001test good evening we'd like to welcome everyone to our regular school board meeting today recording in progress today is Tuesday February 21st all board members are present in the boardroom uh which includes myself Margo Bellamy Dave Donnelly Pat Higgins Andy Holloman Carl Jacobs Kelly lessons and Dora Wilson we also have our superintendent Dr Jarrett Bryant uh in the in here on the Deus along with our executive assistant Amanda Foster and with that we will do the flat flute um Michelle would you lead us in well absolutely just to look like the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with ability and justice for us [Music] on behalf of the Anchorage School Board I want to take a moment to recognize and offer gratitude for the
002sacred 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 resilience of its indigenous peoples chanon thank you very much and that brings us uh just like to make a quick opening statement um and thank everyone for being here we welcome we'd like to welcome you to our meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the Anchorage School District and Discord the board which is to thank our students parents teachers staff School business partners and the entire Community for your investment
003in our district with your time your talents and your tax dollars uh and we're happy that you're joining us today that brings us to item A3 approval of the agenda Madam president moved to approve the agenda as presented second moved in second to approve the agenda as presented any opposition and hearing no opposition the agenda is approved as presented and that brings us to item B1 our student uh representative Michelle so Sab or the student Advisory Board held our February meeting on the 14th in the afternoon and we started with small group discussions getting to know each other more and talking about what groups we all represent and how our schools engage in civic education following this we went into our school reports where each School shared how they extended 30 minutes have impacted their
004school next we heard our school Spotlight reports from East Family Partnership grinning in goldenview the schools shared information about their school and what makes them unique I shared my school board report and the member lessons gave some brief comments after that we elected my president-elect or the person who's going to take my place and when I graduate in May I'm proud to share that our Sab president for the 23 to 24 school year is Joshua pack from Polaris Josh is involved in many ways throughout the district and he traveled with us to Juno last year for the legislative fly-in after that election we heard a president education from Member lessons about Civic engagement and education and we ended our meeting with a resolution brought to us from Eagle River High School titled asaa vote resolution
005where we had a short discussion that is going to be continued into our next meeting which will be on Tuesday March 21st at 8 15 in the morning and that's all I got and thank you very much any questions for Michelle we were expecting a couple of students that did go to Juno and so we will invite them back uh at a to another meeting um they were they joined the board members in advocating in Juneau for uh ASD and they had lots of wonderful things to say and the legislatures listened which is also great the next item is a uh just a point of information regarding our controversial issues um committee uh from time to time questions about specific books will come up and it's because of these times that the board and the
006school district has a formal policy and process to process and address any book or instructional material uh we are we invite parents citizens um anyone in the community if you have a controversial uh item that you wish to have addressed we invite you to do so through that committee [Music] um the administration is currently working on a software that will clearly delineate what is available for student checkout and what is not available for student checkout some materials are labeled um staff only however we do realize that that notice is not clear in the current catalog so we are working to get that addressed um but if you have uh questions about I would like to have an item a book or instructional material processed I invite you to our website asdk12.org um and and and
007you can look for controversial do a search for controversial issues and that process which is a very detailed process will come up for you so with that um I'd like to move on to our goal monitoring which is item C1 on our agenda tonight's discussion is reading proficiency as soon as I find my and we do know that with the Alaska star I mean we've gone from Peaks to the Alaska star and there might be other changes uh that we might have to change uh consider in our goal monitoring but uh tonight's discussion uh our primary conversation will be focused on reading proficiency goal one and that uh goal is beginning September 20th the percentage of third grade students proficient in reading on the state summative tests also known as the Alaska star um will
008increase from 40 to 80 percent by May 20th 20th uh the uh interim we will also have conversation around the interim goal 1.1 and that interim goal reads the percentage of K2 students at or above reading uh Benchmark above the reading benchmark on interim assessments uh fast Bridge curriculum-based measures will increase from 37.5 percent in the spring of 2021 to 80 in Spring of 2024. before we begin I'd like to just make sure that to confirm that all four components of our monitoring report uh is our present the report clearly shows what is being monitored um the report shows data for the last for the three previous reporting periods the current reporting period and the target reporting period the report shows the superintendent's evaluation of the district's performance and the report finally shows supporting documentation
009that evidence is the superintendent's evaluation via the tables provided and it includes next steps so with all the components present we are ready to begin our progress monitoring conversation on reading proficiency board members had the opportunity to send in Prior questions uh if not um you certainly can bring questions forward uh uh tonight as well um once the board fully understands the current reality uh we will we will move from the who the why and the what onto the how so with that uh framework we are ready to begin our uh discussion so who has a question for the super and conduct so oh I'm sorry member lessons I know I I know you had some wanderings but now you can put those into questions if you like or just I'll try to focus on
010questions rather than commentary okay um so one of the questions that I have is really in relation to the covid pandemic and um what has happened since then as we've returned to school and I'm curious about you know what what data do we have that's showing um which student groups may be rebounding uh from Lost learning opportunities and if they are rebounding you know under what circumstances like when we look at just the smaller drop from all the winter this year then follow the winter last year is that an example of a success story but are there any particular subsets of students that were seen rebounding in any particular ways so I'm gonna let so swing Justice in Chief academic officer and I'm going to let Chris Ovitz our assessment evaluation senior director time in
011on that one thank you for the question um it's a it's a difficult question because simply there are so many variables that impact student achievement um and what I would say is we may find Pockets uh um small moments or glimpses of data that support growth or achievement in certain areas now can we say that's directly related to covet I think that's a very very difficult correlation to make I would say it's a correlation and I think it's really important to consider what's causation versus correlation and but what I would say is the main factor that I see is that it comes down to the classroom and the teacher focusing through our mtss structures on specific students needs and addressing those in the real moment but to say we are making a large rebound would
012be a difficult uh correlation to make sure follow up our resources over the past few weeks um the question do we have adequate resources you know and you just referred to you know what's happening in a specific classroom and I think that's absolutely important um roughly 25 of our Elementary classrooms according to an RFI that we received exceed 25 students per class that's over a couple hundred classrooms in our elementary 37 classrooms have more than 30 students 37 elementary students have more than 30 students in them according to the tally that I ran um we have the resources from the state of Alaska to adequately dial into our students needs in our classrooms I can take an initial step at this thank you member lessons for that question I think that um evidence could suggest
013that there's not um you know the district was interested in commissioning a study to look specifically at the base student allocation for example to see what would it take to actually Implement research-based practices the practices that the research and data indicates actually lead to student achievement and I suspect that number would be far beyond on what we're currently investing in students but that's just one perspective um you bring up class sizes with which is another great observation too some research suggests that smaller class sizes lead to Greater academic attainment other studies say it's more nuanced and complicated than that but from my vantage point I think what's even more alarming than all of this is the fact that because of the pandemic because of out migration from the state of Alaska there are so many
014positions that continue to be unfilled so you may have a classroom of you know 12 students but if you have a permanent substitute teacher sure evolving door of Staff that's not good for student achievement either so it's very complicated to what uh senior director Opitz pointed out and that's why we're um very appreciative to have this opportunity to discuss what additional resources are needed so we can do the best we can with the resources we have and that that kind of brings me to my question um can we make this 80 percent I mean I know we're going to make so we started out in 2020 with our goals and our guardrails and I'm just curious I I'm just curious as to how we are because we're also looking he gave a beautiful presentation during
015our work session today word is that how is that going to help improve the scores at least in the K3 grades if somebody speak to that um I smiled at Mr Opitz when you asked if we could make the 80 because this is a conversation we have almost daily and so we we will continue to work towards making that 80 I think that in looking at the new curriculum I think it's a right step forward and re um re re-analyzing our multi-tiered systems of support the mtss plan I think um that's a step in the right direction I think we're making those right steps I think we've got a great team um up here where we're constantly engaged in conversation about what does that look like what are our needs how do we move forward
016with the with the resources we have now what resources do we need and that we can come and ask you for like um adopting a new curriculum okay all right thank you um any other questions of member Higgins thank you I appreciate the presentation um do we have data showing how all kids are advancing academically per year so that we know kids that are ahead were advancing a full year or not we've got a lot of parents with kids and your kids out there that are excelling and they want those and I do that with my grandkids and with others too they want them to continue to grow and not focus on the cluster but all kids advancing polio academically do we have data on that that we can see how how many kids are
017academically advancing a full year every year so that we're not holding kids back or kids that are in the first third grade though the first grade reading level at the end of the year we hope to it thank you great even if they want up the scale that they're still advancing do we have data like that I know at one time we had it by by by grade and by School uh and so we had a lot of data out there and it was revealing one revealing was third grade where we had pretty plat academic growth in reading it was identified not the school location it was the curriculum so that was a revealing bit of information but I'm just wondering if we had that I know that in the past I'll share with you
018the boy that asked for it was told we didn't have a new superintendent came in we had all of it handed for three years uh so I just don't know if we have that but to me that would be very revealing information [Music] um thank you for the question um I think it's a really important question first of all because what you're talking about is the difference between proficiency or benchmarks and growth and what you're asking about is are our students growing in a positive direction um the the I'm not I can't speak to the exact data in a moment it might be something for the RFI process that we could get to um but that is a it's an essential question and we do have information even uh when you log into fast Bridge
019or map it does show growth um as an option what I will say is with the science of reading um we do see pretty significant growth with our kids that are performing well specific to what you were asking and so that that's something that we can look further into in more detail foreign list you'll put the other one okay thank you uh other questions remember Donnelly like last time we went over uh the interim goals for reading proficiency I uh asked about the circumstances that we faced right before the pandemic where we had someone go from classroom to classroom and check on the implementation the actual utilization of the uh the curriculum that we had and they found that listen it was like 25 percent of the classrooms were actually using the curriculum that had
020been adopted by the board and then there was subsequently we were told that there was a correlation between the classrooms that we're using the curriculum and success they were actually succeeding better than the classes where the teachers were refusing to use the curriculum um do we know and I asked this last time do we know how many of our classrooms have implemented with Fidelity the existing curriculum for elementary Reading foreign [Music] the exact data so we did conduct implementation walks but it was um it was not every classroom every school so it was basically a sample size and um I'm trying to think back what that exact number was because I remember our director Diane or at the time uh presented the information to you I want to say that about 70 in that sample
021size we're utilizing the curriculum and then utilizing as intended but I I don't remember for sure and I can probably look that up and send that to you okay thank you can I do a follow-up yes Jimmy all right so has there been any effort to correct the 30 that aren't using the curriculum and if so what efforts are we how are we doing then yeah so with our ntss systems um our instructional coach and principal partnership meetings we hold those meetings monthly uh to improve our implementation Cycles improve our instructional leadership in the buildings and then work to improve our implementation so that's an ongoing effort every year as we onboard new teachers and then as the teachers that we have on staff continue to improve that implementation so it comes through that that
022instructional coach and principal partnership meetings that we're doing to improve our knowledge base about the implementation with our curriculum foreign I'm curious in how successful we're being with those techniques to implement the curriculum with Fidelity and through the president to member Donnie we haven't done an instructional um implementation walk since the fall one so that isn't something that we have done at this point in time to do the follow-up we do that typically every fall um to look at that pacing in time um and so that follow-up Point has not been done yet to this semester okay I'll wait my turn for another question okay thank you member Donnelly um who has not spoken yet remember remember lessons go on this is maybe a response to member Donnelly's question it strikes me that this is
