001and we've already met just going to throw it out there if none of the other tactic teams have met um which I bet they have though so that work is already started and I'm very excited that um it's not just our our district that gets to participate but also our community um gets to participate in those in that development so super exciting and uh this is our last board meeting of 2023 so happy holidays to everybody and I wanted to take a moment to thank our diversity equity and inclusion and Community engagement team boy is that a that's a mouthful um I appreciated and valued what I heard from our senior director Miss Tony Riley tonight and it reinforces the importance of this team and its Mission and I'm excited about the work of the
002district's Equity working group and looking forward to hearing more about their work so additional work being done here in the spring and lastly this tiny little team team has taken on community engagement which is near and dear to me and um I'm very pleased at the work that's being done and what I'm seeing and hearing about it and um look forward to continuing that work so thank you and happy holidays and thank you so member Donley your comments thank you madam president um one public testifier tonight proferred a direct attack on one religion as he single out Christians for ridicule via a quote from a great American patriot who however was not an attendee at the 1787 Constitutional Convention and misstated constitutional law in this nation by apparently suggesting any reference to Christian beliefs at
003Public Schools is unconstitutional this nation was founded on monotheism as a core of Western civilization and that is reflected in our founding documents and the writings of the actual delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention even the liberal us 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that our national model of and God We Trust can be displayed in public schools and the pledge of allegiances one nation under God can be recited in public schools the academic discussion of all World Rel Ence is not unconstitutional no matter how much some who are atheists or other have other opinions might object to it with that I just wish everyone Merry Christmas thank you member Donley Mr Jacobs yeah thank you m president um had the opportunity to uh visit stream Academy which is one my you said schools
004this year uh um it's a charter school relatively small program but they're doing some amazing things and really um was a pleasure to connect with staff there and um see the unique things they're doing to bring um a underappreciated I think um aspect of transitioning to college current life Readiness uh to our next generation of Learners um with that said it it was um a good reminder and centering to hear that some of the same fiscal challenges um our district is facing our Charter Schools aren't exempt from them and um they are funded through the same formula and I I know charter schools and rightfully so have been um garnering additional positive atten attention recently due to national rankings um we operate Charters very uniquely here in Alaska I'm aware and and we have some
005amazing programs doing some amazing work um charter schools are still public ASD schools and we we choose to to fund our Charter Schools through a formula that is frozen in time I'm in 2017 and so um I was it was heartening to hear um leadership of of of that building you know advocate for um continued support for all public schools which which will include Charter Schools um so I think just something to keep in mind as we transition to advocacy in junior this next session with that said um members Wilson and iral Therapeutic Foster parents I didn't get to see member Wilson this event but um and so you missed out but there was a great performance by um a South a portion of the South Orchestra um at the denelli family services foster care
006event and um the students took their own time on a Friday evening in came and performed for the families um some great music and so um it uh it made the um experience that much more uh memorable for for my foster Youth and they expressed interest as to how to participate um in in Orchestra once they had the the chance to to do so and so appreciate and shout out to South High students um with that said happy holidays to all um great conversation tonight and looking forward to seeing you folks again next year thank you and last but not least are you ready maybe least who knows I got a lot of time left um I I um just comment usually about the speakers the last speaker really hit me with the issue of
007what basically um Apple did that is small excuse me one second I got to get rid of the Bluetooth with the phone no question about it um but I'm I'm I'm interested in the comments you made about doing things differently in the small uh garage shop type approach everything being different comparison but in doing so um I remember back in uh 2016 we had for several years to ask for data in regards to how we're doing academically four years growth in different schools and different grades and told it wasn't existed and then suddenly in August of 2016 it was rolled out that they had it all but if we're going to look at the comparison between schools I think that's a really important information I appreciate uh member leson talking about funding for different schools
008that that need it and where we are but it was revealing back then and I think it would be revealing again we had I remember in third grade the reading scores were all low and it really didn't matter the school then it focused on the curriculum because that was more the factor that was involved but I do like the public involvement knowledge of how the different schools are doing how the different grades are doing we didn't get into classrooms but we did get into the grades and it was revealing and so um I'm going to make some requests along those lines but I like the idea of saying okay if we're going to look at things differently that there's accountability that goes with it though there's assessments and accountability and we look for the best
