001whatever today is Monday March 20th we'd like to welcome everyone to our school board meeting uh member board members present in the boardroom we have members Holloman uh lessons Donnelly Jacobs and Bellamy we also have member Higgins somewhere he was just here he'll be back and then online we will have if you do all right member member Wilson will join online I will let you know I will let the record know when she's on uh with that uh we also have our superintendent with us this evening with that we'll move to our land acknowledgment and our opening statement Michelle first the Pledge yes pledge allegiance to the flag States of America and to the Republic for which is fans one nation under God an indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign School Board I
002want 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 Michelle again we'd like to welcome you to our meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the work of the Anchorage School Board the board would like to thank our students parents teachers staff School business partners and the entire Community for your Investments both in our district with your
003time your talents and your tax dollars this brings us to item A3 which is our approval of the agenda president [Music] remember Higgins second um it's been is there any uh opposition to approving the agenda as presented member Wilson is online yes on the agenda I was writing the thing you asked us to work on um I'm concerned about um I'm trying to get it up on my you know hang on just a second okay I'm concerned about the the late edition of the in the non-action items uh memorandum 129. I know it's based on the letter the superintendent issued on Friday when exactly was public notice given that this item would be in added to our agenda remember Donnie it has been a placeholder on the agenda since Tuesday then we uh and we
004have if that is consistent with the way we have operated and it was posted prior to 4 pm on Friday okay all right well my point is that typical typical posting Somebody by 4 P.M on Friday would give people until the following Tuesday to become aware of it and to prepare a response or testimony but since today's kind of an unusual meeting be on a Monday it's significantly less time that would normally be available for complying with the minimum time period uh Miss 72 hours but I in the past I remember us issuing things on Friday on a pretty standard for stages not just Saturday I just think that that it's pretty short notice um and I'd really like to see it postponed on the action agenda until the next meeting so I'll just it
005is not action tonight never done well I'm sorry the non-action agenda to the next meeting so I would move that ASD memorandum 129 instead of appearing tonight on the non-action agenda appear at our next scheduled meeting on the non-action agenda is there a second hearing none that motion fails we are back to uh approving the agenda as presented we'll take a Voice vote thank you member Higgins member Holloman yes member lessons yes member Jacobs yes member Wilson yes member Donnelly no president Bellamy yes and that motion passes six to one the agenda is approved as presented uh next we go to Item B our reports student report today so Sab or student Advisory Board held their past meeting on February 14th and we do have our next meeting tomorrow morning at 8 15 in the
006morning where we will hear from our Juno attendees who went down for the legislative session with some of our school board members who are we will be hearing a report for them from them excuse me um we'll be hearing what challenges schools have overcome or any accomplishments um we'll be hearing from Eagle River Stellar Clark Wendler and Bartlett for our school spotlights um and then we will continue our discussion about the ASW oh sorry aasa vote resolution brought to you by Eagle River and then we'll hear one from Diamond about the snow days and suspensions resolution um and then we'll have a discussion about the school start time and then we will have our upcoming elections for the rest of our executive board positions to set for next school year so yeah right thank you
007are there any questions for Michelle member Jacobs [Music] um Anchorage assembly is Seeking a youth representative for their body applications are not being accepted online through the 30th and I believe it's going to be covered at the next Sav meeting um so I wanted to give that information a plug here as well thank you when is the next meeting Michelle tomorrow morning hey any other questions or comments for Michelle all right thank you that moves us now to our go uh item C on our agenda our goal monitoring report for our CCL our college career and life Readiness gold so we're going to have our conversation regarding um interim goals number 3.1 and 3.2 um these reports were given to us at the last meeting uh before we begin our discussion um I'd like to
008confirm that all four components of the monitoring report are present um we will be looking specifically at increasing the number of students in grades 9 through 12. that complete the eighth nine through twelve completion of the AP uh courses of a great upgrades a b or c we will also be looking at completing a financial literacy course um that that will will have to of course put more um data behind uh because we don't have the data yet complete you will notice it says the percentage of 9 through 12 students successfully completing a financial literary literacy course with a grade A B or C will increase from a percentage to be determined this year 2023 to um whatever percentage we decide for 2024 when we use our end-of-year data so the report clearly shows what
009is being monitored the data is also also includes three reporting periods the current reporting period and the target reporting periods the report shows the superintendent's assessment of the evaluation performance and the report shows um documents that shows the documentation that evidence is the superintendent's evaluation in the tables that are provided as well as in the uh next steps that are indicated in the report so with all the components being present we'll begin our monitoring conversation I'd like to start with the who the what's and the whys questions if we have them uh if we can do you want I'd like to ask the committee do you want to start with uh AP course or do you want to start with literacy I think whatever your pleasure is madam president okay so let's just start with
010the AP we'll start with the AP discussion um so with that logic in mind we will then move to uh after we're done with our who what and whys we'll move to the how questions all right so we can open up our floor to discussion um I do know that with uh with spring break uh being upon us that um we didn't we weren't as timely as we would like to have been with our questions uh but we appreciate your efforts anyway so let's uh start our discussion remember lessons you want to kick us off sure um this is not a who or what it's a did question okay all right um so I was struck on slide three that the years that we had students in online learning 1920 and 20 to 21 we
011had a greater percentage of students passing than in the other years on that slide deck and thinking back to my own high school years um my EP courses maybe are can be very engaging there's also maybe a lot of Independent Learning and I'm just wondering if there was something well did something work well in online learning for EP courses in particular and if so what did that look like or what my what was the secret sauce if I could kick us off with this one so I was actually an assistant superintendent over Advanced academics during the pandemic and one of the interesting things that happened was that um the College Board had to Pivot to online advanced placement testing as well in fact they completely redid the format so that way that students could even
012take the tests from their cell phone if they could because they were trying to be really mindful of access to technology and internet so the format was very different and across the board Nationwide passing rates went up but it created this multi-year dialogue around how to make the the test more inclusive and to you know create Blended models and that sort of thing but all of that to say it was a very strange year like a lot of things in that year but as can imagine when the pandemic hit in March 2020 there was a lot of anxiety for high school seniors specifically when it came to whether they could take their tests or not and the College Board did deliver on that promise all right thank you Dr Bryant you have a follow-up Yeah
013you sort of go back and forth but we're not measuring test like how well students are testing actually in any of this and that was one of my sort of ancillary questions is that we're looking at or students completing with an a b or c so I think one of the questions that I had was um how does how does our students passing with a passing grade align with uh getting a passing score on an AP exam and is that data that we're tracking but I am still interested in if there's anything that went well in online learning for AP classes that could then be applied in other scenarios sure through the president to member lessons I'll start out with what worked well um one of the things that does work well about online AP
014exams or courses and completing those courses online is the accessibility for kids many students who want to take an AP courses only offered one one class period during the day and so by taking it online they can Flex with whatever their schedule is if there's conflicts in the scheduling process and then that way they're not eliminated from taking the AP exam or the course itself the alignment of grades a b or c is based on college readiness research at the national level and it equates to more Readiness when they get to the college level if they've obtained an a b or c in their AP course um and and the research goes even further it's not even just about completing the course or passing the exam it's just the experience itself um that the research
015says an AP course provides just by participating in a course at the rigor of the advanced placement level students have more college readiness when they when they get to that level so those are some of the things that work well in particular when you look at online AP coursework that we offer through Apex there is a significant review portion to the Apex curriculum that does work very well to prep kids for the AP exam itself so that's what's working well about online coursework and AP for anchor school district and I'll turn it over to Chris talk a little bit more about your data question yeah thank you so um it is some some something that we can provide I just want to give a little bit of clarification it is a significant amount of sort
016of manual labor simply because from the vendor it's what we in our world we call it it's not clean data so there's a lot of actual manual hand work in terms of matching students and so it would probably be best for an RFI process because it would take some time and yeah I guess it's it would be of interest but it just seems kind of timely I mean there were some slides uh in the legend shared in the legislature this past week with respect to X number of students in Miami-Dade University passing you know a three or higher on uh their AP exams and that wasn't something that I knew whether or not we were tracking here so I don't know if that's worth stop time or not yeah so to to kind of address
017your question we do track the passing rates um by school and by course um and so we do look at those and we've we've been in front of the board on a number of different times talking about equal opportunity schools and the work that we're doing to increase enrollment of all different types of students in advanced placement um part of that work is looking at those Pass rates um and creating an environment that makes kids more successful once they're in that that advanced placement course environment so we are tracking those um but Chris is right it is manual labor when we get the the information from college board um it's by school it's by individual student it doesn't compute well with our data systems and so we do a lot of hand tracking both at
018the school level and between our two offices so I just have a question on us I guess uh what are the barriers to AP classes I mean what would because I know it's all self-determined by the student and their and their family pretty much they know about it I mean I never had an AP class I never did my whole life um my kids did um so I was informed through them as to the importance what this meant for my kids so I guess I want to know what are the barriers and then how do we how have we uh adjusted um in commitment to this goal how have we adjusted our practice sure great question Madam president so um that's that's always an evolving process um of of awareness of AP and what it
019can do for students and I think we've grown tremendously in in the most recent times especially through our equal opportunities schools work but some of the barriers it really depends individually on each student but some of the barriers are just as you you kind of explain from your personal experience um just awareness of advanced placement and the benefits of being in that rigorous course environment um and what it can do for you later if you're headed on the college track um and um so schools are part of the the work that they are doing at the high school level is hosting parent nights to educate them they're hosting informational sessions for students they are also doing peer-to-peer individual invitations because oftentimes for teenagers that's more impactful than their parents telling them they need to take
020a course um and so you know if a high school student who looks like them and and presents like them um is saying yeah you can do this and you should take this course next year and this is what's cool about this course so this is what you really do this is really exciting about this course that builds more excitement for students to want to enroll in the course the following year so there's a number of those strategies that are taking place but often it's about awareness it's about feeling like do they belong or not belong in that environment um and and part of the work we're doing there is to create a more welcoming environment in the advanced placement classroom itself in in our history there has been and this is not just an
021ASD but nationally kind of this idea that you should weed your kids out as a teacher because you only want the the brightest in the classroom to take that advanced placement course and the philosophy around that has very much shifted to we want as many kids who want to be in the course to be there and then we want to create a supportive environment so that they're successful in the course as well so those are all things that we're working on at could just chime in I think one that's the most important thing is making sure that advanced placement can be inclusive because all sorts of students can be successful in advanced placement course and it's important to know that there are differing levels of success depending on which course that you're enrolling in there
022are a lot of courses where students can do very well but they may not give it a chance because of that advanced label so it's important that our staff are aware that all students can be successful in AP and that's the philosophy of the College Board as well but I do want to highlight a specific strategy being implemented by equal opportunity schools which is a partner that we have and essentially their intent is to increase the number of students from underserved backgrounds to go into AP courses but I think the really interesting thing that's happened as a result of that work is that we have more students signing up for EP courses across the board not just economically disadvantaged students which I think is a good thing but I actually met with the CEO a
023couple of weeks ago and he was sharing with me these individual student profiles that they prepare for campus staff so it is actually gives teachers and counselors a heads up as to which students may need an extra nudge to sign up for the course but they can be very successful if they make that leap and enroll in the course so I think those types of strategies um you know telling a student that you believe in them goes a really long way in helping them enter the class and then ultimately being successful in the class and then of course making sure that teachers feel supported and being able to differentiate for students who may not all be on the same playing field and part of me I'm passionate about this because I spent the bulk of
024my career I'm trying to expand access and opportunity in advanced courses so thank you thank you for that I appreciate it I really do um any other questions I'm gonna start to my right am I left I'm sorry remember Higgins do you have anything right now remember Jacobs okay remember Dudley is there any additional factors being considered in this report tonight the um the financial [Music] um personal finance we're gonna do that report next we're on the AP clapped course so if you can hold that question to them uh we're back around to member lessons yeah I was really interested in um I mean in looking at this chart you know my analysis suggested that I'm sorry the one that's in front of me that's why that's uh Slide Five right so the biggest drops
025last year were among non non-economically disadvantaged students at maybe our Comprehensive High Schools um the students who are this year's Juniors and seniors who are last year's sophomores and juniors um so I'm just really curious what's the status our enrollment I don't know the attempts this year like where does we have students who are enrolled currently what does that look like so through the president member lessons um we're we're pretty much on track um to where we are from from this report um for net for this year as well but we won't have our results for um who actually passed the course obviously till the end of the school year and then furthermore we won't have who passed the AP exam until this summer um so it's really hard um to draw Total conclusions quite
026yet um it's typically an analysis we do over the summer and then present that data in the fall um to our staff to work with um and then we certainly could bring it to the board as a comparison year to year um but we are we are fairly on track to what you see here for the next year as well um one of the things I will say um that's a little bit different than our our history with ap is that we are offering more courses but um and increasing our enrollment as well so um the breadth of courses that students have to choose from from AP is expanding and then more students are choosing to enroll as well so great follow-up thanks um this is sort of partially submitted ahead of time and partially
027not um we passed a budget that has a range of f teacher FTE at our different high schools they range from 29 teacher FTE at shugiak to 65 at West do we have and I did sort of ask a question about you know what did the offerings look like at each of our schools does our student enrollment level at each of our different high schools does that change the um scale or size scope of offerings of our a b classes I mean there is online it sounds like yeah no that's a good question um you do see different course offerings at different school there are generally some very common ones such as AP Language and Composition at the junior level and AP Literature at the senior level those are some of the common ones there's
028some common math courses as well um see at most schools AP World History U.S history and AP US Government those are very common ones that there are more obscure ones like AP music theory that are not offered at every school so it really um driven one by student requests and what they would like to see and offer um and and the student Insight cards that Dr Bryant just mentioned and and his um response to a previous question um often that's used as well as a way of sorting out which courses are offered but it's typically student interest driven and then there's also just those common courses that are required for graduation credit on our AP link course um does count for their English 11 credit for graduation and so those are some of some of
029the reasons why you have common courses across the board yes go on remember um at one time we had a grant program in ASD that was funding resources for AP classes at our high schools at high percentages of military family correct is that still in effect so um to remember holladan um we uh had what is called the MZ Grant um that try it's attempting to increase enrollment amongst military students um and it was based out of Eagle River and Bartlett High School we no longer have that Grant but we did learn a lot from that Grant and how to support students and we've carried over many of those practices across the board um I happen to be a principal at a competitive high school at the time and was very jealous of that Grant
030anyways but we did learn a lot from it but we don't have it anymore you mentioned um scheduling earlier uh in in a different context and what I'm going to ask my question but so what what drives the scheduling of AP classes I know um is that I would think that those kids that that they would want be the ones that would meet the high level math the high level now I'm guessing I don't know uh so what what are the drivers like where when you schedule the class and then what determines whether a kid takes it in school or online is it their convenience and then who pays sure so the multi-party questions I'm sorry that's okay I'll go through I'll go through first right so in in schedule um when you're building a
