarding regarding Mck McKenna Vento funds and has partnered with several alternative schools and departments uh to meet the needs of students at a variety of settings across the city. While his department is small, they provide daily support to many families and school staff to connect resources that support student success, including but not

009limited to the downtown Covenant House, classroom, uh, night school, summer opportunities, and blend and blend funded school success coaches. Additionally, Dave partners with big uh city projects each year to include the expansion of the local hugs event and the ASD resource fair. Dave is often requested to present to principles and front office staff to spread awareness to identify and connect families to valuable resources. Dave is highly respected and has provided discerning perspectives to support changes around issues such as right sizing, transportation needs, and any event or initiative whose work prioritizes families that may encounter additional barriers. He knows about the broad landscape and unique schools and regional factors across the district and is able to support his staff as they answer urgent calls, coordinate with multiple departments, and interact with families under high stress that

010need to be handled as delicately and wisely as possible. Please join me in congratulating David David Mayo Kylie, child and transition program coordinator and 20242 classified Denali award recipient. The next category is the certificated award. This year's Denali award winner in the certificated award category is Amanda Schultz, a classroom teacher at Cassum Elementary School. Miss Schultz is an exceptional educator who has taken on significant leadership roles within Cassum Elementary School and the Anchorage School District. For the past two years, she has served as the tier 1 PBIS coordinator, contributing to the development and implementation of schoolwide behavior systems that promote positive behavior in a supportive learning environment. She has served as teacher in charge over the years, building test coordinator, talent show coordinator, red ribbon week coordinator, ASD mentor, student teacher supervisor, and she tutors

011students after school. Ms. Schultz skillfully engages her students through the various interactive strategies, including group discussions, coral reading, and peer assisted learning activities. Mrs. Schulz fosters an atmosphere of collaboration by encouraging students to help one another in problem solving situations, promoting critical thinking and mutual support. For example, she facilitates peer feedback with comments like, "Don't forget to add a period and this is where you find the answer." Which helps students enhance their learning and improve their work. Additionally, Mrs. Schultz effectively uses turn and talk strategies to deepen students understanding of key concepts such as exploring the question, what is an amphibian? Mrs. Schultz actively encourages school-to-home connections by motivating students to complete IR lessons at home. She recognizes their achievements by providing certificates for milestones such as 25, 30, 50, and 100 lessons completed. To

012further celebrate their hard work, Mrs. Schultz gives students the opportunity to choose a reward when they reach these milestones. Options include an ice cream party, cookies, and a whole class pizza party for those who complete a 100 lessons. When students are recognized for these achievements, the entire class cheers and drums on Q followed following a prompt from Mrs. Schulz to celebrate their peer success. Importantly, she invites parents to join in the classroom when their child is being recognized, fostering a sense of community and involvement in their child's educational journey. Please join me in congratulating Miss Amanda Schultz, the 20242 school year certificated Denali Award recipient. And last but not but certainly not least will recognize our winners in the team category. Themies of Anchorage coaches team Melissa Kerry Marine Cronin uh Dave David Dobler Amy

013Habistad Leah Kellerby Tony Lewis Amy Peters Adam Wartmanies of coach the academy coaches in themies of Anchorage are more than just educators. They are architects of opportun opportunity tirelessly working to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real world application all while supporting the Anchor school board college career and life readiness goal. Their dedication extends far beyond traditional teaching and counseling role as they actively cultivate partnerships with local businesses and organizations. Their collaborative effort allows them to design and implement work-based learning experience experiences which provide students with an invaluable hands-on exposure to diverse career pathways. Moreover, they um they support the curriculum in freshmanuh academy career technical education and other academy classes aligning with industry needs, equipping students with the skills and knowledges necessary to thrive in Alaska's dynamic workforce. Their proactive approach to education

014is instrumental in preparing students for successful transition into both higher education and meaningful careers, strengthening the foundation of Anchorage's future. These coaches are forging pathways where previously there were none, and taking a risk on a position that is continually redefining itself. During the 2024 2022 school year, the academy coaches facilitated over 65,000 workbased learning touch points for 9th graders, an increase across the system of over well of well over 200%. By demonstrating the tangible benefits of industry engagement, these coaches are reshaping how the district approaches career readiness. Furthermore, the academy coaches are making a critical difference by providing personalized, proactive support to students navigating the complexities of their educational and career journeys. By fostering a culture of personalized support and proactive engagement, the coaches are ensuring that every student has the tools and resources they

015need to thrive. This team implements the goals of the largest grant ASD has ever received, fostering diverse schools from the US Department of Education. This team of educators is driving early successes that lay a strong foundation for the continued growth and impact of themies of Anchorage, enabling the district to stretch toward new goals. Anchorage coaches, would you please come forward to receive your award? Melissa Carrie, Moren Cronin, David Dobbler, Amy Hab Habstad, Leah Kellerby, Tony Lewis, Amy Peters, and Adam Wartman is unable to join us today. Thank you everyone and congratulations to our winners. The administration invites the board and everyone in attendance to celebrate our 2025 Denali Award recipients for the example of excellence they set for the entire Anchorage School District community. At this point, I'd like to call for a 15-minute recess.

016Please join us in the atrium for refreshments, photos, and celebration. Thank you. Yes. And we'll continue with uh student representative report under report C1. Madison, the floor is yours. All right. Thank you. Just to start off, I would like to say that the student body is indeed very thrilled to hear about the overwriting of HB57, which allows a PSA increase for public schools across our state. It's a huge milestone as many students across our state have been fighting for that BNA increase. So, it's amazing to finally see that happen in front of our very own eyes today. Next over, we have recognized that some schools across the district are honoring their own staff or even their representatives such as Eagle River High School. We actually just had our 20th anniversary assembly and it was really

017amazing because we took a tour around with past legislators like past senators, our past principles, as well as past school board members to visit our school and tore around looking at our school's model and ways that it shows around our building such as community excellence and respect. And during our assembly, we were able to gift them and honor them in front of all of our students, which was really great because it brought together not only our school, but it recognized the people that do the work behind the scenes for our entire district. Next over, as you know, the Alaska Associations of Student Governments, which I am also a part of and representing our region, have chosen that students will be traveling to Juno next spring in 2026, which is amazing because having this conference in

018our spring next year will mean that students will have more chances to connect with their legislators. So, that's a great opportunity for students to continue speaking up from all across the state on whatever issues occur during that time. And next over, we know that we had solo and ensemble for our students in our district on May 9th and 10th and it went exceedingly great. We had lots of participation from ASD students and many awards handed out to those students who did participate. So overall, our student body is thrilled what has happened today. And not only that, but has made really great progress in honoring themselves and getting through finals in this season. And I will say that this is my first time here as a student representative by myself and not shadowing our incredible past

019student representative Josh PAC. And I will want to say that I am entirely grateful and privileged to represent my peers. And I promise to fulfill every obligation that I have with the privilege to serve. Advocacy and public service is my top priority as my goal is to always speak and return back to the community. Words couldn't express how entirely excited and joyed I am to fulfill such a great role. I acknowledge the part I play in the district and I am happy to serve this such diverse achieved district especially with all of my peers. I am proud to say that I dedicate to this community in various involved ways and this is my favorite. Truly everything I do is about my peers and it is never just for me and I promise to acknowledge this

020throughout the rest of my term. Thank you mad medicine Madison. Do we have any questions for our student representative member Bellamy? I don't have a question, but I'd like to just welcome her once more. We look forward to working with you. Thank you so much. Right. Yeah. Great. Thank you, Madison, and welcome. All right, we'll move on to our military report. And I understand Colonel Dustin Hansen is with us tonight. Welcome, sir. The floor is yours once you're ready. Good evening. Good evening, President Jacobs, Vice President Balami, um, and, uh, Superintendent Bryant, as well as members of the board. Thank you for a chance to, uh, give a military update. My name is Colonel Dustin Hansen. I'm the mission support group commander, uh, and, uh, also a Jerry military student advocate. And I just have

021a few points I want to make. Um uh but first of all I just want to start with uh saying thank you and expressing my gratitude for uh ASD's support, investment and leadership uh through through challenging times uh but have provided uh hope and certainty uh to our JBR community and our military connected students. Uh on behalf of the parents uh here who have and across Jbear, thank you for your support. Thank you for uh the time and talent and the treasures that you have uh to help our our community flourish as we enter into the summertime. Uh Jay Bear, it's for us it's a also a time of not just rejuvenation but a time of exercises as well as a ti time time of change. Uh approximately 30% of our families change over during

022the uh military move season. And so with that we see uh we say farewell to a lot of um old faces and say hello to a lot of new faces. I want to say thank you to our school leaison officers who are actively engaged with our families well before they even come here uh to start uh introducing them to all of the uh services and what the what ASD has to offer. Um, as you can imagine, there's a lot of questions by families as they have never been to Alaska before and they have a lot of questions. And so, I want to say again, thank you to our school and officers, uh, Miss Adele Daniels and Miss Holly Warers, uh, for providing that um, that expertise to our families. I mentioned exercises earlier. Yes. So,

023as we enter into the uh into the summertime, we are going we Jabber are going to be ramping up exercises. And these exercises are aimed at war fighter readiness as well as uh mobilization. And so we we we are expecting not just a ramp up of exercises uh but there's going to be uh disruption of services across the base as we start to condition warf fighters and their dependents and their families and even the kids uh to what disruption of services look like should we have to face contingencies. Uh that could look like uh gates closing uh without any notice as we posture uh different levels of defense of the installation. uh it could be a disruption to normal services that our families usually have. Uh but again, this is all um a balance of