023an interesting year because we're sort of betwixted in between two different things we have taken steps towards quite possibly adopting a new evidence-based curriculum and yeah we're still doing implementation checks of something that we may be moving beyond and I find that could be an awkward position for I feel like it's awkward for me as a board member and it could be awkward for educators as well um the state is already offering letters training the state is already offering you fly there there are tools out there that are not part of asd's toolbox that potentially could be in the future so I think you know your question is an interesting one but but it's also where at an awkward pivotal moment so I guess that's just my my personal response to your question um I
024do want to I did want to ask though about um we had seven snow days in uh last semester that's like eight or nine percent of the learning days that students would have had between August and December um and then on top of that rates of chronic absenteeism are through the roof our kindergartners the rates of 90 attendance are 57 um first grade beers are at 58 a second grader at 63 so of the days that school has been open you have 40 plus percent of our youngest Learners not in school all the time I find that very challenging to imagine the growth that we want to see taking place under those circumstances when students aren't in school I guess that's not a question that's not an outrage that's a tiring thank you and kids
025you know parents have to get kids to school so we've got to figure out how to encourage parents to do make sure their kids are in school and I think um we did have that down though as for a deeper discussion so it's not it's on our list for a deeper discussion but you're absolutely right you're absolutely right uh other questions coming back around remember Donnelly thank you mad president I want to talk about retention um five years ago when I asked the question how many of our third graders were retained and I had over 3 000 third graders only four were retained held back because they hadn't achieved proper academics or other reasons um we know that if kids can't read by third grade they're in for a lot of trouble going forward if
026we're only at 40 percent proficiency now with our second third graders how are we addressing that with our new retention policy because I did sponsor the board approved a new retention policy prior to that it was just absolutely nobody ever was retained and now it's in the best interest of the student is the standard so how are you how are we utilizing retention at this point of view to make sure point of time to make sure that our kids are are getting where they need to be before we move them on up the the advanced grades can I I want to introduce our new director of teaching and learning for elementary Nicole Somerville and she really has been tracking all that is Alaska reads act and has been a critical part to the reading curriculum
027so I wanted her to share uh what's coming with the progression non-progression through the Alaska reads Act thank you um member Donnelly to president so the Alaska reads act one of the provisions in it is that a discussion is opened up every single year that a student is not proficient in reading the intent of the law at least according to the presentations that I've been at is that students that teachers administrators reading experts and parents when a student is identified as not proficient you would put in interventions according to the Alaska reads act you would re- continue to progress monitor them and assess them by middle of the year if the student is not making progress of course you're still going to change your interventions and add more help but then you're going to start
028the discussion of whether or not an retention they call it in the law a progression or non-progression is appropriate and those discussions are supposed to happen for all students that are not making their proficiency targets every single year now the intents the law is that students would only be retained once in their school experience so that you wouldn't have 14 year old third graders that you know you would continue to add interventions in place but the law has that it's the parents decision overall and that if a parent chooses to not retain or to allow their child to progress to the next year there is a provision in the Alaska breeds act that the school district would provide summer school support 20 hours in that year between third and fourth grade foreign looking now what
029we've done in the past just one quick follow-up sure last year I know we're in a very unique situation with the pandemic so you may be an abrogation statistically but how many of our [Music] third graders were retained remember Donnelly all of us that are sitting up here are brand new to our jobs and we weren't here last year and so I would have to go back and find that out for you we could maybe put it in for connect um would that be all right Miss Donnelly or connect thank you all right and I would like to just remind the board too you guys are asking great questions if you could please uh maybe put them in writing before the meeting that would give the staff because yeah they are all y'all all are
030new that's true but uh it would be nice for them to have a heads up Mr J Mr Jacobs the president we were talking about the learning walks earlier um and this is more of a house question but we touched on it so I figured I'd follow up our strategies section of the PowerPoint speaks to us during doing those in fall and winter is that going to happen in the semester we just haven't identified a date or are we changing of course so Nicole's saying implementation walks in learning walks are two different things the implementation walk is what we do to go through and and look for um evidence of implementation and the learning walks are actually um a learning time for for principals and coaches and even teachers to have um we've discussed we
031went a different route in terms of learning walks right now we're doing drop-in comprehension lessons and part of that is because we do know we have a new curriculum coming up and so we're we're making a shift from um some of the tools that we can help uh provide to our staff um so the drop-in comprehension lessons is new to us uh this quarter because we want to start also concentrating on comprehension as we begin to familiarize ourselves with the new reading curriculum okay any other question did you have a follow-up member tickets you'll come back to my right uh okay go on member lessons um so this was not a question that I sent in ahead of time because it arose out a response to testimony um before the house education committee on Friday
032and where it was revealed that participation in the testing by participation rates in one of our correspondence schools one of our homeschool programs is around 22 that's pretty low what is the responsibility do all of our schools have to test their students I mean we have Charter we have optional we have alternative do they all have to take these assessments in a nutshell generally yes um but what I would say at any point in time a parent can opt out um also of course when it becomes and I'm speaking strictly about the state assessments um right and so again parents can opt out and then of course with some of our schools that may or may not be in person there are a variety of factors that influence who comes to test because there are
033test security agreements and those types of things um but I would have to get more information to look into that specifically follow-up yeah I guess Slide Five you know when it shows percent of students tested you know if we're it looks like you know we're all grades K through two that Top Line we're testing 91 of our K-2 students in this in this slide on page five is that correct I'm sorry I was looking at fall winter that's slightly lower 88 of our students live yes that's correct okay so a pretty robust sample size overall and and these are the ones that are happening during the year these aren't necessarily State tests right so we have been finding on state tests especially this last year at the uproad grades that we have a lot of
034students parents opting out of this of this star so but that will come later I'm just curious uh from today's presentation there were like seven um Alaska reads act things that requirements will we be updating if the board chooses to uh prove that curriculum will we be updating our implementation uh slide eight with to reflect those seven things some of those things haven't been voted on yet by the state board and once they are then we would be updating but this that will that will impact this okay well all right thank you other questions everybody has gone that wants to remember Donley thank you madam chair um just the important point that member lessons brought up earlier about we're in a transition here I guess what I'm most concerned about is that we implemented the
035current curriculum five years ago if we're only at 70 percent after five years I'm worried about the future I'm worried about what's going to happen with the new curriculum once it goes into place how many years is it going to take for that to be implemented we really believe in it that it's going to be successful we need to be implemented more rapidly than over 70 percent after five years or else our kiddos are not going to be meeting these challenges our goals here okay well thank you member Donnelly okay any other questions seeing non-hearing none we thank you guys for your time and expertise uh the next item on our agenda is C2 we're going to get a quick uh for the math technical report Dr Bryant thank you madam president so we'll go
036ahead and move into a brief technical presentation on math proficiency if we go to the next slide it states that our board goal is to increase proficiency to 55 percent by May 2026. today we'll focus on interim gold 2.1 which is to increase the percentage of students in grades three through nine at or above Benchmark on the map growth assessment to 60 by 2023 and Benchmark uh just for the Polk's awareness is defined as the 40th percentile next slide this is a graph formatted to how it's been in previous presentations but you'll see historical math proficiency over time based on the spring snapshot the dotted line represents our annual goal for students at or above benchmark for 2223 that goal was 60 percent the table below shows the same data and provides data on the
037fall and winter snapshots as well the brown boxes show performance this school year and the color Legend identifies this percentage as being near the target this Slide disaggregates the data by individual grade level allowing you to see if there are particular cohorts of students that are more or less proficient than the average the average for all grades is on the top it also provides a comparison of performance for winter versus fall of this year as well as participation the percentage Point differences between fall and winter are the last two columns this next Slide disaggregates the data by race ethnicity and special populations of students including economically disadvantaged students in special education students it also provides a comparison of performance between winter and fall and the bottom portion of the table cluster schools by the number
038below near and meeting the target uh this presentation also has data related to interim gold 2.2 which is fall to fall increases in proficiency uh on the map growth assessment the goal was an increase to 42 proficiency um by fall 2022. on this slide that you see here it's formatted similarly to the one earlier in the presentation uh this data also includes the percentage of students at or above their predicted proficiency uh based on the map growth assessment that's a separate score that that assessment produces the last two columns allow for a percentage Point comparison of change between winner and fall on that predicted proficiency indicator uh this slide is also similar to the previous one in the presentation it disaggregates the data by race ethnicity and special subpopulation like on the previous slide this
039also includes data on the percent of students scoring at or above their predicted proficiency that's what makes this slide different than the one earlier in the presentation and these next few slides provide an overview of next steps with regards to the implementation to improve proficiency so on this slide for example it details the instructional goals and focus areas to improve math proficiency which includes curriculum the multi-tiered systems of support framework and instructional strategies the approach is a continuous loop of building teacher capacity analyzing data and engaging in instructional Improvement Cycles and on this Slide the strategies are grouped into four major pillars including professional learning uh the multi-tiered system of supports framework data discussions and curriculum and it shows the status of implementation across these major pillars and that concludes the technical report our more
040in-depth discussion on this topic will take place at the next board meeting thank you Dr Bryant uh that will be March 7th is that our next board meeting all righty thank you so board members um as you review the data please send in your questions or wanderings at that time okay moving on the agenda that brings us to our first public comment section item d uh I don't think we have any students signed up tonight okay I would like to read a statement just before uh welcome to the school boards first opportunity of the evening for public comments the board has set aside one hour time slot at the beginning of the meeting for public comments in excess of an hour will be heard at the second opportunity for public comment at the end of
041the meeting or comments can be submitted in writing 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 the school board welcomes the public to observe and contribute to our meetings through their comments however to be productive our meetings must be structured and civil ASD conducts public meetings under Robert's Rules of Order which is a set of rules for orderly meetings that have been used since the 1800s these rules require the board and the public to be civil and respectful of each other's opinions and statements under Robert's Rules of Order uh do not attack a member or speaker's motives uh no profanity or foul language refrain from disturbing the meeting no cheering Applause outbursts
042or waving of signs or posters if you have handouts that you wish to share with the board please give them to Ms Foster here to my left and she will distribute them to the board member to the board for you as the president of the board it is my duty to enforce these Rules of Civility and decorum as such and consistent with Robert's Rules of Order I have the authority to rule any speaker out of order for violation of these rules and or fail to conduct themselves in a civil manner additional details can be found as you come into the boardroom there is a blue and white sheet that pretty much summarizes uh goes over everything that I just um uh shared so with that we are ready for our first uh speaker and that
043I will call two people at a time there's two chairs here the mics you can turn the mic on by pressing the button with the voice you'll see a face with the um little like a microphone coming well a voice box there Alan Brown and Rosalind Grady please come forward state your name and provide your testimony welcome Mr Brown good evening my name is Alan Brown and I have two children in the district and like many of the constituents who elected you I am a member of a military veteran I'm speaking to you this evening to address this board's 5-2 decision to censor public discourse related to current or potential ASD curriculum this board's vote said a dangerous precedent that sends the message loud and clear it does not honor or respect the Free Speech
