001yeah but I just right good evening today is Tuesday April 18th we'd like to welcome everyone to our um regular school board meeting I'd like to do a roll call really quick and then can call us to order uh joining us online we have member Dudley in the boardroom we have members Wilson lessons Jacobs Holloman Higgins and Bellamy we also have our our superintendent Dr Bryant and our student Representatives Miss Shaw and Mr Peck Packer pack okay thank you welcome um they are transitioning so we have two of them right now it's great so with that we'd like to Michelle can you lead us into The Pledge please or Pledge of Allegiance from the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice
002for all and whenever you're ready to land acknowledgement please on behalf of the Anchorage School Board I want to take a moment to recognize and offer gratitude for the sacred ancestral lands of the denina people we acknowledge and appreciate that our offices facilities and schools are on the sacred indigenous lands and we honor the traditional care that has been given to this land throughout Generations we are grateful for the opportunity to grow learn work and create educational communities on the sacred land we extend continued respect for the many cultures creativity and its resilience of its indigenous peoples chanon thank you very much that brings us to our opening statement and again we'd like to welcome everybody to our meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the work of the Anchorage School Board the board
003would like also thank our students parents teachers staffs School partners and the entire Community for your investment in our district with your time your talents and your of course tax dollars so welcome that brings us to item A3 which is the approval of the agenda but a president I moved to approve the agenda is written moved in second to approve the agenda as written in the opposition hearing scene no opposition excuse me the minutes are approved as presented and that brings us to Item B uh with our military report done welcome colonel evening thank you um for those of you I haven't met who haven't met me I'm Colonel Eric Dunn I'm the mission support group Commander at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson um it's nice to be here tonight just just a couple of quick
004things um today we hosted 26 high school middle school and a couple of principals from the Career and Technical education from a few of the schools throughout the district at the base we gave them a pretty good base tour we we started them off with pastries and coffee to get them fired up and then we we brought them from one side of the base to the other and back seeing everything from a lot of our base support functions um to you know our morale welfare and Recreation to even seeing an F-22 static display and and some of the mission things that we do on the base and and it was a really good tour um I we're waiting to hear some feedback because we want to make that better and better as we do it
005in the future but but I think it was a good experience for those teachers and principals to see um not just what you see on TV what we do at a military base but all the ins and outs of what we do um not just the military members who wear the uniform but the the thousands of civilians that we have um in case some of their students want want a place to work and and be a part of of the base so um hopefully that that has a positive impact and if anyone gets feedback please pass it on to us um but we definitely enjoyed having them out um we actually went and visited um I think it was King Tech um about a month or so ago and so this was kind of reciprocating
006backs at some of the the teachers and principals could see the base so that was pretty neat and then um this is month of the military child for April and so we really appreciate the the schools throughout the district celebrating with us um we're getting lots of great feedback about just just the great support that the military students have throughout the district and the schools everything thing from simple things like a pizza party to special assemblies decorations in the hallways recognition during morning announcements um we're just really grateful at the support that we get throughout the district and appreciate it um and then we've added just some some good interactions with some of our military units with the schools over at Ursa Minor on on Jay bear our 17th combat sustainment support Battalion got to
007welcome students at the school we we try to do that every now and then and then also the 11th Airborne Division band has been spreading musical cheer throughout some of the schools in the district everything from the Wind Ensemble the brass quintet and in the rock bands they really enjoyed visiting the schools and playing for them um but that's that's all that I have do any of you have questions for me thank you Colonel any questions for the colonel I don't see any but thank you very much for your service and for your report thank you have a great evening thank you and that brings us to our student report all right so we had our last meeting of the school year on April 11th at 11 15 in the morning we started off how
008we normally do with our call to order adoption of agenda and minutes and then we went to our school reports where we heard from our school spotlights we overheard from Northern Lights ABC Mirror Lake West AMCs Romig and Wendler and then I gave my student her rep report remember lessons made some comments and then we had a little report from our advisors we did go through our election process for the vice president secretary and public relations positions where Maggie cothran won vice president Zoe fensel won secretary and Bella Gunda Chavez one public relations so super excited to have them on the board with Josh next year we did go and pass a a resolution brought To Us by diamond called the 2023 snow days in suspensions suspensions resolution and there was noted opposition to that
009vote um then we had a short discussion about drills um and just that kind of feedback and what we think about how they can be improved and what we think is good about them and then close off our meeting we had a little everyone got certificates and all of the board keyboard got little plaques um as all of our board but one of them were seniors so I did that and then there is the awesome conference in Skagway on April 28th through 30th um and then our next meeting their next meeting is September 12th at 8 15 in the morning this is quite a while away so thank you Michelle any questions for Michelle yes member Jacob thank you Mr President I do want to thank Michelle for the report and I did want to
010highlight that a at least a form and maybe current um Sab member Jesse Tyrell from Polaris was appointed to the assembly as a youth representative and so it was exciting to see him sworn in um earlier this month right thank you and yes member lessons I just wanted to um reflect on the privilege that I've had to be the board liaison to Sab um over the past year and thank Ellie for her leadership I wanted to share for the community that um you know a lot of my opportunities to speak to them I've been updating them on policy changes or the overall fiscal situation and I realized that I hadn't really talked about like what is the purpose of a school board and I brought it back to our goals and I pointed out yeah
011we have a reading we want students to read we want students to be proficient in math we want students to be college career and life ready and I knew that I was going to be headed down to Juno um and I knew that it would be more effective to bring their thoughts with me than to bring a whole Plane full of students so I set up a couple of big sticky notes at the back of the room and asked them to reflect anonymously you know for seniors what was the most meaningful part of your time in ASD you know who were the people or what were the opportunities helped you along the way what are your goals for our returning students you know I asked them to identify their goals for the next one to
012five years identify the supports and experiences they think they would need to get there and I ask them to reflect on what larger class sizes or the loss of extracurricular programs or experienced teachers might mean thinking that their thoughts might carry a great deal of weight among our legislators and then I asked them is there anything else you want me to to bring in so I was able to directly share their thoughts via sticky note as I connect with people and so I just want to say that I appreciated the insights and um just honesty that our students brought to that and I hope that our legislators were listening okay well thank you Ellie for your service and thanks to all of our Sav members it's been a remarkable learning opportunity for me thank you
013member lessons and that was a great activity she actually shared it with me too and I used a little bit of it with my uh work my advocacy work all right not seeing any more questions or comments uh we will move on now to item C which is our goal monitoring we were uh we're going to have our conversation around the report that was given to us at our last meeting uh and that is uh there's two parts to that report the first part the goal that we're addressing is our uh college career life Readiness goal um that goal reads beginning with the Freshman Class of 2020 September 2020 the percentage of high school students graduating uh life ready as well as college and or career ready will increase from a baseline to be determined
014in the spring um to 90 in Spring of 2026. that is the goal we're looking at two indicators one is the attendance and the other is the completion of the axis the Alaska Career Information System um which is gold three point which is interim gold 3.3 of the CTL goal so I want to confirm that all four components of the monitoring report are present the report shows what is being monitored that the specific goal and interim goals the report shows data for three pre at least three previous reporting periods the current reporting period and the target reporting periods the report shows the superintendent's evaluation of performance and finally the report shows supporting documentation that evidence is the superintendent's evaluation via the tables and or uh next steps that are included in the report so with
015all of the components being present we are ready to begin our monitoring conversation um some of you have sent in questions others of you brought them with you tonight which is fine so the purpose for the purpose of understanding we want to do our who what and why category questions first uh once we have a full understanding we'll move on to our um to the what I'm not the what the hell sorry so with that logic in mind we are ready to begin our conversation um and uh Dr Bryant did you want to no comment here we're happy to answer your questions all right so who has a question for the superintendent and the team okay we'll start with the member lessons sure um it's fun you know I guess a lot of time on
016Slide Five to start with um it shows us a five-year trajectory uh prior six year trajectory seven year trajectory um and it's not really a very good picture um you know before covid we were having nine ten eleven thousand students chronically absent every year and then we have fuzzy data for the start of Cobin and then we ballooned last year to 629 students being chronically absent and already this year 14 524 students are chronically absent um I'm wondering which of the groups have seen the biggest change in attendance rates and I don't know if that's something that I sent ahead of time or if this was the question that sort of it was a Wandering it was one of your wandering okay so I guess yeah how do we go from even as the population