024conditioning our families and war fighters as well as acknowledging that they still have services that they need to use. Uh we're also looking at perhaps what would happen to the base if we lost power temporarily and how do we mitigate through that. And so we're uh expect to hear and see uh just a little more um like I said acclamation to a contingency environment this summer uh and impacts to students, impacts to our kids, impacts to our families as well as our aminous soldiers as we work through these exercises. Uh looking forward to next school year. Uh something that I've appreciated very much so is that we've been able to leverage uh folks on base. Uh and because I have within my portfolio the security forces uh people that pass school buses when the sign

025is is deployed and and you know these things happen. Thank you to our community on Jbear who can then um help us identify who those people are and we can hold them accountable uh for for breaking the law. Basically, uh we have had a good relationship with our community, uh mayors as well as just the leadership of those perpetrators when they do pass the school buses. That's something that I receive um comments on directly to my inbox and we take care of that immediately. Take it seriously. But again, thank you to the people that have been supporting that and helping people hold people accountable. Also this upcoming new new year we are excited we JB are excited to continue to invest into themy's model uh and continue to invest into the readers or leaders the

026freshman academy as we see freshmen as a future workforce here on jbear finally I want to say thank you for the use of the Ursa Major Elementary school yes it is closed but it's been an invaluable training uh area for our Anchorage Police Department for the FBI for our security forces as well as our explosive ordinance disposal units. Uh it's I think it's now officially closed uh as we prepare for abatement. Uh however, it has been an invaluable training area for those law enforcement entities. So with that being said, I want to say thank you again for uh a very um cordial and supportive relationship between Jar and you all as well as the the ASD staff here. uh I will be around at least one more year and so I'm looking forward to continuing

027to work with you all and even just level up more our ability to integrate and uh and make Anchorage School District a fantastic place for our students. So Thank you Colonel for your report. Are there questions for a military representative hearing and seeing none? Thank you, sir, for being with us tonight. Okay, we'll move on to C3, board conference and committee reports. Does any committee chair wish to provide a report on behalf of the board committees? Hearing and seeing none, we'll move on to goal monitoring. Our first item under D1 is math proficiency student growth grades three through eight map growth. Um Dr. Bryant, the the floor is yours, but I need to read a quick statement first. We are now going to have our goal monitoring conversation on the technical report that was given

028to us at our last meeting. Tonight, our conversation will focus on math proficiency goal two and interim goal 2.3. The goal of per the percentage of grade 8 students proficient in mathematics on the state summit of assessment currently the AK star will increase from 34.5% in May 2023 to 41.5% in May of 2028. and the interimm goal 2.3 MAP growth catch-up growth. The percentage of grades three through eight students below the 40th percentile on the fall interimm adaptive assessment which is MAP growth who achieve catch-up growth or better will increase from 29.4% in spring of 23 to 39% in spring of 28. I want to confirm that all components of the monitoring report are present. The report clearly shows the following. one, what is being monitored uh and is focused on a specific goal or

029interimm goal. Two, data for the previous reporting periods, the current reporting period, and the target reporting period are present. And three, the superintendent's evaluation of performance. With that said, we can begin our questions. Um is Dr. Bar, do you have any opening comments first? Uh none on my end. We'll go ahead and open it up to questions. Great. We'll start on my right. Member Bell, do you have a question for our team? and welcome. I sent in a list of questions. I'm trying to find them. Do y'all have them? Uh, so I guess we can start anywhere on my on that list. Um, I'm still trying to f I kind of know ex Oh, there it is. I think I got it. Hold on. Oh, that's not it. Must be the next goal monitoring. Yeah,

030got it. Okay, so um I I sent in a cluster of questions and they're really about [Music] um try I just trying to I just kind of want to know what what what are we noticing in the data? How you know it's in terms of what's working? Where are we getting the best results? I'm not asking for individual schools, just kind of what's working and and uh where are we having success and and um what what kind of programs and practices that that that show that we we're having success and and and when there are successes, are we sharing those successes with other places? So that that would be about two of my questions. Um, and then and then we can come and then I can by then I'll have my whole list up. Sorry.

031Thank you for your question, Member Bellamy. I I think um one of the points that's uh interesting and really a celebration is when we and not just with math but when we're looking to catch up growth uh for our students um who tend to start the year struggling. One thing that we notice is that our disparities are are are quite a bit less than we typically see across a variety of different subgroups. Um so I think that's a really positive starting point. We don't see large disparities based on various subgroups who are catching up um when they start uh struggling. So I think just to note right off the bat that's that's a good thing that we're seeing um programmatically. I'm going to pass that off. So, we have a large team here assembled. So,

032we're going to be pitching back and forth, but I think that uh Nicole Somerville is prepared to answer some questions right now and then we'll just kind of go down the line. So, I work mainly with elementary and I know um our focus in elementary is almost always reading but we have been working pretty hard within math as well. Uh we have uh differentiated learning plans for schools that have a large percentage of their students starting out the year already struggling so that they have a different pace and they're working on filling in the gaps with prerequisite skills. Unfortunately, there's only so many minutes in the day and often those students that are behind in math are also behind in reading and so it's hard to find that time for interventions. And so uh we

033have some tools that we have provided to teachers and we're working on really honing those skills with teachers on how to find those little 5 minute 10-minute gaps on how to support the needs of students that are struggling. But I would say as Chris said it's um the gap between subgroups isn't there. Um, and it's just finding fine-tuning how and when we can make those changes happen. Can also I can also add to that member Bellamy and and just point specifically to um parts of our I Ready math program called I it's my path. It's a personalized instructional program that's embedded inside the system. For that program specifically, the median students who met their personalized instructional recommended minutes, which is 30 plus minutes a week, achieved 113% of their annual typical growth goal. In comparison,

034the median student in the 10 to 29 minute range who did not meet their goal still reached 94% of their actual goal that they were doing. So we can see the use of that my path time really being valuable to our students as far as like achieving their their goals and and my path that's uh secondary level. It's actually for all of the students but it's a digital component. So the students would do it independently and that's where we're struggling to find the time because we've already we would like math to be 75 to 85 minutes in the elementary. it's down to 60. Um, we needed to find time for the longer recess and lunch. So, we took a couple minutes here and there. We want to make sure that we have a robust reading

035time and for our interventions and something has to give. So, we do 60 minutes within our math and we still want to teach social studies and science and all the wonderful things that's in every that's across the board. That's the recommendation at our our schools is that there is 60 minutes of math in the elementary program. I think um Helena and Joe can probably answer what's happening in schools as well. I would add and I I know um embedded sort of within many of your questions and and member lessons as well was um sort of that that question what are we doing with the data, right? Um where do we think um what do we think these data are um indicating about the effectiveness of our math program in our schools and what are we

036going to do with it? And I think um this year the district uh and building leaders have been much more intentional about using data and really getting out into classrooms to see what's happening. Um uh Amanda Bar can speak to some snapshots we've been doing in schools where um the math team has been going out to look at the efficacy of the program, how well schools are using it, and how that might inform what we're seeing in the data. Uh and so I know there's been a large push to be more intentional with that work and I think that's starting to show up in the data. Um our schools I think are partnering better especially across divisions elementary to middle middle to high to use data to make um informed decisions on placement for students.

037And as we know, as students are placed more accurately in in the um the tiered course that they need to make growth, um we're seeing u more efficient use of of that time. So um you know, while there's no minimum number of minutes at middle school for I Ready for for Aga, um the the schools are making sure the time that they do have is being used effectively. I can just add on for elementary. Um, same thing. We're really reviewing the data. It's it's a vast need in all of our schools to really think about is it reading or is it math that we're going to focus on? And so really um being intentional about reviewing your diagnostic data and looking at that growth from fall to winter to spring. and then really building the

038capacity capacity of our building leaders to really inform the PLC and what that the PLC's what they look like and what they're focusing on. Um what's really great this year is me coming on and learning about the walkthrough tools that we're implementing here in the district and really taking a look at what does that look like if we use the tool with integrity that we're informing the instruction of the the teachers and the staff. And so it's just right now we're just compiling all of that and really just kind of prioritizing what is the need for each building. And I can tell you from Campbell STEM to TACU to wherever the needs are are greatly different. And so it just depends on the building. Okay. And I'm happy to speak to um the snapshots that

039um Joe me uh mentioned. Um we're looking at specifically um around 75% of our students from our district of the classrooms, sorry, from our district snapshots in the spring are utilizing our high quality instructional materials. Um so we're using that as kind of a baseline um to to measure uh implementation moving forward. Um we also have a cohort of 10 schools from K8 that we're doing a targeted data dive of support um to include the leadership as well as uh the teachers. Um we've seen um some incredible growth from those specific schools that we just finished up their kind of end of year debriefs um using that data to plan professional learning and support moving forward for next year. Um, and we've also got um some teams that are working on um kind of looking

040at the scope and sequence of curriculum, making sure, you know, making the um recommendations for if there are changes that needs to be made and revisions to our any of our district documents. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Member Bellamy. We'll go to Member Hollowman. I have no questions. Thank you, Member Hullman. Member Wilson. So, and and I didn't send in a question, but I'm just curious um if you can share what kind of afterchool programs some of our schools may have that they can provide to or that they have been providing to our students. Um and then also if we have any concerns about funding um some of those programs for next year or the future. So um currently we don't have a a mass program of like tutoring or uh resources after school. However,