031master's schedule at the high school level we you a whole course request process that starts in January that's one driven by graduation requirements that's a big driver of what's offered um two is student interest is a Big Driver as well and then third is that advising piece which I hope we actually get more nuanced through our college career life work that's upcoming but what does a student want to do after high school because um taking AP courses to take AP courses isn't always the most effective approach for a student you really want to advise students to take the AP courses that match what their future aspirations are so if they want to do medicine as an example you're going to try to guide them to math and science AP courses versus someone who maybe wants
032to do journalism um you would focus them on more of your English AP coursework and so there is a nuanced advising piece in there and you're also going to look at what level of academics the students at and are they ready for a particular Mass of course in at the AP level as an example so there's some significant prerequisite work that's why we talk a lot about our mtss structure and making sure kids have access to the most rigorous general education curriculum possible and building them up so when we get to those AP course level decisions they're ready and then we can advise them based on what their interests are and what their future aspirations are so I'm not sure I answered every question he pretty much did I I just wonder um what drives
033you know because building a master schedule a schedule is not an easy thing to do but I might you answered the question I was interested in what whether this is somewhat students really wanted to take and not what we hope they would take but what they actually say they want to take right and so my only follow-up would be what does it look like in Middle School when we're transitioning kids to ninth grade sure um so there are transition meetings that take place between our middle and high schools um to talk about individual students um often that stems out of our collaboration time as a part of that process in the spring that's really a focus teachers are making um recommendations from the Middle School level to the high school level there's also a data
034review um that is a part of that process as well so it's it's a multi-pronged kind of transition process to the ninth grade we're also talking about you know social emotional needs of students as well if there are you know other issues at play that need to be understood for that transition but um we do have freshmen but we don't have a lot but we do have some freshmen that are ready for that AP level when they reach ninth grade and so those are all part of the scheduling and transition conversations that take place Premiere is there any financial support that's the only one you didn't uh like if a student chooses to take an online AP class because it's just not available for their schedule during the school day is that a family expense
035or is there any kind of so if you're in our Comprehensive High Schools um or one of our alternative schools you take that course like you would just take anything else great and then on top of schools have a system for how to assist that student so they're still able to participate okay all right so we are talking about our goal number 3.1 any other comments before we shift over to financial literacy and I know that uh we you know we purposely did two reports this time so that we could kind of catch up we kind of got behind with all of our budget discussions all right so let's move to um and uh we can start with you remember Donnelly because you had a question on financial literacy I was wondering if we were
036going to get to that so I'd love to hear what the report is first okay so what we normally do with our um once we're given the report we send in questions um so let me see if anybody's got a question and then maybe you can chime in the one question I have and and I didn't send it in so I apologize um I know that there is some legislation um being put forward relative to uh financial literacy uh and I wanted to know if we had had an opportunity to look at that uh because I think the way we can first of all explain how we are doing the financial literacy piece in our district uh we managed to um uh reimagine a couple of courses so that would fit into it so if
037we could do that kind of an overview uh and then I'll ask the follow-up and then pass on pass off all right so um financial literacy we were hoping actually uh to be a little bit further along in the process um than we are now unfortunately so um and then I can relate it to Senate Bill 99 I think that's the one that you're referring to um So currently where we're at this past summer we did have a team of folks um looking at the community input around financial literacy some of the national standards around financial literacy and how to incorporate that into our existing personal finance course um our economics course um and and a math course and the name is taking me right off the top of my head but you can get
038it in all of those courses is what our hope is is it a semester quarter it's a semester of course um and I apologize for not remembering the name of that course off the top of my head but um so when we received the work that the committee did at the end of the summer there was a team of us that reviewed that we we realized significant gaps in the work that was done over the summer um and so as a team um Diana Beltran and I along with others on the academic Services team decided that we needed to reinvestigate that work and and fill those gaps and so that's what has taken place over the course of the last semester um we are currently implementing um that work into our our courses this semester
039as a pilot there is a unit that specifically addresses personal finance many of the points that are in Senate Bill 99 are included in that unit um so so that that's that Senate bill is not necessarily a surprise to us um and we believe we could probably address those um so we will see how that pilot goes this semester um and I know there's significant board interest in that um and I think a few of you are are going to visit classrooms and things of that nature to investigate it a little bit more we are hoping to evaluate that at the end of the semester tweak anything that needs to be tweaked over the summer train teachers this next fall and then Implement fully in second semester of next year we were hoping to be
040further along than that but like I said we we just couldn't put out the work that we received after last summer I needed to fill the gaps so that's where we're at um currently so for sb99 uh your thoughts yeah so in terms of Senate Bill 99 many of the points and and Dr Brian feel free to chime in if you want many of the points are things that we were planning to address as already so um those the topics that are listed in Senate Bill 99 are but surprising or something we're unwilling to address in a course my my um I guess reservation is that if it becomes a standalone course or um it needs to be an entire semester course just dedicated to personal finance or financial literacy as opposed to being a
041broader course like economics that would really cramp our scheduling for kids especially in the social studies realm there's already four years of graduation requirements for social studies in particular at least very little room for kids to make choices about the the topics that they would like to learn about unless they take it as an additional social studies course in addition to those graduation requirements so I would worry about making it a specific course and and jamming up schedules for kids and and eliminating choices for them um and and then there's always the funding piece as well um and what I read in the bill is that is it comes as an unfunded mandate for districts and so that's always a concern as well okay thank you member Jacobs [Music] um apologize um I just wanted
042to thank step for the presentation on the data and an update is to where we are I am visiting um Eagle River High School um Wednesday so I've been a board member wanted to come along with I don't think we're going to overwhelm them but I think I could probably sneak one more in uh please let me know um my understanding of sb99 is it would allow um essentially what ASD is doing to embed financial literacy in econ and um related classes which I think is great because that flexibility is important to avoid additional unfunded mandates and so um I don't know that our work again you know a year ago influenced the Bill but I know I've been pretty transparent that we've been proud of you know the work that's gotten us at least
043this far and I I know it's definitely an area of interest for each of us because it's in the lines closely with our goals so I'm excited for more I appreciate the update and I'm appreciate it with your time absolutely thank you you ready member Donnelly [Music] in the spending component of the projected course is [Music] is that going to include uh managing a checkbook be able to write checks yep that would be one of the the things addressed is how to do a personal budget good good and before we move on I just wanted to say that um I'm also interested in what other ideas you may have that might be added to this whole concept of not just financial literacy but preparedness of our students too move on in life to become citizens
044so if there's any other ideas on your plate about that I'm really interested in those sure so to remember Donnelly um I think that's the whole body of our college career life ready initiative I think that's um I'm pretty excited about that work and financial literacy is embedded in that work as well um and so what I think you're going to see as we progress over the next 18 months or so as we do more planning and getting ready to launch more things in that initiative you'll see um a much broader sense of creating a pathway for a future for students which obviously includes like how do you buy a house and take care of your own checkbook a bank account and what are interest rates and how does that work and how do you
045use a credit card effectively like all of that's going to be part of that life plan so that you land well as an adult um and and so I have a lot of ideas and it's probably too much for this board meeting but I'd love to tell you more about it so absolutely I just want to put in a plug for will baby care because as a senator I included that in the in the potential curriculum it wasn't a mandate but it's a concept it was based on data that was identified of how many older children are taking care of younger children and infants and was a way to eventually it's a process I'm not saying well we have to do this right now but to evolve into some very brief at least things that
046would educate kids to that I think it'd be really a healthy thing to do sure okay let's come back around remember lessons as long as we're sort of using this is a launch pad for future discussions um I think that part of the college career life Readiness really needs to include data literacy right statistical literacy how information information literacy um I don't really know how many people how many kids are going to actually use a paper checkbook right but they're going to be using apps yeah um so I think let's yes and in the 21st century there's there's value to checkbooks um but I I think that there's a lot that we could probably put in the Bell goal and uh I'm keen on that information literacy being a component of it sure I know
047that we're working with J.A doing an achievement what are the partners are we working with um specifically on the financial literacy piece so I Diana can probably help me with this but Junior YouTuber is definitely one of them we work with them really um specifically in personal finance courses we also work with them at the middle school level which is like financial literacy late um if you will so it's kind of the warm-up for the high school personal finance and Economics work um so there's there's that partnership that's very strong um there are financial institutions that also help us with different classroom projects and things of that nature in our community um so and I I think that list will expand as we begin to develop this course and we also develop more business Partnerships
048through our college career life ready work as well so I don't know if you want to add to that partnership [Music] any other questions from our board members you know two years ago I've never heard of college life career Readiness together we either had one or the other or the other um and I think the the community's vision for this goal is absolutely before it's time so uh the work we're doing I know it's new we didn't have any basis to build off of it's at least in in Alaska uh but now we're building that foundation so I thank you guys for the work that you're doing seeing no other questions uh I'm going to end our conversation thank you guys Dr Wright do you have anything else to share and now we're excited to
049continue the work and share more about our great CCO plan there's a lot of good stuff in the works [Music] alrighty and that brings us to item D on our agenda uh our first hour of public comment and we will of course begin with our students but before that I'd like to call uh the audience attention to our guidelines they were at the door when you came in so we are happy that you're joining us today uh if this is your first time there are some basic rules and AIDS to navigate The Boardroom within the boardroom during meetings of the Anchorage School Board um 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
050if you are here to participate in public comment you will have three minutes to speak uh time permitting and tonight it is three minutes each on occasion we may reduce that time depending on the number of people to be heard from each person has allowed one opportunity to testify on a non-agenda non-action item uh within 30 seconds of your comments uh a bell will ring just to give you an idea that you have 30 seconds left uh an action item memo is first introduced by the Vice President uh and if if second another board member by another board member the president will open the floor for public comment you will have three minutes to speak time permitting uh tonight it's three minutes uh when 30 seconds remain again you will get a little cue with
051the little bell a man miss Foster to my left will is our bell ringer uh the school board welcomes the public to observe and contribute to our meetings through their comments but to be productive our meetings must be structured and civil a few of the rules for the boardroom do not attack members or speaker's motives speakers May point out what he or she believes to be a natural consequence of a board action but may not engage in speech that personally attack others refrain from disturbing the meeting we asked that there be no cheering Applause or outbursts attendees will not be permitted to interrupt the business of the school board there's also no profanity or foul language allowed there there is no place in a public meeting of the Anchorage school board for profanity or swearing
052uh no waving of signs flyers or posters if you have handouts though that you'd like to share with the board please give them to miss Foster and she will share them on your behalf um so this as a school board president I have a duty to enforce these rules of civil decorum uh based on our policies and our bylaws as such speakers may be ruled out of order for violation of these rules anyone who does not adhere to these rules and fail to conduct themselves in a civil manner may be asked to leave the meeting or be removed from the meeting so with that I'd like to begin our public testimony with our students and I will be calling you up two at a time Scott Hobbs and Haley Herman welcome your mics are already
053on so just pull them down so you can and you can begin speaking when you're ready uh Scott you go first you have three minutes and welcome thank you distinguished members of the school board and community members in attendance good evening my name is Scott Hobbs and I'm a junior currently attending West Anchorage High School in years past I have come before the school board to testify about matters that I not only feel passionate about but also with an incentive such as the possibility of extra credit in the various history courses I've taken or a scouting merit badge but tonight there is no extra incentive for me to speak I am here in front of you all because I cannot watch idly as hate and vitriol is directed at the lgbtq community our valued Educators
054and the school district as a whole because as an eagle scout a student and a human being I am compelled to speak out when I see toxic behaviors and hate speech being exhibited by others throughout my life I have been able to take in all kinds of information and literature to form my own opinions on various topics based on how they line up with my Christian faith morals and ethics one such topic is gender identity I've been able to consume media regarding gender identity and the struggle to express and understand it by various people furthermore I've been an environment such a school where expressing one's gender identity is encouraged other students have shared their experiences with me regarding and understanding their own gender identity with this knowledge I realized that I was not alone and
055was able to understand and expressed my gender identity as someone who's bisexual but if we were to have been in a different schooling environment ruled by censorship and the Restriction of the ability to think freely we wouldn't be comfortable with Who We Are this discomfort with one's own being would lead to an increase in self-harm and suicide in this District who you are as a human being is not a choice when you were born that is who you are and right now through the act of calling for the censorship of literature in our school district concerning gender identity the ability to learn about and express oneself is being ripped away from those who need the most daily life including school work and extracurricular activities is already hard enough for those who don't feel accepted by
056Society and the maliciousness of these recent complaints regarding censorship are unacceptable parents wishing to police the information their own child has access to at school have multiple steps they can take to ensure their child conforms to the thoughts and ideals that they approve of as parents parents can have a polite discussion with Educators regarding the material being taught in the classroom parents can also submit a formal complaint regarding literature present in schools lastly parents can remove their children from the public education system and homeschool them to ensure their child's ability to think freely is limited to their family's ideals but to direct hate speech toward the lgbtq community Educators and the school board is offensive and repugnant and cannot stand thank you and thank you very much Mr Hobbs I'd like to call forward Skyler
057Hardy Haley whenever you're ready thank you um hello English school district my name is Haley Herman I'm a freshman at Sugar High School and amped up for algebra should be considered as an elective next year currently in I'm in Anthem for algebra next year would be John machine construction um I've never liked math it's always been a drag in trading to me this year it completely changed my perspective towards that I joined I genuinely love math and see myself saying I can't wait for math class and not I really don't want to go I am just very Hands-On and we even made shirts I'm wearing one right now um to make for the process for this shirts we had to take in the factor and account um the color for the ink and we had
058to um we need to factor in on the cost price for all of that and then would be um had to calculate the costs for how much we need to solid make the money back it's very engaging and as someone who is a visual learner that's very awesome to me and I love being able to have Hands-On activities and apply them to and use my muscles in them um sorry um you can see the shift in perspective of how of you know your peers liking math um my peers seem happier and more willing to learn and put effort into trying to understand Math instead of just pushing it off and my teacher is a finalist for the presidential award for Math and she filmed our class of the amp class for her submission answers approach
059is a program that encourages students to leave their comfort zone and try new things and it's very very effective please consider geometry and construction as an option next year thank you very much thank you for not cutting the Spanish Immersion program as well thank you I'd like to call is it Asa utic whenever you're ready Skyler you have three minutes my name is Skyler Hardy and I'm here to speak on Family Partnership charter school I'm a sophomore at Sugar High School I was a Family Partnership student for five years I decided to try to get high school for this year and I'm choosing to go back to Family Partnership I tried some sports at chigak high school my freshman year and I really enjoyed the social environment it really influenced my decision in choosing to
060go to CHS as a full-time student in my sophomore year I wish I could say it was everything I hoped it would be but it wasn't going back to a district government School helped me realize all the great things about Family Partnership Charter School it allows more freedom when it comes to school I love that I'm able to have a say in my curriculum because I can choose something that is more geared toward the way I personally learn I think every student should have that choice they don't and that's what makes family Partnerships so great they give the students and the families Freedom when it comes to education and sports I think it's very important for a student to have a say in what classes they take because it's their future the sponsor teachers at