017itself is dwindling it's just a lot of students so I'll I'll start and then turn turn it over to others um so through the president to member lessons um I think your assessment of attendance over time is accurate um last year we were still um kind of in that post-covered uh still encouraging people to stay home if they were ill um and so we were still seeing the effects of of covid um in that 19 000 some chronically absent students it doesn't necessarily look great but it is a little bit better this year um and we're still feeling the effects of covid it's just in a different way this year um and it has more to do with just people's ability to cope and and mental health um so so those are a lot of
018the reasons for absenteeism there's also um just a kind of an anecdotal um kind of feeling that attendance um isn't as much of a priority since covid because people are prioritizing other things um because we were pretty lenient about attendance so that we're still seeing some of that kind of translate as well through our attendance rates um all that to say that it's it's definitely an area that we need to look at and improve um and um so those are just kind of my initial thoughts around around the numbers yeah that Elementary level um you know I concur with everything we're talking about you know one of the things that we're trying we want schools to be is an engaging place for families in the community to be able to feel welcomed and safe at
019that school so at all schools and so what we're seeing is a is a rebattleways revitalization of all those practices that we did beforehand our first science fairs our field trips and all those activities and programs and pieces that are making schools more engaging for students Beyond just the straight academics in the classroom that Outreach so the more that we can bring those things back into the schools the better I mean if you go to um slide four which is the grade level distribution at elementary you know I think we should make a push at the kindergarten level um and then look at look at emphasis of attendance starting in kindergarten all the way up and making sure that's really important that our families hear that that we want to see students in school those
020are important things that I think we need to continue to message with our families I do have follow-up yes this is relayed so we were just talking about the Sab meeting and I raised the issue of chronic absenteeism to the students and they said well how many days is that I said well I think it's 17. and that is not like a known number out there and so it may be that we really I mean engagement absolutely but my takeaway from this conversation with a student was that maybe our messaging needs to be a lot more direct and say you know this is the number of days that will cause you to be chronically absent and I just and then I was thinking about a conversation I had with a a middle school teacher recently
021who said well when they do come the chronically absence students they're lost and um I think both of those stakeholder sort of conversations um they're just really sad these are students who who were losing because they're not there and we can't teach them if they're not there and if they develop bad habits starting in kindergarten that's not going to serve us for them well the rest of the trajectory so I think it's you know we have and so this isn't a comment this is another conversation but you know even if you look at and I'm sorry I'm looking at slide um three right we have an indicator that says the goal is increase the percentage of K-12 students achieving nine percent Penance but if we were to make it look a little more like our
022other goals right it would be these smart goals it would be specific it would be measurable and I feel like we might need to have a more targeted campaign um this just popped up in the epro Alaska reads act um like deed newsletter and they were talking about some District whose Name Escapes me and you know before they could even address K3 Ela they're focusing on attendance um so I guess that's a thought a series of thoughts but um I really appreciate that we're having this conversation and I look forward to other board members questions but yeah thank you member Jacobs yeah thank you madam president so a question just kind of a more basic nature on the data the to to be counted in attendance in one of these tables um like by grade
023level is it required that students are present for all classes or periods of the day or if a student's absent from one class or period would they not count towards this metric foreign we calculate attendance differently at the different levels so um we don't count as student absent in secondary unless they're gone 15 or more minutes um in a class period um and Elementary counts their attendance by half days um so so the attendance metrics are different between the divisions we would have to drill down into this data to get more separated data um if if students who Miss partial days are included in this data as well so I don't know the answer to that the question but we could follow up with board connect well so thank you and I should have sent
024this in advance so I apologize um it would be interesting and it makes me wonder if there's so if did I understand your answer right that if a student at the secondary level is absent from 15 minutes of one period they're kind of absent for the entire day or just for that class period got it okay but we aren't sure if if that one class period means they're included in this demographic right okay copied and then um it might be interesting I don't know if we have this data or if it's more of an RFI or if it's worth um digging in too deeper but knowing and having a list maybe of the common classes that students are absent from and missed 15 or more minutes if that might tell us something tell a story
025um and something the board can do to support like if it's you know something that's Ela related or math related or if it's um yeah by topic and so curious about that so thank you [Music] okay I don't see any hands I have just a couple of questions [Music] uh looking at I mean you guys were all uh in the district when we had destination 2020 and attendance was one of the targets um and as I recall as I as I remember every school had to have an attendance Focus initiative so we no longer have I mean we don't have that goal that gold is now embedded in our goal number our third uh CCL goal is it your so knowing what you knew from back in 2020 well when we ended destination 2020 and
026we transitioned over into where we are now um does the opportunity for students to high school students to make up even Middle School students they can be there is no um I hear what member lessons is saying when she says that you know when she's concerned that kids you know are chronically absent they are but they get to make up endlessly what is what impact is that uh I mean because at the high school level teachers can just spend hours days just giving kids makeup work and I'm not saying I'm against it but it does not create the urgency to come to school so I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that my thought on that is the majority of the kids that are chronically absent um they've even given many many opportunities they still
027don't make up the work if there's something else that's keeping them from school and from the school work other than you know if they if they're wanting to make up stuff especially at the high school level with all the lessons are on canvas and they can make it up when they're absent and we have kids that could be considered chronically absent because of health issues and stuff who are actually doing the work as well right so the data that we have here would show them absent but those kids would be actually making up the work right and keeping up right they're just not the vast majority of kids though that are chronically absent or not making up the work when they return and even with lots of chances and a lot of Grace how do
028we translate the urgency of attendance to parents I mean I know we we have no we cannot police parents or tell parents what to do but how how do we how can we that's a how question but what strategies are we currently using that you are aware of with parents to let them know how crucial because when we look at um I think it's slide two and it has the you know a missed day of school is a lost opportunity for students to learn we get it but are we sharing that with parents I I would say that yes we are counselors are doing as much as they possibly can the mental health providers that we're able to have in our schools are really being able to look and find out which coins of these
029kids are you know are being chronically absent um you know over the years even in essence destination 2020 we've had a real decrease in the amount of administrative support or help that we have in our buildings because of budget cuts and it just gets harder and harder as these numbers go higher and higher to be able to actually do these one-on-one outreaches for kids I think that when we're really looking at attendance now we have to be able to look at it as a whole community peace and get their information out you know we used to give away cars and that really didn't change that really didn't change the attendance rate even when we gave away cars right I mean so it at some point we have to look at and help our community realize
030that we have we need the kids here and if that means we're going to need to put more resources into community outreach or Community um campaigns maybe we need to do that um at the end of the day a kid that is really engaged in the classroom is usually going to be there right but what we're finding now is coming out of the pandemic and I say coming out but we're two years out right um and we're using this still and it's kindergarteners who this is their first year in but they went through the pandemic too they had their families back in their houses the whole time even when they're a little preschoolers so this is a real big question and it's one that to tackle is going to take a lot of different pieces
031and it isn't going to be just us in our district it needs to be probably more of a community event yeah and I I would add to that that um we we do a lot of student by student work um around attendance because usually if a student as a son talked about it is having an attendance struggles there's usually a secondary issue that's causing that lack of attendance and and getting at that root cause of what that attendance issue is is really the the hard work right um whether it's a medical issue or a family situation or homelessness there's a lot of reasons why kids don't come to school or engage with school and and we have a lot of support for different kind of populations within our district where we do a lot of
032one-on-one work and Outreach we do home visits we work we work with all sorts of different Avenues to get at that student to get them to school and we're not always successful unfortunately um because the need is growing so and then I just add you know at the building level we have our mtss structures right we have our individual student problem solving teams elementary schools also have your foundation leadership teams so in those leadership teams you work through some of those attendance mechanisms that help drive that there's the the red yellow and green stoplight charts so that you can send messages home but family say hey you're in the green your students can only you missed zero days or one day or two day and then you're moving into the yellow and you've missed maybe
033four days or five days or six days you move to the red you're upwards of 12 or 13 or 14 days some of those things that we could probably do better as a district-wide practice a lot of those happen in Pockets at different elementary schools we could probably have a stronger centralized approach to help support that message and share that but the schools are at individual levels using their Foundation teams their individual problem solving teams but a lot of it happens at the individual level or locally at the school level so that's some opportunity there remember lessons thank you I'm just really curious so who's in charge I mean at the individual School level is it I mean who if we're doing student by student work for 14 524 kids that's a lot of individual