041I ready my path could be used at any time because it is an online program. So kids can use it at home, kids can use it after school and we do have some uh some schools that are using addendum money to provide for tutoring services after school where kids are logging on and using their my path at school after school before school. uh during uh the late start Monday time. Those are all various opportunities that they could be logging on. We also have our uh some of our federal programs such as Title One, um Indigenous Ed, and several or sorry, Title Six, Title One, and Migrant Ed, I believe, are also funding um agenda to support schools with math specific um tutoring opportunities for kids. So, those are out there. Um, if schools contact uh

042teaching and learning and have a plan or a program, we don't just shut them down, but it's not something that we have a big bank of money that we're doing as a whole district at this time. Yeah. Member Wilson, you you I believe you said my path. Is that correct? Is that one of the resources available to families as well? Are there any other resources available to families? Yeah, my path is what we've been talking about with I Ready is I Ready is the overall curriculum that we use and the I Ready My Path is the digital curriculum within there. And so kids log on and according to their diagnostic results, it places them where they need to be. So if they're needing extension and acceleration, it would place them at a higher level. if

043a student needed remediation and it's based on all the different areas of mathematics. So a student could do really well in geometry but be studying uh having difficulty in algebraic knowledge and it would place them appropriately and then uh the path gives them uh learn you know teaches them and gives them how to do the math as well as opportunities to practice and then take a quiz did they master that skill. There's also math games that in reinforce those skills as well as fluency practice all a digital tool that students have access to and parents there's a whole family portal that parents can log on where they can see um how to support their kids with the math, how we're teaching kids. some families um may not understand some of the higher especially I know

044I had to look up how to do some of the the eighth grade math uh was getting to the point where I was like what I haven't done this in a long time and so I had to look on for my child's eighth grade math and get the videos so that I could remind myself how some of these linear functions and graphs and everything were working and so those are available to parents when needed. One of the other things I'd like to add to that, um, member Wilson, is that we looking at how we can scaffold supports for certain subset groups. Um, we talked with our ELLL department and we also looked at some capabilities that the I Ready program has and we are actually going to be doing a pilot with Wendler that we

045are turning on a feature where students who are Spanish speaking will be able to access their checks for their checks for understanding as well as their my path in Spanish while they're at home. So, in the event that they need that additional work for themselves, they can read it in their native language if they're a newcomer and access it as well as their parents have a better chance of accessing it, too. And then that way, their primary instruction is still done in English, which is building their fluency in English, but then their math support is is at home done in their native language. Followup. Member Wilson. I'm just curious, do you know how many languages that support system comes in? Unfortunately, it's just Spanish at this point and we had that discussion of like if

046we can't offer it for everyone, should we? And we just said we should offer anything that we can offer. Thank you, Member Wilson. I'll jump in line with one of the questions I submitted early this morning. Yep. Um but they were still submitted before the meeting. So, uh, this year's sixth grade cohort experienced a significant increase in the number of students tested below benchmark, um, year-over-year and a significant reduction in the students who achieved catch-up growth. Um, and I I'm putting an asterk there because I believe I'm looking at apples to apples and looking at last year's report to this year's report. So, I was looking at last year's fifth graders and this year's sixth graders and that they seem to have had a drop in this particular uh, data tracking element. So I'm uh

047my question is am I reading that right? And then the second followup question is what does the team take away from that data point and does any of it have to do anything with our six to middle transition. I'll I'll start with that one. Member Jacobs, thank you for your question. Yes, it the data does show that um in particular this past uh fall to spring that that our sixth grade group um did achieve a lower rate of catchup growth. um um to infer that it was part of uh the trans the new transition from fifth to sixth grade. Um it's possible. I can't say that for sure, of course. Um I think one thing of note that's interesting um to keep in mind is that when we look at our seventh and eighth graders

048also in middle school, um they exceeded our targets. Um and they were the two grade levels that exceeded the targets. So, so there's something so there's something there that's definitely worth investigating. Um one one thing we know from general research is that whether it's fifth to sixth or anytime a student changes schools we call it mobility or transiency whether it's actually between schools I mean uh between like elementary versus middle there can be a transitional period there for all students regardless whether that's the case here that's it's pretty difficult to determine accurately I want to make sure I'm not cutting off any other speakers before we move on then. Um, with that said, we'll go to member sorry, student representative Madison, do you have any questions on the monitoring report right now? Um, I would

049like to ask I don't know if this is just high school specific, but I know especially it's been talked about amongst our high schools that there has been some curriculum revisions in math. So, I wanted to ask if this was true and does this apply to this group of eighth graders and below. Are have they experienced any curriculum revisions? Um, our most recent curriculum revision was for high school specifically, algebra, geometry, and algebra 2. We're in year five of our K8 curriculum implementation. Thank you. All right. Thank you for the question. Member Donley, any questions for our team at this point? We'll go on to member lessons. Sure. Thank you. Um I think I wanted to at least begin by celebrating you've got 2600 students in change who are making a year and a half

050worth of growth in a a year's time or quite frankly it feels a lot like less than a year's time because I know when my kids took their uh assessments and that is not a full year. So, um, that is early March, early mid-Marchch is sort of what it felt like as a parent. Um, anyways, that's to be celebrated. Um, I had asked about sixth grade. Um, sort of that dip in sixth graders. You've sort of addressed it. I'm glad it was aired. I think one of the questions that's come to well, I have maybe two questions that have come to mind either tonight or previously. And um over the last week or so since they sent in a few things in I've been noodling on map is you know unlike AK Star that's a

051state test map is national. What do we know about um our students catchup growth um in relation to other students at the national level over this past year or is it too early because other districts are just beginning to look at their own data? I I can't thank you for the question. Um first of all um I can't speak specifically in terms of comparing to other districts because I don't have that uh particular information. Um when you know because as you alluded to MAP is a norm referenced assessment which is that big bell curve. So what we know by that from that um just that basic premise is that 25% overall of all students would be expected to achieve at the 75th percentile or higher. So what we're what we're try what we're trying to

052do is to accelerate that to 45% of our students who are testing below the 40th percentile at the beginning of the year. So, so I think looking at that um sort of benchmark of well 25% of the overall population be typical at in terms of achieving this particular metric of 75 uh 75th percentile or higher um I think we're relatively typical to be straightforward um is how I would in infer and sort of when I look at the data it's not a perfect one to one but we are right in the typical range when it comes to catch-up growth. Great. And thank you. And I want to offer a couple of anecdotes. Number one, I was in I want to say a kindergarten classroom at some point last year and the teacher was asking students

053to to bring, you know, get show me five red dobbers. I don't know what else you call them. Five red things. And a student was just sitting there quietly, right? All of a sudden, the teacher said, "Sinko." And licky split. She she she understood the concept of five, right? that's what the teacher wanted the students to understand. But her ability to do so was was facilitated by her teachers, you know, knowledge of Spanish, but perhaps hindered by her teachers knowledge of Spanish. And what I'm I feel like what I'm hearing is that with I Ready, um, which I guess I'm not sure that our kindergarten K I mean are our youngest learners also accessing the the device? I mean I remember volunteering in first grade and they were doing it but at this point are

054K12 all using I ready on Chromebooks or touchscreens and then you know are is language differentiation available essentially to our youngest learners to support their basic numerousy concepts. So in general, yes, K1 is accessing our I Ready resources. Um most of the um lessons and and um activities for students at that level are read read aloud to the students. Um and so again, it's that we do have that Spanish ability, but um in terms of language, that's that's kind of that support that we're that we're looking at that's provided to those students. Um, as far as using touchscreens, I not sure that I I believe most of our students use Google Chromebooks. I don't believe we have iPads or any touchscreen devices available. And the the digital portion isn't the main portion of their lesson.

055that the problem we have is that we don't have the time for especially our kids that are behind to do the digital portion because the main part of the lesson is with the teacher teaching and it's the action and it's the discourse and the talking and the doing of the math with the manipulatives we it's not the screen time so that's where the the digital part you know it's it's that give and take and I really appreciate hearing that because I think the discourse about math if I can offer another anecdote about um this was maybe my first or second. No, Dr. Bishop was still here. Uh it was my first year on the board, maybe my first fall on the board, and I walked into a middle school classroom, and it was 10 minutes

056of the best teaching I had yet seen, and it was a teacher um deeply engaging his students with a concept of -9 - 6. How did you get that answer? What do you think about that? And it was this back and forth uh deep awareness the students had of one another, the teacher had of his students. And I just that really dazzled me as a display um of engagement. And I think you know we're talking about Chromebooks and you know there's a onetoone device initiative later in the agenda. So maybe that's a little bit top of my mind and you know yes there are benefits of technology but um you know how are we promoting student discourse about math? Um I mean is that a deep part of our curriculum? Yes, that's um essentially our

057um goal with implementation specific to I already is around student discourse and when we look at our snapshot data um discourse is one of our specific target metrics that we um collect data on um the groups that I mentioned those 10 schools that are doing um the data focus are starting that step of because they've really only been for the last for this last semester looking at their data starting to make those connections between here's what we're seeing in our data what's happening in the classrooms that we can make those connections too. Um so we're we're not there yet as a district, but um those conversations are starting and um I I I'm excited to hear that anecdote. Thank you for sharing and and hearing the conversations um within our PLC models with teachers and