061familypartnership Charter School guide the students down the path they think is most beneficial for them while taking into account the students interests and opinions I don't think this situation is fair if ASD were to take over Family Partnership Charter School it would no longer be a choice school it would be an alternative school if I wanted that I would be staying in high school but I want to go back to County partnership where I have more choices when it comes to my education and my future thank you very much thank you welcome you have three minutes hi my name is Asa I'm from Family Partnership charter school and I've been coming to this school for over a decade during my high school I have served as treasurer for my freshman and sophomore years and I'm
062currently vice president of our student government as as well as an Sab member I love Family Partnership charter school and I would hate to see this Charter be terminated thanks thank you very much Asa so now I'd like to call Karen Levine or maybe it's Levine and Kimberly Hayes welcome Karen you go first and then Kimberly you will speak second thank you you have three minutes oh thank you I'm here to speak on behalf of the students and staff at Rogers Park Elementary if it feels a bit like deja vu it's because it is I was here exactly one year ago to speak on the exact same topic prior to spring break we were told that we are losing two staff members from Rogers Park and both of those members will be from the neighborhood
063staff it was explained that this decision is based on an algorithm used for PTR people teacher ratio I'm here to ask you to change the algorithm to ensure equity for all students in our school I understand that the board does not typically address staffing issues but this issue is in direct contradiction to the school board's goals and guard rails where it says that educational opportunities should be Equitable for all students in the district these are your words these are your priorities but the current policy of removing staff only from the neighborhood program obliterates that sense of equity so what was it what does this Equity look like at Rogers Park for next year it means that there will be a neighborhood kindergarten with 32 and an hgk1 with 12. it means that there will be
064a neighborhood a third grade class with 38 and an HG third grade with 24. last year we really felt that you heard us and that you understood how the algorithm that's used undermines the neighborhood students we were told that we might get one of those positions back which we did unfortunately it was returned so late in the year that it had to be filled with a long-term sub and as you know a long-term sub it's a very different Educational Opportunity than an experienced teacher they don't have the same PD they don't have an opportunity for mentors or things like that it is our hope that you will not just listen tonight although you listen very politely we hope that you will actually act to change this inequity for the neighborhood students at Rogers Park but
065also throughout the district where there are Jewel programs and leaving the problem until spring means that there will be more upheaval for staff and students that negatively impacts learning if we're going to work together to make progress to meet the school board goals in both language arts and math we cannot continue to make the classes with the highest needs bigger and bigger those large classes make it so that we cannot meet individual needs and as you all know the neighborhood classes have a larger number of students who are economically disadvantaged and the research is clear that those students face other struggles that directly impact their learning honestly I'm frustrated that I'm here again addressing the same issue and we really implore you to make a change to the algorithm that is used for PTR in
066schools with multiple programs we hope that you will let Equity be a reality and not an aspiration thank you for listening thank you very much I'd like to call Irene bull up to the podium Miss Hayes whenever you're ready all right thank you my name is Kim Hayes and I am a parent of three ASD students an elementary and middle school and a high school so suffice it to say I'm a pretty busy mom but I thought it was really important for for me to come here tonight to share my perspective I want to start out by thanking all of you for the good work that you're doing first of all related to working on lunchtime and recess time to make sure our kids are eating and moving because we know nourishment and exercise are
067important to their learning I want to say thank you for working on a bond that prioritizes safety like our roofs I think we've all been seeing what's happening to roofs that aren't being maintained and taken care of so thank you for that I want to say thank you for your advocacy on education funding in Juneau I was really happy to see that resolution pass that supported an increase to the BSA I want to reiterate that I appreciate the topics that you're focusing on to improve outcomes for our students that's what a school board should do and I'm proud of you all as members for focusing on that recently unfortunately some have attempted to sway your attention to issues that serve to Simply distract from the good work that you're doing a national movement to discriminate
068against very vulnerable students with a hyper focus on sex ed material has come to Alaska in to Anchorage in response to this issue I want to remind you that our score our schools serve to educate our students no matter who they are in order to do so students must feel safe and trust their Educators it is an unfortunate reality that many of our students live in dangerous homes or have parents who do not accept them for who they are for those students who may be listening tonight I want to say loudly that there's nothing wrong with you you belong in our schools Just As You Are our lgbtq students deserve the same safe and accepting School environment that others benefit from I was so proud to hear from student Advisory board members in Juneau as
069well as students tonight talking about their support of lgbtq plus fellow students legislation in Juneau like House Bill 105 which is in Disguise as a parental rights Bill and a tax on our school libraries do absolutely nothing to further the cause of education and only put our Educators in the position of endangering their students in fact requiring our Educators to out students to parents is troubling to the Educators I know and even more troubling to the students I know I have yet to meet one teacher that supports this concept and haven't heard from a single person on how exactly a policy like this AIDS in education of our students what I do know is the teachers and of Education support staff that I know are already mandatory reporters for abuse and neglect creating a new
070type of reporting this time directly to parents and effectively lumping in sexuality or gender identity of students treats this as a negative or criminal situation which being a member of the lgbtq plus Community is absolutely not and there should not be a required report to anyone please don't let policies like this come to our school district I urge the school board to pass a resolution in opposition to HB 105. I am a proud graduate of our Public Schools I want my kids to have a great Public School experience like I did so please focus on what you guys have been doing thank you so much thank you very much Miss Hayes I'd like to call Jennifer Wilson Miss Bowl whenever you're ready thank you and good evening my name is Irene Bull and I'm also
071a candidate for Anchorage School Board tonight I came to emphasize the needs for Teacher autonomy in our classrooms while I will speak on that in light of recent events I also want to highlight the importance of fully supporting our lgbtqia plus students in your thoughts tonight please keep in mind the needs and feelings of those students we know for Teacher autonomy we know that every ASD classroom and student is unique and that means teachers require flexibility in their teaching methods when teachers don't have that autonomy they can't adapt their teaching style to meet the needs of their students including students like my daughter the results this results in worst learning outcomes and a more strained classroom environment you can't teach from a script effectively I see that fact reflected in my own child she's been
072a kindergartner at Scenic Park since the beginning of this month of the school year while she enjoys the Chinese portion of her day she states that she doesn't feel like she is learning anything in the English portion instead her teacher gives an instruction that is basic kindergarten as a child who entered kindergarten reading strong and even doing long addition and subtraction problems she sees that herself and some of her friends are more advanced than the string instruction allows for she's stuck in a box meanwhile at all levels of instruction we know that children in the district sometimes enter the classroom ill-prepared for what the scripts expect of them one of the most significant benefits of teacher autonomy is the ability to personalize instruction tailoring their lessons to the specific needs and learning styles of their
073students this approach ensures that every student receives the instruction they need to succeed and that no one is passed over it encourages Innovation and creativity our qualified Educators use their education and experience to experiment with new approaches and techniques and develop Innovative teaching strategies that improve student engagement and learning outcomes it Fosters a culture of continuous Improvement where teachers can reflect on their practice and refine their teaching methods over time data shows that teacher autonomy leads to Greater job satisfaction and retention when teachers have a say in their work in in how they teach they feel more invested in their work and are more likely to stay in the profession this stability benefits students as they can develop strong relationships with their teachers over time leading to Better Learning outcomes and increase student achievement in
074short teaching autonomy is critical to the success of our students and longevity of the teaching profession by allowing teachers to personalize and structure and Foster create thank you very much Miss Paul right uh Jennifer whenever you're ready you have three minutes I'd like to ask Sarah Nicholson to come forward please and you made a friend you have three men okay I can start okay distinguished members of the Anchorage School Board superintendent Dr Bryant and ASD Administration thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak I am testifying tonight as a parent and a Community member I'm here to testify in support of the amped up for algebra and geometry and construction programs at chigiac high school my daughter Haley just testified in support of the amped up for algebra program and geometry and construction I
075also want to share a quick comment about the asd's projected FTE for next year this last this time last year it was common for me to attend community events where the side conversations among the parents consisted of the following questions does your daughter have a tutor do you know of anyone who has a math tutor for my child in fact this time last year I witnessed a coach ask her volleyball players tell me something about yourself I was expecting to hear the first player say something like I love skiing North Face at Alaska but what I heard broke my heart she said matter of Faculty to a group of girls and a coach she did not know I hate math and she was a sophomore at the time so fast forward well honestly at that
076time my daughter would have felt the same way as her fellow volleyball player and fast forward to the school year I now have a daughter who loves math and she not only loves math but she spends two class periods a day learning math um I have a brain crash a Harvard researcher by the name of Tony Wagner and he is an author of this book titled creating innovators the making of young people who will change the world as certs it's important that we try to move out of the 19th century model of teaching and Transit transition into our 21st Dynamic world we can't move into the 21st world if we are doing If all we're doing is focusing on reading and math we need to be teaching children how to create build work and have
077quality conversations with peers and problem solve in order to create innovators and reading and math needs to be taught in context so hence please continue to support amped up for algebra and please consider piloting the geometry and context at the Chugiak high school for the up and coming school year since amped up for algebra was just piloted at high school this current school year I suspect we don't have a ton of data concerning student growth such as their map scores but honestly what better assessment is there when you're when you have a mom who has a freshman who is head over heels in love with math and cannot wait to attend her math every day and she also love her math she loves her Math teachers so shout out to the Math teachers at Jay
078gag High School um and At Last I just want to share that if by a miracle our legislators agree to raise the student-based allocation rate please use the money to increase the FTE for the up and coming school year please don't wait to use the funds for the following school year um I currently know of two teachers who have been recently displaced one teacher currently teaches an estimated 166 middle schoolers I have to ask who's going to teach the projected 160 middle schoolers coming up next year we kind of need a teacher um because I'm worried that we're now going to have 40 to 50 students in a classroom in closing thank you for positively impacting my daughter's learning by providing the amped up for algebra program please help further support student learning by supporting
079the course of the course title geometry and context and if possible please increase the FTE for the 2023-24 school year and again thank you for supporting Spanish Immersion all the immersion and thank you for supporting gifted thank you very much uh Miss Nicholson whenever you're ready our next one will be online after you whenever you're ready good evening board members my name is Sarah Nicholson and I'm here on behalf of myself my colleagues and our students at Rogers Park Elementary I am reading you the same letter I read last year but with updated data that is even more disheartening I've been a teacher at Rogers Park Elementary School for 21 years and my already burdened colleagues and I are very concerned that our neighborhood program will be losing two teachers next year if this happens
080the current enrollment numbers indicate that this would mean an average class size of 31. Rogers Park is a dual program school we house the neighborhood program as well as the highly gifted program whose teachers are funded through the gifted budget when allocating teachers to a building the Anchorage School District uses a formula based on the total number of students enrolled in both programs however because the gifted program has a separate budget when we lose teachers they're always cut from the neighborhood program how is this equitable currently the highly gifted program has about 21 students in each classroom for the 2023-2024 school year the gifted program is not slated to lose any teachers while the neighborhood program is slated to lose two how is this Equitable especially when 100 of the highly gifted students already meet
081Anchorage School District Benchmark targets while students in the neighborhood program who bring more challenges diverse needs and differing abilities to the classroom do not last year the director of Elementary education stated that HG classes start with low class sizes because students continue to test into the program throughout the year the neighborhood program also receives new students throughout the year so again how is this equitable we've been shown an image of all students being able to look over a fence as the district's way of representing equity in our schools at Rogers Park cutting two teachers from the neighborhood program with no cuts to the HD program would mean that the neighborhood students would be peeking through the slats at the bottom of the fence while the HG students would clearly see right over it how does
082this make sense coming from a school board that promotes its belief in equity for all students as we did last year my colleagues and I again urge you to look closely at the formula for determining the pupil teacher ratio for schools with dual programs each program should be looked at separate separately to ensure equity for all students reinstating our two teachers will make our classes more Equitable with an average of 25 students per class instead of 31. it's also important to remember that our neighborhood students include many who struggle some with disabilities some with emotional issues and some with unstable lives at home they all matter and they all need and deserve an equal measure of your help and support please reinstate the two teachers slated to be cut from the neighborhood program now thank
083you very much next we have Stephanie Cornwell on online is she there yes Miss corn Cornwell can you hear us yes I can hear you can hear me yes you have three minutes and welcome thank you thank you um uh I'm testifying tonight about the issues with Family Partnership and uh what I have to say might seem counter-intuitive for a parent that just really wants to see the amazing schooling experience that her kids are getting continue but I am in full support of Dr Brian's proposal I interacted with APC as a parent as an administrator Statewide as a teacher in the anchor School District and it has been full of drama the drama has spurred the creation of two other Charter Schools breaking off and doing their own thing I just spent you know the
084first you know 5 30 they spent 30 minutes not even able to figure out how to vote on their own agenda this sort of dysfunction which is the most dysfunctional governing body I've ever encountered in my 20-year career it has to stop and I think this proposal is Smarts I think it is laid out really well and I fully support it moving forward to get rid of the things that detract from kids and families and moving forward maybe even innovating in school choice and working together with the anchor school district and looking at other options to build upon all the good that does exist um the only caveat for me is that I really feel like it has to be intentionally planned from the get-go how staff and family and even student voices will be
085included but in more of an advice like in an authentic advisory capacity that is essential those people those entities are all integral in how Family Partnership does work and how the good has come to be built and continues there's a lot there to be built on and something has to change and I thank the board for paying attention to this issue for putting obviously thought into it and for informing families very clearly and concisely I really appreciate it and there are a lot of us from all of those different stakeholder groups willing to work with the Anchorage School Board to ensure that this I believe our largest school continues to exist and thrives thank you very much I'd like to invite David Boyle and Cameron Vincent Lang forward please now Mr Boyle you will speak
086first thank you please introduce yourself then good evening uh president Bellamy school board members I'm David Boyle and tonight I'm speaking for myself first of all I want to thank you all for your service you have a very tough job to do particularly uh with with the budget anyway tonight I was going to talk about Equity but then I saw that the superintendent proposed that the Family Partnership Charter School lose its Charter and be converted to a so-called correspondent School but maybe this is just what Equity is about as well the support reason supposed reason for revoking the charter of Family Partnership is a dysfunctional academic policy committee and use of some religious offenders the dysfunctional APC should be cured by the ASD and working with the academic policy Committee of the Family Partnership versus
087signing in maybe the Alaska School Board Association I think it can be fixed if you try hard enough the Family Partnership is one of the best performing schools in the district it's insane to revoke the charter of this school look at the results Family Partnership sixty percent of the students are proficient in English language arts in comparison in the entire District only 34 percent of the students are proficient in the same thing in math Family Partnership students are 40 percent at proficiency level in the Anchorage School District 27 percent of the students are proficient at math now let's look at the cost of educating student at Family Partnership this data by the way is from the Department of Education per student cost a Family Partnership 10 446 dollars from the same site via ASD per
088student cost seventeen thousand two hundred fifty five dollars nearly a difference but rather more than sixty eight hundred dollars difference this is what I would call the most cost effective School in the district you're getting great results for minimum cost it's just insane to revoke the charter fix it it's broke I guarantee you maybe this is all about Equity bring in the better performing schools down to the low performing schools I recommend that the superintendent analyze the lowest performing schools determine the root cause and either make substantial staff changes such as removing the principal for non-performance or closing these non-performing schools the district does not have Equity Clauses in any of his collective bargaining contracts why not use the teachers union exempt from Equity is it Teamsters Union exempt from Equity I don't think so