034phone calls like literally who are the people doing that work and do we need to increase Staffing right at the middle in high school it's mostly the counselors some um something is it is it 14 000 absences or 14 000 kids I was looking at slide sorry I was looking at slide three and I simply looked at the um enrollment we have 39 645 students and we have 25 121 students with 90 attendance with Hawaii's 14 524 students who are chronically absent against okay thank you so the yeah so as someone indicated counselors do a lot of of that work at the secondary level um there are security teams also do that work um our administrators also do that work we also have different resources in Title One schools um with support positions that may
035work on that as well um Title One budgets allow for additional Personnel to address different School issues and so um some of our schools may have a social worker or or a different type of position that can support the work as well so at the secondary level um typically like Eric described at the elementary level there is a support team that meets that it usually is comprised of counselors security admin and potentially other support positions in the building and attendance is one of those things that they look at and how to support students and problems all around it along with a whole host of others and then at the elementary level it's the classroom teacher oftentimes that engages with the family right it's your you're the you're the home you're the home teacher for elementary
036students so then with that in addition to that it's the principles that are reaching out and potentially front office staff do we know the impact of subsistence and having to be culturally not at school do we track the reasons for kids not being at school I guess that's my question yeah I I can say that yes we do track um why kids are not at school um it's it's self-reported by parents uh when they're excusing those absences so we have to rely on the honesty of families reporting those absences and if they actually indicate the right thing so that we can track it um we do have a lot of families that still substance fish or hunt typically in the fall or or spring um we do allow for those those absences and excuse them
037and and keep them up to date as much as possible okay yeah the question okay can I just feed on to one other answer just a little bit more about who's doing the work um you know we have a lot of kids at crisis right now and we have a lot of kids that are exhibiting extreme behaviors and that's almost a full-time job right there during the day for our staff and attendance is not one that they get to a lot because of everything else that's going on so while we do try to do all this I I would not have confidence to be able to say that we're doing this every single day okay uh member Holloman I just like to say more to the board um in 2008 or 2009 was stimulus money
038from the federal government when the economy was being restarted we actually developed a system of graduation coaches through the district that were focused on some of these issues looking at kids that were on the bubble to graduate but Falling for some reason that uh attendance might be down grades might be down but something was happening and um it was staff with support staff not certified teachers but the and to some degree the outcomes are anecdotal but it was testimony from dozens of students that said this person turned things around and it's tedious and it means going out and finding that student because they're not at school you can't go pull them out of class because they're not there and then interviewing them and trying to figure out what the problem is and then Garner some
039resources to help them and it can be done and it does have results but it's a program we drop for lack of funding and of course it would be ideal to do that for every student that's underwater but we've never even began to think about doing that because that's just an absurd amount of money but it is one of those things I use when when people talk about well we don't want to just throw money at the problem it's like well if you would it would help a whole lot um we there are things like this we know how to do yeah we absolutely just lack the resources to do it the other thing I'll mention is that the duty of trying to track absences and call home uh is not evenly distributed um in
040in certain schools and in certain classes within certain schools the absentee rate can be high that means that some teachers may have to make a dozen calls every day if they're trying to stay up with It While others make one um so it really I I think it's great to encourage people and to try to do it realistically we can't really address it without staff and we decided a long time ago not to staff for that um for I think the right reasons but it is something we could bring back if we if we had adequate funds thank you uh member Jacobs yeah thank you madam president so following up on President Bellamy's question regarding the steps and the resources that are being used and then um I think I heard Mr Gus was mentioned
041that the the efficacy and the utilization is going to be hit or miss potentially based on Staffing per campus I feel like that's not something that we're discussing as often as we should be is it's it's a it's a really significant justification for Education funding in general as [Music] um Dr strumpler Johnson mentioned when we are identifying the reasons why students are absent we're addressing barriers to making students successful so if we're not doing that with consistency I guess my questions are we letting students fall through the cracks and how do we how do we do better um I guess is to start us off it looks like we've moved to our house but [Music] um so second offer a couple of thoughts uh to remember Jacob's question or or comment on one I do
042think Staffing is a major issue when it comes to the attendance problem we've kind of talked around that a little bit but more directly when you think about at a secondary school security staff administrators and counselors being like that primary group that's working on attendance and then think about all of the other jobs that they do in a day um you know attendance while like extremely important isn't necessarily always an urgent need right that day at that time and so Staffing definitely helps and and I was a curriculum principal and principal um when grad coaches were placed in in high schools and they did make a significant impact um on getting some kids across that graduation stage um because they had kind of a almost like a life coach like pushing them pushing them down
043the road right um and they were able to track homework and make sure kids got their assignments in and you know they they really checked on them and and did a lot of like work that our counselors were able to do um because they're busy with other things that are Urgent in their offices um responding to mental health and and all of the scheduling and all of those things that they have to do on a regular basis um but the other piece that I think is promising when we look at attendance um around our CCL work especially as as a board goal and and looking at a transformation is giving kids that pathway of why showing up is important it's not just to get a diploma it's to get a job and to have a
044plan for your future and and it really gives well while graduation is is Coveted and and well respected as as an entity in our public education system I think giving them that pathway to adulthood is much more inspirational and motivational sometimes for kids um than just getting that piece of paper you know so I think that there's some potential there and I think I I do think we're on the right track funding and Staffing are always the challenge foreign [Music] so I guess my my request then or I guess somebody wandering on this particular topic is should we have a policy or a handbook that reflects our current reality and not our aspiration if we're not except our handbook indicates that there are consequences and and levels of um graduated response based on the number
045of absences things of that nature and it references Alaska statute and so um you should wear documentation reflect reality is kind of my question so should I take the form of updated documentation or a word policy or an AR and I don't necessarily need the answer or commitment to that tonight but something to think about the other other wondering I had and this goes to our data dashboard and I think I'm reading this correctly when it indicates that we had 707 suspensions in 22-23 for absentee or truancy when I've read that historically I assumed that that was students being tardy to class but I am looking at the handbook it seems to indicate that we can suspend a student for being chronically absent as well and so I'm trying to confirm if that's correct and
046then trying to understand the wisdom of taking a youth out of class for being absent from class [Music] so I I think it's an astute observation um that's something that uh we we really work with our assistant principals on because most of those are out of the secondary level um so typically if a student is suspended under that category it's due to Chronic truancy so they are actively ditching classes not excused there have been many other interventions tried prior to that um often it's coupled with another offense such as disruptive behavior or something along those lines um and so um each I mean each individual student has a different circumstance but it is something that we are trying to move away from and and typically if truancy is the reason for a suspension it's typically
047an in-school suspension um where we have the student in school they may not go to regular classes but they're still able to work on their work and we do some restorative work in those those settings so um I would encourage us and I don't know if assuming the board should weigh into I'll think about this but um just in our handbook it indicates that suspension for missing school days could be a consequence and I for the life of me I don't I don't see the wisdom there um as a matter of fact I know students and I've had plenty of use in my home who have actively avoided and so in school suspensions by um trying trying to triangulate with different administrators who said that they should have another school suspension they'd go somewhere else
048and so teenagers are exceptionally creative and never cease to amaze me and so I would encourage us just as a foster parent that numerous teenagers to move away from the idea of suspending students who are absent um tardy is another matter you know I I don't know the wisdom there but I think it's certainly worth the discussion but um I'll talk with Madam president and maybe she needs to talk me off the ledge from a board policy proposal before we go any further but we'll have more discussion offline thank you thank you very much member Jacobs and yes we can we can talk other questions regarding attendance Dr Bryant do you have anything to add I do not I think this is a very great conversation I think from it there are a number of
049things that we can't explore further and uh to Dr uh strumpler Johnson's point I think our CCL transformation will create that additional um inspiration to Aspire to a highway try to be a job or um you know completing your associates degree credentials I mean the sky's really the limit and of course additional resources to fulfill these other um structural deficiencies due to budget cuts will take us a long way too if we can get the funding yeah I think the East High School's Title One School correct correct so I was visiting East a couple weeks ago and um Principal Brown took me to visit um a class where he was reconnecting students to school students who were either they dropped out or were in the on a trajectory to drop out and they had the