058through those um support structures. Um we're we'll get there. Followup member lessons. Thanks. Um I appreciate this is a little bit more spur of the moment. I'm not sure if other board members were watching. I mean, there were a lot of legislative sessions, but at some point on the House floor, there were conversations about um the science of math, just like we started to have conversations and that, you know, we have the Alaska Reads Act. Could you just at some sort of a high level, can you talk about what and how our district understands the science of math and is that something that we should be paying attention to more? The science of math as a body of research compared to like the science of reading is in its relative infancy. It's still something that

059there's lots of research and it goes in many directions and it's not as well defined I think as you can find the science of reading. And so you have still very different camps within the science of math whether we're looking at straight um computationalbased or we're looking at understanding concepts. And so I think that people are calling it the science of math because the science of reading is so prevalent in terms of just the terminology, the language that we're using across this country. I just don't think the research as well as the how it actually is implemented is caught up to where we are in reading. And so it's not something that we are looking at districtwide yet. I don't think curriculum um publishers are there yet. I don't think people are training incoming teachers

060in that in in going there because it's still it's a relatively new body of work and I wouldn't want us to go down a path that is later leading us the wrong way. And to piggyback on that, it's not necessarily aligned with the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics and the National Council for Supervisors of Mathematics work that our standards are based on. I'm going to chime in as a longtime math teacher. Um, I think one of the things both with the science of reading and and potentially however this plays out with the science of math is that it's never one or the other. You you have to be able to compute accurately while also understanding conceptually. And um and and just like with phonics and comprehension and deep reading and discussion, right? one without

061the other is not going to produce, you know, a a student who is really capable and ready for the next steps in terms of more complicated topics um as they progress through through the um you know, the coursework. And so I would just regardless of how that plays out, it's always both. Thank you, member lessons. Member Higgins, any questions for the team? Yeah, just a couple. Um, one of the graphs I saw presented by somebody else who who generated stuff using information on the internet with ASD showed the academic growth on third grade and charter schools led that group. Now, they were behind academically, but they led the group on just the percentage that with the growth. And I wonder if you've seen that type of data. I know I sent a copy of it

062to the superintendent, but I was wondering if you've seen it, if you had any comments about why that would be happening. uh because that it was really interesting to me to watch the difference in that the the the other schools a lot of them are doing much better academically for the overall scores but we got fifth we got third graders who are reading at fifth grade level and academic growth is they're going to be reading at six right or something uh and catching up with the others rather than just focusing on the test. I'm wondering if you had some sort of perspective on why if if you've actually seen it, you may want to look at it first, but uh in regards to that, why that might happen. Um thank you for your question. I'm

063I'll take a stab at part of it. Um I'm not going to go into the specifics of charter versus non-charter and we could we could definitely follow up with you and board connect. Um, one thing that I think is really, really critical, and I've had some of the legislators actually ask me about this, is, you know, what are the rates that our charter schools and some of our choice schools are are participating in assessments. And so, just from an apples to apples, I think that's a really important um factor. You know, we call in our my work, we call it the N, the number of participants. And so, um, that's always a starting point is to to look because if it's a group of 15 or 20 students compared to 400 or a thousand students,

064it's really not an applesto apples comparison. So, I would just encourage anytime someone brings up those types of data points. I would ask for what that N is. In other words, what percentage of that um, you know, subset school or district actually participated? And because that really goes to the heart of what we call reliability and validity. And so I would just encourage anybody that's having those conversations to always just ask and and it could be who knows what the results might be. Um and and then the second part of your question in terms of the growth um I think what I'd like to do is if I if you wouldn't mind if I could follow up and board connect with you with some because I have a a fair amount of data on that

065that I think would be really helpful um that we can get to you and I don't really want to go down that road in this setting at the moment. I I appreciate that. The the other issue is just the sixth graders that were in elementary. Now you got the sixth graders in middle school. So, I'm going to be looking to would like I'm going to be requesting a list of the schools where they used to be in sixth grade last year and now going to middle school and do a comparison because I know that the studies with department of education and others said academics can come down for those low performing students and I'm you're curious about what we're doing to make sure those students you know a lot of social emotional learning other issues

066and with the older kids that are going crazy with all kind of reasons I won't even go into uh but you're exposing them by year earlier and they indicate the high performing kids can do great. The middle school construct middle and then the bottom third uh loses it and we can lose a lower graduation rate in the future as a result. So, I'm interested in seeing what comparisons you're doing or how you're tracking that to see if there's other interventions we need to do to help those kids that academically um statistically all the data and all says they're going to be at they're going to be high at risk and that's a concern to me as well that plays out. Thank you, Member Higgins. All right, we've uh gone through once, so we'll just call

067folks who have indicate they have more questions. Uh member Bellamy, thank you. I only asked one question the last time, though. I don't think the record will I'm going to do two real quick ones, but I will allow you to ask a second question. Thank you. Um, I know time is just something we just don't have enough of and and and um to and I get that that's a a a huge part of especially when it comes to math and reading both. What are we doing to make sure that because how that time is used is also very very important. So, what are we doing to ensure that our our teachers are getting the training they need to be effective um within whatever time frame they have knowing that there's never going to be enough

068time really. So, um what does that what are we doing with our to make sure teachers are getting what they need? So, um, in terms of training, um, all of our training that we do, um, we are trying to embed all of our PBS high lever practices in. So, we make sure that when we're training for math, we're not just training for math. We're also training for behavior, for classroom management, for how do we get all of those pieces together? Because you're right, ma teaching math is not just teaching math. We want to make sure classroom routines and expectations are set up so that when we're having that discourse, we're not wasting 10 minutes getting the kids back to focus. That when we're they're doing with manipulatives, they're not spending half the time throwing them

069across the room, right? How do we set up those routines? And so we do that with um again through embedding those things within our PD. We also provide um our PLTE our professional learning teacher experts all have a bank of resources and they work with teachers to model lessons to be in classrooms to help support teachers and to help support administrators in that you know role as well to just go in and be in classrooms and to say look I'm noticing you're having a hard time managing your your manipulatives how can I help you come up with a system that will work for your classroom and your kids. Um, and so all of those pieces add together and I'm sure Helena um, and Joe can talk about, you know, what they've seen happening in classrooms

070as well. I can start out as a principal supervisor. We work with our staff to really kind of take a look at what our human resources are in the buildings. Um we do have a math sitebased specialist in every building and a PLT professional learning teacher expert. Um we have some robust professional development that has happened in our district. I know that uh teaching and learning is looking into uh backwards design model for both ELA and math coming up this year and those are really hands-on work that our principles and staff can really get into. Um but essentially we're um we're we're looking at that um and looking at the new snapshot tool so that that can help inform instruction as well. Um but really looking at those high leverages practices doing walkthroughs and uh

071learning walks in our district has been helpful. I would add too that um you know while we we know that effective classroom instruction comes from great professional development and resources for our teachers, there's also um initiatives that the district has implemented that support this work from PLC's um a time that our teachers have to really dig in and create common formative assessments to determine if the work they're doing in the classroom is effective. Um and and you know as a classroom teacher that um that having having great and supportive behavior in classroom is is a huge piece of it as well. And so the work we're doing with PBIS is helping ensure that the the time that students spend in class um is is is good for kids and that they have um common expectations

072for what classroom decorum, you know, it looks like. So I think I think some of the other initiative work that we're doing in the district is supporting the curriculum work that's happening in the classroom as well. That's great. One more followup sir. Um so in your professional opinion and I know this question might not um and it can be all of you or just one of you. Um what is this still the right metric for us to use to measure this goal? Um in your professional opinion uh and if yes or if no uh what it do you need us to know anything when we go back to review? So, I I actually think it's a great goal to be honest with you when when we look at your Yeah, your main board goal um

073is um looking at the eighth grade um uh AK star proficiency. And so by we're looking at third through 8th grade catchup growth focusing on students who begin a year struggling. Um one of the things uh so so in terms of just a a a bridge to that goal, it makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of very much common sense like are we catching those kids up? However, what I would say, and this this really speaks to Amanda and Nicole's work in terms of um the professional learning around our implementation of curriculum, that alone won't do the trick. High quality core instruction at grade level for every single student along with this accelerated growth when kids struggle will help us close the gap on this goal. And and that's really going to

074be supported through the work that they're doing. Um because you can do a ton of catchup, but if but if not every kid doesn't if they don't have high quality core instruction every single day um maximizing instructional time to your point um member Bellamy using every minute that we have available to us to make sure kids are exposed to grade level content standards. Um it's a combination of those things. So is that a good goal? I would say it's a really um aligned goal. Thank you. I think so too. But I just wanted to ask we're getting ready for our retreat. The record reflect that was at least three questions. Thank you. Member Bellamy. Are there other questions from board members? Member lessons looking your way. All right. I see we've celebrated tonight and so

075we're all a little tired. All right. Um seeing no other questions from the board. Thank you so much team for allowing us to pick your brains. We'll move on to our next agenda item, which is a technical report on reading proficiency, student growth at grade three MAP growth. Um, Dr. Brent, the floor is yours. Thank you, President Jacobs. Uh, so believe it or not, we only have one board meeting left, so we needed to pack in this technical report so we can close out the year with a goal monitoring discussion. Uh, so our next goal monitoring will be on interim goal 1.3, which is map growth. Next slide. Um, I'll go fairly quickly because this is analogous to the discussion that we just had, except that right now we're focusing on the reading uh map