044rights of all citizens who have a stake in the education of this community's children in my opinion this board's vote in favor of censorship is an indictment you showed your cards for everyone to see you will never be able to undo that this board's Collective actions suggests that you have no interest in hearing or considering opinions that differ from your own and that you believe you know better than the citizens that elected you this board's 5-2 vote to censor speech is a slap in the face to one of the most important constitutional rights afforded to all citizens a publicly elected board who cannot respect everyone's right to engage in curriculum-related public discourse clearly does not have our children's best interests at heart [Music] ladies and gentlemen public discourse and truly honoring free speech is by
045its very nature messy it's uncomfortable it can be painful it's often irrational overly emotional and downright dirty but as adults if we cannot handle a little uncomfortable civil discourse then we have no business being part of the conversation how can this Community Trust an elected body to oversee our children's education when it doesn't respect the rights of the public to freely speak their mind within this pure forum how can I trust that my two children will be allowed to speak up in class when they don't agree with something the teacher says or the book says will the concept of critical inquiry which by by I might add includes questioning and disagreement will that be encouraged or even permitted in the classroom discussions or after this board's precedent of censorship will students be silenced when they
046raise their ideas or opinions that counter the institutionally approved lesson plan or textbook or even worse will students simply censor themselves because they don't feel comfortable speaking up or asking tough questions well my 14 year old daughter be ostracized for questioning or speaking out against someone something that she doesn't agree to in class more importantly will this board support her right to question five to two says that you won't thank you Mr Brown I'd like to call up Laura mcnow um Miss Grady yeah hello everyone my name is Rosalind Grady White I am the President and founder of the Alaska Coalition of bipark Educators I am also a member of the education committee at the NAACP and a member of the Mountain View Community Council thank you madam president and fellow school board members for
047having me today and happy Black History Month a cool thing about today black history fun fact since we're all here to read things it is Nina Simone's birthday and she is known as a musical genius and my favorite quote quote from her is an artist's Duty as far as I'm concerned is to reflect the times and that is what I see in front of me as far as my school board members are concerned and my directors to my left we are reflecting the times there is so much to talk about and I would love to talk about everything but I know I don't have enough time to get it out so if I say something that catches your eye or any of your attention please reach out to me all of you know how to
048get in touch with me um I have I am invested in Anchorage School District as a parent and employee and a Community member I have four children that are enrolled in the Anchorage School District they go to the number one school in my opinion Mountain View Elementary School which I am proud to say is working hard to mirror a cultural or cultural cultural relevant School another cool thing about our school is that the kids are in choir basketball practice and games and they are undefeated I believe I don't think we've lost one yet having our first spelling bee composition in a long time this week and we even got to skate with a two-time Olympian speed skater Shawnee Davis the teachers over there are awesome and you're probably wondering how I know well it's because
049I get to see all the hard work that they are putting in to change and make a difference in this data but we do need the support and we need those resources as you know acbe is all about equity and equality Equity meaning the quality of being fair and impartial and equality meaning the state of being equal especially in status rights and opportunities we at acbe support forward culturally I cannot say that word relevant change and have ideas to help Implement that change that means becoming more cultural Laurie responsive District my only ask of you as board and directions is that we stay focused on the needs of your teachers and your students it may be the community as long as their why stays children first let's keep focusing on how to bring quality education
050to our students through curriculum and I will send you my email okay thank you thank you very much I'd like to call Landon forth forward and Laura my name is Laura mcnaugh and I'm a special education teacher tonight I'm speaking to you as an advocate for our like local neighborhood schools Abbott Loop Elementary is the only neighborhood school that remained on the list to be closed as I understand a project management team mainly consisting of administrative staff is currently working out the process of closing Abbott Loop Elementary and consolidating with the neighboring schools I am urging you to involve the Avid Loop Community frequently are there any additional Town Halls planned where the community may gain detailed information about the status quo and give input to help shape the transition do the receiving schools and
051the teachers get to voice their concerns if so and what type of forum may they voice their concerns and fears also just like any basic business project this consolidation needs to be evaluated evaluated for Success based on defined metrics such as cost savings student performance transportation and teacher retention Etc the Abbott Loop Community deserves to know if consolidating with their neighboring schools was worth the trouble they had to go through speaking of trouble the burden of school closure process has on schools and their Community communities shall not be overlooked I have been through the ringer myself and can confirm that I experienced a lot of stress and anxiety through that time of uncertainty that that's research on school closure suggests that schools who have been going through the process of closure should not be considered
052for closing again for at least three years therefore I'm proposing a three-year closure moratorium for the five schools identified foreclosure that are not going to be closed this year this proposal is necessary because we have repeatedly heard from board members that schools schools will get closed in the near future president Bellamy stated in a work session that she is certain that we will close schools no matter how much the BSA increases what concerns me is that I don't know what your vision is for our neighborhood schools if it is not to keep them open I would like to know that this board and this Administration arises to the challenge of fixing rather than closing public schools to make every school a school parents want to send their kids to and teachers want to go and
053teach neighborhood schools are the heart of our communities they offer continuity and stability to families who are vulnerable to disruption I am concerned about the equity in our school landscape if we continue down this track to closing neighborhood schools with charter schools in place that run amazing programs we need to make sure to learn from them what's working well and improve our neighborhood schools instead of replacing them the focus needs to be on the backbone of the system the most inclusive setting in our communities our neighborhood schools thank you very much uh I'd like to call Celeste Hodge Groudon and Mr Forks whenever you're ready push the right button again you're on it's it's live okay perfect thank you first of all I'd like to thank you all for being here today and for your
054dedicated service to our community also want to thank you for letting me speak here today my name is Landon forth I'm a product of the Anchorage School District I'm a lifelong Community member a parent of Three's anchor School District students and I am the President of the South Anchorage high school ptso I'm here to represent myself and my family and the South Anchorage High School community at large many of whom could not be here to voice their concerns and share their personal stories with you today I'm here to address our concerns of the 2324 budget and the projected shortfall it represents specifically how these Cuts made negative negatively impact our South High Community it's been announced that South is going to lose two staff members next year one assistant principal and one administrative Clerk these
055are two of our valued team members each of whom passionately serve our student body our dedicated staff and our successful educational programs be positively influenced The Human Experience of all of our students as president of ptso our board is adamantly opposed to these cuts and Staffing reductions that negatively impact the students in their educational experience we have heard many personal stories that reflect the importance of these vital Staffing roles we're concerned that these Cuts will negatively affect the well-being and educational experience of those students I've heard from many of our students the staff the teachers our concerned parents and I've discussed these concerns with our executive staff regarding these reductions these Cuts pose significant challenges to our mission of supporting the students and their education your job is a difficult one no doubt with many
056tough decisions to make I'm here to ask you to keep our educational system fully funded and fully staffed we are committed to help we are committed to continue our campaign to impact the state legislature law before full and inflation-proof funding of the anchor School District our educational system is critically important to the future of our community we are committed to being good stewards of our program and most importantly we're committed to supporting the educational experience of our South Anchorage students our staff and the parents we we ask for your support as we move forward with our mission we've got a couple seconds here so I do recognize that funding is everything but I want to remind us all that supporting good people to do good work is really important and doing more with less is
057tough in my industry we've we've been doing that for the last three years and it definitely does have a negative impact um and and these these staff members that were talking about losing they have personal connections with our students and to me that's what's the most important so I just asked for your help thank you thank you very much Mrs Boyd so celestad groundness calling in I don't see her in the queue so I'll double back uh let's have a Dave Young and Robin Platt welcome we have three minutes thank you very much my name is David Young and never been here before and I'm here because I had a conversation with a third grader uh she came over to our house to see her Cardigan Welsh Corgi puppy and I said so Charlotte are
058you uh do you have a half hour extra of school and she goes yeah and then I go so what do you do and she says study hall and I got to tell you uh I I had this conversation with with Steve Johnson who is you know you may be familiar with Steve Johnson ahead of the debate team at UAA he was as bald as I was you know and so when I see these when I see these numbers up there and I'm going well so I needed to find out is this across the board where they're having study hall for the half hour extra that teachers are in school and and trust me teachers rank at the top of the list for me because my mother was a teacher my grandmother was a teacher
059my aunt was a teacher my sister was teaching High School 33 years Master's mathematics my brother is a professor at Montana Tech School of mine's PhD head of the department Metallurgy and my son's mom who some of you may know Peggy Brannon was a teacher for 21 years at North Star and consume so I am a you know a proponent of teachers but I just can't get over the fact that if this is just a one-off thing where it's a study hall in order for you know to complete a lesson plan where you've missed you know teachers have missed seven days and I know all you know I know you all know about a lesson plan and the value of a lesson plan uh to get the students from A to Z when you miss
060seven days and you make it up with a study hall I I was just shocked so I don't know if this is across the board or just a one-off situation and I I would ask you guys to find especially you know the superintendent to find out are principles actually allowing teachers to to replace seven days of missed school it would be like if you added seven days to the end and said okay all you have to do is study hall think about that when they have a lesson plan and then seeing these numbers up here is shocking to me I mean it's shocking you know and so uh I mean it's asking you you know I'd like to maybe come back and in the next two weeks and find out if that's what's going on
061are they replacing a half the half hour at the end of school with a study hall and that's all I have to say that's the only reason I'm here today you know and I want to thank you very much for all your time thank you very much Mr Young I'd like to call Jay McDonald and Miss Platt whenever you're ready the opportunity to speak to you and I also have been watching the folks the majority of you while there's been these few public testimonies and you're looking at me and you were looking at them and you were having eye contact with the speakers and I perfect I personally appreciate that very much because that tells me that you're listening and that you're engaged and you might be interested in what folks are saying so thank
062you thank you very much for that I truly do appreciate that I'm going to just read an email here it's regarding a book mentioned at the school board meeting it's dated Thursday October 27th of 2022 and it was sent at 10 27 a.m thank you for the email Becky I did hear the testimony and wants you to know our admin team discussed it I am still standing firm and Resolute to never be party to Banning books burning books or limiting the information that informs our society writ language I will always stand by to defend the flag and the people's right to also burn that same flag in protest I believe that the defense of those rights and the education of our citizens is true patriotism and it is signed all as always go Bears from
063the Bartlett principle thank you Miss Platt I'd like to call Jesse Becker Becker Becker Mr McDonald whenever you're ready yeah thank you um so my name is Jay McDonald uh Hello friends so uh it started off when I was asking questions about um the policy that ASD has um under their diversity equity and inclusion push that they've been transitioning the kids in schools and hiding it from parents first they were telling me that it's not happening and the materials that I was asking for don't exist so I came in and I read this book is gay the response from the district was to say well that was an old book and they lost all the copies so it was no longer an issue so I read let's talk about it which is a brand new
064book that they had just placed in the libraries right before I came in to read it the response to that was to say well we never let kids kids see that book the kids never touched it it was just for the staff so on that note I have something called Beyond magenta today I'm going back to October 11 2022 I filed a foia request and these emails got caught in the foia it's a teacher at Stellar talking to the librarian she says these are option books for my censorship class it's an English class that they're teaching all boys aren't blue and Beyond magenta would be great picks if other high schools have them so this is a teacher talking about using these materials as curriculum in the class and the librarian response I need to
065do more research and buy a few of these Beyond magenta looks like a great fit for our readers so let me know if you have recommendations when do you teach this class if I act fast I could use them after this exchange it showed up in the catalog at Stellar confirming that they actually did use this in class so let's take a look at what this curriculum has in it this is the one where the person they go in graphics like there's a lot of stories in this book here's an example um I was sexually immature what I mean by sexually mature is that I knew about sex from six up I used to kiss other guys in my neighborhood make out with them and perform oral sex on them I liked it I used