050most amazing person in that room for those kids and it didn't matter what time of day they showed up they knew they had that person um and so I I somehow I think having a person or persons um available for kids and it's going to be tough because I I don't have the answer but but we've got to we got to try to figure out a system that takes kids where they are and and help them get better even with attendance um so my final not final but my I have a question on the other we've spent all of our time on the um attendance rate but we also how is it going with the uh X where are we with the career planning we start in the could you just give an overview we
051start in the eighth grade and what what are those what tools we're using to get kids through for the next um for the career planning um so we um currently have varied use of akcis um a system across the secondary ranks we also so so those are numbers that we're looking to increase over time the other um item that we have going in this category is that we piloted last summer with our middle schoolers that took the king Tech High School summer program on it's an exploratory program we've done the last couple of Summers we piloted a youth science tool which is similar to akcis but it it also has um some CR like some personality characteristic building of like identifying skills that you're good at the interests that you have and and starting to
052pique your interest into what types of careers include those skills or kind of personality traits um and it was highly successful we're hoping to do it again this summer and as we start building our CCL work through the middle school ranks and into high school that's a tool that we're looking to to expand more at that level um and um and then additionally at the high school level um continue to work through akcis in a in a more substantial way so that's really where we are I think you're going to see a lot of growth in the next couple of years in that realm as we Implement things right yes remember Wilson I get really happy about that conversation I had the the privilege of of um traveling to Nashville or our our CCL work
053and I was really happy to see there there's so much I understand they're further ahead in the process with their academies but in in Anchorage we have so many of those pieces and parts um that exist with our Partnerships with the work being done in many of our schools and their classes um and and the opportunity to work more collaboratively and bring all those pieces and parts together to really benefit our students and our families and and our business Community um I'm super excited about that work I'm super excited about the the future opportunities for our students um and and I wanted to say that the summer exploration program I got to be a part of that as a business partner um and heard so many wonderful things from students and and their parents regarding
054that program so I'm super excited that's happening again um as as king with King Tech or with any of our other programs the opportunities for students to not only select their potential careers but to deselect is just as important to save that time to save training for for what ever business or organization that they potentially could go into or saving that as a parent saving all that money on College um it's fantastic so I'm just gonna throw out there super excited about the work that's being done so thank you thank you [Music] Hey so uh I know probably 30 years ago we used to have truant offices um and I know that and I'm not suggesting that we go back to Truman officers because I don't think that's the way either but I do think
055given our mental mental health and wellness strategies uh that we're trying to that we're implementing and really going back to what Mr Jacob said the reality of what of our situation um I do look forward to more conversations on how we can not just get kids interested in school keep them in school educate parents about school um because I think the information that's on on the slides are is very is very important and I think that we just need to make it more public uh and MJ's gonna kill me because that's given his his team more work to do but I do think it's important for us to really campaign around uh the importance of attendance um and my final comment would be because when I talked to secondary educators uh the make the the
056the the makeup policies are so overwhelming uh kid you know kids a kid can and I don't know the balance but I know that it's overwhelming when you when kids know that they don't have to be in school because they get the right to make up forever and ever and ever uh that is that's a heavyweight for us for teachers it keeps them you know uh that's not continuous Improvement not for the student and not for our staff so I don't have the answer but that's one of the conversations I'd like to have in the future any other comments you guys have been awesome thank you very much okay so at our next meeting we'll have another monitoring report for May and uh good discussion thank you guys so that brings us now to our
057first hour of uh public comments and I'd like to just review our decorum requirements for the boardroom and so we're again happy that you're here today if this is your first time when you entered the boardroom you would have you could pick up a um uh the guidelines that I'm going to review with you uh um relative to providing public comment and or public testimony so during public comment board members will not answer questions or engage in discussion with members of the public this is the Public's time to speak and the board's time to listen which is why you may address the board on any topic whether it's a agenda item or a non-agenda item although there is a special place for agenda items for you to talk specifically on agenda items so for those
058of you who have signed up we will begin our process uh an action item memo is first introduced by the Vice President uh when we get to that part of the agenda and if second by another board member the president will open the floor for public comment and that so but initially for this uh the initial round as I said you may uh comment on any item that you'd like you will be allowed uh 30 sec I mean uh three minutes 30 seconds would be much time but you will have three minutes we will give you a little ding ding warning in 30 seconds so that you can pace yourself uh to conclude your comments um so we relative to the rules of the boardroom uh we asked that no one attack a member or
059a speaker's motive speakers May point out what he or she believes to be a natural consequence of a board of the board's action but may not engage in speech that personally attack others please refrain from disturbing the meeting and for uh in this board room that means no cheering Applause or outbursts attendees where each board member will get one so the board as board president it is my duty to enforce these rules uh these of Civility and decorum we use Robert's Rules of Order for our processes so with these rules in mind we will begin our first hour of testimony we do not have any I mean a public comment we do not have any student comment tonight so we're going to start with uh on our on our phone Sherry streisik Sherry can you
060hear star six to unmute Sherry can you hear star six to unmute all right [Music] see her there but she's not hearing us so I'll come back to her let's move on to also on the phone can you hear me yes this is Sherry can you hear me yes we can hear you yes you have three minutes all right I'm going to address uh the blue aside by Tony Morrison it is a graphic novel about Piccola an 11 year old black girl who endures her father's ancestrous rape this book is available to high school children as young as 14. this book can be found at Service East to yak and Eagle River high schools in addition to some others procolis rape is described on page one to eight the following is a truncated version of
061her rape the tenderness welled up in him and he sang to his knees his eyes on the of his daughter crawling on all fours toward her he raised his hand and caught the foot in an upward stroke Piccola lost her balance and was about to careen to the floor Julie raised his other ham to her hips to save her from falling he put his head down and nibbled at the back of her leg his mouth trembled at the firm sweetness of the flesh he closed his eyes letting his fingers dig into her waist the rigidness of her shock body The Silence of her stung throat the confused mixture of his memories and the doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him and a bowl of Desire ran down to his genitals giving it length
062and softening the lips of his anus surrounding all of this lust was a border of politeness he wanted to blank her tenderly but the tenderness would not hold the tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear his soul seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her and the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made a hollow suck of air in the back of her throat like the rapid loss of air from a circus balloon following the disintegration the falling away of sexual desire he was conscious of her wet soapy hands on his wrists the fingers clenching but whether her grip was from a hopeless struggle to be free or from some other emotion he could not tell removing himself from her was so
063painful to him he cut short and snatched his tonsils out of the Dry Harbor of her vagina she appeared to have fainted choli stood up and could see only her grayish panties so sad and Limp around her ankles the hatred would not let him pick her up the tenderness forced him to cover her so when the child regained Consciousness she was lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt trying to connect the pain between her legs with the face of her mother over her I pray that we have the support of the ASD school board members to protect our children and remove these sexually graphic novels from her school libraries thank you for your time thank you very much next also telephonically we have Ayu casata [Music] we can hear you welcome you have
064three minutes yeah and a new best mother of four children in the Anchorage School District and a product of ASD myself having attended Denali Ocean View Abbott Loop and Tudor elementary schools wemler middle school and graduating from East Anchorage High School in 1998. tonight I'm speaking to the land acknowledgment recommendation before the board and the recommendation for the Alaska news cultural Charter School to move to Outer Loop though I am an Alaska native person that attended six schools in the Anchorage School District I didn't even know that we lived on done in the lands until my late 20s how can that be in my day just as it is today ASD students only learned about Alaska native peoples and cultures once in third grade the terribly outdated curriculum centers non-native perspectives on indigenous peoples as
065others speaks of us in past tense and our communities as isolated and non-modern it needs to be overhauled that that's a conversation for another day having had a terrible experiences going through that unit myself I have grown into each of my kids schools in their third grade classes to present a different perspective on Alaska native peoples each time I found a wrapped and attentive audience in this they're hungry to learn more and eager to engage in the vibrancy of Alaska native cultural knowledge last year my youngest son was in third grade at his school they brought together their homes at their greeters thanks for telling stories sharing songs and histories and asking questions good morning thank you thank you I taught them that we're all living on the homelands of the dental Union we're responsible
066for being good guests here at the end a shy white child raised her hand and asked me why they'd never learned any of these things before I said you know that's a very good question why do you believe it's important [Music] he was quiet I think that if other people moved into my family's house I would want them to know about my family I'd want them to know how we take care of our house so we could live well together to get this there's no one on Earth that knows these lands and Waters like the Gangnam people that have always called this place home and the most detailed history of this place is encoded in their language so not nearly enough a meaningful land acknowledgment each day in our schools opens the door to more