009practices that are working and what's why it's working better in some schools than others uh and I think that would be a significant movement I look forward to reading that document I hope that speaker submits it because she had a bunch of other ideos there been to some of the music events um going in schools and all the holiday type activities I did here a couple of issues one is um the just the sixth grade transition into the middle school concerns about that and how that works and my concern goes back and I said it before for those kids socially emotionally learning may not have been quite developed to go into the middle school as comfortable what are we doing as a as a district to help those students that we don't drop academically Studies
010have shown they drop um you know that we saw that before and I have no objection to it because there are some advantages and disadvantages I agree with that but I think we should at least focus a little bit on what are we going to do is there some things we need to be planning on now at this point in time and the same thing goes to the change with the starting times we we postponed it the year because of the uh the difficulties is going to be for some families out there with the with daycare and or some type of of care after school preschool and and we took this year to try to address that look at it whether there's activities in the schools before or after or some adjustments it's going to
011be a problem we knew that going into it I mean the high school kids are not getting out before the young ones and you can't just release them and they often served as um uh caring for the for the youngest kids for a short time so I just we I hope we get into a discussion like that because the Public's interested in it I heard a number of questions coming in from both parents and from the um uh teachers in regards to those two questions and I think they're both appropriate within that but the academic issue really is a good one I think that was the same year that the were advocating that we should expect people to grow less than a four year because they couldn't all be Michael Jordan that's what they ran
012on as if they're not capable of learning well I think all kids are capable of learning and we have to address that issue positively but I think we need to look at the academics where it's growing where it's not and in question why like meeson suggested we need to put the resources to address those areas where it's not happening because all kids can learn and other school districts are putting more to catch kids up uh in it not just a full year but catching up and we need to see what we can do but we got to have the data first and the data by grade whether they're growing a full year or not what percentage it's really enlightening when we saw the data and I think it would be good for the board to
013look at that again so with that I will uh probably by happy holidays I will wish uh mad Donley a happy Hanukkah and um and a merry Christmas I'm going to be fair about this I'm just I'm I'm willing to be more flexible uh in line with it with I wish everybody a happy holidays thank you I'm not letting you you're not going last anymore I moved to a Jour so my comments will be brief very brief um I do want to commend Rogers Park Community Council and rabbit Creek uh for considering and initiating uh resolutions on behalf of um very similar to our joint assembly resolution to increase the BSA um I mean they're working hard and I know there are more Community councils but those are the only two I know of tonight
014um I would like to uh have the board consider our next um the date for our next and I'll send it to you but January 11th for our next goals and guardrail uh meeting so that we can get those finalized uh I'll send those out I'll send that information out to you but if you can kind of hold it January 11th that's a Thursday and we have a whole slate of com of oh we do we have we have right we're we're a month late right okay so then the next week which would be the 18th right is that the next next Thursday 18th next Thursday yeah okay so it' be the 18th I forgot we are going back I I was on on a different uh because of the whole new year thing we're
015not meeting on the second we're meeting on the ninth right which means our okay got it uh I would like uh board members to think about um the legislative Flyin which is coming up uh as well as with our students now we know we can't send all of us and all of us are not able to go uh but will be working with the superintendent and with Amanda to see how many we can um send um students how many students we can send um and and we can afford to send uh because that's coming up in February and and that's a huge priority uh I would like for board members to join me in in inviting and encouraging parents to contact their public officials um as much as we talk about cutting budgets people everybody's
016got some values everybody's got some skin in the game and it's going to take all of us asking for the same thing uh to get it done so uh please when you have the opportunity to talk with uh when people are asking for things to not be cut hear them listen to them but also encourage them to follow up with the with their um uh let uh elected officials and I'd also like the board members to uh just be aware that um while I respond to the school board emails that come to the school board people are separating us out so you may get individual emails uh don't assume that I've I've that I've responded on your on on behalf of the school board because they're coming individually to each of you each of us
017right so just be aware of that um our legislative priorities are on the uh website and um I will be bringing more information forward not just on the legislative priorities but on uh the Betty Davis youth Summit which is coming up in February uh we are planning that event it is not going to be during the school day this year it'll be an evening event which is which I'm happy for we don't have to bust kids anywhere and any of that so uh more information will come on that and the Dune Nelson scholarship fund is available to our um students to apply for that's 15 that's a $1,500 uh scholarship award from the aasb uh the association of school boards Alaska School boards and then finally um just I'm glad 2023 is about over I'm
018looking forward to 2024 but I do want to wish everyone uh and and uh and you and yours a wonderful holiday season so and thank you for your service your hard work your support whatever your role is in this city we do thank you uh on behalf of uh the school board Dr Bryant do you have anything happy holidays and drive safe out there lots of snow all right with that Mo your Jour moved in second to a journ any opposition seeing and hearing none we are [Music] journ recording stop