076catch-up growth goal. Um, so for those of you just tuning into this conversation for the first time, we define catch-up growth at the very bottom of this slide two. Um, and then our goal is to achieve 45% catchup growth for students by 2028. And then we'll leave the board with some key data points. Uh this one shows historical trends in uh catch-up growth and then it shows that we're near target on our goal for 2526. So on that note, we'll look at the next slide uh and we'll lead the board with data on uh third grade map growth and then the next slide will provide some additional data broken down by uh subpopuls uh ethnic groups and by race. and of course our uh special subopuls including economically disadvantaged and then uh the next slide

077will show a number of implementation steps that we'll talk about more in depth in two weeks. Um but essentially there's a combination of tactics on the data, there's the curriculum piece, the professional learning for teachers, the instruction as well as some other uh highle district initiatives that support the schools such as PLC's. Uh and I believe that concludes this technical report. Uh we look forward to the more prolonged discussion uh in two weeks. Mr. President, I had a member lesson techical question. A technical question on the technical report. Yes. Thank you. So, I feel as though I should know the answer to this, but in my mind, the third and eighth grade map tests were being replaced by the AK, right? The the summit of AK star replaced the need for MAP testing in the

078spring. Am I am I wrong in that? Great question. Member lessons, Mr. Opitz will clarify. It's a long walk back. Sorry. Yes. So, so it's important to it did replace it. However, it's a has a dual purpose and so it's both both the sumitive and the map growth assessment, but it's in one setting. So we get a MAP growth score and a a sumitative score which is proficiency at grade level. So you actually get both through the single assessment. It's all done through NWA but we don't technically have the AK star interpretation. It I'm not Can you Can you clarify on that? I'm not sure what that means. I should let you talk instead. Um so AK it's called AK star in the spring. Okay. So that's the terminology. It's called AKAR in the spring

079and AKAR serves a dual purpose. It's a single assessment on the computer. It's not like the kids have no idea that it it's going in two different directions through their programming. Um some of the questions are directly related to grade level standards for the state of Alaska that contribute to an AKAR proficiency um score if you will. um while others and sometimes might even be combined questions could be doing serving a dual purpose um provide the score for map growth the nationally normed assessment and so so it actually we we get that MAP score so right now for example we we present it on the map from the spring because we get that pretty quickly but we won't get AK star until September typically I think I understand Yeah, I'll just leave it there. Okay.

080All right. A technical discussion following technical questions on the technical reports. And with that said, we will follow up at our next meeting with a datadriven conversation. Thank you, Dr. Bryants. Mr. Chair, member, one request. If I could see um if we could the superintendent could put a snapshot that I want to see what that looks like. that snapshot data tool they were talking about. Is is that something we could just get it? Okay. I'm just curious. Okay. Thank you, member Bellamy. Move on to uh item E, our public comment. We have one testifier tonight, so I'll give a brief introduction. We welcome you to the b the board's uh public comment opportunity for this evening. The uh ASD conducts its meetings under Robert's rules of order as the president of this board's my duty

081to enforce the rules of civility and decorum and additional details regarding our process for public comment can be found on the handout located at the door regarding audience participation and the rules of public comment. With that said, our only speaker tonight is William Baxter. Welcome, sir. You have three minutes. The floor is yours. I'm William Bax. I'm William Baxter and I'm uh I volunteer for FFA. been here before in 4 and agriculture and uh uh I I meet a lot of I met people here in Anchorage with agriculture degrees in Anchorage but they don't do that and I met people that have been through FFA 4 and everything and I've have I have seven I have four associate degree I mean three three associate degrees heating refrigeration heavy equipment repair and telecommunication electronics and I've

082taken a lot of welding classes. I take lot I'm a single man. I've taken a lot of uh co I probably have 10 years of college credits and everything. And the heavy equipment industry it takes about seven years for heavy uh a good heavy equipment mechanic become a good mechanic about seven years. Especially in in a shop where you have a lot of different types of equipment and you're not really working on everything. you're always working on different things. Maybe sometimes some of some things twice, but you know, like there's a fleet fleet maintenance shops where you got 100 vehicles like school buses and that you're working on one type of thing and it it's pretty uh like a no-brainer, but but uh it's uh and I see where I see FFA in the schools

083would really help a lot. You mean 4 in the schools and uh uh even churches having 4 like my church and that have 4. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. That concludes our public comment for this evening. Move on to item F, our consent agenda. Is there a board member who wishes to pull a item from the consent agenda before we move to adopt? Hearing and seeing none. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as written? Mr. Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Made by member Bellamy, seconded by member Wilson. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing none, Miss Sullivan, can we have a roll call vote? Member Hullman, I'm sorry, Student Representative Madison. Yes. Member Hullman. Yes. Member Wilson. Yes. Member Lessons.

084Yes, member Higgins. Member Bellamy. Yes, member Donley. Yes, President Jacobs. Yes. The consent agenda is adopted by a vote of seven to zero. Thank you everyone. Move on to non-action items. Uh as we have no additional action items, moving past G and on to H. Is there any board member who wishes to discuss a non-action item tonight before those come in front of us for disposition at our next meeting in June? Member Donley. Um, yes. Item number six, memorandum 158. Is there any other board member who wishes to discuss a non- action item? Hearing and seeing none. Member Donley, the floor is yours regarding uh item number H6 on our agenda, ASD memorandum number 158, revision to SB policy 5123. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, this memorandum proposes to revise an existing board policy [Music]

085um that discusses the potential necessariness of u utilizing retention in the lower elementary grades. Um, it doesn't promote retention. And it just says it recognizes it may be necessary and then goes on to say that an academically appropriate suit superintendent and design provide alternatives to retention among certifi certificated staff. Well, this memorandum would delete all that and replace it with the following text. The school board recognizes that research indicates that very few children benefit from being retained during the elementary and middle grades. The superintendent or design promote alternatives to retention among the certific certificated staff. Well, I am very concerned about the first sentence there that the school board recognizes that research indicates the very few children benefit from being retained during the elementary and middle grades. Apparently, the source of this memorandum originates with

086the Alaska Association of School Boards, and they provide general guidance to school districts that are members, and we're a member about how to update their board policies. Apparently, they sent our district a recommendation that we update our policy to insert this language in there. [Music] Um, and as part of it, the memorandum itself states, "This update revises the policy to align with the student retention procedures required by the Alaska Reads Act." Well, that perked my attention because I didn't believe that to be true. So last week I talked to the commissioner of education and she confirmed to me that nothing in the reads act requires the adoption of this language and in fact nothing in the reads act even implies the need for any anti-retention statement such as this. So it's certainly not appropriate that

087that be part of the memorandum explaining the reason behind this language. Uh, Commissioner Bishop additionally stated to me that recent research is mixed as to the success of retention, but that some does indicate that especially with English language learners, retention can be very successful. [Music] um but this new proposed policy language that's contained in this memorandum fails to recognize this evidence and takes an aggressive anti-retention stance that does not exist in the Reeds Act. Now the Reeds Act rightfully stresses and I totally agree um the positive results of intense assistance to students that need help in in getting their reading proficiency as an alternative to retention and I 100% think that's the right thing to do and that's what we should be doing and hopefully we are under the reads act. I believe the existing

088policy language that we have here we already we already have which this memorandum would replace is vastly superior in that it's not biased and it recognizes retention may be necessary but that alternatives are preferred if they work unlike the proposed language which seems to just draw the conclusion that it's not going to benefit any any of our So I researched myself and read about a dozen reports and articles discussing the efficacy of retention and I identified research that Dr. Bishop had advised me of a major study out of the uh Los Angeles school district. It showed um very I thought convincingly that retention was really benefiting second language learners there. And I I also identified one article that concluded word for word what this proposed new policy states which led me to infer that this

089policy was extracted from that article. It's it was uncanny how similar the statement was. And that of course begs the question of the efficacy and the completeness of the research behind the recommendation of this specific language. The ASSB staff did provide me with references for two sources in support of the statement in the proposed policy text. But again that begs the question, what is meant in the new proposed language by the use of the term research? Is it one article? Is it two articles? That could be research. Uh I can think of a lot of times where there's conflicts in the research out there and we could just say ignore that and just say hey research indicates this or that and just ignore the fact that there's a lot of other research that indicates the

090opposite. So it begs the question what research are they referring to and have they done a full examination of all the research. So it clearly it fails to acknowledge that research also indicates that it can be successful and all this ignores the fact of the great success of mandatory retention laws across this nation in states all where mandatory retention laws for failure to achieve reading proficiency uh exist. Reading efficiency has improved dramatically and that's uncontested. So clearly the success of retention can be a lot more than just an academic question or a question of whether it might be successful on any individual student. I think clearly it's more properly a systemic question. And I would suggest the evidence is that while retention without intervention and assistance to help our students read may not be successful,

091the lack of retention options or requirements promotes the promotion non-proficient students and that's not a success either. And this district has already tried a non-retention policy. The ASD had such a policy for almost 20 years and this the board amended that policy about five six years ago to go with the existing language which I for the first time replaced a non-retention policy automatic promotion with a policy of what's in the best interest of the student and I think that standard should be maintained in our policy what is in the best interest of the student and not a dramatic statement against the efficacy of retention. It may not be the appropriate course of action for any particular student and we don't say that in our policy, but this new possibility sure seems to say that it's