067knowledge of this place into her schools and communities additionally I'd also like to know my full support for anccs to move into Adult Book school and I hope you all agree Atlanta false and good night thank you very much next in person we have Robin Petrel welcome you have three minutes yes you if you would like thank you my apologies it's okay it's Robin Puck Raw cruel as in Papa and cruel it's not Swiss German in origin well here we are again question is there a way to solve the growing concerns that parents Guardians and taxpayers have in regards to books and instructional materials perceived as sexualizing students yes a lay fears with information I invite everybody to listen to Dr kiesling's podcast dated 4 11 23 in a non-emotional science-based commentary Dr kiesling long
068time Medical Practice practitioner addresses gender dysphoria his podcast is on 650 k-e-n-i I happened upon it just by accident all right once informed parents not influenced by transgender activities transgender activists their commercials trendy graphic novels publishing companies booksellers television shows and sadly now Disney movies Etc will need to make a decision is the information presented to all students in the regular collection of a school library meeting the curriculum needs as necessary information I would argue that incorporating books into school libraries on gender dysphoria are harmful Librarians God bless them are trying to help but this is a private family matter it requires the services of a professional Librarians have argued that students need information they do but not hoaxy novels or explicit graphic cartoons and this brings me back to my point libraries House books
069that need the needs of the student no book on being becoming or searching for gender identity is needed because it is not factual nor science based in the case of very small children who are vulnerable and impression impressionable cutesy books on gender misinformation are indoctrination if you are a boy you have boy parts if you are a girl you have girl parts little kids know that ask them as a parent Guardian you know your child and the school needs to stay out of your business Dr keisling makes a great point about doctors who prescribe drugs inhibiting inhibiting hormonal growth and Performing surgeries by amputating healthy Parts they're they're violating their oath Do no harm I ask Do no harm to the I ask that the Anchorage School District Do no harm what was the district
070thinking when they allowed thank you very much thank you next we have Mike grunts by phone foreign can you hear me star mute oh there we go there's a question again for the Starships hi hey good afternoon thank you ma'am uh good afternoon and thank you for allowing me the time to speak uh my name is Mike Grunst My Views represent my own and do not represent those of the Department of Defense of US Army or the National Guard to the earlier speaker I apologize if I mispronounce your name is thank you for allowing me and my family to visit your ancestral lands I will do my best to honor and appreciate it for the rest of my ability over the past years I've spoken to the board on several issues education funding importance of
071saving immersion programs my support of adjusting School opening times based on on science today Revenue issue brewing and our community is going to need the support of the board in the administration to address it let me preface my comments with a note that I don't have all of the facts we are still trying to get out of them so we can prepare our team to engage with all the appropriate entities to typically Anchorage School District Anchorage School Board U.S customs and immigration service Senator murkowski Senator Sullivan and representative altola I have a couple children they're enrolled in The Amazing Chinese immersion program one at tenant Park and the other baggage Middle School so their teachers are being deported we don't know yet all of the reasons why I know that they have an H-1B visa
072they've reached the maximum dwell time of six years one is being sent home as of March and the other in October of next year these anchors residents are part of our community they have kids enrolled in the Anchorage School District including an 11th grader in the highly gifted program at West they have taught our community's children including some of yours for the last six years they want to stay we want them to stay they have earned their right to stay we have had some difficulty that we're working through getting some of the details we understand we cannot request items that are personal in nature we have not and we will not do so we simply need to create a shared understanding so we can engage with one voice we are preparing our documentation we're gathering
073information we need the information on what the district's procedures timelines and processes are for hiring emerging teachers what are the processes alerts and gateways for assisting immersion teachers to get permanent present residency if they deserve where the promises being made to these highly desirable and very teachers immigrating from over overseas who has these policies and what accountability measures are in place to ensure those are being met met note that nothing that I'm requesting is personal in nature nothing is classified as sensitive you simply want to understand so we we can assist we need to speak with one voice strong communities are both on the basis of strong schools strong schools built on good teachers good Administration supported children and engaged parents please help me when I come back to you to engage with one voice
074to keep these two important uh pillars of our community thank you and have a wonderful day thank you sir next also on the phone we have Ashley list I do not see Ashley on in the queue okay so that brings us back to our agenda item e the consent agenda and then I'd like to pull items zero six memo zero six eight and memorandums one three oh zero six eight and one three oh yes okay Madam president Epson any other board members wishing to pull an item I would move to approve the consent agenda as amended second moved in second to approve the consent agenda as amended that is with the removal of memorandum zero six eight and zero one three those will move down to action items is there any opposition to approving the
075agenda as amended I mean not the agenda the consent agenda seen hearing none the consent agenda is approved except for those two items and they will become item three I'm sorry yeah we did get a second item three would be memorandum zero six eight under F and item four will be item one three zero all right thank you that brings us to section f are action items we're going to begin with memorandum number 27. can I get up most motion to approve D Madam president I moved to approve AST memorandum number one two seven approval of land acknowledgments is the administration's recommendation that the school board approved the following land acknowledgment language for a second moved in second to approve uh the uh memo number 127 the approval of land the land acknowledgment we have
076one person signed up to speak nope not on that one no it's on the next one we have no one signed up to speak any discussion remember Jacobs yeah thank you madam president I just wanted to thank Dr Brian's Administration for the collaboration and work that's um been undertaken since the board passed the memorandum which tasked Administration was taking this step and I'm looking forward to any subsequent follow-up administrative regulations that might be required to kind of finalize our thorough and documented process for the use of the acknowledgment so appreciate it thank you thank you any other discussion comment same none we'll do a Voice vote please foreign lessons yes member Wilson yes member Jacobs yes member Holloman yes member Donnelly yes member Higgins president Bellamy yes and that motion passes unanimously thank you moving
077on to item two under action memorandum number one three two president I moved to approve his team in random number 132 relocate Alaska native cultural charter school or anccs for school year 23 tour the administration recommends that the Anchorage School Board approve and authorize the superintendent to relocate anccs from their current location at pity Davis East Anchorage High School to the building currently serving as Abbott Loop Elementary School in addition the anccs pre-k program will relocate from Mountain View so they can consolidate education operations second moved in second to approve memoranda number one three two we have Mr Patterson signed up to speak welcome you have three minutes uh thank you uh hello my name is Michael Patterson and I'm a parent member of the uh anccs uh APC I'm speaking for myself uh I
078want to keep the shirt I just want to thank the school board and the administration for working with anccs and a thoughtful and professional manner I can generally say that interacting and working with ASD since I've started working on the APC uh has given me a lot of relief because I know Anchorage students are in good hands and I if people know me personally I never say anything good about any municipal government entity in Anchorage so it's a moment um you know and um and regardless of your decision tonight uh I look forward to working with the school board and the administration in the future um and thank you I yield the rest of my time thank you Mr Patterson right uh member Jacobs you want to kick us off yes thank you madam president
079as a an avid watcher of Anchorage assembly meetings I can vouch for Mr Patterson's testimonies um I did want to thank the administration for um first focusing on Abbott Loop elementary students and getting that the transition plan situated for them I think quickly after that need was taken care of moving to support the students and families of anccs it's another long-standing challenge I think the the district is going to be able to address which is heartening and kudos to the policy Committee of the Alaska native cultural Charter School they've been dealing with a lot of uncertainty and non-ideal academic situations resulting from being stored upstairs in the hallway of one of our amazing campuses but it's still a hallway and so um I'm excited to see the positive outcomes that will occur from this transition
080and I'm fully in support of it thank you thank you very much other comments member lessons and then member Wilson uh I just wanted to Echo some of them are Jacob's comments um until you see the learning that is happening in the constrained space you can't really understand how much of a challenge that their current circumstances are bringing to to that learning environment to that learning opportunity to um to the play that should be taking place in a playground that's fully functional but it's kind of an ad hoc playground to the lunch space um so I I'm eager for our elasticated cultural Charter students to have all the spaces that they need and deserve um and again I do appreciate the care concern that has been focused on the Abbott Loop students and I think
081that the five-year timeline is an appropriate amount of time to create a new path forward for the community thank you member lessons you know that timeline was set by the Fire Marshals not ASD remember uh yeah yeah Higgins that's okay I understand [Music] I uh I want to Echo of course the appreciation for it uh this school is only a few blocks away from me and I can tell you that the community council looks forward to actually on the east side of that there was land Parkland and they had worked it out that they were going to fence it in put in some fruit trees and some other stuff for students to be engaged in that's how strongly supportive the the community is there of this coming in so this is um win-win-win and what's