089you have to walk the walk not just talk the talk finally to quote Milton Friedman the Nobel Prize winner for economics quote a society that puts equality before Freedom will get neither a society that puts Freedom before equality gets a high degree of both that means the society the prioritizes quality over Freedom never brings the people from the bottom up it forces everyone down as low as possible thank you very much and please reconsider thank you Mr Boyle I'd like to invite Lisa Mounds craft to the front of the room Lisa Mounds craft and here here please come to the front uh Mr Vincent Lane you're next all right thank you board and Dr Bryant Charters should exist I have served on a charter APC for several years and its core I respect board work
090and I know how a board should function I appreciate my Charter's partnership with ASD I appreciate board work that betters the learning outcomes of our students and work alongside our leadership to build a school that continues to thrive we respect each other's roles and give each other the space to do our work to address the Charter's mission in APC and a principal need this balance for the daily work of student achievement to occur it is in my opinion that the fpcsapc has failed to do this as an APC member I am frustrated at the time and ASD has put into this school over the past few years let me make it clear that my frustration is not with District admin or the school board but rather fpcs's APC for needing unprecedented advisory supervision with little
091turnout on their end to improve there are Charters that follow ethics codes that have not been given the time they deserve from their partnership with ASD when meetings occur for hours with little to no discussion on plans for improving student outcomes and the fpcs APC is failing at its basic job this is irresponsible it is reckless their students and other ASD students deserve better Charter Schools frankly deserve a better reputation a board that cannot put its students first needs to improve its conduct the fpcsapc board has had ample opportunity to do this and has failed a board that cannot utilize opportunities for growth and change should no longer exist as a governing board being a charter school comes with a great opportunity and extremely large amounts of responsibility her district is lucky to have so
092many different Charters many of which provide strong opportunities for our students across Anchorage Charters do however face an uphill battle with winning over the trust of the greater public as they do use public funds to form their budgets therefore Charters do have to play by the rules of the districts that they partnership with if an APC or the school they work alongside are unable to do this then that school should not function under its Charter charter schools are public schools and fpcs is a public school staff of fpcs they work for ASD and must work with their principal to serve their students and school Community if staff are not able to do this then they need to find another place to work they are public employees and they work under the supervision of the principal
093the fpcsapc has lost the trust of many in the public including myself this is unfortunate as the school is an ASD school that serves the public at this point I do think that f8 uh fpcs would function better under the guidance of ASD I believe your ASD students deserve better thank you sir next is I'd like to invite Caleb Haley to the front and Miss bouncecraft whenever you're ready thank you good evening president Bellamy and esteem board members my name is Lisa Mounds craft and I am the very very very very very very lucky principal of Saint Pines Cabot it is March and St Patrick's Day just passed away I'm doubly lucky weeks ago several of our students and staff members sat before you to voice their concern and thoughts about next year's budget and
094how it will impact our school Community I can tell you that as I watch their testimony the level of Pride that I felt was absolutely immense and why heart was full as the students spoke I had an aha moment it was it was clear that they are living definitions of perseverance and determination and they exhibit qualities of the 40 developmental Assets Now highlighting a few of the identified internal qualities such as commitment to learning a sense of purpose High self-esteem and a positive view of the future it is evident that we are helping our students develop these skills which are so crucial to becoming strong caring adults who in turn will have great influence in the various communities in which they represent I would also eventually say that based on their testimony students feel bonded
095to school and are able to identify multiple caring adults within our building they showed extreme courage for sharing their values and beliefs with regards to their education as were the amazing save staff I would like to highlight that they are exemplars of capturing kids Hearts as they are highly skilled in building strong relationships creating a positive and caring School climate and they weave the Excel model into all that they do I consider the safe teachers like rainbows in the sky for our students I'd like to close by saying that save is the best place in the world to work but more importantly it is a magical place to learn where students find Hope a second chance and a new beginning we are safe High School home of the Mountaineers where the motto is we care
096and we always keep it classy thank you thank you very much um I'd like to invite Rebecca Reagan McKeever to the front please and Mr Haley whenever you're ready members of the ASD board Dr Bryant good evening my name is Caleb Haley please give me a chance to appeal to this board why I believe the solution of the Family Partnership APC is a bad idea a more detailed list of my research and conclusions are included in a letter that I sent to the ASD superintendent and the school board I delivered that electronically last night if you didn't receive that I do have paper copies if you would allow me to give them to you as well as anyone in the room that might want to read that a very brief summary of my letter is
097in Five Points and they are as follows Point number one there's a discrepancy between the Family Partnership contract and Alaska statute Alaska statute 14.03.255 subsection C12 States that the contract can be terminated for any or excuse me it can be Contra it can be terminated for other good cause note that word good however the contract itself of the Family Partnership States termination can be for any other cause this is a stark difference good versus any and that gives the ASD unfounded Authority in this case Point number two a claim was made that the Family Partnership violated their contract I found no basis for this claim further Evidence is addressed in my letter Point number three a claim was made accusing the APC of breaking several laws again I found no basis for these claims but
098rather a loose interpretation of Alaska's statute again further addressed on my letter interestingly enough I learned that Family Partnership tried to get a legal counsel but was denied that would have significantly helped in this matter Point number four an ASD email States we do not anticipate many changes and the only significant change will be dissolving of the current governance board I find this language vague misleading and non-binding on part of the ASD Point number five currently Family Partnership is fiscally strong with a four million dollar savings the savings must be surrendered to the ASD if the APC is dissolved since the ASD is currently running a deficit into tens of millions of dollars I find dissolving the APC and taking possession of that 4 million to be a serious conflict of interest in conclusion I
099desire to educate my kids as I see fit I know my children better than anyone in the world I know where I can push them hard I know where they need extra assistance the ASD claims that they are no longer confident that Family Partnership is able to provide the best possible education decisions and experience quite frankly I reject this claim outright and I find it offensive my wife and I are the only people in the world that have the ability to know what is the best possible education experience for our children that's why we chose Family Partnership in its present capacity I implore you please keep it the way it is thank you thank you sir I need to remind the audience of the rules there should be no applauding so please welcome you may
100begin when you're ready hello my name is Rebecca Riga McKeever I am a mom of five I started school in 1998 at Family Partnership as a kindergartner and I went on to graduate from Family Partnership I now have chosen to homeschool my two soon-to-be three children in a Family Partnership and I was going to outline some of the reasons why I've chosen Family Partnership for my family first and foremost is the freedom in curriculum I myself has special education needs as a student so do my children and the freedom to choose a curriculum that fits their special education um abilities allows them to flourish we're in a traditional classroom they might be brought down to their lowest subject as we know the charter outlines that parents are allowed to have the freedom of choice in
101curriculum and removing the charter does not guarantee us any rights to a choice in curriculum the ability to choose my own sponsor teacher was also a reason to choose the school as current events are showing people have differences of opinions on how things work and being able to choose a sponsored teacher allows for a creative and Cooperative educational environment to be made for my students as well as the commitment to parent Direction and education again we understand that removing of this board is a way to remove parents voices from being reflected in the schools as far as I can tell the district presented fpcs with a letter and it was less than 19 days later that they published a secondary letter during those 19 days we also went through spring break reasonable people understand that
102during spring break members of our own board would probably have been on vacation and unable to make decisions or issue letters in response to the Anchorage School District's board as we sit here today it's simply been 21 days since the original letter was sent nonetheless with 72 hours notice as Donnelly had um presented earlier we sit here with a packed room to prevent to present a united front as parents to the commitment we've made as parents to this school to run it within the law and within the charter I would ask that the school district please issue some form of corrective action plan to fpcs so that we could formally and quantitatively view the ability of the school to function within the law in the charter before it decides to make such a drastic change
103in its running I would also like to say a concern as to disagreement has been brought up multiple times in school I was taught that disagreement should not be run from in fact we should bring to the table our disagreements that we can work out our differences of opinions for the betterment of the entire Community thank you for your time thank you very much next I'd like to invite Robert DeBerry and and David vankara I might have did it wrong sorry whenever you're ready to sit the bearing all right I'm gonna have to watch the feed too so if I have to run back and turn it back off for some reason my name is Robert DeBerry and I'm an ASD employee until Friday of this week my wife is four weeks into holding a
104teacher seat on the fpcs APC board my family has been at fpcs for seven years I have one child graduated from fpcs have two others currently enrolled all of my children have had an incredibly amazing and wonderful experience at fpcs let me repeat that all of my children have had a wonderful experience there I am before you today because the recent letter from the superintendent of this district is very troubling and somewhat disingenuous that the administration would send a letter of this magnitude on a Friday afternoon at 4 pm three days before this board was to meet when this District was considering closing schools schools that had three to four hundred students there were Town Halls web pages produced media interviews parents were provided time to ask questions and voice their opinions and concerns but
105were fpcs is involved a school with more than 1500 students we were afforded a three-day window we were caught off guard and only provided a single person to contact through email the director of charter schools could not answer all of the questions that might arise from the superintendent's letter frankly I question whether they would be answered fully I also question the administration's claims to have investigated the APC and fpcs if they truly had the information being presented would be vastly different when looking at the reasons for this hostile takeover of fpcs one doesn't have to look far to see that the information the district is providing this board is not a hundred percent factual it contains a lot of misinformation and is very one-sided I suggest you ask questions of the administration did you talk
106to the staff at fpcs do you reach out to any parents and students have you put forth the effort to sit down with the APC board and be part of the conversation have you been a good partner in moving forward with change in February ASD sent a very demanding letter to the current APC board threatening to take their Charter that letter was also approved and supported by this board foreign I question the fact that the Administration has not given a reasonable amount of time for the APC to continue making positive change I question that the director of charter schools and the administration chose to write a letter instead of having conversations with the current APC board I hope this is not a smoke and mirrors move by ASD to create a state correspondent school to
107compete with idea if this Administration is using my children and the other 1500 plus students as pawns shame on you please don't blindly make decisions from single sourced information be a partner with fpcs family students and staff thank you sir next I'd like to invite Sherry streisek then Carl whenever you're ready thank you for the opportunity to shed some light into the superintendent's proposal to perform a takeover Family Partnership on behalf of I like to also agree with Mr Donnelly that this did not come out on Tuesday came out Friday at four o'clock seems a little bit suspicious on the timing of that but on behalf of the 50 other people that want to talk about keeping the school open that won't get a chance to talk because of the time I want to speak
108on their behalf as a my background my father of eight graduates at Family Partnership with more and more to go I have about 15 years at Family Partnership additionally I was in the active duty military for 25 plus years so I'm familiar with leadership which brings me to my first of three points number one leadership when an organization is in disarray with no correction to the course the first step is to remove or replace the leadership tonight the board APC board will vote on an unlikely renewal of the principal's contract something in their responsibility as a board to perform through filibusters and politicking ASD demand letters and unreasonable timelines the delay to vote on this action is finally over As Leaders you should appreciate this action to get fpcs back on track which leads me
109to my second point politics hypothetically speaking is it possible that the FPC principal has undermined the FPC APC that has been working closely with the ASD superintendent and staff to paint a false narrative not embracing her leadership failure she has put the blame squarely on the shoulders of volunteer parents who homeschool their children people who have education as a priority not politics hypothetically would it not also surprise me that the superintendent has promised afpcs principal retention of her job for the price of betrayal this is shameful finally what is the purpose of the politicking and proposed takeover fpcs is the largest school in the district with over 1700 students growth was caused by your mass mandates CRT policies gender unicorns and other curriculum policies not aligned with the parents of the children your threat as
110parents have a voice at fpcs or the curriculum and education of their children not asd's children or the government's children your action is to decide this board to decide over letting 1700 students and parents have freedoms like our Founders intended or fall examples unless free Nations prop 149 oh okay finally it took two years to get started 25 years to mature and two weeks to dissolve does this not sound suspicious Family Partnership as previously said performed twice almost two times better than the average of District students at less cost ASD has a 48 million dollar deficit Family Partnership is not to blame no they take less money with better results as a board are you willing to take Family Partnership money from a school that is successful I would hope not thank you for giving
111me a hearing thank you sir I'd like to invite the shed choper please with the Applause we have a lot of people wish to provide comment and only and one hour in the beginning and everybody else will be at the end Mr Isaac whenever you're ready thank you ma'am and thank you to the board for hearing me tonight my name is Sherry strezak I'm a concerned parent and citizen of two Yak Alaska I am concerned about gender trans and victimhood books such as beyond the gender binary and a quick and easy guide to queer and transgender identity both available at Polaris a K-12 school and Jay's gauge and available at Bartlett High School allowed confusing and indoctrinating material to reach impressionable young minds another concerning concept is the acceptance of victimhood versus empowerment such as
112The Lovely Bones a book by Alice cybold which is available at stellar and hanshu Middle School I will read a excerpt from this book take your clothes off Mr Harvey said I want to check that you're still a virgin I was soon lying down on the ground in the ground with him on top of me panting and sweating having lost his glasses in the struggle I felt like a sea in which he stood and pissed and shat excuse the language he started working himself over me he was inside me he was grunting I asked the board and parents and citizens how does this material Empower and encourage our children to feel confident in today's world we all have the opportunity to empower our children we need your help the school board and restricting damaging material
113from our school libraries and her beautiful children I remind everyone that Alaska's statue 11.61.128 distribution of indecent material to minors is a classy felony material that depicts actual or simulated conducts such as sexual penetration who touching of the genitals anus or female breast masturbation bestiality lewd exhibition of gentles anus or female breasts is a class C felony please we need your help thank you thank you very much I'd like to invite Teresa Heintz to the front Mr choper whenever you're ready oasd school board and administration my name is shad shobert my family has been a part of fpcs going on eight years and I have been a member of the APC I served on the APC between 2019 and September 2022 when the APC became such a toxic environment that my wife and I could
114no longer be a part of it I assure them I assure you board member 129 is entirely accurate just a little over a year ago in December 2021 I sat in this spot as the APC chair to advocate for the 10-year recharter of fpcs I genuinely believed at the time that the APC had addressed the multiple historical APC issues and had a leadership team in place to stay on the right track moving forward now I'm very sad to sit in front of you again having to very reluctantly support the proposed elimination of the fpcs charter let me be clear it is understood that the APC has been challenging for more for longer than I have been associated with at PCS two other ASD schools have their origins in the pcsapc dysfunction over the years the
115APC has received several ASD memos detailing different violations and fractions over the last six months however the APC has become exponentially dysfunctional and divided in fact while I sit here the APC is trying to figure out if a new APC member with less than two weeks on the job can discuss and vote on our principles review from last year as recent as yesterday's emergency meeting the APC members proposed motions that included quote issuing updated responses to the ASD notice and demand letter that give direct answers to all of the questions with our responses to ASD memo 129 and then a second motion that the APC chairs in the letter to ASD were the fpcs APC agrees with and takes full accountability for all of the items referenced in the demand letter in asdb ASD board
116memo and then subsequently resign both motions were not passed the latter wasn't even discussed bottom line is that the APC refuses to take accountability for any of their actions they refuse to accept any responsibility for their actions the APC has not done much business that helps or affects our families and ultimately our students the APC is instead focused on adult issues while ignoring things that affect our children to the detriment of our school operation unfortunately it is time for ASD to step in and resolve these issues we have to get to helping our kids and families we have to refocus and reformulate fpcs I wish there could have been there this could have been avoided but I no longer believe there is any hope that PCA APC [Music] their appearance ready and willing to help
117reformulate a collaborative environment advisory Council as previously mentioned in the in the public comment we look forward to partnering with ASD Administration in this new venture thank you sir Miss science and then Lele Anderson you may come forward welcome you have three minutes hello my name is Theresa hintzy thank you I am a teacher at Family Partnership and I have been with the Anchorage School District for over 20 years I would like to address the action being suggested to remove family Partnerships Charter fpcs received notification of this action on Friday afternoon when ASD was discussing closing schools throughout the district there were months of town hall meetings we were given less than three days notice with no opportunity to have a discussion I would also like to point out that fpcs has been a strong