066to love world I touched their you know what's we were really young but that's what we did I was making out with girls too I used to love making out with the girls because everybody thought it was cool everyone was encouraging me to look Frank's not gay he's making out with a girl they wanted to know how the hell I learned to kiss like that I didn't know how I learned it was pretty weird guys used to hit on me perverts and pedophiles I'd like to I see guys giving me a look it kind of creeped me out they touch themselves saying come here sweetie something told me not to go and I ran away there's a bunch of passages in this oh there's a bunch of passages in this book where they're promoting uh
067surgical procedures on kids all my trans friends with the vaginas look beautiful they got everything they wanted it would be so great if I could get an operation if I could get my vagina it would be great to get that over with and live my life I feel like I'm not truly living my life yet I'm living at 50 if I have my surgery I would love it to the fullest so this this whole book is full of that material this is an English class and under Alaska state law thank you Mr McDonald uh let's see I'd like to call Sherry streisek [Music] and Mr bachelor whenever you're ready you wanna push the button or is it already it's on okay thank you uh school board members I'd like to pair what the lady said
068before me it's really great that you actually can look at us and see us and talk to us and have us available here thank you distinguished members superintendent Jared um some of my statements can be pretty obviously public school is a partnership between the parents and students and those entrusted to educate them the school board is elected to ensure the school district sets goals which build students academic skill sets such as math science speech physical education and music uh these skills ensure students perform and function as a valued member of the workforce whatever regardless of the chosen trade the teachers who provide the education which focus in these areas produce students who contribute to national and local economies a stable Workforce build solid communities and create beautiful cities and homes um there continues to be
069you know what's interesting is our school district has made national world news with the censorship of Mr McDonald uh Fox News and all these other outlets it's very interesting that the feedback has been very positive and as far as not supporting this small group which continues continues to invade our school small group continues to push detrimental and confusing ideology of gender fluidity this mature has no value no educational value period I mean when you work left or right next to someone you know you're not really interested what they are you're more interested can you get the job done that's about functionality um nor are you concerned whether the mechanic identifies as something else unless he thinks is your automobile okay I may go to McDonald's but that doesn't make me a Happy Meal so this
070is where we need to focus refocus our education the board has addressed initially the availability of offense of the cheerful checkout a list of the pornographic and offensive material is available and this is a purchase to maintain by our school district and it's available none of this material falls into the category of Education none of it this material should not be available in our schools some of this material is actually illegal according to Alaska state statute 61 11 123. look it up um and it says we're going to control this to make sure that only certain people can check it out it's like keeping um cocaine in your house and having to please kids do not touch okay there's a detrimental thing to do you all know it nobody would uh nobody nobody's saying would
071be uh would have that available but again um although this and this material actually offends many people with values Family Values spiritual values Islam Judaism Christianity so this is pretty significant going against the public Trust but you guys are at a friend um you guys are at a casino you have a great opportunity to change this and to upend this and stop this because it's not only illegal and it's destructive it's wicked and you have an opportunity to change this so I would encourage you guys to do the right thing thank you Mr badger uh I'd like to call Robert Kalik Elite and Miss streisik whenever you're ready all right a concerned parent from Eagle River High School student wrote to the assistant principal last night our daughter came to us with a passage from
072the novel Gilgamesh someone from the school district authorized this book into our child's and all children of the ASD hands needless to say my wife and I were both shocked at the content we felt that this is absolutely inappropriate for a high school student to be required to read we were angry and we weren't warned about the passage from the book we're given an option on whether we felt it was appropriate for our daughter we completely felt that our rights as parents were you served by someone who feels that this is imaginary is acceptable we realize nothing can be done to reverse this damage at this point either is fine fault with the teacher but we are very upset with who decided this book was acceptable the principal had responded Gilgamesh is indeed an ASD
073approved text for English and I have seen it for years what was changed this year is that the particular translation suggested for purchase because it was more accessible to students what happened was is the new book was introduced later on in the school year and that's when this had applied we do apologize for this happening this email was back from 2013. in response uh Governor Sean Parnell had addressed Senator Baker telling him that we do support President Obama's efforts Detroit Nationwide education standards however we are concerned that let alone any International appointed board setting standards for a local school districts because I believe that greatly diminishes parents involvement and opportunity for our children earlier Ms balami stated that a program will be put in place in the future to delineate which books are available to
074students versus staff my question to all of you why would staff need access to a sexually explicit material when it is obviously not appropriate for our children in the school thank you thank you very much uh let's see John Cunningham and Mr Kalik whenever you're ready you have three minutes okay I don't all right this thing is on all right so my name is Robert Colette I'm from I'm from Barrow Alaska I've got two students inside Anchorage school district schools um I take my kids to school I pick them up after school you know we we maintain a safe family um for for bringing them to school but um one thing that did catch my attention was um this Anchorage School District compliance eeo office form that I've never seen when I've enrolled three or
075four students I've got other kids that are older um in different school districts but um enrolling my true current children that are in school one is in middle school and one's a senior but I've never seen this form here that says that plan to address Title IX gender issues um and number three preferred first name that's um kind of disturbing and the preferred pronouns is kind of disturbing to me but one of the more disturbing things is at the bottom of the storm it's got I am in agreement with the above plan students student employee signature and the principal signature I don't see no spot here on this form an Anchorage School District form where there should be acknowledged for the parents um that's that's really really confusing to me and I've got a child
076that's getting ready to be in school and she goes to speech therapy twice a week occupational therapy twice a week because she's got a speech disability and this kind of stuff that surfaced on social media in these last this last week or so that come my attention is super disturbing to me uh I just want to know uh because she my daughter she's five years old she can't really tell you very many things about like her day you can't have no real conversation with my five-year-old because of her speech delay how will this kind of stuff affect somebody with a speech delay I'm kind of frightened to I mean like I'm already frightened for her to be going into a public school um just because of her speech disability but with an added component like
077this where things are happening without parental consent there's um super disturbing to me um I I don't know I I just don't understand I I I just needed express my concern in this community that I'm a part of I'm also a youth basketball coach for Middle School age students so thank you very much sir I'd like to call John Cunningham I'm sorry John is here uh Shannon's is it Savage beverage there rich thank you thank you kindly all right Mrs Cunningham hi my name is John Cunningham uh I live right up the road I graduated from diamond high school on May the 25th 2000 barely yeah it was close my mother and my recruiter dragged me over the finish line and several of my teachers as well I think we can all agree that at
078the very least in some of your minds some of this stuff we're talking about as far as curriculum and books and it's borderline we silence we've seen some emails from uh principals Librarians going to their administrators talking about the questionable nature of some of it all the way over to well from questionable to downright destructive and kind of scary someone talked about the culture of the time right uh culture belongs to the family as far as I'm concerned that culture should not be solely or even in part in the hands of educators I mean if you want to look to a good example of how things are done and they're not all religious but private institutions all over the country do a pretty darn good job of educating children I'm sure they'd be willing to
079share with your work group there how how to get things done their stats are rather they're inverted or better uh the results speak for themselves as far as Reading Writing arithmetic those sort of things go um now I'm not trying to tell you guys how to do your job but I figure you can probably talk to them about it they seem to know what they're doing as far as the material goes you do have a choice at this point and of course I can go on the website and follow that I'm not here to address a specific piece of material I'm just here to tell you you know you can be on the side that's trying to get this into kids hands and whether or not you're doing it on purpose I don't know but
080to do so without the family's input without the parents tracking it doesn't seem right I figure anyone that would hurt a kid in that way probably shouldn't be working in this kind of field here these kids I didn't sign up for this to be part of this culture War to be Pawns in it they signed up until early hours Mrs Mazda already taught me in fourth grade brutally I barely made it there too but you know I also want to encourage you I know it's hard work you got a lot of people coming up here probably write your nasty emails saying all sorts of crazy things to you but the at the end of the day you can be on the side that protects the children from the stuff that doesn't belong in schools and
081pushes the stuff that does or you can be on the side that seemingly pushes uh familial destruction thank you thank you very much I'd like to call Samuel Schilling I think that's correct and um whenever you're ready ma'amic close enough okay hi thank you for having me um I'm here on the behalf of my two boys I have two young boys um they're in elementary school on the south side and I'm here because I'm a mother and that's why I'm here I'm here in defense of all children especially including my own because my other my mother instincts reside within me for any child because I'm a mother I'm a mother first um it's been brought to my attention recently that there's some really disturbing material available for my kids and as an unconditional loving mother
082for my children which I feed 100 meals a day too because they're two boys and I take them to karate practice and I get up early in the morning and I make sure that their lunches are done and I take them to the doctors and I and I do everything that I should do as a loving unconditional loving mother and it's really scary to me and I'm afraid for them I'm scared um what's coming next and I heard you mention the rules that we abide by since 1800 and that kind of shook me up a little bit and I was thinking wow we sure Stand Strong by those rules don't we you mentioned them yourself and I sit here and I think God the way our morals and the times have changed and are they
083for the better and are they benefiting our kids are they benefiting my kids are they benefiting any of your children and I worry for them and my biggest concern is how can I protect them what can I do to make sure that whatever propaganda is going on here whatever is happening here one how did I not know about it and two how do I keep them safe from it what do I do my options are getting very slim I know that it's just this room full of eyes on you and wondering well what's being done about this but there is a really very very important set of eyes on you and it's not the eyes of this room so whatever the propaganda is whatever your intentions are my kids are so important to me as
084to all these parents in this room right now that this will not work this will not fly and this is unacceptable and I will not stand by it and you guys cannot have my children and they will not be subject to this in my home my job is to protect them if something like this is being given to my children and I am not aware of it there's a problem with that if my children are being exposed to something that could harm them or that can put them in a place in their life where they're confused or can put them in a place in their life where they don't know where to go or they have no understanding there's a problem with that I'm here because I need everybody in this room as well as
085a scoreboard to be aware thank you for your time and thank you very much I'd like to call Christine is it Gaggle Gaggle I'm sorry Christine um Mr Schilling whenever you're ready thank you my name is Samuel Schilling I've got three boys they are in uh well we're in the school district and still are in the school district and uh tonight's testimony has been going on from a lot of parents it brings up a lot of concerns a lot of concerns that's going on in this district and some of them are what's being presented in with the districts education what their academic material is and some of the things that are bringing to my attention is what's being groomed of them my three boys have a very unique personality all three of them are completely
086different anything from 100 miles an hour to well-powered animal being a sloth maybe and in their lives at all times the biggest thing with them is that with me interacting with them on a day-to-day basis that is my judgment call on how I would like to try to see my boys grow personality wise the thing that I entrust in the education system here in the Anchorage School District is to make sure that they're able to read write and do math help me out with all the other things that I used to struggle with growing up in the education system wasn't as advanced as it is now but my job as a father and as a parent is to make sure that I help them develop personality wise help them be who they want to be
087whoever it is that they want to be and the school district is there to help me to make sure that they have all the basic functions in order to proceed in with life so that that way they can grow and that they can learn to succeed in society a lot of things that have been coming up a lot of a lot of disgusting things that have been coming up some of the things that have been coming up that are coming out of the school district with this agenda that's been pushing through that are very concerning you're going to have temperamental costs on my children and many other people's children's and some of them a lot of people aren't aware of and they're not witnessing yet but I've been witnessing them with my three boys one