082most important is win for the kids they're going into a safe environment location not going to some place that's not doesn't meet the standards they're going into a community that's really looking forward to receiving them they don't want to see the school closed they like this a lot and then they're looking at a partnership to make this school uh uh really something special for the kids with that with that extra land that the park has there right by the creek and they they got plans for that so is some I look forward to this I greatly appreciate the way the administration worked with the charter school when I got on school started school in 2008 it was kind of like they want to be on their own go find their own place and it was
083really negative um today I like the attitude and the approach we got to hold people accountable but I appreciate the idea we want all kids and that includes the charter schools to be in safe schools and it means a lot so thank you superintendent and thank you member Higgins all right remember Wilson so I won't repeat much of what I heard which is very positive and I appreciate that from the other school board members but I've had the opportunity to tour anccs multiple times and one thing that stuck out to me was what they really enjoy um or will enjoy is the opportunity to do the outdoor cultural learning activities that they they haven't been able to really enjoy in the space that they're in so I'm very excited about that for them they they
084really missed some of those opportunities um and those opportunities for community members to come in and show those students those cultural activities outdoors so I'm super excited that they'll have that space back thank you what about you Dr Bryant comments I as was stated uh the the current situation for that charter school is not ideal for fulfilling its Mission so uh we were pleased to be able to support them uh during this temporary transition so I hope eventually they can find a permanent home uh and fulfill their incredible mission for years to come thank you all right any other questions or comments so the timeline uh do we have a timeline on the move or is that something you'll bring back later you can answer that we're going to do the bulk of the move
085during Memorial Day weekend because there's construction at East um immediately after that and before that so we have a short window so we're going to move only the items that need to be moved and we've been working with the principal um and APC president for a number of months now on on finalizing this plan um but it'll be moved and they'll be set up before school starts okay thank you very much any other comments I know okay let's vote member Jacobs yes remember Donnelly yes remember Higgins member Wilson yes member lessons yes member Holloman yes president Bellamy yes and that passes unanimously thank you everybody and congratulations to ANC a nccs thank you next item three F3 memory memorandum number zero six eight um Madam president I moved to approve AST memorandum number zero six
086eights Award of Professional Services agreement should get a high school roof replacement and restoration uh recommended actions to approve the selection of Rim Architects as the designer of record for Chugiak high school roof replacement restoration and authorize the superintendent to enter into a contract with room Architects for Professional Services in the amount of 879 000 38 dollars for the purpose of Design Services a second moved in second to approve memorandum zero six eight uh member lessons you pulled it sure thank you um well I think I understand that the funds are available they came from the 2019 Bond if I'm correct um it does strike me that it may be worth tabling this until we re-engage with a six-year CIP which would be next fall um according to my my general understanding of our timeline
087um so that is my my a brief version of my thinking at this point any other comments I I my only question would be timing and I think it's on the agenda for uh Dr Brian do you want to address the timing on this one sure Mr Anderson would you like to provide some insight yes so um as you know chigiak is an old school that Ruff has been leaking that hundred thousand plus square feet for quite a number of years and the leaks are only getting worse as it has gone past its life expectancy it's going to take a good six to eight months to get the design complete and approved in order to start doing a contract to repair that roof or replace it hopefully as early as the following summer so we're
088really talking about damage to the interior the building and the infrastructure um I'm not sure what the CIP discussion might be unless the board is willing to consider closing a number of schools before August or discussing that I'm not I'm not sure where I remember lessons when it to take that discussion so I guess I would ask as to the intent paper lessons well the intent is to be thoughtful before spending eight hundred thousand dollars um on a project that would ultimately cost 16 and a half million dollars as it's the re the replacement um given the tenuous circumstances that I feel like we find ourselves in as a district right now and so we've got a lot of roofie we have a lot of leaky roofs in the ASE and I acknowledge the age
089the need and I am simply suggesting that we able until we have a better path a better vision of what our future may hold um member Jacobs yeah thank you president um so I was hoping to get a better understanding of um [Music] this funding comes from a prior Bond do we also have approved bond funds to complete the roof replacement work or is that something we intend to bond for and I'm trying to pull up our six-year CIP as I speak now so is that information available [Music] um actually we would bond for that again it's going to take a significant amount of time um to come up with the design for this and then depending on what the cost is I think most of you are aware now that when we do a
090rough order of magnitude cost it's about 25 percent accurate based off prior things and so estimates for those can can be wildly off from a 65 design or or higher um but generally um you know you have to get a design done to actually know what it's going to cost and the full extent follow up yeah thank you Mr Rangers could do do you know I'm going to give them trying to pull up the document I'm not having luck yet what year we at least according to our current CIP we may bond for the Chugiak roof replacement at this point um fortunately we have Larry Morris who's an expert in all things and he just signaled that it's 2024. did you have a follow-up remember Jacobs you might thank you I was thinking which probably
091was best with my mic off um I am wondering if if we're intending to bond 424 and I I second member lessons comments about wanting a more in-depth conversation about all things Capital improvement in our CIP and I think I've shared this with Mr Anderson as well um I think we need to Circle back to it sooner rather than later um if because I'm not sure the board will want or what the board wants on its in its next Bond proposition I think we need to continue to be strategic until um school bond debt reimbursement funding comes back from the state and it will come back at a reduced level I think 50 once the moratorium ends and so I'm hoping to to re-review that and see what we're comfortable with and so I guess
092I'm wondering if this can wait for a certain period of time or if this is something that we really think needs to be on the 24 Bond um ahead of any other projects so curious about that too I guess right Larry now go up to that main table there's also structural issues involved so I think we can answer as in depth as you would like while you guys are coming forward I'm um this was on the consent agenda that got moved down to the action item and I'm a little I'm a little surprised but at the same time it's it's board members prerogative to pull whatever items they'd like even if I mean there I can't see a scenario where we're not going to repair this roof I I just can't see it even if
093we even if we put it off eventually or and don't even move if we don't use the building we need to repurpose the building so I'm struggling with why this is coming up at this point in time Madam president could I put a point on maybe the question I was trying to get to a minute ago sure okay um so I guess my question is regardless of what the board uh what what the board may choose to discuss regarding the CIP is it going to be administration's recommendation that this particular project be on the 2024 bond is it that urgent of a project expensive okay you hear me okay all right this project was bonded for the design as part of after the earthquake all of our schools had what was called the tier one
094uh seismic evaluation done when this was all roof projects now for the last three years have also had tier twos done which goes into depth of anything that's that we find also we have what's called uh we check for over stress and any drift issues old codes did not take into account snow drift as you've seen from the last winter snow drift has become a bit of an issue on roofs so we've taken that into account we had that performed and in fact we do have some structural issues of which with it we had a I would call it a 15 design on what the corrections would be as well as an estimate which we're looking at at least three and a half million dollars worth of structural issues to go so besides designing the
095new roof we are also having to design the structural fixes and so that's going to take some time to get done and therefore it's such that my recommendation is to move it to the 2024 Bond so that as soon as we get the design done we would in the late summer of 2024 put it out to bid uh so that contract bidding through contract and notice to proceed is about three months therefore if any steel has to be ordered delivered and be available it would be so that we can in fact get this done during the summer uh construction season while school's not in session 2025 correct other questions okay remember lessons so they have maybe a point of clarification I think I pulled up the correct CIP which says that it would be under
096the 2025 Bond so or is that referring to when construction we we have not made the new CIP there will be multiple changes from the CIP the board saw last fall to the CIP that you will see next fall some of those changes will be not putting on automatically rebuilding schools but going towards um you know refurbishing the schools or renewals um some of the other things the board's been talking about and then there'll be some other um other changes in timelines chess based off what we've seen with some of these engineer studies of the buildings um in the past six months so um we do plan on building a brief to show the board so we can talk through what is the new methodology going forward in the development of a CIP go through
097with the board to talk through what are the metrics that are being used to prioritize and what do they actually mean and so when you see the CIP as it starts developing it won't be a surprise I think all of us have looked at the spreadsheet and looked at it over a six-year period and gone down and and done that but but we'll also have some different visuals to try to show that project as it goes through its life cycle on buildings or types of buildings whether it's the five prototypicals from the 90s or the the eight prototypicals from the 80s those things that are really groups and chunks of like type buildings that are all ultimately going to need something similar we're going to try to make that a little more clearer and easier
098to understand not just for board members but for the public and and frankly ourselves internally [Music] we won't have that ready in two weeks though other questions comments remember Holloman um do you foresee other projects that should yeah say five or six years out that would require bonding but then being I don't remember them being on anything I've seen six years out but it doesn't mean that in in the design as they're looking at structure that there won't be other other issues identified that might change that but at least right now I'm unaware of any comments seeing them the motion is to approve uh zero six eight ready to vote member Holloman yes member Wilson yes member Donnelly yes remember Higgins yes member lessons no member Jacobs yes president Bellamy yes and that passes six