118Charter School in ASD for 25 years while the people making the decision to remove the charter have been in their position for less than one year how can a decision of this magnitude be made with so little information there has been a single narrative about the functioning of the board no one from ASD has approached our school's ABC Board to discuss the discuss the issues that are playing in the school no one has sat down with the board as a whole to go over the strategy the board is trying to implement to make things run better not one question has been asked and no research has been done the ward is finally starting to move in a positive direction and is diligently trained to address all issues that have been causing problems at this juncture
119we need the help and support of ASD not a punishment that will not resolve anything fpcs has continued to serve their students and families through this trying time with the utmost professional professionalism and diligence our students are thriving please do not continue down this road without further research and information and without the opportunity for fpcs and their stakeholders to have a voice and to do better which is what this veteran Charter School of 25 years deserves thank you thank you very much Leo and Robin is it Petro the crown I'm sorry thank you [Music] you may start whenever you're ready you have three minutes hello my name is leil Anderson and I'm a parent with Family Partnership Charter School four of my children have graduated from fpcs and my two youngest children are currently enrolled
120I have taught classes as a vendor with Family Partnership and several years ago I had the opportunity to serve as a member of the academic policy committee I am here to respectfully request that the charter for Family Partnership be allowed to remain in place and that the APC board be allowed to continue as they are I have spoken with members of the APC I have attended or observed many of their meetings and I have read all available letters and material including the charter revoking our Charter would be a grave disservice to our families and students fpcs has served students in the Anchorage School District for 25 years and my family has been a part of the school for many of those years my children have thrived in this unique educational setting as have the children
121of my siblings the children of my friends the students in my classes and hundreds more that I do not know personally but whose stories I have heard and whose graduations I have attended over many years I am confident that I do not speak for myself only when I say that fpcs forged a path that has allowed homeschooling families to provide outstanding educations for individual students while providing invaluable teacher guidance and treasured Community Support to destroy the charter of this school at this time after so many years of Student Success would be a travesty and make no mistake removing the charter and designating the school as a correspondent school will not leave the school unchanged it will fundamentally undermine our abilities as homeschooling parents to create a unique successful educational Journey for each child in partnership
122with ASD with the charter and APC in place parents have a direct voice in the governance of our school with seats on the board of the APC we have a choice of sponsored teachers and we have freedom to choose the best curriculum for our individual children also have a direct voice in the governance of their school with two seats on the board of the APC these Privileges and responsibilities will be removed if the charter is revoked my son a graduate of fpcs recently served as a student intern with a Utah state legislator my son was able to provide the legislator and other policy makers with information about fpcs there was a lot of interest and a great desire to learn more about how our unique charter school has been so successful for our students and
123families for so many years our school is a model of success that many interested parties are watching so why is the district ready to so quickly destroy what has been working so well our APC has put a plan in place to address every concern the district put forth we deserve enough thank you very much your time is up yeah Miss spectral whenever you're ready it's Swiss German so it's Paws and Papa and cruel some Puck rule accrual accrual thank you it's almost got it um good evening um before I begin I just have to say this to you um I never before realized how one-sided this is this is probably my fourth board meeting and we come and we speak and the parents want you to listen and nothing happens and I was wondering about
124a situation where by we write questions and at the board meeting we allow for some time for you to answer our questions because I'm not thinking that you're responding to us yes you're listening but I'm not thinking you're listening and responding so listen and response perhaps maybe um a form of question and answer period so that some of these people could get questions answered on the spot okay here's what I came to talk about I want to talk about the book called Lawn Boy not the pornographic unfunny trashy one but the one by Gary Paulsen the challenged book committee somewhere on their website asks the Challenger what book would you recommend instead I would recommend Gary Paulson am I thinking is kids at age are just too young to read about gender confusion with a
125Twist of pronoun anxiety they really don't give a darn about hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery kids want and especially now crave humor that's Gary Paulsen who by the way splits his time between the lower 48 and Alaska the Anchorage school district has lots of lawn Boys in their libraries and they have lots of Gary Paulsen as well good job Anchorage Librarians at all levels and for what it's worth because this great nation is eventually going to need entrepreneurs when we get out of this economic slump why not promote books that help kids with summer employment this would also be a great time to help the elderly and the infirmed what a spark of Joy kids could bring to the community could we please please please [Music] toss out those class sets and materials connected
126to George Melissa maybe the books could be held by counselors and Librarians could invite kids who need them to a special collection but they are not for the general ed kids thank you very much your time is over this concludes our first hour of testimony we will take a brief five-minute break return to the room at it's like eight oh hi we'll go with 805. [Music] 00 yeah [Music] foreign we'd like to welcome everyone back [Music] thank you welcome back everybody we are now at item e unless um sorry member Higgins nope so maybe he can use your mic remember Jacobs yeah okay okay it's operator incompetence sorry about that but Madam chair I'd like to propose to we uh that we extend the open uh session for the speakers to to um come forward
127with the ones that are already on with let's not extend it anymore but they've been here all afternoon they've come here special for this and I'd like to recognize and appreciate that and I know it's going to put things back a little bit further but it's whether it's at the end or it's naom we still have that time and I just think it would be a respectful thing to do [Music] all right well you have before you is there any opposition to continuing public comment we have 23 more voices to hear see no opposition uh we will continue Laura Smith Christy Moorhead can you come forward please and and I don't think I mispronounced their names but if I do please state it again for the record and you uh Laura you go first yes
128good evening my name is Laura Smith and I've been a homeschooling educator for over 12 years with four kids to the school first I would like to say I was Furious to read the email and Friday afternoon at four o'clock during spring break that um my school was going to be changed from a charter school to a correspondent school I feel like those very underhanded and done on purpose including the fact that there was no text message with it which all important communication from the district comes with a text message um none of that was done I feel like it was uh to keep us parents from paying attention but as you can see many of us are paying attention on this very short notice the letter was full of platitudes that nothing would change
129about our school and that except the name however we all know that the most important thing about Family Partnership will change and that would be the fact that we have a partnership between the parents and ASD and that that will change the APC is what represents that and if we dissolve that then we do not have a partnership between parents and uh ASD I chose Family Partnership years ago to educate my children because of this partnership I come from a long history of public Educators both in the state of across the state of Alaska and in the Anchorage School District I believe wholeheartedly that the public education should be supported and available to all children I personally chose to Pub to homeschool my children through Family Partnership I'm aware that there has been conflict in
130the APC with the school administration and with some of the members I'm not alarmed by this in fact I am um I'm not surprised at all it is a gathering of passionate people both the administrators and the parents about something that's very important the education of our children there should be conflict there should be trouble there should be conversations that they work towards they find an agreement the APC is what makes Family Partnership special it shines in our state and as other people have mentioned even shines across our nation as a model that is worth repeating and not shutting down I also read through the seven page letter that was submitted to you for the reasons for dissolving and I can tell you that as a parent I am not concerned about the things that
131were listed and um it does not affect my children's education as I read through that I'm aware of almost all of the conflict that was mentioned some of it was made much larger than it was and is very misleading for example it cites that there is a there's a conflict because there's a parent and a student on the board at the same time but what has happened and that might be on some boards a problem but for Family Partnership that has happened regularly through the years because it's a parent child administrative and staff partnership if you value what Family Partnership has brought to the table of educational choices in our state and the role as invested parents then you cannot vote to dissolve our Charter it is clear by this turnout that we do not
132want to resolve it is clear by the APC by their uh demonstration they're willing to work with the district that they do not want to resolve as a homeschool educator I have many choices in Alaska as how to educate my kids and I can tell you that if this becomes a correspondent School rather than a charter where the parents are representative thank you very much good evening I'm Christy Moorhead thank you so much for the opportunity to speak I am here to represent family um partnership my background is not in education and I I just want to say that I love the Anchorage School District I love being here in Alaska we've been here 20 years I have four kids that have been through the programs um we started out just at our local Huffman
133Elementary with principal office it was an amazing experience my daughter tested into the highly gifted at Rogers Park we did Golden view we did South High we've loved our experience we did Winterberry we've been paidea the reason that we went to Family Partnership had to do with my daughter's Health concern she ended up with a physical disability that wouldn't allow her to attend school we tried paideia it was not a good fit we tried some other homeschool options again not a good fit I was at my Wit's End I run a small business and I'm not an educator and I'm not interested in homeschooling my children and so I got a call from a friend that said call Heather DeBerry Family Partnership I didn't know anything about Family Partnership but Heather saved my life because
134she was the answer I don't know how or why Family Partnership works or doesn't work but I can tell you it's worked for our family it's been an amazing program my daughter is a successful college student at this time graduated through a Family Partnership my three other children also are just part of the mainstream ASD system my second child is a downhill ski racer she also transferred over after returning Middle College it wasn't a good fit with her schedule she's also a Family Partnership mothers who are at South and I still have one at Huffman my point is I don't know what happens in the board meetings I've never attended one I don't know the passion of the parents or why they're not getting along or what's happening but I can tell you the system
135works Heather DeBerry is amazing the teacher Representatives they're amazing and I hope there's a way that we can keep the charter because it's needed I've tried nine different programs for my daughter here in Anchorage and I was the only one that worked and she's a smart kid it's just a really good fit for parents that need something different so thank you for your time thank you for what you do I do love the school district I think you're all awesome so thank you have a good night thank you very much uh Gabby is it Eid and Christine Larson please come forward and please state your name again just in case I missed pronounced it uh Gabby you will go first good evening I'm Gabby IDE [Music] um I I work full time and I homeschool
136full-time I have an eighth grader a sixth grader and a kindergartener I am very busy they are all enrolled full-time at Family Partnership Charter School our family loves a PCS because we can customize every aspect of curriculum capturing an interest in nurturing the creativity of each of our unique kids we can choose our sponsor teacher our children can learn in a way that best suits them our family enjoys reading high level literature together creating special moments and sweet memories around wonderful stories history and poetry give just as much passion and fun with math their experience has has and remains entirely positive the results of this type of education is that my children test 30 to 50 points higher than their ASA peers their state peers they're National peers foreign although should the charter be dissolved
137we will not remain with ASD in order to preserve this success we're happy to go I do not defend the past individuals within the APC one of which testified tonight and had to step down from the chair I don't I don't defend the past individuals on the APC or the staff that broke Trust but should you decide to take the current APC up on their invitation to meet you will find that dissolving the ABC would be cutting your nose off despite your face ASD Administration recommendation is short-sighted it's baseless it's inflammatory fpcs was deemed the future of Education a few short years ago by your predecessor she also changed her recommendation from a five-year to a 10-year Charter shortly before this board voted to sustain the 10-year Charter I know because I was here and
138so were many of you of pces students are achieving nearly twice the results as you already heard many of the arguments that were presented in the letter um we're taken apart uh none of the individuals on the board currently have been asked for their testimony in regards to the Grievances bought before them and they have not had a chance to defend themselves so I ask you to give them the time that they deserve to show you that this Charter remains to stay in place thank you thank you very much Christine whenever you're ready thank you for giving me the chance to speak tonight my name is Christine Larson and I'm here to support the family chartership Family Partnership Charter I have four kids that span elementary middle and high school and I'm here to tell
139you how Family Partnership has changed my life and the life of my kids I'm a certified teacher and have taught in many different states and I never saw my kid never ever saw myself homeschooling my own kids I just didn't think it was a possibility then I saw my oldest starting to really really struggle in school and keep up and I knew there had to be a better way to meet her needs so I started looking around and we found we found Family Partnership and I pulled her that year and it was an amazing experience I learned for the first time that I can meet her where she was and I could choose curriculum that met her needs and that was a good fit for her and now all four kids all four of my
140kids are homeschooling and they're thriving because we have the choice to choose their own curriculum and I have the power to choose classes and activities that suit their talents and their learning abilities So currently parents have the chance to also choose their sponsor teacher which would change if the charter was dissolved my sponsor teacher is amazing and has really helped lead us through our Learning Journey and having the chance to being able to choose a different sponsor teacher every year if we need to really helps to individualize our education the allotment we receive now as part of family chartership as part of Family Partnership Charter helps us to afford wonderful classes and activities but again we as parents have the power to choose because no one knows what's best for my kid more than me
141dissolving the Family Partnership Charter would negatively affect more than 1500 families just like mine thank you thank you very much I'd like to invite urisha Hardy and Kimberly Wilcox welcome you have three minutes each hi my name is yurisha Hardy my daughter Skyler spoke earlier on behalf of Family Partnership Charter School in addition I have two other students in the program I first would like to bring to the board's attention that the fpcs principle is not in attendance tonight why are we discussing the closure of a school and the principal is not here to advocate for the school because there's a different agenda and she wants the chartership terminated for which she'll be rewarded in addition the Family Partnership Charter School principal was notified on Tuesday last week about this meeting and did not notify
142the sponsor teachers at Family Partnership until Friday at 4 pm and consequently all the parents weren't notified until this weekend of spring break and we all have lots of children so you know that we were not prepared for this meeting because we didn't find out until very late in the game fpcs should not have their chartership revoked and become a correspondent school Under the administration of District the students benefit in so many ways from Family Partnership charter school as we get a say in our curriculum Choice how to use our allotments to better the students education and how to schedule our children's education being able to exercise our choices parents and students is what has led to the significantly higher performance standards that we have consistently shown for 25 years in addition a parent board
143government school will always have the best interests of the students at heart and their decisions will not be motivated by an enormous budget deficit it is ironic that the closure of fifth PCS a school that is operating with a significant budget surplus is on The Chopping Block while ASD is grasping for any funds in order to alleviate their massive deficit the allotment per student will go to wherever ASD needs sees and need and the students will be last on that list maybe irony is not the correct word it seems more negligent or criminal that ASD gave parents such a short notice for us to respond to this letter we heard about prior schools subject to closure all over the news and it was an ongoing three-month conversation I was notified this weekend I appreciate the
144gentleman earlier who spoke about stating that the parents are not motivated by politics nor are we motivated or responsible for a mismanaged ASD budget by terminating fpcs's Charter you are punishing students who have been performing at a higher standard than District managed schools it is shameful that this is even a consideration to punish students who are performing at this level thank you thank you very much Kimberly whenever you're ready hello my name is Kim Wilcox my eight children and I have been with Family Partnership Charter Schools since 1998. my youngest is currently enrolled as a junior with Family Partnership typical of any organization through the past 25 years Family Partnership has had issues that have come up and through input of parents students and the governing boards we have been able to achieve our ultimate
145goal of educating our children and in doing it in the way that we choose that's why Family Partnership charter school has an enrollment of over 1500 students we love the opportunity to educate our children in the way we choose and it has absolutely worked for my children over the past 24 years I am just made and disheartened to hear that ESD would take away our Charter do away with our academic policy committee and assume control over a school that has been so successful in educating thousands of students this is not the way to deal with problems and it's a terrible example to our students on problem solving issues will always come up we deal with them and move on conflict is not a reason to dissolve a successful organization taking away the students and families