088of the things that I've noticed with a lot of other families because we let them interact with many children within the city and even outside the city and one of the things that I'm noticing with this kind of propaganda going on does the boys have questions other families that do give in to some of these they answer some of these questions and the way they answer it is kind of goes along with the school board and some of their children's Behavior afterward is very scary to the point that almost sexual harassment sexual misconduct with each other because these children are confused and now I have to protect my children and then when I learned where the basis of this is all coming from is it's coming from the school district confusing children and this will
089grow up to where we get adults end up becoming anywhere between criminals rapists murderers because they're confused of them this Behavior thank you very much I'd like to call Bruce Walden I'm sorry I thank you all for allowing us I'm grateful that in our country we still get to talk publicly really grateful for that I'm a mom of seven and a grandmother of 30 and I'm also a teacher by Passion and practice [Music] um I have read excerpts from the booklets talk about it I couldn't handle more than excerpts honestly at my age with all my life experience and I've been through a lot I found that book positively defiling um was it's unconscionable what's in that text or in the text of that book now I know that's been put on the it's a
090faculty book but what on Earth does faculty need that for in a public school setting and how is it going to be kept from children that's Gravely concerning to me I have 12 and a half years of experience volunteering in one of our state prisons and I can tell you from first-hand experience that there are people serving very long sentences 35 years for actually doing less than what was described and encouraged in this book for children to do to each other or submit to having other adults do I Can't Describe you how upsetting that was I couldn't believe I was reading it in a children's book and last of all that had been found in a school um I have here an email Bartlett librarian explaining that this kind of material is factual it has
091a lot of facts in it and it's teaching safety I just explained it isn't doing that and then in her next paragraph she says uh we have numerous fiction books describing sexual acts both heterosexual and gay where would we draw the line on how explicit the book should be or not be and I say how about some morals to help you define that at my age I found that book to be Way Beyond The Pale lines should have been drawn like that should have never even made it close to a school building anywhere um so the question about facts is immaterial given the content the Alaska Watchman on 217 had an article that exposed that the Anchorage School District parents are to have no role in the official document that establishes a gender plan for
092children that's outrageous the gentleman both the people before me expressed that um I my concern is drug addiction happens with kids experimenting and that's what sexual addiction starts with as well and I certainly don't want Anchorage School District to be fostering aberrant sexual addiction thank you thank you very much uh Mr Walden and then we'll go online with Miss Celeste Hodge browden all right it appears that I'm on Madam president and board members glad to see you I don't know any of you so nothing not going to say is directly to anybody here and I'll try to be very nice but I don't I speak from the heart so we'll just go there um my background I I was a teacher actually taught at the teachers College in Iowa for a couple of years that
093was a really neat experience it's a University of Northern Iowa is the traditional uh Teachers College there and I got a pretty unique perspective there what is more my military job I was an instructor for 15 years of my military career and whereas if a teacher teaches someone something wrong we'll shame on them you know if I teach them wrong they die they die and they get blown up into little bitty pieces so I take uh teaching very seriously when I look at Alaska's school system in general we have to be honest at some point say we're failing now I'm not saying that to be mean I'm saying because I love our people and I want better for them um regardless of what what graph you use we're not really doing that hot we could
094do better but I happen to believe that we can and we must but going back to the curriculum uh and the things that have been mentioned here it's a great mystery to me why we are teaching little children in elementary school about sex period at all I had a friend I have a friend I haven't seen her here so I won't mention her name but at another meeting at the city she said this stuff should not be being taught to children and then she's looking at me and said it and by the way I'm a lesbian it's not about straight gay any then it's about this is inappropriate for little children it is inappropriate and it must be tolerated folks uh like Madam just said a moment ago this is where the perversion starts that
095winds people up in prison I have a cousin who is going to come up here pretty soon and uh his thing is busting child molesters he's real good at it you don't even have to do anything if they come to him this is where it starts kids get curious we all did that and I remember when I was a kid I remember when I was a young kid you don't get hit in that age where you start getting curious you put the wrong material out there you just bred a molester you just read a rapist that's where it starts ladies and gentlemen this is unacceptable it is being pushed on our children at a very tender age I'm a grandfather all my kids have graduated thank God they've all done quite well they're doing well
096in life I've got two grandsons hopefully a whole bunch more coming down the line so I can spoil them and them back to their parents but uh bottom line our children deserve better than this those of us who have been to combat like my brother that spoke earlier we fought for better than this and we're not getting it I think we've been shortchanged our country's been given up we got to get it back we start here in my state in my country Alaska is where we start fixing it thank you very kindly thank you very much sir and now we'll go online uh Miss Celeste Hodge brownden uh star six to unmute hello yes we can hear you you have three minutes all right thank you madam chair for this opportunity to testify my name
097is Celeste Todd Groudon and I am president and CEO of the Alaska Black Caucus the Alaska Black Caucus Champions the lives of black people in the areas of Health economics education and Justice I wish to speak tonight on the topic of honesty and integrity you know at the the last Anchorage school board meeting I understand a member of the public brought a book which was checked out from our local luzack Municipal Library and shared some pretty alarming comments that were fearful to many I received emails and texts from parents who immediately were ready for battle to this day I'm still trying to understand why this individual Associated terms in his testimony like diversity equity and inclusion I'm still trying to understand that but after finishing his full three minutes of public testimony he continued to
098perpetuate this narrative on social media and here's the important point that I wish to make and and that is after the emails that I received from parents of concern and phone calls and text messages I thoroughly researched the matter and I learned the truth is very different than what was shared first of all I learned this book was never accessible to students in any ASD library and for the ASD was never used to develop and Implement district-wide classroom curriculum information documenting improving the truth was publicly available and in plain sight unfortunately however for some reason the testifier made no effort to factor attack the baseless allegations prior to speaking and has apparently made no effort to apologize or walk back his misinformation you know in the wake of this false information multiple articles were written
099which many of us know about and what's appear to have been intended to purpose perpetuate some misinformation personal attacks and threats against teachers Librarians the school board and ASD administrative staff have occurred even worse from my understanding the APD reported ASD schools were receiving bomb threats which were thankfully investigated without incident let me be clear our teachers support staff Librarians and School Board should not be subjected to this abuse they have enough as we all know on their plates already I also learned there is a dedicated and clear process to challenge any book which any member of the community finds concerning the truth matters and anyone fearful of improving our community and increasing diversity equity and inclusion to take a moment to consider why and by the way happy Black History Month to everyone I
100look forward to the day when the AP African-American according being taught as well thank you very much New York time is over thank you okay that concludes the first hour of uh Pub the hour of public testimony we have no one left to sign up we got through everyone so that brings us to our uh item e which is our consent agenda Madam president if I might I'd like to pull ASD memorandum number 106 preliminary financial plan before we move to approve the remaining items okay so we will move item E4 under f F1 okay an absent any other an individual's mission to pull a consent agenda item remember Donnelly um Madam chair I'd move to poll memorandum 107 from the consent agenda today we'll prove item E5 to F2 doesn't matter prison I would
101move to approve the consent agenda as amended okay is there is there a second uh moved and a moved and oh wait a minute let me back up we have uh we have items the agenda the motion is to approve moved in second to approve with uh moving items E4 and E5 to F1 and F2 under action items right can we vote please is there any opposition to the motion to approve with those two we're not seeing any opposition so I think um here in Encino opposition uh the agenda the consent agenda is approved minus those two items which were moved under action okay so we will now vote on oh we've already voted I'm sorry we're good so now we're going to I'm sorry okay let's take the second level all right so now
102um that brings us to item F1 which is uh let's see the financial plan uh member Jacobs yeah thank you Mr President just had a couple questions um that came through well one question that came through via email I was hoping staff could speak to through Dr Bryant's um we specifically heard from um a principal who asked for clarification regarding a loss of security Personnel I was hopeful Administration could walk through how they um allocate those safety staff for the board certification thank you uh through the president to member Jacobs that's a great question uh that's a factor of the metric based Staffing allocation that the board approves each year in the budget book uh so there is more detail on how exactly that works um I believe in the first I had the page
103number written down but perhaps uh in the I forget which oh in that that little pamphlet actually goes through exactly how we allocate staff um for example PTR um that's a component of the Staffing model where teachers are distributed to schools based on a ratio of students to parents um other other positions that are allocated based on these metrics include the security Personnel so for example for High School uh the ratio was 450 students to one so I do want to be very clear about how this works um because it wasn't an arbitrary decision as to which school would not get this uh position and which would uh we're really trying to be consistent with our staffing model just to ensure fairness to our schools and of course there are models that other districts have
104where there's a process to perhaps review extenuating circumstances to allocate a position based on facts or data or other factors um it looks like with our current Staffing model that ASD has been using for however long it doesn't have that nuance and I have spoken um to Union leadership about interest in talking about how to get there but right now we really just ran our number of students and we're being consistent with the Staffing model so I've been the president follow up yes um so in this case um diamond high school is one of the two schools I think that lost the security staff they actually gained students year over year but our um them losing a security step actually brings us in line with the guideline that the board approves every year is that
105right so correct the Staffing model for General funds is based on the metrics that we outlined in the budget book um security personnel and I don't know the specific Diamond situation but I'm just speaking to all the positions uh that fall under that general fund Staffing model would be impacted by a change in enrollment in some cases a school gains enrollment in which case they gain an additional teacher perhaps a counselor Etc but that's what's happening at the campus level with regards to Staffing no follow-up but another question okay let's see if any anybody else have budget questions okay we'll swing back did you have a question remember Donald well I have um something I'd like to talk about okay so we're just doing I'll come back to you okay follow-up member uh Jacobs yeah
106thank you Mr President so a question again a question for Dr Bryant um I think multiple members of this board I remember specifically member lessons myself have expressed interest in how we might um reduce costs associated with the education center near this building um the board hasn't taken official action to vote on any sort of plan to either explore what our options are after the lease expires in 2025 um or um something in between whether it be in a continued relationship um is Administration does Administration need more guidance at this point to formally explore ways to reduce costs of that are associated with this campus in particular uh thank you through the presidential member Jacob that's this superintendent doesn't add need any further Direction I understand that there is uh interest across multiple members of
107the board to look into this and of course uh the administration is interested in exploring ways to reduce the cost of the lease whether it's the lease that is lower in dollar value or perhaps an alternative uh location for Ed center staff um at this point we have limited options in terms of buildings that um we're you know leasing that are owned by the city um but we're certainly open and exploring different options and then coming to the board with more information as it becomes available okay thank you okay question remember lessons thank you I I guess I wanted to put things into perspective here for this budget um my understanding that currently we're in FY 23 and we've allocated this year more than 56 million dollars in federal relief funds to maintain status quo
108levels of people teacher ratio the PTR and if you look at the fy23 budget book it does at one point say that's like offsetting what would have been a PTR increase of 10 this year so we used our federal relief funds to hold that down and I started adding up the money that we are using to balance our budget 16 million dollars in one-time funds almost 20 million dollars in the last of our federal relief funds and about 29 million dollars in our fund balance and that is um when I thought back to one of our November December work sessions when we got sort of the terrible menu of options we could increase the PTR uh by five for 32 million dollars or I just wanted to clarify that this year again we're preventing an
109offset of a plus 10 PTR by using all of the savings that we can and yeah we still have to cut things like security guards um we're cutting 14 custodians because we're giving up on the prospect of hiring them um I just I'm trying to put put our the resources the question into a little bit of context and I'm angry I'm angry and frustrated it's very frustrating so am I correct in saying that we're essentially offsetting a PTR increase of by using all available funds based on the current budget so yes through the presidential member lessons it is correct that the only structural change uh with very few exceptions that we're making with this budget is the pqr adjustment the vast majority of dollars we use one-time funds including Esser funds to get to where