099to six years one day that brings us to F4 memorandum number one three zero what is the will of the board Madam president I moved to approve the SD memorandum number one three zero approval of funding allocations of major maintenance Capital Improvement Grant funds uh recommended actions to improve and authorize the allocation of 5.32 million from the State's Department of Education Capital Improvement major maintenance Grant award funds towards Safety and Security projects across the district second moved in second to approve remember lessons you pulled it yeah I think there's a lot of really um well I appreciate uh the memo it's a response to a lot of conversations that took place in the fall um you know given what I think that I heard about a lot of other leaky roofs I guess I was
100curious about um the immediacy of fire alarm panels sound really important but you know so are a lot of the groups that we saw photos of with offices classrooms work rooms totally disrupted and un you know upended and I just I wonder if the administration could talk about why fire alarm panels in particular were the optimal path forward in this memo oh sure I can talk through that so fire alarm panels are absolutely required these are outdated they're no longer maintained or they are maintained as best we can but you can't get parts that can't be upgraded and um let's go back to Abbott Loop that didn't have a fire suppression system the reason the fire marshal let us still occupy that um facility is because it had an enhanced fire alarm system so if
101there was anything smoking the walls anything else we knew that we could get every student and staff member out of that building and plenty of time without a fire detection system your level of risk and liability if there's a fire inside a wall like happened at Aquarian um and and fortunately they had a fire fire alarm that that picked it up even though the fire suppression system didn't go off because there wasn't heat and Flames um it's a requirement and if you upgrade it if you replace it now the ADA rules have changed in the last many decades where it also has to be voice activated so it can't just replace it one we can't repair them two if you replace it it has to be ADA Compliant so it's really truly a safety concern
102other comments questions [Music] seeing any did you okay seeing in here and then let's vote the motion before you is to approve memorandum number one three zero remember Wilson yes member Jacobs yes member Donnelly yes member lessons yes member Holloman yes member Higgins yes president Bellamy yes thank you and that passes unanimously moving on to item G are non-action items they will come back before us at our next meeting uh H is uh we don't have any other additional public comment so that brings us to I superintendent's update thank you madam president uh good evening ASD Borden Community I'll keep my comments brief tonight the administration is preparing to manage quite a few positive changes over the next several months including shifting to a new Ela curriculum for K3 and laying the groundwork for moving
103sixth grade to Middle School in 24-25 will also now be supporting anccs with their relocation to the Abbott Loop facility um while the intent is for this relocation to be temporary this move will support the school in fulfilling its Mission and we're happy to support in that effort we'll also continue to support Abbott Loop students and families with having an intentional transition to their new schools next year looking ahead to our next board meeting we'll have a number of major decisions to make including a possible adjustment to school start times and district-wide professional learning communities these are major decisions that would impact all families and the Greater Community and we're happy to provide information to the board over the next couple of weeks to inform your decision and lastly I want to recognize the school
104business Partnerships who coordinate at a great luncheon at King Tech High last week to recognize incredible businesses who support our students I had the privilege of selecting Mr Rich Owens for the superintendent award who has been incredible leader that's raised support for schools and Mentor students for many years and as we begin to plan our college career and life Readiness transformation our school business partners will play an essential role in connecting students to opportunities that concludes my report thank you Dr Bryant any questions for Dr Brian yes member lessons I have two questions and I'm going to ask them in one sentence um are our curricular materials for the ELA adoption on on track are they going to be on the boat on time to get here when we need them um and what is
105the curricular framework going to be for summer school which is sort of awkwardly positioned between an outgoing curriculum and an incoming curriculum okay great questions that I do not know offhand um I'll give my team an opportunity to see if they know offhand if not we can put that easily in board connect by Friday I think we'd be looking at board connect by Friday thank you happy if that good member lessons or connections and the questions were about curriculum are things on are you know we are we on track through things and does it seem like our teachers will get them in a timely fashion and then um what will the summer school I guess that sort of early learning framework be will it be continuing with what we have or will you know things
106show up before the June um start time and then be implemented at that point thank you any other questions comments say none that brings us to our last item next to last item and that is our board comments um who wants to kick us off remember Donnelly let's start with you online president um I remain concerned that some of the public testimony identifying some of the books appearing in some of our school libraries may put us in violation of state law and I'm hoping the administration is doing a thorough examination of that issue and that's my comment for tonight thank you thank you member Donnelly all right so remember Higgins [Music] um well my um last go-boy meeting I was in Orlando with the National School Board Association I have to say there were two
107three sessions that really set me off it really just had me focused one was just what are the um what they're doing a study on correlations to decide what makes it what what factors make a difference on effective School boards and that is in the early part of the study but it's going to be real interesting when we see the results of it so uh that's video you can look at it it's difficult for me to do a whole lot of conclusions on it yet they presented a lot of information but it was being presented in a developmental stage and so there was still some questions in there it was interesting because they had you know they got to the issue of low performing students and you've got within I think um the number of
108the school districts they had uh Native Americans were at the top and the other ones it was African-Americans at the top it was it was interesting because these These are significant schools to do that and I was just surprised I'm saying wait a minute um you know this is they're putting things together that is challenging the the the questions the second session I went to they asked the question what's chat GPT and I had no idea what that was and probably 20 percent of the members there may have known what it was and when you got to understand the artificial intelligence components of it what it's doing it was challenging how are we going to change education how do we prepare kids when you have the the what artificial intelligence is looking like it's performing
109and how quickly it's being implemented um and and that was an interesting discussion but the last one was one of the two people behind artificial intelligence gave a presentation and they had it in 2010 Steve Jobs wanted to buy it they said no in six months later he tried again and told them how make a big difference so they finally did but they're looking at this thing it's it's such a unbelievably growth standpoint how quickly is growing you the internet was a 10-year-like duration this thing you know is is multiplying times 10 the the size of it and the effectiveness of it in two months is going through the ceiling uh you've got large I.T groups because reducing staff and you got other things Google just paid 10 billion for the for a for the
110AI components that they bought but their capability is unreal they're saying rapidly this year looking at things exceeding everything they can capture and put everything that's known and input information system that same thing is possible accessible in one programming and you got a a program that has creativity in it um he gave an example where he said I wanted to see a a scary face with a bowl of noodles and wool he didn't know what that would look like and the computer put together one it was a bowl with a little a little bit of noodles at the bottom looked more like a chain it had a wall across the eyes and like a like a mask and two eyes it was interesting but the computer created that without any reference it's creating itself the
111new things and it's just scary what's out there um I don't know how to prepare kids for when they're going to graduate now I mean I'm looking at that saying and that was part of the discussion in there we really focus on what needs to be taught for schools and they are challenging that thing at the high level and it's appropriate um if you want a a book comparison you want to book report you want 850 Awards you want it at a sixth grade level you want it to be humorous you want this it will print it for you my wife had to go and check it out and said okay I've got a husband this age and he's entp and he's ADHD what is he gonna like doing he gave a list and it
112looked like it was a perfect match that was kind of scary to me um but the creativity part the things what they're saying is we need a better focus on them being able to know how to ask what it is that you want more less than doing it low level skills are going to be a higher priority well that's kind of interesting assessment of it um but the the growth of this like the internet like is like this and so I thought we were dealing with 20 years from now we're not even dealing with 20 months from now uh it's that it's here today and I don't know what we should be doing from an educational standpoint at this time to respond to help kids be prepared for something like this um and I just
113hope we get really a good Focus type boob I've got a National School Board Association that's going to be heavily focused on this but this this outcome is a game changer and uh the bad news is it kept me awake is I remember Stephen Hawkins came out with a list of 10 things that will likely be the cause of the in-demand you know the the asteroid of course right the biological and one of the ten was AI artificial intelligence would be one of the 10 ways that man could be wiped out a little bit like Terminator and everything else but whatever um he put it in the top ten and this thing how what he's going to do is kind of interesting so I just proposed that everybody just take a well I don't know
114uh we're gonna have to talk about it and think about it but somehow it's going to take a big movement to go in that direction thank you foreign [Music] another way would be to start naming all the board members until you get to the one I've watched that happen too AI is is it brings us all the tears really um we we did in fact have a we did pass up a new policy about chat GPT but in a way it was a very limited policy right it was a are these my board member comments um okay all right um right we we don't want students to rely on it as that crutch to produce the 150 word essay and I do think it's fundamentally important that we think about how do we get our