146choice of Education not because educational goals or fiscal standards aren't being met but due to problems with Administration is unacceptable last Friday I received this same email from superintendent Brian stating recently actions of APC members have negatively affected the student experience the Anchorage School District is no longer confident that the fpcs APC is able to provide the best possible educational decisions and experience for their students and family I would like to know how students have been negatively affected these are unsubstantiated claims I would also argue that asd's lack of confidence in family Partnerships APC PC is totally unfounded when the APC was asked to respond to asd's February 13th letter they did so addressing All Points of inquiry along with a plan going forward after 25 years why the sudden lack of confidence in to
147the point that you would take away our Charter the ASD brick and mortar educational track record is failing by most measures and you want to exert more control over this successful Charter if that happens the result will be that you will lose more ASD students to idea and other non-asd homeschool options as a homeschool mother of eight who has been part of Family Partnership charter school since its Inception I strongly urge you to do away with your recommendation to drop family Partnerships Charter and allow them and us to continue to provide opportunities for Quality education with our APC governing board oh and Dr Bryant we are on the same page when it comes to inclusion our children have chosen Family Partnership as their motive education and taking away this Charter will actually exclude these students
148from their choice of Education thank you thank you very much I'd like to invite Karen Owen and Jennifer I can't read your last name Jennifer oh wait wages now welcome whenever you're ready Karen you have three minutes thank you um hello my name is Karen Owens I'm a mother of seven I have six students currently with Family Partnership and we've been with Family Partnership for about six years I so loved the school that um actually became a part-time employee this year so my comments will be from both the parent side and from the teacher's side Family Partnership is a huge success is the kind of school that needs to be duplicated we're bursting at the seams we have um I believe it's close to 1800 students on our Lottery right now we have a we'll
149have about 100 openings we have over 450 people applying for those openings the families like the school the way it is most people disengage from politics I don't really know all the politics I've only started recently watching our APC most people just want to educate their kids they're happy we're a shining star that's why I brought my kids that's what my parents tell me when I got calls over the weekend [Music] parents and tears saying I'm I'm happy I want a lot of my kindergartner in this is we don't have another choice if we don't get into Family Partnership first they were worried about getting in now they're worried about the school not existing as they know it they don't see another ASD choice you'll lose people they won't find another ASD home they'll go
150to idea they'll go to Matsu Central this is a special Niche school people are happy they're running we're bursting at the scenes don't fundamentally change it I ask you that as a parent and ask you that as a teacher really special come and talk to our board find out what's going on make sure you're getting all sides but don't be rash we've got a really good thing please don't change it quickly I just want to reiterate what many people have said they're in community forums about other schools that might close I've known about the politics for a little while but to change it so quickly is not fair to the kids we're the biggest school you have 1800 kids it's a lot of families and we don't land here by choice it's not a geographical
151boundary we Lauder to get in we've chosen this school we want this school we want it the way it is we want the APC to get along but please find out first what's happening thanks thank you very much Jennifer I I want to say thank you to all of you guys for what you do and I also I'm here on behalf of Family Partnership and we didn't start off as a homeschooling family my story is I never wanted to homeschool my kids I thought they were strange all of those things like pretty much the typical what like most people educated in our educational system thought and then I had my first child who did not fit in the box then my first child had a traumatic brain injury I have a gifted child with a
152traumatic brain injury like this is not a good situation he has younger siblings I've got to figure out what to do with him he's going to one School Bayshore they did a lot like my child sat in his school and he read out of defiance and so that child learned how to read which was amazing I was so glad that that teacher didn't force him to stay on track with his with sitting there filling out the sheets of paper of things that he already knew that he got to sit there and read and learn which is amazing and then he goes to Rogers Park the highly gifted program he has like the teacher that is like for um that has like all the stuff right like he he literally did the thing where he like
153teaches the the kids how to use alternative technology I was like there's no way I can do better than this Cove it happens and like we have this shutdown and I am like literally shaking as I'm talking about this I was like this is the worst thing that has happened to me you know it was just like this is this is gonna be terrible but I had a friend who was like here you know you can homeschool because my child was not gonna sit there on a screen he was like oh I can pretend the internet went out I can say that there's no there's no class you know I've got a toddler who's running in the background I can't learn this thing to learn how to teach my kid anyway so we go to
154Family Partnership and I meet I have a recommendation through a friend so this is not just like randomly showing up this is like Word of Mouth recommendation I get to choose my sponsor teacher this sponsor teacher empowered me to teach my children showed me all of the things this is a homeschooling charter school which I thought was amazing that ASD would have such a thing to be able to support my child who is different like twice exceptional is not a fun place to be as a parent it's hard they're marginalized they don't fit the mold like yes he can do calculus level stuff at 12 years old but could he sit in an AP class probably not could he pass the test probably so like he's a different kid okay like this is you have
155a unique place where you can keep kids in ASD with homeschooling parents who can talk to a homeschooling board with with with people who can mentor and like you can find a place for them please don't take 25 years worth of something that is really amazing because you have this infighting in the struggle like you've got to find a better way start another school split it make two schools make a correspondence school and keep the charter do anything please thank you thank you very much we'd like to invite now I can't read the last I think it's Dean Franks something with an F I'm sorry if I'm not reading that correctly belt Belton Johnston welcome please State restate your name for the record and your first scheme hello my name is Dean France I'm a
156parent of three boys who currently attend Family Partnership School excuse me only one of my boys attends them as they're rather young to be attending school right now um so I have two points I'd like to talk about uh dissolving the school seems like a rather rash idea um I'm sure you've all heard this tonight there are there is a huge community of parents and children that attend this school and as the data shows it costs less money and you have better school better schooling smarter kids as a result I think it's rather silly to dissolve something that works so well the second point I'd like to bring up and this is the reason why I don't want my kids to attend school um is some of the books that are being held in libraries
157at schools disgust me and I would never read them to my children ever and they range in all kinds of explicit materials that I don't think any child should ever get a hold of um it it seems now I know there is a way to put these books on a list to get looked at inspected and hopefully removed from the library that list seems to take too long um having access to this material really downplays the innocence of a child so I would hope that we can have some sort of resolution as to why we have such odd disgusting books in our school libraries and as a result of this this is why my children go to Family Partnership which is a great School so I would hope that you guys make a great decision
158and not dissolve the charter of the schooling thank you thank you very much Mr Johnston whenever you ready and that I want to thank you guys for being here and for letting us voice our opinions you know this is we live in America and that's what America is about and so I thank you and I uh I come to I have two kids in the uh Anchorage School District and uh their their uh teenagers now and so they're in uh junior high and high school going into uh and getting ready to further their education and then uh it was brought to me that I too have seen some of these books that are uh and and you know I'm 65 years old folks I'm I've been around the block I've seen I've seen uh uh
159school boards come and go and I know you have the hardest job in the world nearly of of directing but you guys have to take a firm stand on these and get rid of these things or you're going to lose a lot more people they are uh offensive my kids do not need to see these they are uh that they they're suggestive they are they are and and they're putting them in comic format which kids love and that's what has got to stop and and so I just implore you to look at what is being got by the by The Librarians look you know this is this is part of your job and each one of you would not read these kids to your kids or your grandkids you wouldn't read them and I don't
160believe you would anyway but anyway it has got to stop because this is what is corrupting our youth and you guys have have seen this uh everywhere and I've seen it that the youth here in Alaska need our help and not to hurt them and there's a lot of them that are are uh they they take this material and then they read it and then they act upon it and where they would not even dream about doing that until they until they get it put in their face and so I want to ask you and ask you again to get rid of it it is it's wrong one of them is heroine and one of them is this one summer and they these things are sickening they are and and the thing is I don't
161know that you couldn't uh bring a suit against the school because they are that disgusting and and and that's something that maybe have to be looked at thank you thank you very much sir I'd like to invite Jesse I cannot read your writing Jesse something looks like Becca uh Jolene eudick Jolene please state your name and you have three minutes my name is Josie Thacker I am a graduate of Bartlett and the anchor school system be honest with you I found my personal experience there to be caustic unengaging and I couldn't wait to leave um really not an enjoyable experience three of my teachers were accused too convicted of sexual crimes against the miners who are there my music teacher my biology teacher and everybody knows such Carlson who was acquitted that was my experience
162in high school the assault to my nature the assault to not liking America there was many things like that so I didn't come to speak on Family Partnership I didn't even know there was a meeting on it that's how well your memo was distributed until I just realized now like as a father who works 80 sometimes more hours a week that um my kids actually went through Family Partnership we made it a point around 10th grade to put our kids in a public school system my daughter Sophia Thacker took all AP classes she was East student body president graduated that's how well they do a Family Partnership okay so after hearing this and look I know politics I know how things work I've been part of several committees I was in the military okay um
163personally here's two things that would stand out to me and this is obvious as daylight number one okay by eliminating these I I put 1600 students at seventeen thousand dollars a piece that's 20 point 27.2 million that goes back into the school district budget plus you take their four million that's 31.2 do the math not very complicated to get but four day notice or a three-day notice and honestly looking back at the majority of the families there they're Christian families let's just deal with the elephant in the room you know it's an assault on Christianity in Anchorage nobody's willing to see it so I go to church I can tell you what you're talking about the maternal in school I was a personal product at the indoctrination what saved my life literally saved my life
164was the United States military because I grew up loving America you know America is the home of the free and the Brave and we raise men and women of virtue I was taught to be virtuous kind to all people I learned that overseas um my parents would have punished me severely had I been nasty to anybody regardless of their personal life choices they would always tell me boy you don't know the story you know you need to watch your tongue yeah you know until you walk a mile in that person's shoes we were taught dignity and respect that was back in the 80s uh this process of we must eliminate these private schools because they are teaching rhetoric or heresy or unacceptance well I find it odd you know Karl Marx said it best accuse
165others of what you do to them well I can tell you now the policies which would continue to Institute sure sound like taste like and feel like not socialism hardcore communism if you haven't read um up in um have you haven't read much into communism we are on a fast Trail to it which is directly against American policy so support the charter school support America thank you sir whenever you're ready good evening guys my name is Julene Uric and I'm a parent and family Charter Family Partnership Charter School um attending Public School ourselves in Anchorage we knew that we wanted a different educational plan for for children so we chose fpcs because of the freedom of curriculum and the ability to tailor make the needs for each one of our children in 2007 we joined
166fpcs and have been able to see our school grow like exponentially not only in enrollment but also in the flexibility and the ease of using the program um I'm certain that without the checks and balances of our current system of representation in the APC that fpcs will most assuredly fall into the same budgetary problems and overreaching control that comes from being detached from the students and families that use our program our APC has done a wonderful job in financial management of the school at a time when the majority of governmental bodies have increased spending to the detriment of the stakeholders please leave the charter of FPS see us in place and give fpcs time to adequately adjust to the Monumental growth that the school has had due to the pandemic thank you thank you very
167much and next I'd like to invite Hannah eudick and Amy Sims please state your name and you have three minutes thank you good evening my name is Hannah and I'm a graduate of Family Partnership charter school I attended and was very involved in fpcs from kindergarten through senior year and I continue to be involved by volunteering with our student government I also feel that I have a unique view of this as I was actually a member of our APC board for my sophomore Junior and senior years as the only school in the state and one of few in the country which allows their student representative to have full voting rights on a board which manages a multi-million dollar budget I can say that while I served as a student my voice and my vote was
168completely equal to that of the parents and teachers on the board this is just one of many unique aspects of spcs that will be lost should you revoke our Charter while I graduated in 2020 I still say our because I love our school because of fpcs I will be graduating from UAA this may with my bachelor's degree in political science a year early and completely debt free while I recognize that there have certainly been personal issues between some board members who have conducted themselves in an unprofessional manner I would ask that if anything disciplinary action be taken against those specific members of our APC please don't punish the other 1700 people in our school by revoking our Charter which will undeniably harm our students and ultimately hurt ASD as many of these students will certainly
169look outside the district for their education I know the letter sent to this board by this board to ours is trying to say that not much will change that just isn't true by removing our Charter you would fundamentally be changing our school and cause irrevocable damage I can assure you that these parents teachers and students sitting behind me who have taken time out of their busy week to show up in support of our school will not stand for it thank you for your time thank you very much Miss Sims whenever you're ready my name is Amy Sims I have been a teacher with ASD for 23 years and been a teacher parent with Family Partnership for 18. my two older Sons graduated from Family Partnership my oldest is currently serving the space force as a
170satellite subsystem engineer and my second oldest is serving in the Navy as a hospital corpsman I have a sophomore and Junior enrolled in fpcs the school has been invaluable for our family as a parent and a teacher at fpcs I have hundreds of examples of why Family Partnership is best served to continue as a parent-directed charter school I want to share a very personal reason with you this evening we met our youngest adopted son when he entered my small group classroom with Family Partnership at the age of six he was in Therapeutic Foster Care and had already been dismissed from both the ASD preschool program and his kindergarten neighborhood School his fee his previous foster parents decided to try homeschooling through Family Partnership unfortunately he lost his foster care placement while he was in my
171first grade class and our family immediately began pursuing our foster care lesson by the time he came to live with us he was back in the neighborhood school I was at the school a few times a week because of his difficulty in the classroom we thought an ASD Alternative Program might be better for him we entered the lottery and he was placed at a brick and mortar alternative school that was a disaster for him he ended up at Mount iliamna for two years until its closure our family's Saving Grace was when he was placed in Miss mccawa's sbbs classroom at Baxter Elementary she and her team helped my son and her family so much over the next two years then came middle school he was placed in the general education and accelerated classrooms he did
172okay but was having difficulty socially and falling behind with the amount of coursework he I was constantly meeting with his counselor and IEP team and teachers to figure out how best to help him then covet happened and everyone came home I found that our being together as a family taking the pressure off him to perform at the pace of his neurotypical classmates and the ability ability to focus on a social and emotional learning he not only did better academically but he thrived socially and emotionally he is now a high school sophomore last year when he took the math assessment he scored in the 95th percentile and 98 percentile in both math and reading he is a smart kid and needed a different way to learn than the traditional classroom he is now participating in homeschool
173courses with me small group taught classes and a king Tut class the unique Way Family Partnership has been structured structured as a charter school and the flexibility it affords students is what is best for our students and families please do not revoke our school's Charter but work with all with and all our APC to best function within the charter and the state agreed um and the state agreed was a good contract with our school help Family Partnership Charter School continue to be a place where students achieve their goals and aspirations ASC has a wide range of educational opportunities within our district to best fit the needs of the vast population please do not eliminate one where my son has not only progressed but has beaten me up thank you very much I'd like to invite
174Nikki Rose and Andrea morceri okay we'll come back to her thank you very much okay so welcome Mickey Rose welcome back uh you have three minutes thank you all I was actually really pleased when I joined Family Partnership with just a few years ago my son's in the audience tonight and I just want to say thank you for all for listening to us and engaging with us and I just look at each one of you and I know how hard it is I've been on a few boards before and I know how difficult it is I served um my boss Senator Holland when he was in the Alaska state legislature as we worked on the education committee to pass the Alaska reads Act um with that in mind I know a lot about education it
175was a wonderful job and I served him as Chief of Staff what that allowed me to do is research even more about outcomes for two children and for students and that's why I picked Family Partnership I started my research before my son was even born I looked at success in each of the schools looking at lotteries and getting really excited that he would be entering kindergarten in 2018. when I did that I also started looking at the board that you're sitting on and I actually said I'm going to get more involved I'm going to learn how the board operates because I want to be a vital part of this community I got to meet some members of your Administration I got to meet some members of the board and I also had a hundred percent