110we're at which means that we're going to be in a very difficult position this time next year as well unless there's some sort of structural change that we make here at the board or let's say the the funding model changes at the state level we are in a dire situation foreign I'll come back to you thank you madam president so Madam president this budget includes about thirty thousand dollars for membership for the Alaska Association of school boards and in the past I've I've expressed my concern that Anchorage students are not fairly represented uh on this organization um currently increases five delegates but if you compare the voting power of our students to students in the smaller school districts it's as much as 740 times per student who they have more voting power than our students
111do and if you go like to the next largest school district in the state they still have more than two times the voting power in representation with this organization I've talked about this for five years no no revisions or changes seem to be coming forward from the Alaska Association School boards to give students an Anchorage of fair representation I wish they clearly are not getting when it's 740 times the difference in their voting power against them um also concerning is that the organization takes positions that are clearly against the interest of Anchorage taxpayers they've advocated um the uh they've opposed the formation of local government throughout Alaska so that all communities would be required to contribute something towards the costs in their local schools about 20 percent of the area of Alaska contributes absolutely nothing
112towards their local schools no local tax tax contribution at all it's all paid for by the federal and state government they've opposed increasing the minimum number of students to have a state-funded school that's directly an opposing the interests of Anchorage taxpayers they've refused our support to support our efforts in getting a new District cost study completed and that's one of this board's priorities and they seem to have also opposed parental consent for a surveys for personal information of students they actually have a resolution it advocates for change in that statutory requirement so um since I do not think these things lend ourselves to wanting to be a membership of this particular organization anymore I would move amendment number one to delete the thirty thousand dollars a year membership fees from the budget for the Alaska
113Association of school boards the motion is delete the National School Board Association uh the Alaska Association of school boards and NBA in BSA I'm sorry can you state your motion again and to see if we get a second oh you do have it okay okay I need to see it yeah just one minute she's gonna put it up okay delete the dues for the Alaska Association of school boards that is the motion is there a second second for discussion uh moved in second to uh amendment number one a alerts us that there are others to come is to delete from the budget delete uh the Alaska School Board association dues it's been moved and so now discussion member lessons I wanted to share the powerful voice the aasb can Canon does have um and in
114fact deeply Amplified ASD priorities over the past three months back in November uh in a convention hall filled with delegates from across the state Anchorage School Board member Andy Holloman brought to the floor um the proposal to Advocate increase in the BSA for no less uh than 860 dollars and the entire Ballroom full of school board members from across the state raised their hands whatever their voting power might have been 70-0 and agreed that that was a priority that the entire aasb would back there are other priorities include retention recruitment of Educators and staff which aligns with our priorities as well as student wellness and safety so I just um I have been deeply grateful for the AAS this is me personally aasb's leadership over the past few months I think that the concept of
115a substantial base student allocation gained degree Guild action from the organization's ability to Advocate a Statewide level and I appreciate the position that the Anchorage school district has within that board even though I have been frustrated by our five votes for other issues because sometimes there is a deep urban and rural divide I think that in the end the benefit of being a part of the organization having a chance to have some say outweighs sometimes a little disgruntlement thank you member lessons uh member um Holloman um yeah I would add the aasp is not a legislative organization and it's not there to provide the perfect representation it is there a place for all school boards to be able to talk to each other and discuss these issues um I don't get the feeling that that
116they're anti-anchorage but yeah they are expressing what they see as their best interest same as Anchorage does if we really did have proportional representation [Music] um in essence there wouldn't be much reason for us to talk to them and us and Fairbanks could just decide what we wanted to do we didn't spend all that time and discussion and whatnot I there is a goal between rural Alaska and urban Alaska and I think the real question is does Anchorage want to contribute to helping that go away or would we like to make it bigger and to be sure when we I think any Statewide organization that has chapters all over the state faces the same situation Anchorage is a natural heavyweight because of our size because of our numbers um it may not be a bad
117thing for us to learn to tolerate that um so that those voices get heard I would agree with member lessons that quite often we find ourselves all in agreement as Educators as people trying to have the best District as we can it's valuable for this organization to exist and to have the power it has uh and I I think it would be a sad thing if Anchorage were to withdraw membership thank you um member Jacobs and then Higgins yeah Madam president just uh didn't want to interrupt I remember Holman's comments because it wasn't urgent but I guess as a point of order we need to move the memorandum 106 which we haven't done yet and get a second to that otherwise this amendment's out of order so I can I thought we yeah Andy Andy
118Andy uh [Music] right I'm talking about the um there was no opposition to it to the motion to Madam president just just to just to make sure we're on the same page I pulled the uh memorandum 106 from the consent agenda to an action item when we move action items we read them into the record and then have a motion to approve and then a second that was not done in this case okay so um all right point of order uh well taken [Music] let's do it let's just do it the right way for the record yeah for the record my voice I moved sixth [Music] element Administration that the board approved the fiscal year 2023-2024 preliminary budget okay a second moved in second to approve memorandum number 106 which is the preliminary financial plan
119uh do we uh if not remember Donnelly now that the main motion is formally before us we have your Amendment yeah so he's now moving amendment number one which was second by uh member Holloman so I think we're back on track sucking it again all right thank you I think we're back on track thank you member Jacobs all righty I think uh member Higgins on the amendment yeah I I appreciate aasb and I understand that the interest throughout the state are different when we were advocating for additional money for the BSA there was one Community out there advocating that the PFD was more important to community members than BSA and it was kind of odd but every community in the states different and they have different expectations a number of people who are in poverty
120drops with the PFD and they're paying so much for fuel and so much for this and they're saying that's a heating the house and heating everything else is more important so we all have some different views and I know that's kind of upsetting sometimes but what I like about aesb is that they support and they promote what the nsba says and that is that the role of the school board is to be the voice of the public we are supposed to provide direction to the administration and was supposed to hold them accountable this accountability issue I like that well a light that will better than the role of the Council of great City Schools I think it's very big uh and very important and they do a good job of advocating that I know we're
121going to have people throughout the state that take different positions than we have and they're looking out for the best interests of the kids in their area because they want more funds and if we get a larger percentage of the funds they get less it's a win-lose situation from their perspective and I understand that and while it's frustrating we should be fighting for everybody in the anchor school district has in the past supported legal actions by small school districts where there was inadequate funding issues and we took the position to support them anyway because we said all kids are important and I respect that I'm proud of that issue but I really support with ASP stands for in supporting that role of the nsba you've been through it Mr Donnelly will what is the role
122with the board and when do we challenge this or when do we challenge that the boy today is more active than when I push God on it I like that W aasb credit for advocating that type of role so I would not want to see that funding cut I wouldn't want to cut the funding and Council great City schools because they're great for audits uh their benefits to everything and there was some disadvantages to everything but all in general the the activity of the Void we all have to listen to the public we need to represent the public the students the staff everyone and to take all directions and to lead directions rather than just take them so I'm just I'm going to vote against you for that reason but I appreciate the issues you're
123raising no matter what organization you got you got that issue of everybody vote their own self-interest I understand but I don't want to kill a powerful tool in the process and that's why I'm going to support the funding any other comments remember Jacobs yeah thank you madam president just uh um I guess a point to clarify um one of the things I think the maker of the amendment indicated was that aesp doesn't support a district cost Factor study um and this was something I looked into last year after a similar amendment was made that actually is true um one of the resolutions that's passed and associated in the book of resolutions that aasb gives to lawmakers is a a new District cost Factor study um so I I can't speak and I won't necessarily agree
124with you know the the underlying argument that is associated with this amendment until I take time to go and verify each individual thing I suspect that maybe some things were true at one point years ago uh remember Donnelly's been on the board for a number of years um and things obviously have changed with an ASB I know since um I've been on the board I certainly have made anchorage's voice present and heard um even though I'm not a member of the board because we do what they do's and um we have the largest district and so however they're actively advocating against our interests that's a big deal but I haven't seen even one since that I can speak to to that end thank you thank you no other comments sure thank you Mr President um
125specific example the members requesting happened a few years ago when uh the municipal assembly funded a district cost differential study and we went to the association of school boards because um the the organization that had done the past study was The Institute of Social and economic research at the University and they said they didn't want to take our money to do a new study because they didn't want people to think it was biased because Anchorage was the only sponsor of it so we went to the association of school boards and asked well now you represent all School boards this is in your this is a in the policy would you take our money and go to and be and utilize it to negotiation with icer to do the study and they said oh no no
126we don't we don't want to do that even though it was even if it was a policy they said we don't want to take the heat for what might happen from the results so I don't think they were really sticking up for us at all in that case um and as far as an increase in the BSA I I do agree we have a joint interest in that but the pecuniary interest of everybody that at that meeting was was in increasing to BSA and everybody else in that meeting had a ratio that was greater than Anchorage the per student ratio that everybody else in that group book room was going to get from a BSA increase is greater than what Anchorage would get so they certainly had a pecuniary self-interest in supporting that at that
127time um so I think these are all rational reasons to continue to participate in the the association of school boards but unless we take a stand at some point in time um I just don't think that some of our kids our kids get in one 740th of a vote compared to some of the other kids in this organization is anywhere close to being fair and I'd just like to see some movement and there hasn't been any for five years towards closing that Equity Gap thank you not seeing any more um uh hands or wishes to comment let's vote we're voting on the um amendment to delete funding for membership in the Alaska Association of school boards whenever you're ready let's just do a voice so member Higgins member Holloman no member Jacobs no member lessons
128no member Wilson no member Donnelly president Bellamy no [Music] and that Amendment fails uh six to one it brings us back to the original to approve the preliminary financial plan remember uh finally thank you mad president Ben president this budget includes about 32 000 for dues for the Coalition for Education Equity um that's a group of quite a few small school districts around the state but the Anchorage School District is the only one of the largest five school districts as a member of this organization and as such pays a very large share of the dues to this organization um because they represent by far mostly well we're the only urban area really that's represented by this group or members in it they take positions that are clearly in conflict with the best interests of Anchorage
129taxpayers uh once again the opposed formation of local government they oppose increasing the minimum number of students to have a state-funded school um and I you know none Matsu Fairbanks Juno Kenai none of them have seen appropriate for them to be members of this organization so I really think that they would be a wise choice of our funds to utilize the thirty two thousand dollars someplace else so I would move amendment number two to delete the dues for the Coalition from economic for Education Equity from the budget is there a second hearing them that Amendment fails remember Donnelly do you have another thank you madam president um we also are members of a group called the council for great City Schools um this is an organization that represents pretty much focused on the largest the
130very largest of school districts in the nation uh one-time Anchorage head membership over 50 000 in students and was kind of the general criteria for this organization we've since Fallen uh by about 5 000 students from that time um once again I believe this organization because of its nature these major Urban school districts have very different interests many interests than school districts in Alaska and I did participate in one of their meetings they were very focused on matters of what I thought were extreme proposals on gun control not gun control but confiscation and registration things that people in Alaska absolutely majority of Alaska would not support and I found it difficult because they all acted like they were all unanimous in it and when I would raise an objection they thought well they were they