092not going to be appropriate for hardly anybody. Now, we've been down that road and it failed. We were doing that for almost 20 years here. And we know it failed because our test scores dropped by about 20% over that time period in reading and math. We were graduating students. We're moving students, promoting them up from class, for grade to grade to grade to grade. Couldn't read well, couldn't do math well, didn't matter. We were promoting them because that was our policy. So, what do you think they were like when they graduated? Were they ready for life? Were they ready for college? Well, we heard from colleges. We heard from college professors. Since I've been here, there were a lot of college professors used to contact us and complain about the quality of students from the

093ASD that were in their classrooms saying, "Your kids aren't ready for math that I teach. Your kids aren't ready for English arts that we teach. What are you doing there?" So I think we and that combined with testing which is very difficult to analyze testing over decades because the types of testing was revised so frequently and differently but the scores do speak for themselves. Scores didn't go up they went down significantly during this period. So I think there's a lot of evidence that our existing policy of retention when it's in the best interest of the student should not be revised or weakened by this proposed language. And retention is proving in other states to bring systemic accountability. And I think it'll work to do that in our district too if we just continue with the

094existing policy we have. and accountability prevents systems from not adequately correcting problems and that addressing problems is exactly what we need to do to create success for our students. So, I'm clearly very concerned about this proposed change in our policy that we're going to be taking up two weeks from now. Thank you, member Donley. Is there any other discussion on this uh non-action item that will be in front of us for disposition at our next meeting in early June? M Mr. President, member lessons. Thanks. I was just very briefly going back to my notes from the governance meetings in March and April when this came through governance and um at a very brief level I know that we talked about the retention of K3 students and uh I believe that staff shared some reflections at

095least at the April meeting about um you know their stance on long-term data and I just wondered whether anyone one was on hand to to share any reflections at at this point about uh what our staff believes about long-term policies uh long-term changes arising from retention policies if that's appropriate at this time. Great question, member lessons. Uh what I would recommend is that I ask the team to come back to our second reading since this is the first reading and we could have a robust discussion. Uh I will just say as someone who has a doctorate in education policy, I would highly recommend that one look at meta analyses. I did find one um from 2001 on the subject of student retention and that one found over 20 studies um that um most of the

096sites found negative academic impacts and to member Donley's point there may be other uh research that indicates the opposite and I think it could be a fruitful conversation. Member Halman. Um, I'd like to to put a request in that we get some data from the administration about how many students are being retained in the Anchorage School District by grade level. Um, ideally over a number of years, I I suspect it has probably changed over time. I'm not real sure how difficult that is to pull and I I don't want to ask people to spend days digging up numbers, but uh if it's something reasonably automated as many years, this can easily be pulled and uh so that we have that as a as a item of information for the next meeting. Thank you, Member Halman.

097I support this request. I I don't believe it'll be time intensive. If it is, we'll let you know, but otherwise, I'd like to provide that Any other discussion on this? The board needs to be held back a year. That that' be okay. Any other discussion on this non- action agenda item before we move on? Member Higgins. I'm just want to um I'm not an advocate for holding kids back per se, but what they always do in in the studies I've said is there are other alternatives. And I guess my question is when we discuss this, what are the other alternatives that we're actually doing? uh retaining the kids. They go through the same stuff they've done. A lot of it they've learned. They haven't learned all of it. We're not always catching up or putting

098them ahead and there was some psychological and all kind of issues with it. But what are we doing to help the kids catch up is the issue. Uh rather than saying, "Okay, we're not retaining you. You go forward, but they're not ready for that grade completely. So, what are we doing to assist them? the kids that need the extra help in lie of of non-retention. So I think that's a I know that comes back we can talk about it in governance. We can do something else but I just I do think that's that's my question is what are the alternatives that makes reference in here that they discuss. I'd like to see what the what the alternatives or the administration feels are appropriate. Thank you member Higgins. Any other comments from the board before we

099move on? Um, just briefly to mention that member Higgins addressed, sorry, member Donley addressed comments about the memorandum, uh, which is something I, uh, approved and so I'll go back, um, from my notes and as we prepare for a robust conversation in early June, uh, make sure that I have a solid understanding of the references in the memorandum and adjust if needed, come prepared with an amendment. With that said, we'll move on to pass our non- action items to the superintendent update under J. Dr. Brent, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh well, first off, there's a lot to celebrate in the district. So, first off, uh Josh PAC, our outgoing student rep, graduated earlier today. So, major congratulations to Mr. Pack, our wonderful former student rep. Um, and then also today we

100celebrated our Denali award winners and it's the highest honor that ASD provides and we had some fantastic recipients that we recognized earlier today. Um, as well as honorable mentions and we're very proud of all the contributions of those staff members. And then of course it's the end of the school year so I definitely want to wish everyone a wonderful summer, some much needed rest to to recharge. Um, it's been a busy end of year. I've done everything from career days to PLC showcases to student celebrations and um it really has been a joy to see everything that students have achieved this past year and we look forward to welcome you back um next fall. So with that said uh really I just wanted to share a few comments and maybe answer a couple questions on

101the budget. Really I just want to catch up the community since the board has been talking about this topic for a while. Um, essentially what happened is that yesterday, uh, the governor did veto house bill 57, which is the bill that would have increased the, uh, BSA by $700. And then, uh, an extraordinary event happened today where 46 legislators voted to override that veto. For those of you who don't know, uh, you need at least 40 to override a policy bill, and we had 46. And uh I think the next round of people that we need to really thank would be our legislators. Um 46 legislators is no small feat. Uh and I can tell you that there's a lot of differences when it comes to education, when it comes to those 46 people, but

102every single one of them came together to say that this is the time to commit to investing in education. And many of them recognize that they know that the goal is to, you know, increase uh the BSA over time. You know, we started this conversation about 12 months ago saying that we need over $1,800 to make schools whole again. And today we finally achieved a historic $700 increase. But remember, to achieve our aspirations as a state and as a district, um it's going to take more investment into education. that this is a wonderful first step and I'm so appreciative and thankful for the hours that these legislators put in to careful negotiations because contrary to what some are saying um House Bill 57 is more than just a BSA bill. In fact, I would say

103it's one of the um best bills that I've seen in a long time that combines both, you know, modest finances. The the fiscals on this bill again are about a third of the way for where we need to be. But we can celebrate that it's a permanent increase. And we can celebrate that it included a number of long overdue policy reforms that were not only approved by both sides of the aisle, but were vetted by educators. So, I really thank all the legislators and committee heads and everybody that engage Anchorage School District and the other school districts across the state to get our input because really we're all invested in making policy as effective as it can be for our students. And I really commend any legislator um across all caucus lines who's willing to

104sit down with the teacher or with the superintendent or board member and ask them how would this impact your school? And I think that the way that this ended was a set of policies that are reasonable and a step forward. You know, I would say that on a normal day uh in a normal in a different set of circumstances um we would only be celebrating right now. You know, this would be a day for, you know, the the confetti and the parades and that sort of thing. And I have to share a few rewards because I know I'm not the only one that feels them. I I think that a lot of education leaders will be thankful. Um but a lot of us are going to go to bed with a lot of anxiety because

105there is this culture of fear that's been generated in Juno and it's really trickling down and impacting superintendent and teachers and educators across the state. And what am I talking about here? Um you know the public may be listening to me and asking well why aren't you celebrating Dr. brand. I thought that the legislature came together and overrided a veto with historic margins. In fact, um it was such a great margin. 46 legislators is so large that if this were an appropriation bill, that would have been vetoed as well. You only need 45 votes for that and we had 46. So, that means we're actually very well positioned um to fulfill the will of the legislature with this bill. Um, but the reason why myself and my colleagues and maybe even some people in this

106room uh don't don't have the ability to rest easy over these next few weeks is because unfortunately our governor has threatened multiple times, including last week, to superintendents that he's seriously contemplating vetoing the appropriation for the base student allocation. Um, I had hoped that today in his comments on the veto override, he would have shared a sentiment saying that, you know, this wasn't the bill that I wanted, but it's a bill that fulfills um a lot of the boxes that he was aspiring to check um because he has strong policy ideas. I wish he would have said that, but unfortunately that that wasn't the message that we heard from him today. The message was um this is just the beginning of of more conversations to come. But I can't help but think back to last

107week um when he threatened to veto the appropriation. And I can't help but think about even yesterday at a press conference where he also um shared that he's contemplating vetoing that appropriation. So for those of you listening at home, you may be wondering, well, why can't we celebrate? It's because essentially the the governor has constitutional authorities different than other governors in other states in that he gets two bites at the apple. He got a bite to veto the policy bill. that was attempted today and it was overridden by a great margin. He has another attempt to to veto funding from the bill through the appropriation process. And the reason why that is alarming to superintendent and really to all fiduciaries of school districts in the state is because that's going to happen now that the

108legislative session has ended. Um the chances are that this would happen in the middle of June. If I recall correctly, the governor signed the appropriation bill for last fiscal year. I believe it was June 28th, so it was pretty late in the summer. June 28th is just a few days short of the new fiscal year. So theoretically, there's a possibility that the governor could use his constitutional powers to veto appropriations from the the money that's intended to lower class sizes, to restore sports, and to support our educators. And uh for that reason, over the next four or five weeks, a lot of superintendents and fiduciaries are going to be on edge. And I think under different circumstances, that wouldn't be the case. So, um I I just wanted to share exactly what I shared with