176attendance in the board Leadership Academy that you all provided that opened my eyes I immediately thought this is a great opportunity I can't wait for my son to go to school and learn and so he thrived at Bear Valley and we enjoyed that immensely but when it push comes to shove I realize I have a really unique child just like I was unique and we're all unique and he thrives best when he is instructed by one teacher that's a really good ratio and I would hope that you would encourage those ratios to continue by driving our Charter away we're not going to have those same ratios in fact we're going to actually decrease the number of of teachers because we just don't have the budget for it it's very expensive to educate so our Charter
177allows me as a parent to get involved and to have accountability to my board it allows me to ask questions and to say why aren't I getting my full allotment or what about this reimbursement and those are the things that I value in this Charter that I have with my son it also allows us flexibility he is thriving and enjoying the one-on-one time with me as well as the other people that I use as vendors and we have a wonderful sponsor teacher that we can pick If This Were to go away our Charter would then cease to exist and we wouldn't have those accesses thank you very much yes Andrea when you're ready good evening my name is Andrea mocery I have one child enrolled at Family Partnership charter school and I am a taxpayer
178in my professional line of work I help those who come into our facility seeking often emergent medical treatment that have no health insurance are under insurance or have no means of paying for their medical bills I help these individuals by assisting and enrolling them into the state program known as Medicaid referring them to a United Way navigator to help them look for a health insurance plan referring them to community programs and in many cases advocating and helping them apply for financial assistance due to circumstances Beyond My Control I am a single parent who does not have the luxury of just staying at home to homeschool full-time if I did if I do not hold full-time employment that also offers affordable health insurance through my employer's group health plan for my child and for me I
179will not be able to pay my mortgage or put food on our table as a parent I want to have parent influence and parent leadership in the ability to choose curriculum where funding and where funding for my child's education goes I chose to move my child out of ASD beginning in the 2021 school year due to the many problems including curriculum class sizes and safety he now attends a private school I was delighted to find fpcs because they partnered with me in the educational path that I consider to be in my child's best interest I can speak from experience that if ASD takes over and there's no parent representation on the board we as parents will lose our influence and the reason why we chose to partner with this charter school for our children's education
180fpcs is growing in enrollment because they are in the right they are on the right path it is what parents want for their children's education more choice not less I want to clear up misconceptions and false information about schools like fpcs that people are sharing especially those individuals that are campaigning for office no funds from this school are exchanged between our private school or are being funneled to sustain our private school I the parent and taxpayer receive the funds and choose my child's educational curriculum the curriculum that I am reimbursed for is for basic curriculum that ASD schools are struggling in and have been struggling in long before covid ASD schools which my tax dollars are also continuing to go to I'd like to ask that the ASD school board and Dr Bryant consider partnering
181with the APC board instead of dissolving it and taking it over thank you thank you very much I'd like to invite Stephanie long and last name b-i-e-g-e-l is it gavit come up tell me Stephanie you will go first hi I'm Stephanie long my husband and I are the parents of two Family Partnership school students a sixth grader and a third grader our family has been schooling through Family Partnership for the last seven years we are proud to be a member of Family Partnership and are concerned and confused by the recent recommendation to terminate the charter I won't launch into the many reasons that we chose to homeschool our children we could have gone with any of the several options that our state offers but we chose Family Partnership we chose it because of the partnership
182of Education professionals and families to give kids the best education possible we also love the marriage of homeschool and traditional classes and our children have benefited from both the Charter's name Family Partnership means that the school district and the parents are working together and that can't happen if you remove the parent board our family is so thankful for Family Partnership and have enjoyed the last seven years of teaching learning and connecting with other families please give the EPC the chance to fix things homeschooling families aren't used to doing the easy thing many make sacrifices to be able to homeschool we'll make hard choices for our kids and I know our family is not alone in this a Family Partnership becomes a correspondence school and ASD dramatically Alters parent involvement or choice for curriculum we would
183withdraw from the Anchorage School District and seek educational opportunities elsewhere to me dissolving the charter seems like the nuclear option and I encourage you to work together with the APC to find a viable solution thank you thank you very much and please pronounce your first name yes it's Glenn Glenn okay the handwriting I could not make out apologize I'm not grounded and uh that's just the curse of Montana people I think uh well it's been 25 years since I've sat before you and when I sat before you 25 years ago we were founding Family Partnership Charter School um so I was one of the founding board members and it's my pleasure to be here um Madam chair and uh Dr Brian thank you so much and thanks for listening to all the testimony here I
184will just tell you that at various times um in the operation of this charter school there probably would have been situations very similar to what you have before you today and you could have shut it down and I think the result would have been thousands of people that would not have graduated from Anchorage School District and that's quite you know that's quite a deep um decision you have to make and I know you know by the time it gets to the level at which you've published a document um but oftentimes decisions have kind of already been made and I guess I would just caution you that there are always many options available to this board terminating the charter is certainly one of them but it is the most extreme and I think it is not
185warranted um what I hope that you will consider is to give resources and maybe counseling and at least gather more information from the um policy committee that governs the charter school you know we set up the charter school in a very specific way and a very different way it was to gather rental input in a much more preeminent way in a child's education and that causes conflict with what you are used to here on this board right that is not the traditional way that you guys would approach the relationship between the teacher and the parent and the student and so um that tension has always been there it was there when I was on the board for the first several years and it remains on the board today but as you um consider your options
186I do hope that you consider a different option than the termination of the school and what I consider to be a very unique and beautiful option for Anchorage School District parents and students thank you very much I'd like to invite Sam wolf Colleen 4K thank you uh Mr Wolf you're first state your name and you have three minutes hi good evening my name is Samuel wolf I'm a parent and I just want to say I appreciate the opportunity to speak uh this is my first school board meeting but I've had many almost a decade of experience with boards at several levels on the officer level the chairman level uh et cetera so kind of my as my first experience uh the thing that pops into my mind number one is um Alexander solzonitz and uh
187in his last message the Russian people before he was exiled he wrote a tree ties called live not by lies and uh so one of the reasons why I mentioned that is just I just want to acknowledge my umbrage at the acknowledgment made at the beginning of this meeting uh two I just find it very odd that uh we talked a lot about AP and we talk a lot about outcomes and we talked a lot about uh uh Financial Readiness and things of that nature and yet there was data that was shared that uh seems that y'all and and the school district as a whole are rather failing in its outcomes and so I just would kind of put the question rhetorically to you would you want to be kind of have the situation reversed
188like have your just jobs and and your position just kind of categorically wiped away without the opportunity to to make amends to approve to to better yourself right so concerning Family Partnership um I freely choose Family Partnership it includes their successes it it certainly uh includes their failures I don't know any of the politics that are happening on the board nor do I care uh I know that the outcomes for my children are are good and and that's really where the interest stops with me um so it seems that they're responding in a meaningful and respectful way and so I ask for your patience and ask for your mercy you have the authority to terminate it is an option it is a nuclear option and I think just myself and probably the large family that
189I represent um in terms of brothers and sisters that have kids Etc uh we will not continue with with Family Partnership in an altered form we would just move to another homeschool model that's out of ASD control so with that I would just say that the lesson needing to be heard has been heard loud and clear like if you do not act above board we will terminate your part your Charter okay we get that um so now there's a path forward to partnering in the higher Road and so I just implore you to take it uh show some mercy show some patience some virtue and uh and don't cancel the charter thank you thank you very much Miss 4K thank you so much and thank you for staying late I realized [Music] um my name
190is Colleen 4K and I am the parent of two children uh one is in seventh grade now and one is in fifth grade um we made the decision uh to homeschool and when I went to first quarter grades and one of the teachers did not know who my son was she did not know who my son was like couldn't pick him out of a crowd um that was very upsetting to me um for the safety standpoint and yes my son is kind of a soft-spoken child but that is ridiculous appalling and I was very upset by it um we applied I did a lot of research and we decided to um Lottery into Family Partnership and we were lucky enough to get in um I don't know everything that's going on with um everything with
191the board um but for example my seventh grader now his standardized test scores were at 57 percent he was below average um they are at 91 and 88. for language arts and for math with the standardized State Testing he is currently in algebra one as a seventh grader um and he is really doing well um he is understanding what he is learning he is uh thriving um my youngest son um we were going through his math and found out that he did not understand the concept of place value you would give him a number like one million four hundred and thirty six and he would go okay there's a one there's a zero some zeros some a four a three and a six and whatever number came you know he didn't understand the fact that
192you needed those zeros to hold that place value if he had been in a standardized class I don't know how long that would have gone unnoticed um there was so parents I think know um what their kids need uh everybody needs something different uh earlier there was a discussion about uh AP classes um and and the children that would benefit from them but as it was stated that's might not be the right past path for all children and I think one of the really nice things about family thank you very much Kristen Marchant welcome you have three minutes right right my name is Kirsten Marchant and my husband and I have six children enrolled in Family Partnership the news of this potential change with our Charter was sudden and the solution proposed seemed very drastic
193this morning I was ill-informed as to why a decision like this would be necessary but I have taken the day to locate print and read through all of the related emails which was substantial this is from the need to change the Alaska statue confirms that quote a charter school operates as a school in the local school district except that the charter school is exempt from the local school district's textbook program selecting its own curriculum selecting its principal and scheduling requirements this matters to us parents who have chosen this road of homeschooling with intention and thought no matter what your decision which is out of my control our family will find a charter school My Hope and proposition is this if the aps is beyond repair as it is suggested in the emails which I question
194for a few things produce such good fruit as family Partnerships are Beyond repair but let's look attentively at the problem and how we can fix it let's work together for the good of our kids who are flourishing this proposed solution seems unjustifiable and overreaching we have loved Family Partnership and I hope that you will consider pursuing alternative options I think I say this not threateningly genuinely but if Family Partnership becomes the correspondent school Under the ASD we will no longer be a part of it and I'm obviously not alone in that um I'll finish with a quote every human has four endowments self-awareness conscience independent will and creative imagination these give us the ultimate human Freedom the power to choose to respond and to change thank you for your time thank you very much and
195that concludes our extended public comment period we are now back to our agenda item e the consent agenda Madam president I move to approve the consent agenda as written second moved in second to approve the consent agenda as as presented is there any opposition one second [Music] you know I'm trying to decide whether to pull the monitors report and discuss it foreign I'd like to pull items four and five the guard rails one and two for discussion items four and five so those would move to action this is our the acceptance of guardrail number one monitoring report which we had we just we we've had those group those discussions already we're just we just had not brought them to the board to approve okay well so did you still want to pull them if if
196we can have a discussion at some point but I'll go ahead and we withdraw the request right now but I feel like we need to have a discussion in regards to it as well sure and so I'll withdraw it right now with that understanding okay yes we have we these are reports that we've already had we just did not uh adopt you know approve them right right after like we normally do so all right thank you so it's we have a mo it's been moved in second to approve their consent agenda as presented any other opposition any opposition can we do a Voice vote please remember Donley yes member Higgins yes yes member Holloman yes member lessons yes member Wilson come back to her remember Jacobs yes member Wilson I can see that she's there
197[Music] and president Bellamy yes Okay so all right so the consent agenda has been approved six to zero thank you that we're moving on now to item f uh one action item uncontested student hearing and president I moved to approve the explosion of the student associated with ASD incident number 135-9015 as discussed in executive session a second moved in second to approve the uncontested student hearing as discussed in executive session is there any opposition to the approval hearing and scene none that item is approved next you have non-agenda items that will come before you next uh on the 3rd of April those will come back before the board we have had our public our second hour of public comments so that brings us to the superintendent update did I skipped G yeah I said Nana
198over non-action items to come back yeah got it all right uh thank you madam president and uh good evening ASD Community uh and ASD board so I'm going to switch up um the order of my points a little bit just to acknowledge a lot of the comments that were brought up tonight I do think it's important for me to address a couple of points directly um I do want to state that tomorrow I anticipate in FAQ to be released to families to more thoroughly address some of the very valid questions but all that to say regardless of how this proposal turns out whether it's approved or rejected by the Board of Education Family Partnership families are ASD families and I value your voice and I value what you bring to the table so I do
199want to personally take a moment to address some of the things that were brought up tonight to hear it directly from me so first off I do want to restate that regardless of whether Family Partnership is a charter school or a choice School within the Anchorage School District it is an Anchorage School District school so for that reason in when serious matters are brought to my attention when the the record is Thoroughly looked at over a lens of multiple years it's incumbent upon the superintendent and board to take action and unfortunately the situation has progressed to a rather urgent situation to where I felt that a decision needs to be made one way or another sooner rather than later because I do fear that unless something changes um there is future risk of breaches either
200to the Charter Family Partnership bylaws state law or board policy and that's just based on a track record of this happening over multiple years and more can be found about that in the memo but that aside I do want to be clear that this proposal will not impact the teachers or the students or the student allotments or the very important thing that families have advocated for tonight which is the freedom to make choices about their curriculum and the structure of Family Partnership programming our teachers and families have developed authentic partnership over the 25 years that the schools existed and that needs to be protected I I do hear that there's some question around how this could impact student allotments the student allotments will not decrease from what they are today and there are no plans
201to change that and the reason for that is because I too want Family Partnership to be successful and to be a leader amongst correspondents to school programs among the state so for that reason it's important that we're both competitive in terms of our allotments and our academic programming this change is specifically around the adults that are governing the APC board as um we were hearing testimony today I was made aware of another resignation on the APC board as of today um and that's one of nearly half a dozen that I'm aware of over the course of recent history and that on a governance level which is the sole responsibility of the APC is incredibly alarming Charter School District or not that's incredibly alarming um but with that said I also want to be clear there
202seems to be concerns about what would happen with the Family Partnership uh fund balance should um this transition occur um there's no interest in using those funds for anything other than Family Partnership related expenses including to ensure that the allotments are paid out per um adherence to State Statute uh this is not about the funding this is about multiple years of documented dysfunction on the part of the APC that needs to be remedied or at least be put on the record for vote sooner rather than later to ensure that we mitigate future risks so I I want to make that clear that's not pleasant to hear but it's incumbent upon me to be very clear with the community that I am concerned and I have reviewed multiple documented instances not just within the last year
203but honestly since 2018 that include violations of the charter Municipal Code conflict of interest violations and other breaches that are very serious and I have no reason to believe that those will stop unfortunately I wish I could say that word differently that is my position that is why I'm standing by this recommendation and I'm bringing it forth a vote um so we'll revisit this conversation in April so that's what I want to say about Family Partnership I wish that I had better things to report but this really goes back to documented instances in 2018 and for the public that's listening today I also encourage you to look at an attachment that was attached to the board agenda in December of 2021 when the Family Partnership Charter was discussed where additional claims are also outlined I
204think it's important that the public is aware of all the information so that way regardless of what happens we can ensure that we're supporting Family Partnership families as much as we can because again regardless of what happens with this vote uh Family Partnership families or ASC families and we need to support him so that's what I want to say about Family Partnership yeah I did too I I do think just to switch gears a little bit what I did want to talk about was actually something much more um lighter which is about the district's future as it relates to college career and life Readiness so some of you noticed today that I was a little bit more energetic when it came to our goal discussions today and that's because we're talking about the very topic
205about which I'm extremely passionate which is college career in life Readiness and despite all the various opportunities that there are to be distracted by you know noise and you know cyborg conversations and other interests I'm doing what I can to model a laser focus on the board's goals and guard rails which focus on reading proficiency math proficiency and college career and life Readiness so we're making progress on that front so last month for example we voted upon the change to a new K3 Ela curriculum which is in direct alignment with our goals to increase reading proficiency today we had a discussion on professional learning communities which is one way that we can ensure that we provide our Educators with time during the day to focus on what it means to be a great teacher to