131were puzzled by it they just couldn't comprehend how anybody would oppose compensation of weapons and registration of weapons um so I do think that because of the nature of the organization and I agree with remember higgins's point about they do good auditing uh Services um but I'm very concerned about us funding an organization that clearly and strongly and regularly advocates for extreme um uh Firearms anti-firearts positions so I would move a movement number three to delete the dues for the Council of great City Schools from this budget is there a second member Higgins seconds for discussion right so the amendment before you is to delete funding or membership in the Council of great City Schools yes I have to admit they're persuasive organization because I think you came back from that meeting and introduced it
132in the government's committee I don't know if they held unusual sway over you for a little bit or I'm not sure I once again one of the things I learned in moving here over 30 years ago from the East Coast we're a little isolated and if we don't actually maintain connections where we can talk to people that have similar things going on we don't have the range of ideas that we would normally be able to get people don't travel up here much and sit down and talk about education issues we we have to go to them all of these things have value to them I I think most board members have experienced some aspect of it and all of them come with some some things that don't matter to us very much at all and
133I think that's kind of the nature of being an unusual state that doesn't quite match up the way any other state does so once again I would say that it's a benefit to us to be in it um and that we have to make sure to make good use of that information and the opportunities thank you member Holloman uh member Higgins and this is one that I have really uh mixed feelings about because in part we call the Council of great City Schools coming in and calling the English school board irresponsible because we changed something in the budget that we should have not been involved with it that came from the president the Council of great City Schools it was insulting as well I'm sorry but it was awful and and it's been the approach
134that the role of the board is you know very very limited and we shouldn't be involved in any of the issues I don't think that's what the public wants you know 22 member districts that are eligible that are not participating and a look at that but then on the other hand I look at it and I realize that they have done some good things for us we have used them for audits we had an audit of purchasing once when I was an audit chair and it cost us about forty thousand another thirty thousand or something for complete new policies and it saved the district in estimate a half million dollars a year after so they we because of our connection with the Council of great City Schools we have access to people who are professional
135in other school districts that participate we only pay for the cost of transportation and per diem and we get some fantastic results out of that some great some great audience we're looking at the potential redoing the audit committee it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do some of the things that we get for almost nothing because we contribute our professional staff to their audits sometimes too so it's quid pro quo but it's just a tremendous Financial savings so while I appreciate the the um the motion because I have strong views on this position uh and it's not favorable to the treatment or the woods the way that we've been addressed at times uh within that um I it's hard for me to turn around and say that we're going to spend hundreds of
136thousands dollars more public funds to get audits done that saves the public money because I get upset with the way they make some statements uh I don't think that's from a business standpoint if I was putting the cash in my pocket why would I not do it and in this case it's the cash going back into the pockets of the citizens and that's the reason why I'm not going to support it but I do appreciate bringing the motion forward because I think it leads the school district in the wrong direction what the school boys should be doing um by following that but I think we'll we're more in line now with the nsba the National School Board Association and because we save so much money that the Council of great City School audits I think
137we'd be given up too much to to simply walk away from it but that's the only reason why it will not vote for it thank you any other comments remember Wilson unlike member Donnelly I've I've had amazing experience with the Council of great City schools and their training and the conference that I I attended um I've learned a great deal speaking with board members and Community Advocates from larger school districts and I I really appreciate um the training and their advocacy and their continual encouragement to focus on student outcome focused government governance [Music] um and I'll repeat that student outcome focused governance so that's that's really um continues to help me stay focused on our kids great thank you any other comments let's vote the motion before you is to delete funding for membership in
138the Council of Greater City Schools member Jacobs no member Donnelly yes member Higgins member lessons no member Wilson no member Holloman no president Bellamy member Holloman no president Bellamy no and that meant that motion that Amendment uh fails six to one that brings us back to the initial motion uh to approve the preliminary financial plan any comments remember Donnelly thank you madam president um one of the cost savings this board examined and was costed out by the administration was to discontinue something called the Middle School model that's confusing because we have middle schools but within those middle schools about three or four years ago the board adopted something called the Middle School model which added an extra planning period within those those periods of the Middle School period of the day the various periods of
139the day and that resulted in a requirement that there'd be an additional 24 Middle School teachers uh at a cost of about 2.93 million dollars um I really think that's that considering the options we're faced with I really think that that is something that we ought to continue to legitimately consider as a cost reduction is elimination of that extra planning period uh it doesn't appear in Senior High it doesn't appear in elementary really wouldn't fit so much because I I acknowledge that net schools are a different format but it wasn't done before three or four years ago and it is clearly an additional cost so I would move amendment number four which is to discontinue the Middle School model for a reduction of 24 Middle School teachers saving about 2.93 million dollars if I have
140a point of clarification please um I have no idea what they added two or three years ago and that's what we're referring to because we've always had the extra planning period that's that's kind of the model of the middle school that they that that teachers who engage with a group of students that are going from class to class they get a chance to get focus on the kids they do the interventions that's one of the things that has reduced the Dropout rates and and you know graduates there's a lot of positive impacts reason why the school district adopted this so if we don't if we don't get a second though we can't discuss it so uh but did you have a clarification for the maker of the motion Amendment I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna pass
141right now because I know what well I just don't uh we can always revisit it at some point but right now I'm gonna pass on for a second so again the motion is to delete discontinue the Middle School model is there a second I mean so uh moved in second so we are now open for a discussion now remember here again maybe the administration can answer it was was additional time allocated in the last few years because I know that we've always had the model provided extra time for them to be able to meet and that was an extra schedule and that's part of the cost issue but was there a change here two or three years ago through the president member Higgins uh I wasn't here two to three years ago so I can't
142speak to what happened but I'll give um Andy Ratliff an opportunity to perhaps share uh thank you yes several years ago or probably maybe four years ago um we had we did change it the board did kind of codify that Middle School model but what ended up happening is was we Inc increased the PTR at those Middle School grade levels to pay for it so it went from the same PTR of like sixth grade in elementary schools it was I think it was around 26 or 27 it went up to the secondary PTR of 30.25 and at the same time we actually tweaked that metric for the planning time where instead of one sixth planning time we have two sevenths as the budget so it really didn't affect the budget overall our ad many teachers
143to it but my understanding is they were always doing that Middle School model anywhere in that teaming time where they have the two prep times no matter how we budgeted they just got this group of FTE in this middle schools planned out their day as they normally would um so when they did that it really didn't add any teachers or any cost it just kind of Switched those metrics around with a higher PTR and then more prep time on top of it so about the same amount of teachers overall to uh to serve the middle school students okay um remember Holloman point of clarification uh personal conflict that I used to work in a middle school and so I objected the term extra planning time um sort of like extra sleep or you know something
144along those lines but the the second planning time had specific duties attached to it and and in a very uncharacteristic move Anchorage School District actually allocated paid time for people to do the work they were asking them to do it's really like just a novel grasp but trying to be like the private sector if you will almost that that people should be paid to do the work there has to do on the clock um when it was implemented there was a significant cost where basically they followed a spreadsheet calculation we're going to have the second planning time for these specific duties and so additional staff were added and then also characteristic of the anchor School District they began to whittle that day starting in the early 2000s when Middle School was first rolled out there
145was really kind of a wealth of electives and optional activities for kids as well as the opportunity for staff to do Cooperative projects across different disciplines and and just any number of creative things that happen at different schools but slowly the PTR would get whittled a little bit get whittled a little bit more um there's sort of the ideal of what a middle school model is and today there's what's actually practiced in Anchorage which has some resemblance to it all the signs say Middle School we've never considered changing those um but for example a lot of the teams no longer have their own kids on team for math classes instead they transfer across for different reasons and that's sort of the first disassembly of kids into the larger school one of the key points is
146that kids have a smaller Community they feel very attached to as opposed to being in a school of 800 or 900 kids they're on a team of about 120 or 130 kids depending on the PTR um so eliminating that would be a major shift schedules that have to be redone classes would have to disappear um it is really something that if we were going to do it it would have to be planned out with more wait time than what we would be allocating right now if we did it but I also think it would be remiss to do it without giving the public a real opportunity to weigh in on it and I think you would find a lot of people care about it very deeply a lot of the Middle School parents really supported
147it and realized the value of it at one time there was actually a push for it to sort of level up to the high school area it wouldn't look exactly like middle school but there would have been houses um that kind of put kids together in a part of their day but service in diamond look into that it's been over 10 or 12 years ago but but when they were contemplating it it created a lot of excitement but then funding kind of went the other way um a decade or so ago when we contemplated doing away with it the reporter for Channel 2 was asking me if you do away with Middle School what does that mean I mean kids are still going to go to school right I said well yeah but they would
148have like five or six or seven individual classes that wouldn't be on teams and whatnot and she was a fairly recent graduate she goes well you mean it would be like High School and I go yeah basically it would be high school what seventh and eighth grade she goes that would be awful I can't imagine it being that way so there's there's tremendous value to it it matters a lot to members of the community if we were going to eliminate it I think we would need to charge the administration with coming up with a plan and part of that plan would be giving the public the opportunity to come speak to us about it I think you'll find that a lot of people value it thank you member Holloman any other comments um I I
149just like you know we have a balanced budget before us uh we have had these conversations in December I don't know about the middle school one but I think um trying to find we were looking everywhere to try to find savings and and and somehow we found enough uh as member lessons mentioned earlier to get us to the point where we have a balanced budget um so I just I I just want to caution the get you know we we we're we're going over stuff we've already gone over uh we're considering cuts that we've already considered um and we've also given our it's my comment my comments this is remember Donnelly this is my these are my comments I'm not good I can't comment you comment but thank you and so in my opinion we
150have we have a balanced budget in before us uh and and again this is the budget is organic we are not stuck in it so if we decide uh earlier or down on down the road that something needs to change I think we can revisit things but right now so my vote on the motion on this on the amendment would be no um because I think I don't because I think we can get a balanced budget without it we have a balanced budget if that is something we want to revisit in the future I'm happy to do that but I will my vote will be no I want to go to Madam president point of order what's your point of order you just implied that the thumbs up [Music] or work session was controlling over
151our vote tonight and that's a breach of them no that is not what I implied that's what you that's what you applied to Mike I just said that we've already have a deal here so we shouldn't change this no I didn't brought up remember dilations what is your point of order my point of order is that's completely wrong you you cannot bind this organization based on work sessions I can speak my opinion I can State my opinion vote yes or no on this budget and propose changes to this budget in a formal manner all those other things and that is exactly what you've done member Donnelly nobody has stopped you from making any amendment that you want I am entitled to my opinion regarding Where We Are and you may not like it yeah so
152it's not your opinion that I'm concerned about it's the implication that because a majority in a work session made a decision that it's inappropriate to discuss another nautical was brought up during the work session at this country is there a uh any other comments on the motion to discontinue the Middle School model yes you may wrap up thank you madam president um we're faced with really tough choices is a member lessons pointed out we're using 65 million dollars in one-time funds to balance this 900 million dollar budget and I and anything that it may not be the ideal uh uh choice of any of us for a lot of the budget reductions that we made but we need to Chip Away more as much as possible and one of the things that we've done in