109the media earlier today and that this is a great time to celebrate. Um but I have a lot of anxiety on my heart on behalf of the 6,000 plus employees who are depending on this money to come through as well as the thousands of community members, parents, students, uh employees um who also may be wondering is this a reality? And that gets to my final point, which is that this has a real impact on the ways that the Anchorage School District board can even think about our budget, right? Because a couple weeks ago, we had a a wonderful moment where we decided that we wanted to be leaders and project revenue because we knew that this day would come where the legislature would show overwhelming support for permanently committing to funding public education. We knew

110that day would come and it did. Um but we're still left with the this possibility um that the rug could be pulled from under us potentially just a couple days before the new fiscal year, just a few weeks before the beginning of the school year. And I just wish that we could get to a place in the state where we could finally put aside partisan and ideological differences and just say that this is a win for kids. Let's celebrate this win and let's save the debates for the next session. So, I do hope that this is an opportunity, if not a plea, um, to the powers that be in Juno to to really think about the stress that's being injected into the system on a day that really should be positive and about celebrating what's

111possible. Um, but instead, we can't help but contemplate what is possible when it comes to the veto pin of the governor. And that's not a good place for me to be. It's not a good place for my colleagues to be. And I truly hope that cooler heads will prevail over the coming weeks because the few weeks that I foresee um are not going to be fun. So the board projected 560. The fact that the governor as recently as yesterday threatened an appropriation veto or at least said he would consider it, that doesn't give me the confidence to restore additional funding because remember House Bill 57 is $700. We projected 560. Why would any school district want to increase their risk when it seems that the executive branch is seriously considering pulling the rug from under

112us and taking funding that an overwhelming majority of legislators across caucus lines said was sufficient um for this moment. That's what we're facing. So, we do have some pretty uh some some pretty uh I guess intense waters ahead of us, a storm, if you will, um that's coming because of this uncertainty that's been created by a culture that's become all too common um on the third floor. And I hope that it changes. If there's a way that ASD can be a part of that solution and that change, I'm all here for it. But uh I really am um frankly much more concerned um and alarmed than I would have guessed I would be, you know, two years ago if you would have told me that the legislature would finally pass a permanent funding increase. So

113I I don't mean to be a downer, but I do mean to transparently communicate to the community what's on my mind because again, I'm not alone and these have real impacts on real schools and real people and real teachers. So it's my commitment to keep it real with the community and to be honest. um because this is really difficult times and I'm going to need the community um to help us through the storms that we're about to enter these next few weeks. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Brian. Are there questions or comments for the superintendent? I'll just use the a moment to um echo um some of the thoughts by the superintendent to share that I'm I'm grateful for what is a historic um moment today coming out of our capital um for an override

114on House Bill 57. I I think some of what makes it historic is the amount of um inaction that got us to this point that required such a drastic legislative solution. the fiscal picture out of Juno this next year is is not one that's um rosy or um presents an influx of new resources that are coming. Um the legislature was fairly productive in the first half of the 34th legislature, but the sustainable long-term fiscal plan that Alaska desperately needs is still um completely unrealized. And we are um unsustainably dependent on federal funds. the volatility of oil prices and a permanent fund um that whose earnings which is their earnings are not sufficient to um sustainably fund state services to include education. And um education has served as the canary in the coal mine for um

115these last few years. But uh this year the legislature had to seriously grapple with how they were going to pay state workers at the DMV and the office of children's services. Um and we've been having those conversations here in school districts across the state for um some time, but it's I think it's now coming home to roost in our capital that it's non-action isn't an option any longer and we need bold leadership not just in the area of public education funding um but a long-term fiscal plan which will enable uh the 39% um of the goal that was realized today and kudos to Senator Wowsky for shouting out that that's really all that we realized after this huge back and forth debate and um a very political process was 39% of what was originally asked

116for. Um there's a lot lot of work left to do. So um thank you Dr. Bryant. Thank you to our lawmakers in Juno um who did get a great win today and it it is the just the first step in a process that must continue um starting in January or or even earlier if there's a special session called. Um so looking forward for us to be a player in that process and support the legislature in making those hard decisions because that's how uh inevitably we will see some of the things that we need to include um retirement reform for our educators to include a base student allocation that aligns with legislative finance recommendations um adequate transportation dollars and a system that supports students at all varieties of programs to include charter neighborhood schools. um and

117correspondence programs. With that said, we'll move on to the last item for tonight, which is school board and administration comments. I'll start to my left. Member Higgins, the floor is yours. Well, with all those news, I'll try to end positive uh just to offset things. Uh my congratulations to all the graduates attending all these uh uh the graduation ceremonies. I got to tell you, it's the success of the students, but it's also the staff, the families, the community support that made it all possible. So, my congratulations for all of them, and I look forward to the uh their success ongoing. Uh so, it's pretty successful. I um uh know that there's a lot of activities that's going to go on. We're going to deal with a lot of uncertainties at this point, but um um

118maybe we can get focused a little bit more on the academics if we can just get past the the budget aspect of it. And that's what I'm hoping for. My appreciation for the staff. I know this has been stressful for them. Uh and I that's a big concern to me because they play they are the critical role, the front line for all of our schools and for these kids. And so, uh, my appreciation and my, um, uh, wish them the best, you know, that we can within the district. And with that, I'll just simply close by saying Memorial Day is coming. So, be careful driving out of town Friday when you're going fishing with all the traffic jams and everything else. But, uh, um, wish everybody a happy holiday. Thank you, member Higgins. member lessons.

119Um I'll be very brief. Uh yes, I wanted to just express my gratitude for the efforts that went into uh getting House Bill 57 across whatever finish line uh this is. Uh there's more to do as as has been shared, but um I recognize the tremendous efforts uh that uh parents and educators and community members uh board members from around the state have engaged deeply with the question of what our students need. So I I just appreciate all of that. Um, I wanted to mention a couple of weeks ago that a number of board members had attended the King Tech 50th uh anniversary celebration. And uh, number one, it was a beautiful day. Number two, I had a great burger from the food truck. Number three, the cake was um, tremendous. I didn't I had

120to leave before it was cut, but it was it was the biggest cake I've ever seen. Uh but uh it was a wonderful celebration of an incredibly important institution to our community and um I look forward to you know celebrating many more years of that school and and many more schools. Um and I'm just going to say congratulations to the staff at my own kids elementary school who beat the fifth graders in tugofwar this afternoon this morning. Um I'll just leave it there. Thank you. Thank you, member lessons. Member Donley, I just wanted to uh say it's great to be back. Um I want to thank uh the staff at Alaska Regional Hospital for being wonderful and um all the folks out there that have wished me well and have helped me on my road

121to recovery here and I'm making progress every day. Thank you very very much. Thank you. Member Donley, our student representative, any final comments tonight? Um, I will say, as I mentioned before, as much as I'm grateful to be a part of this conversation that discusses issues like how we were able to override HB57, I will say that as much as I'm a part of the conversation and enjoy it, it's also a great privilege of mine, but some that my peers also would wish to be a part of. And it's just a reminder that speaking for the student body of ASD that many of our students what they truly want is to be a part of this type of conversation about relevant issues that affect them specifically to education and they want transparency. Really I think

122a lot of students in our district don't want our legislators to be afraid of the word education or afraid of the word student or children. I think those words go with each other. they go together and that it's sensible that every student in our district believes that they no matter what grade they are in, no matter what school they go to, that they have a right to education and specifically education that has high quality. And as much as I get to be able to sit on this board with you guys and discuss it, the peers that are around me are just as wanting to be a part of this conversation or are just as passionately caring about these issues because it affects them just as much as it affects me. So, I'm thankful to be

123able to listen to this discussion and participate in it because it makes me feel like I have that power to be able to speak for those around me who feel the same. Thank you, Madison. We'll move on to Member Wilson. I I want to say that I I love that our student representatives not only have a voice but use their voice so eloquently. Just Just had to to share that. Um, bravo. I I want to say congratulations also to our graduates. I know all of us have been attending graduations. Um and it's it's been amazing to see all of our our wonderful students um like Josh uh graduating and um looking forward to seeing their their next steps. Um our Denali Awards recipients, I I've worked with many of not only the winners but the

124um the folks that were recognized as alternates and they were they're all extraordinary people. extraordinary educators. So, um those recognitions are so welld deserved and and so many of our other staff um are are extraordinary as well. So, thank you for all that to all of our staff for all that you do. And and I wanted to say I appreciate um the advocacy from our community as as other board members have stated to support education uh and the support of our legislators as well. It's it's been a a tough year, but hoping for a better year next year. Um, and thank you to Kelly for bringing up the King Tech 50th anniversary. I I was out of state and was not able to attend, but I I have such great appreciation for the work that

125staff at at King Tech do give our students the real life skills that they'll be using as they move on in life. So, um, great things happening and congratulations to our staff for tomorrow being the last day of school. Thank you, member Wilson. Member Hana. Uh, I was at the King Tech celebration as well. If um, member lessons had stayed, I actually got to cut the cake, which meant I got a corner piece, which was a little bit of cake and a whole lot of icing. I know there are people that feel like cake is a thing and icing is fluff, but really there's a lot of substance in icing if you if that's what you are after. Um, it was a really good ceremony and uh a really I thought a really good speech

126by Principal McKinley. Um he talked about some of the the difficult times at King as well as the positives and I thought that balance was was really positive to bring up that it's important we look back at obstacles and difficulties and and how we got over them and where we are now in relation to those things. And then like the other board members, I've been at crossing overs and and graduations and uh times are really just great celebrations, moments where kids, parents, and teachers all come together, recognize the progress, recognize you're leaving a place to go somewhere else. Um, that to me was always the most magical moment of of the school year because like a lot of schools, usually the last day is like a field day and kids are out having a blast.