206collaborate alongside peers and to have great conversations about what it means to embed best practices especially in the wake of adopting a new curriculum it's important for us to make an attempt to give teachers that time to practice their craft and to be the best teachers they can I'm passionate about that and I also wanted to share that in addition to those two things that have happened within the past month I did have the opportunity to visit some schools in Nashville I did share with the board in writing uh some of my wonderings but I would be remiss if I didn't share with the community about that trip and why it happened uh so essentially what I did was I visited I had Nashville alongside my colleagues or other community leaders in the Anchorage community
207and we went to conduct a site visit to see a call College and Career Readiness transformation in Nashville because all the people that went to Nashville with me have a vested interest in figuring out how we can make ASD schools the central part of our Workforce Development strategy so it was great all that to say we came back to Anchorage ready to roll up her sleeves and think about how this could look like in our context in Nashville they have a really a compelling model called academies which are essentially smaller learning communities where students before they graduate from high school get credentials in the industry that are linked to high-wage high demand jobs or it links them for opportunities to get perhaps an associate's degree in the local higher education environment before they even graduate
208that's really exciting but the reason why the Chamber of Commerce and the business community and others are so invested in this work in Nashville is because they recognize this is not some sort of uh School District initiative this is really at the heart of an urgency to build Nashville's place as a city in the country and I really think we're at a similar place here in ASD there's a lot of great stuff going on in Anchorage there's a lot of great stuff going on in Alaska I love living here but I think we realize that we're at an important pass we're um if we don't do something about our Workforce challenges we're going to be hard-pressed to fulfill our prophecy is being one of the the leaders in the country when it comes to Bringing
209people in and keeping people here to stay so that's why my colleagues were so excited to come back and begin chopping at the bit how can we work together to make this happen in the Anchorage way so in any case I've been presenting to numerous boards across the city about this type of work and you know they're all excited about how can we make this happen how can we supercharge our Workforce Development here in Anchorage in Alaska and we're talking about what that could look like through um an actual task force we'll do that strategic planning work um but I think the only really really wondering I've heard from members of the communities but what about the programs that I love um right now that exist right now like International Baccalaureate or language immersion or
210Pathways that are successful right now and the short answer is we want to protect programs that are working and in fact in Nashville International Baccalaureate for example I had the opportunity to see an academy that was specifically centered around the international Baccalaureate programs you truly can integrate a Career Academy with Advanced academics and a college-going culture it's really just turning learning into life and making it relevant to students aspirations so they're more connected you know we had some speakers today about the Amplified geometry and um you know as a former geometry teacher in Geometry content writer uh I was really excited to hear them talk about this because it's true when you connect learning to real life experiences it really creates a excitement enthusiasm for learning uh that that's authentic and can transcend throughout your
211college Years and Beyond I truly think that some of the students who spoke about the curriculum could be future Engineers as a result of making learning real and I think that this type of an academy model can make learning come alive for students and more importantly connect them for free to Industry credentials that could connect them to either jobs right here in Anchorage or to UAA and other universities here in the state I think there's a lot of movement here um but anyway and lastly I just want to thank um the the leaders from UAA and the aadc and the muni and everyone who came along with me to invest their time to travel all the way across the country to to Nashville to support ASD that means a lot and it's going to go
212a long way so it's been exhilarating um I love talking about our goals and guard rails and our academic Focus but I do acknowledge that there will be distractions that take us away from the work I do acknowledge that the fiscal year 25 conversations are going to be coming back but again I'm committed to doing my part to model what it means to focus on the core of our work which is to educate our students so that concludes my report thank you could you tell us who sponsored the trip to Nashville sure so this is in partnership with the Ford Foundation they have an organization called Next Generation learning and they provide technical assistance to help districts figure out how to um make the connect the dots really between the business Community non-profit and School
213District to do work like this thank you very much um any questions for the superintendent before we move on to board comments yes remember lessons and then member Jacobs I'm sure we'll hear more about the academies in coming days I mean I think about our Comprehensive High Schools right now and their neighborhood high schools and are the academies based in need I mean are they neighborhood schools do students move across Nashville to attend Academy a or Academy b or Academy C I mean I'm just sort of trying to imagine what academies might look like in Anchorage and we've got a lot of schools of choice and clearly there's more conversation yeah uh you know I can't speak to exactly how school choice Works in Nashville but I would imagine that there are mechanisms to be
214zoned to one comprehensive school and attend another school for example a lot of times districts do this you can attend the international Baccalaureate program for example and there's not one in your neighborhood but at a high level the point is is that they have quite a few Comprehensive High Schools I think more than ASD and within one school they can create about five different academies that each focus on some sort of different trade or skill like I.T and education and let's say IB or interdisciplinary liberal arts kind of instructions that way no matter which high school you go to you have five different options that are tied to some sort of career and the the thing that I wrote in board connect but I didn't say here the really neat thing is that this isn't
215about tracking students into vocations while they're you know in ninth grade they create this really strong culture to help instill in kids where it's okay to think you want to do it and then realize that no coding's kind of boring so I'm gonna maybe be a vet um after I graduate it's okay to explore different careers and fail that that's almost as beneficial as finding something that you love finding out that maybe you don't want to do this um so I think that's just a really um just a really genuine culture that I saw talking to dozens of students yeah remember Jacobs did you have a question or comment yeah thank you madam president um I wanted to I guess get clarification on something Dr Bryant mentioned and then I think we heard during public
216testimony um and for a board connect is fine if we don't know right now I believe you mentioned that another resignation occurred on the policy committee and Family Partnership and then I thought we heard a testifier mentioned that the principal was let go this happened live time while I was on the diet so I don't have all the information but I have a sense that perhaps information was shared that was not supposed to be shared because all the public was aware of is that the principal's evaluation was supposed to happen today um no one was made aware about what the outcome was supposed to be so that's all I'll say about that okay well I yeah I guess I apologize for I don't know you know how that yeah I'm not sure because that's not
217even my place to apologize so I guess I'll wait for board connect for more information um I did have a couple points and I'll email these to you Dr Bryant but at some point here based on public testimony and some great points made hopeful for some clarification um I thank you for speaking to the financial perspective and knowing that um funding would maintain under the proposal put forward by Administration um and that wouldn't be crossed over for other ASD purposes um regarding parental involvement I've been privileged to have youth attend a Family Partnership and we enjoyed it because of the unique opportunities it provides one of those is increased parental involvement I wasn't involved with the APC I frankly didn't know there was an APC I could get involved in but um I think that
218there's um positive effects that come from the committee when it's functioning um I'm curious I guess and I don't think I saw it in the memo what administration envisions the role being for a more informal committee I know that Matsu Central has a structure I believe Polaris has a structure I was digging into Florida's often used by the state of Alaska Department of Education and early development as a model so I looked and see what that they did down there I think that their statute requires every school have a committee that way specifically for parent involvement that weighs in on budget and curriculum and so um if that is something we can provide more connect later that's fine if there's an answer now certainly not holding it to it so that's one item I had
219for follow-up sure I'd like to answer that now and that will actually be near the top of the list of what will be explained in the FAQ um so I am aware of a very great best practice in Matsu in the Matsu Central District called an academic advisory Council I think that's a great practice that really brings together parents and students and staff to the decision-making table to do a lot of what the APC was intended to do for Family Partnership I think an interesting thing that a lot of people may not realize is that most correspondent schools the biggest ones are not Charter Schools they're District correspondent schools oftentimes State correspondent schools um so this would be very similar in the sense that if a Family Partnership were to transition to a choice school
220it could also just like Matsu Central which is not a charter school have that same structure of an academic advisory Council follow that yeah thank you actually so I just I had a list so I'll just go through them and Dr Brown all email these for follow-up um one of the arguments that came over points of debate I guess that came up tonight which I think I saw on a political blog was the comparison of outcomes um thinking back to uh house Ways and Means Committee and a house education Committee hearing my recollection is that the data for our Charter Schools um is a bit different than our brick and mortar schools because participation isn't um compulsory and the rate of participation is significantly less is that accurate or if we don't know that right
221now can we add that to a board connect I will get um specific numbers for board connect I know in testimony in Juneau a number of 20 I think Statewide was put out there I would need to verify ASD numbers but I did have preliminary numbers run to where I think when back when we did Pete's we essentially had about 170 students take that um that's a small percentage I think on the most recent State proficiency assessment it was about 60 students so I want to verify that those numbers are accurate but all of that to say um there does seem to be very low participation in very high up doubt of State tests if I might in person just one more Point let me just check here does anybody else you got it okay
222Kevin these are just informational points I'm hoping to for us to get to consider I guess prior to the next meeting um I think Dr Brown you mentioned that a certain number of um committee members um had either been removed or resigned getting that clarification because I didn't see that in the memorandum would be helpful um and then information from the Charter School director I haven't met extensively with Mr blasney as I have with his two predecessors but I know that they spent the vast majority of their time supporting schools and so perspective from um director hollasny it might be helpful for the board if that's something that the administration can be can provide in reference to the memo so those comprise my list um thank you for that and I'll follow up with an
223email but I want to get those out here in case other other board members had questions or points of information they were looking to get um I wanted to Pivot really quickly if I might to the on the topic of culture life Readiness I'm really glad that we were able to make that trip um there was a point where I was going to potentially attend and I couldn't make it work so it's one of my regrets but um I think that there's a lot of positive room for growth in that area it's one of um the exciting things I find about our strategic plan I think member Wilson and I along with President Bellamy at one point we're talking about arranging um a visit for legislators to see what we have currently in place at
224King Tech and some of the amazing things happening there and room for expansion and so um yeah I think there's a lot of great work going going into what we're doing right now and potential for growth so thank you for all involved thank you very much okay see no other hands uh if you could Dr Brian put there was a comment made about being denied legal services among the testimony tonight I'm not sure what that is referencing so if you could give us an update on that in in board connect that would be great um sponsor teachers choosing sponsor teachers is that one of the FAQs we'll put them the FAQ and in short I have I I would like to keep family Partnerships programmatic aspects intact this is purely about the governance specifically the
225academic policy committee okay thank you all right so let's move on to item J1 board comments uh I'm going to start with member Holloman ah I think I've forgotten those stolen um I didn't want to make a shout out to service high school for stepping forward with jerseys so that uh yeah girls could have something to wear while they participated in the state tournament um you know they're moments like that when when hardships befall your competitors and I think when people step forward uh in cases like that it's the the best aspects of team sports and uh I when I read the article I realized actually a number of schools volunteered um service just happened to be the best fit but uh just always happy when our students react that way and other than that
226no comments thank you very much member lessons thank you for bringing that up that was on my mental list of things to to mention um I really appreciate all the community members who took time to engage in our meeting tonight and I appreciate um responses by members of the administration at Dr Brian um questions from other board members um I want to say I'm really proud of the students who have been willing to take a stand on the future of your education we saw some of them here tonight we've seen them down in Juneau we've seen students across Alaska speak up those voices are really important and I'm proud of the next generation of leaders and thinkers um so to that end I look forward to checking in with our student Advisory board right nearly
227tomorrow morning um I really appreciate staff involved in today's PLC discussion I think that a Focus investment and professional Learning Time across our K-12 system is going to pay huge dividends for student growth and I think um this is thinking big it's thinking strategically it's going to be different but it's I think it's another really positive step forward I did want to flag for community members um that I'm looking forward to Community start time discussions uh this week and I also want to recognize opportunities for community members to weigh in on the future of Education funding and Anchorage courtesy of a testimony opportunity tomorrow night for on hb65 you can call in from 5 15 to 7 15 for two minutes a piece or send them an email if you're long-winded like me and um
228House Bill 39 which will be the state's operating budget Anchorage has an opportunity on Wednesday night from 5 to 8 PM those do overlap with two of our start time discussions so it can be an ASD 9 all the way so I think that really the public response to hb65 is going to determine whether or not this bill moves through the committee to continue a journey through the legislative process um oh something comments there thank you very much uh member Donnelly and president I'd like to join in your comments earlier this evening regarding the development of the College and Career ready uh goals for the for the school district and our one of our top goals as designated by this board and I just I'm really excited about the progress being made there and its
229potential for the future um I just wanted to follow up it was about a year ago that I offered my opinion during this part of our meeting that I thought the president of Russia was a war criminal well last week the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin for Warcraft so I guess that the wheels of international criminal justice turned slowly but they're getting there thank you sir member Jacobs um I will um yeah Echo points made regarding appreciation for public testimony um I take time I appreciate and respect anyone who's willing to take time out um to to come connect with us here our meetings aren't conducive on their evening uh meetings and because we aren't full-time um employees this is really the best time to have them and so
230yeah thank you would appreciates folks being willing to to speak up during public comment opportunities with the Alaska legislature tomorrow beginning with hb65 and other opportunities to support our teachers items like the return to defined benefits I believe Senator murkowski recently filed a bill that would return eliminate the exemption in return Alaska to a state where individuals might receive Superior Social Security benefits as well so there's movement everywhere to address the education and Staffing shortage we're experiencing I'm so grateful for those stepping up and doing the work thank you very much member Higgins thank you I'll win 20 minutes left the only thing going for you is that I've had a Coke and I've bought it so I'll make it brief um I just uh want to first of all thank all the people that
231came and tonight and spoke uh regardless of the position they took they care enough about kids they care enough about their kids outcome the education uh and they came in and spoke passionately about that and that type of feedback he's meaningful I appreciate the superintendent's comments he's being very honest and direct on the issue dealing with State local and and ASD policies and and obligations and concerns about compliance with that uh and how do we deal with that issue will be discussed in April um but the commitment I believe that uh the superintendent shared as well as the I think is shared by the vast majority if not all the board members is that the Family Partnership success we do do not want to see impacted and the commitment there to do that we have
232a lot of charter schools that accept we've got a lot of optional programs in the school district um and sometimes they work better than other times I'm very heavy involved with Montessori and I think they vary a little bit by school but they Rave about the relationship in regards to it um and uh and so there's I'm involved with that aspect of it so I see both sides of this coin uh some advantages and disadvantages quite a bit but the compliance is a big issue and like I said I appreciate the superintendent being very direct and upfront about it and shared you know his commitment with the Family Partnership plan to be successful um with that I don't have I'm actually going to yield the rest of the hour in 20 minutes if I can
233Madam president and save it for next time right okay that well that works for me thank you sir um member uh Wilson would like to [Music] everybody that there is a Communications meeting on she didn't text me to date I think it's on Thursday um at noon followed by governance also those will be uh available on accessible online uh I'd also like to just remind uh just piggybacked on member lessons comments regarding our uh school start time conversations Town Halls tomorrow is the the first one at Betty Davis East Anchorage high school on Wednesday the conversation will take place at South High School and on Friday uh the conversation will will be at uh Mirror Lake so we're hitting all pockets of town uh doors will open at 5 30. um and they will be
234live streamed if you can't make it in person so uh please add those opportunities to your calendar um do you have any other common stuff right no further comment thank you madam president thank you and I would also like to thank everyone for showing up tonight and really telling us what you value your family value um uh regarding Family Partnership so with that move to adjourn second moved in second to adjourn