115students to ask the questions of tomorrow to get ahead of this because um they have a very different feature ahead of them than graduates of 5 or 10 or 20 or 30 years ago um so I'm glad that you had a um strong conversation about chat GPT um okay so I I'll just keep going um I recently attended asd's gifted mentorship celebration right here in this room with 50 some odd uh students they're mentors um it was really an extraordinary example of partnership uh these students are working with community Professionals for four or five months they're shadowing they are they're doing the Dirty Work and veterinary offices and labor and delivery rooms and in astronomy Labs it's a really remarkable celebration of that partnership um I also had the privilege of speaking at the large
116group Orchestra event performance there was an adjudicator who was invited to help students from Chugiak Eagle River service unless get some really fabulous feedback on their performances and I also appreciate the board support as they traveled to Juno last week on behalf of ASD to really share information with our legislators about asd's laser focus on our goals um to suggest some possible scenarios of different funding possibilities and I really spoke with individuals on a one-to-one basis on the importance of trust and I think it was a really good conversation I also got delayed there from Russian volcanic ash and one of the upsides was that I got to watch Thunderbird ukulele from Betty Davis East High School um open at the Alaska Folk Festival on Saturday evening and they got a standing ovation and did
117a fabulous job um so they were there as part of a really sizable Grant from some Community Foundation whose Name Escapes me but kudos to them we'll go back to member Jacobs thank you madam president for not making me follow the appointment marks of member Higgins um I wanted to start with something a bit more mundane and mentioned that earlier this month I had the privilege of um I'm seeing a a orchestra concert at Bartlett High School there were students from gruning Romig Wendler Mirror Lake and mirrors present and it was a privilege to watch them perform I didn't realize before attending how many and there were dozens of Staff involved with the production of the event and so learning more about how much time and dedication it took to what that depends on was
118really humbling so congratulations to all those students and thank you for the staff and families for making that possible uh in addition earlier this week I had to I guess was last week I had the chance to attend the recognition of Deeds uh purple Star Award to uh for ASD schools joining the the schools we already have in the program um it was um heartening to see the extra supports that our district provides to military children and the challenges that that they navigate through their K-12 journey in addition to our families so congratulations there and then wanted to give a special shout out to Mr fleckenstein and his it team this weekend there was some uncertainty as member lessons mentioned about staff being well the legislators actually being able to return home and there were
119a number of constituent Outreach events and testimony opportunities and there was an event at Chester Valley this weekend that was scheduled to occur and Rit team stepped in and prepared a contingency plan to allow Representatives rights mirrors and Senator Wilkowski to be able to connect with their constituents should the most unfortunate situation occur they had a alternative plan ready to utilize the school for their Zoom needs in an instant and so we we have a great team we knew that and so but thank you Dr Brian for supporting them and appreciate Mike everything you folks do in your work so those are my remarks thank you madam president thank you very much okay member Wilson [Music] it's been a busy time for everybody which is awesome so I got to attend the school Business Partnership
120luncheon as well I've had the privilege of being on that board for we won't talk about how many years at this point but I've had the um pleasure of working with Rich Owens for many years and he's been extremely committed to ASD students and as far as hiring many of them as well in his business um so I'm super excited that that you had the opportunity to recognize him um as he moves into retirement which is very exciting for him as well um I want to recognize our fantastic MC at that event MJ he did an amazing job and thank you to the board members that had the opportunity to attend I know um everybody wanted to but we all have really busy schedules so that was that was lots of fun I really enjoyed
121that I also had the opportunity to tour the Dome I've got a we all got an invitation to come to tour of the Dome there was I went on a Saturday and boy the parking was really difficult to find a spot because we had so many of our ASD students there running track there was um it was just it was plumpful with with students and as a mom who um as a parent who paid for their kids to play comp soccer I'm really happy that the many of our students have the opportunity through ASD to use those facilities and enjoy lots of the experiences that they get to through their athletic programs here which is very cool um also I wanted to recognize that at the school Business Partnership luncheon the last there was Alaska
122native dance group from Windler middle school so we had students middle school students performing we had students from hanshu middle school that were assisting at that program they were extremely well spoken I was very impressed with those students and then our King Tech culinary class staff and students served a wonderful meal so they always do a phenomenal job there and have amazing customer service skills so thank you to them as well also wanted to share that it's graduation season and if you'd like to show your senior Pride ASD is once again producing yard signs to honor our graduates and there's more information on the website if you want any of any of those signs to to put out to honor our graduates and I have been informed that ESD will be doing an attendance campaign
123next year I know that was part of the discussion earlier on um and we've partnered with jber to keep hosting the Purple Heart schools event which is great I thank you for remember Jacobs for attending that event as well our next board meeting is May 9th and please join us we're going to have our annual Denali awards at that board meeting and our next communication meeting is going to be next Thursday April 27th at I think we're at noon I believe we're new yep thank you thank you member Wilson remember Holloman and I'll say the next governance committee meeting will be right out said um immediately following the the communications committee meeting um I had a Alaska Association of school boards board meeting which caused me to miss the middle school debate championships but they
124are back on they're happening it's an incredible event if you ever get the chance to go um it is is an awesome event that uh heavily promoted and pushed by uh Mr Johnson from UAA and our our high school teams work on it really hard because they want practice middle school students coming to their high school so they can continue their dominance it's a winning strategy it's uh but it turns out to be a lot of community service as well they do a terrific um job with it I'll also say a friend of mine related to me just recently uh he retired last year but is subbing back in the same school which is fun because you still know some of the students and and you're very familiar with everything uh he was working with
125a group of students they're not strong writers but they had an assignment to write a thank you letter about something and he said one in particular was just incredibly well done just um just a really well written and expressive and when he commented to the student how impressed he was with it students said well I use chat GPT to to write it um and there there are interesting thing that another uh graduate from our system that works with drones and files federal grants to repair rural airfields as chat GPT set up on its own server and used it to write a Federal Grant and he said it's reading off of his data he looked over the paperwork for about four or five minutes and then filed it and this is something it would normally consume
126some hours of work in preparing and so yeah people are using this in real life to save time and make money um there's there's going to be a huge demand for it as people began begin to understand how it can be used for things that we previously did not think about being automated but but it's there so uh it is it is going to change education um we thought pocket calculators were evil this this is going to be a lot worse especially as things keep getting smaller and smaller and things happen um I did spend a few days in Juneau also um all of mine were intentional unlike member lessons uh we've got some really strong allies and I would urge everybody that supports public education and all of our board members please do find
127time to testify uh if we're testifying to groups that are pushing force like Senate Finance they need the public comment to back them up and uh if there are groups that are trying to hold us back they need to hear from us as well so that everything is balanced uh there was a lot of positive energy in the building and uh there's a lot of a lot of good stuff happening down there but it's really unpredictable what the outcomes are going to be but uh very interesting and entertaining trip and for anyone that did see my picture in the newspaper I had been outside in the rain and my hair is thinning but it looked a lot worse in that picture other than that it was a great trip right let's go to Michelle [Music]
128the only thing I had to say is well okay two things it is prom season so um member Wilson South Prom was at change point on Saturday so that might have explained some of your parking issues um but yeah super excited to see um I know we've had a couple successful Proms and the rest of them to follow um and last meeting our next meeting will be my last one so after that I will no longer be an ASD student so after that it will go over to Josh so right and we are excited to have Josh but we're heartbroken but you're leaving us okay so I I just want to thank um I just want to make a couple of comments one this is the most um obviously the funniest board I've ever worked
129on number two the most active in terms of advocacy um I don't know remember lessons this is this is her other full-time job advocacy and talking to legislators Sometimes good sometimes well we have to pull her off but that's good that's good and I want to thank her and a member uh Holloman for dropping everything going to Juno to represent our 44 000 plus students their families and our 5 000 employees because that's what it's going to take I also want to thank the superintendent and the staff for answering all of the questions I mean I get them and then I need to some I can answer right away others it's kind of like I don't want it to be used in the wrong way so let me get I have to call a friend
130and so whenever I've called a friend be it the superintendent or anybody on that wall I have gotten a response so I appreciate that um and then finally I just um we are going to Miss Ellie but we are also this is this whole thing is about continuous Improvement so when one door closes another one opens and um we're we're going we're hoping that um yeah as you enter college and did you hear back from that other award yet not yet okay end of the month okay so next meeting hopefully all right so I'll keep it a surprise and with that um I will not lead with member Higgins again because when he said his wife I thought I would die I'm still dying anyway that's it that's all I have for tonight um but
131anyway thank you guys uh and we can move Twitter [Music] any opposition on we get out of here