127They're doing different things. They're playing and buses start to roll up and they begin to aggregate over where they're going to get on the bus and you can actually see it in kids' faces when they realize, I'm not going to be back tomorrow. I'm not going to be around these kids again. Because in a lot of cases, they're splitting to different schools, different grades, and and you can see it hit them, the realization that, oh, wait a minute. There's a lot here. I'm going to miss a lot. And it's uh it's a great time uh when kids realize that and it has that impact. Um, like everybody else, I've been following the whole legislative thing very closely. Um, I'm thinking that maybe we'll start a Facebook group for gavvel togavl withdrawal u for people that

128need help getting through the next couple weeks without being able to tune into a hearing. Uh and it also includes press availabilities and uh like a lot of people I watched the the governor's press event uh when he talked about the veto and really hit hard by one particular thing that he said several times which was once the money's decided because all talk about how to improve things stops. Um, and I I think coupled with the fact that he does talk about having been a teacher, having been a superintendent, having been a board member, and and it seemed very inongruous to me because there is a time where we're focused on funding, we're focused on resources and trying to get that. My experience in schools is once you get past that, whether it's a good

129year or a bad year, it's only about how you improve things. That's what the teachers I know sit around and talk about and they do spend some time talking about other things too. But it comes back around to where you're trying to figure out how to make your class work better, how to make your team work better. If if you're in a school that does teaming, how to how to make your school as a whole work better and turn out. How do how do you how do you actually turn kids that are going in a in the wrong direction back to the right direction in a positive way? Something other than detentions and suspensions and and that kind of thing. That's that's 90% of what they talk about. There are teachers that don't. And it

130frightens me to think that maybe that's the background our governor went through. I don't know who his colleagues were. I don't know who was next to him in the teachers lounge. It's not the kind of teachers I was next to in the Anchorage School District. And it perhaps explains some of his outlook. Yeah. When when money's on the table and it's being divided up, that gets our full attention because it's a critical moment. Once that time passes, it's back to the work of trying to run a classroom or run a school or run a district. And and it's a lot of work. It's a lot of different pieces that have to come together and function every single school day. And of course, as the administrative staff knows, it has to function on a whole lot

131of non-school days as well because we normally should be much further into planning the fall than we are. But the folks sitting off to my right are hung up spinning in circles trying to figure out exactly what they will have to aortion in terms of staff and in terms of supplies and in terms of the resources that are always a little too short for teachers to have. So, I I hope that maybe the governor can talk to some other teachers and realize that um like I realize going to all these different celebrations. We have some really different charter schools. Charter schools probably vary more from one to another than any of the neighborhood schools. We have a range of immersion programs which are very similar except they all go in different uh different languages and

132and it just strikes me that immersion is this incredible program. It has a huge impact. It could would not work for every student by any means. I I have a funny feeling if I've been in an immersion program I would still be in the second grade. member Dony's retention policies were in effect because it it's just I I did try foreign language a little bit. It's just a very very very difficult thing for me but for other kids not as much. We need variety. We need our schools to be different and we do need as we do allow students to choose from our different schools because landing in the right place is everything and the right place for some kids is the wrong place for others and not the greatest place for others. We need

133that range of schools. We need that range of programs. Um we need it available to so many kids and that's not an expensive effort. It it takes funds to have variety. It takes funds to have the full staffing. Um when you do step back and think about it that 46 out of 60 legislators made it clear to the governor they felt like it really needs to change. I hope I hope he contemplates that as he approaches the spending bill and decides what to do with it. That's a strong message from all over the state. and uh watching the difficulties that people are talking about. Talking to elementary teachers that are looking at the fall schedule with the the budget we have now with our revision that are looking at combo classes with 43 kids and

134and this is an immersion program. They have some unique issues in staffing, but it means two different grade levels in two different languages with 43 students all day long. I wouldn't do it. Um I especially wouldn't do it without a retirement as member Jacobs mentioned because you you want that to end one day and you want to take a long rest and and right now that's not in the cards for so many of our teachers. So, I I do hope I and I think what the district will have to do is begin to realize that unlike any other time, we are going to have to support our classrooms or we will not have anybody in there working. It's not an attractive job. It's a wonderful, honorable profession. It's not an attractive job in this district.

135Looking down the personnel report that we accepted earlier in the consent agenda, um 17 out of 21 people leaving the diff district as certificated employees started since 2020 and there there's a handful of people that went longer. The turnover is horrific and there's a shortage of applicants. Before we had turnover, it really didn't matter that much. There was literally thousands of people standing in line waiting to come work here. They're gone. They're just gone and they've been gone for a while. And and I think it's about to get worse. And part of it is that perspective teachers look at how politicized it's become at the expectations without support. uh that that just all needs to change or we are not going to have anyone. But I I do hope people understand that once it finally

136gets down to the classroom level, those folks are working every day trying to figure out how to make education better. Uh whether they're doing it by themselves or doing it in committees in their buildings or with other groups, ad hoc groups, that's what happens in all the schools I've seen and we need to support that. Thank you. Thank you, Member Hullman. Member Bellamy. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks uh everybody for your comments. Being almost last means I don't have to restate some of your things. But um I do also want to thank the 46 legislators that showed courage and leadership uh by um putting kids first and standing strong in the face of um such I I don't even know how we I don't know how we got here as a state. Um, but

137I'm glad that there are 46 out of 60 people uh who were willing to stand and stand strong for our kids. Uh, I also want to um just highlight a few of and I'm going to be brief, but you know, one of the things the governor says is that there's no policy in 57. the BSA is and the transportation funds and maybe some grants for reading are in there and and and that's money that districts need. But there's all kinds of policy. There's the charter school reforms where charter school applications are allowed to be submitted year round. Uh D districts can now set deadlines uh for charter school applications to be considered for the next school year. uh the response time for charter schools uh revocations is reduced from 90 days to 45 days. It's

138not just about the BSA. And if the governor wants policy, I don't know what that is. I call that policy. Uh class size reporting is another thing that's uh uh uh initiative that's in uh House Bill 57. creating an education task force who can look at enrollment open enrollment uh uh recommendations and analyze uh make analyze what's happening with education funding in our state. If that's not policy, I don't know what is. Uh the cell phone policy, although we already have a cell phone policy, but that's in there and the governor wanted that. Uh it does give local school boards control on what's in their cell phone policy. So, it's not a a a state ban on on cell phones. So, I don't I don't maybe I'm just not understanding what policy is, but to

139me, those are those are new um ways for us to make our education better in this state. And we get and yet there's no the governor does not acknowledge that. So, I encourage those 46 legislators to to just uh stand tall, be ready to do whatever you can for our kids as this process uh proceeds. Um I also attended the King Tech um celebration and I had to run off because I had UAA uh graduation. Uh, but I was asked to to speak a a little bit on my um my experience with King and that that was my very first real job. My very first real job in this district was at King Tech. um and what that meant to me then and what I what it means to me now to have spent that

140many years in this district to see that program grow and change and morph into what it is now is very you know it it is it's just amazing uh to our graduates I say um you know more power to you it's just starting be excited and be strong because you are going to do some amazing things but I also want to Thank the families of those graduates because you guys, the graduates didn't do it on their own. Those moms and dads and nannas and sisters and aunties and aunts and grandpas, they had their role in pushing you forward. So remember to thank them and thank your mentors. And finally, our Denali Award winners, very deserving. I'm glad we were able to. I look forward to this time of year every single year. I am just

141glad that we were able to acknowledge uh not just the winners but those who ran who were the runners up. So um I appreciate that new that new uh technique uh that new new touch to the ceremony. And with that, Mr. Chair, I'll pass it back to you. Thank you. Just a couple quick closing comments. Um I was great to join the King Tech celebration as well. Um it's a a jewel of the district, one of the jewels of the district, and it was wonderful to um watch member Bellamy speak and learn that her history started at that program. Um wanted to quickly pivot back to HB57 and acknowledge the amazing leadership specifically by the education senate and house chair, Senator Tobin, and um Representative Himshoot in the House. Um without those two individuals in

142particular, a bill doesn't cross the finish line this session. I don't think that's there's any question in that. And then wanted to also express appreciation for our staff and our families that made graduations this year possible uh for our students. I had the privilege of joining um South High School as well as Alaska Middle College and the uh program at Mclofflin Youth Center which were all very different and all demonstrated some of the amazing things happening in our district. Um the camaraderie at South was especially heartening to see. Um hearing that the Alaska Middle College program saved ASD students $1.5 million in tuition this year alone um is something that should be making the headlines um at least once per year and be talked about in legislative hearings in Juno. Um, and then being able

143to sit through a really special program at at Mclofflin. Um, hearing a a staff um, guest speaker speech who quoted the wisdom of Snoop Dogg regarding earning money. And hearing a student speaker referencing Tupac made it a presentation that I definitely hit home for me and as a therapeutic foster parent who accepts youth from their program, um, was reinforcing as to to the value of that program. And so, um, thank you. And again, a time of year for celebrations and there there is a lot to celebrate, um, here locally. And, um, appreciative of all the work of our district and looking forward to, uh, getting off to a solid start for next year. With that said, um, unless there's any objection from administration and more comments, I would accept and entertain a motion to adjurnn.

144Mr. Chair, I move to adjourn. Second. Hearing no objection. Member Belly moved. Member Hullman second. We will adjourn at 8:35 p.m. Thank you everyone.