153this that that I disagree with is the increase in the PTR across the board and I'll have a chance to address that later but um this is one point one place where we could save some money um and so that's why I think it's appropriate and I think with a board for allowing it to be second and be discussed tonight thank you any other comments on the on the amendment so let's vote uh the amendment is to discontinue the Middle School model Voice vote police member Donnelly yes member Higgins no member Jacobs member Holloman no member Wilson no member lessons no president Bellamy no that brings us back to the original motion I I do think we need to take a members need a break so we'll take a five minute recess five minutes [Music]
154and now to say we've already talked about this because foreign we'd like to welcome everybody back um probably more than ever again okay I can't either I need at least but I am like an adolescent s we're missing middenburg Higgins and Donnelly there they come okay I'd like to welcome everybody back we are now back to the main motion to approve the preliminary financial plan are there any other um conversation amendments I'm sorry foreign thank you madam president um the Department of Education the State Department of Education identifies uh School District funding by categories they have a code a state function code and function codes 510 and 550 are those administrative costs that are not related directly to classrooms um I'm trying to find places to reduce our spending so we're not having to use
15565 billion dollars in one-time funds because we know we won't have that much next year because we're using um so much this year to help close the fiscal Gap so one of the places that according to the Department of Education coding to possibly consider are these types of administrative non-classroom related I'm not saying or not implying at all these aren't important functions we obviously need to have um basic functions in payroll and finance and Human Resources but at the same time we've got to find some additional reductions somewhere in this budget to balance it going forward into next year um so um this I would um propose that we reduce these two fund categories by five percent which would equal a total reduction about two million forty thousand dollars and that's what amendment number five
156does and I would move amendment number five could you repeat the categories please yeah it's coded uh State function codes 510 and 550. five ten five and the I this one was submitted to the so the motion before you is to reduce uh codes five ten and five fifteen by five percent he's there a second not hearing a second that motion fails do you have another member Donnelly yes thank you madam president um one thing that's in the budget before us to uh hope to save money is an increase in the uh PTR by one across the board that's the pupil teacher ratio in all our classrooms K through 12 by one student the Administration has explained where it might not have the impact that it says it would have but it is appears it
157is part of the cost Savings in the budget and I'm very concerned in virtually every campaign I've ever run I've said that my priority was that people teacher ratio trying to hold it down as much as possible so I'm very concerned about what might happen with this one across-the-board cut and I'm particularly concerned about grades K through three because it's been a policy of this board well the boards that have existed before this board let me put it that way to try as much as possible to minimize the impacts on Lower grades for the pupil teacher ratio and he increases there so increases we've been forced to do over the past six years have basically occurred in the higher grades and we tried to hold the kindergarten through three harm us in that period of
158time um so my personal preference would be instead of cutting one across the board or adding one student from K through 12 to um try to not do that in the grades K through two and use the uh Middle School model discontinued that to pay for it so um if you added up the dues that we pay for the Coalition for Equity education Equity the council great City Schools the Alaska Association School boards the National School Board Association and and put in a one percent reduction in administrative Services function codes 510 and 550 and combine that with doing away with the Middle School model you more than pay for the uh you can you not have to cut our uh or or you not have to increase our pupil teacher ratio in grades K through
159two and you would actually end up with a net savings about four hundred thousand dollars and that's what amendment number six proposes to do and I would move amendment number six okay amendment number six is to hold harmless the PTR in grades K3 2 second okay it's moved in second to whole harmless the stress to hold that but in order to do that with the lead funding from all the amendments are just failed yeah but it's different it's an amendment that dedicates the money to something else and it's also a one percent reduction rather than a five percent reduction in registration points so point of clarification and I think you're probably gonna you have a second so you can speak to it um but the question um has to do with the savings that you
160want you might have realized those those were all voted down earlier so then I would how would you fund this I guess thank you madam president um this is a different motion uh for several reasons number one it allows members to take money from this pot of money and move it to another pot of money and that pot of money is to hold down class sizes in K through two second and that wasn't ever presented before second it only includes a one percent reduction in administrative Services function where the prior motion that was voted on separately was a five percent reduction which is quite significant in dollars any questions uh member Higgins yeah this may be an academic discussion because this is really going to be impacted by how much money we get from the
161state and we bet vacancies already we got other issues but I do think it's an important subject because I've been through nsba with conferences and presentations one from Philadelphia where ninety percent of the effectiveness of a lower classroom size is achieved by having lower classroom sizes and k12 and and so and that regards I think this is a very important issue we're looking at the academics putting the emphasis on reading early any increase in PTO at those grades it's counterproductive to what we're trying to achieve academically while putting it at a higher level has less of an impact on academic outcomes and that's the reason why uh was that 36 States I believe I have a maximum effective plasma sizes and for k-3 is 1 to 15 Beyond 25 so the the real emphasis of
162a low classroom sizes at the early grades it's a big impact on academics and it's such a question of what's best for kids in my opinion and just based on the information that I've seen and the reports and the presentations I would support the idea of saying the same dollars but to Simply say it's for three through twelve or four through three through twelve and we do the PTR that way and we still we can maintain the same dollars this is like I said I think this is academic I think we're going to get some more money from the state we're going to be looking and saying do we want to do this or not what are the other options but um I do think it sends a statement that we don't want the K12
163to increase in size because we're so focused on trying to get these kids to academically getting improved thank you other comments member Jacobs yeah thank you Madam president maybe a question for the make [Music] the Megan um hoping we can get clarity on which positions when we're proposing to cut um if they're vacant or not and how their specific jobs impact students thank you yes that I would leave to the description of the administration so one percent reduction um there's millions of dollars in these codes and I know that they during our work sessions they had come forward with several proposals that would equal about another million dollars and well and I'm I'm just taking this off the top of my head and I'm sorry if I'm off by dollars maybe it's about half a
164million dollars that we left on the table during those working sessions so I would imagine they would go to those proposals um just to try to find these four hundred thousand dollar reduction another person can I follow it sure it sounds like um the member prefers I address the question with Dr Bryant so Dr Brian I know you've spoken to the fact that um the anchor School District spends roughly two percent of its general fund Budget on Administration um or at least previously has um if we were to reduce um and pass this motion tonight do you have an idea as to which positions you would be cut if those positions are funded or not and how those positions impact students I I do not because we need to take that process very seriously so
165what I would need to do is consult with the content experts and go through all of the pros and cons and trade-offs uh doing any sort of reduction to any position so for example we may be weighing uh cyber security insurance we may be weighing changes to HR or budget analyst positions or what have you but those conversations require um in-depth conversation which is why um we were attempting to be proactive by having a work session on Administration early on as well as our Timber work session where Administration was something that was discussed by the full board so to deliberate uh on the spot how we would reduce four hundred thousand dollars or any amount at this point um maybe a little premature um it could lose risk uh did you have a follow-up member
166Jacobs um I'm trying to find the memo Madam president perhaps a board member or Dr Brian can remind me this budget does reduce administrative costs for the district and I get that dollar figure again uh two million uh what was the figure do you know I can perhaps speak in your gym it was combined between support services and admission uh District admin right we didn't break it down the same categories you know we went through that exercise trying to Define what exactly Administration is what it means um I can't tell you like the way that we've looked at it is in terms of how this budget is presented you see administrative reductions about you know 6.2 million dollars or so albeit you know about 5.2 million of that is increased nutrition uh rates with increased
167vacancies school resource officers and an increase in district-wide insurance but on top of that we made about 2.4 million dollars in other cuts through Administration operations um but then we did add back another million and a half in uh like mental health and some of our priorities within secondary education with respect to professional learning communities and um collaboration time thank you so yeah so we didn't make some cuts across our Administration but we didn't really line it out uh by terms of State function like we have it um the state as the state requires or in the book anyway for the presentation no other questions thank you Mr President thank you yes I'll just share because this is my night for sharing how my feelings you know one of the things that I find um
168I'm conflicted about with the current cuts that we're doing in the administration first of all I would love to have a lower PTR so I appreciate the intent of that um but when we you know the cuts that have been proposed next year those are real positions that are not going to be filled when we eliminate the gifted supervisor that somebody responsible for gifted education for over 3 000 students those students academic outcomes are going to have some kind of an impact there are other people still within the gifted Department and certainly there are teachers but um you know we're going to be asking another staff member to pick up those responsibilities um so yeah so the 400 or 5000 a thousand dollars in the cutsci proposed um you know could be found but I
169think also at what cost I mean what are the positions that we're talking about and that's that is really tricky and challenging but but I appreciate the focus on our youngest and most vulnerable Learners very sincerely hey hold on remember Higgins do you let's see if anybody else remember Wilson I also appreciate um trying to focus on our youngest learners I can't do it at the expense of our middle schoolers first sentence is to is a reduction of 18 Middle School teachers 18 middle how many middle schools do we have in the district nine nine yeah I mean it it's a give and take this this whole budget season has been given taken all of it's been pretty torturous because we take if we give something we take something else and some so I I
170cannot support this even though I absolutely support providing more PTR for our younger students but I can't do it at the expense of of our older students right now remember Higgins will come back around to you yeah I um the the administration cost gives all kind of ways and we the joke with the federal government that you want to cut one dollar we have to sell the Washington Monument um and that's a that's an older post this isn't necessarily involve cutting positions it involves administrative issues uh we've discussed that somewhat and I'll bring up the issue of group health insurance it hasn't been on bid 20 years and we're paying 35 million and that's something you can save a lot of money in so I don't think we're asking there's all kinds of options there
171that are there that will save a lot more than what we're proposing uh so I don't want to make it sound like if we cut a dollar you cut a person that's not true okay there were administrative changes and improvements in in their in the procurement process and the issues associated if the administration accepts that insurance is a product and not a service and they're going to do it based on best value then we're going to save much more than that okay there is no question in my mind and I it's a field I'm very familiar with and so I'm I'm looking and saying this is this is more of an academic issue because this anything from the state we're going to be looking at these particular issues again but I just I think it's
172a strong statement that we've got to do something academically and I like these and and the money is not a big issue from the administration it's not about people it's about efficiencies and it's not an unreasonable request remember lessons sorry I had a couple of media a point of clarification remember Jacobs earlier said I think that we sent spent about two percent of our budget on District administration it's really one percent Statewide it's two percent but ASD is half that so we're one percent of the general fund on our Administration we're a leaner operation and more efficient than some of our counterparts Statewide and um I'll leave it there follow up yeah we'll follow up I am not saying that the administration is overfunded there are issues there for for training and supportive staff and
173lots of areas there that really impacts outcomes too I'm saying from the existing area there were opportunities is all I'm saying but I want to be fluent about this they've always been some areas in funding and administration when it comes to staff training and things like that that's always been a concern too so I don't want to Cluster everything together and saying that anything about the existing staff at all because that's not what I'm trying to argue for at all there's a there's a issue about adequate Staffing and what they need to do we've got very few people in human resources that can assist principles with issues involving staff and what they need to do there's very few that can do some of the stuff that needs to be done for this size organization is
174frighteningly small so I'm not the fact that we can save money doesn't mean it couldn't be redirected in administration I want to be fair about that but I'm just I'm putting kids first and that's what that's all I'm trying to argue for so I'd like to make a comment so when I paraphrase the um Amendment amendment number six I said it I said in my own words whole harmless K through two in terms of PTR increase when I look at the emotion uh Amendment Six it it reads discontinue the Middle School model or at for a reduction of 18 Middle School teachers savings would be about 2.93 million so we just voted against that uh the next is the elite funding for membership and the Coalition of Education equity for a reduction of 32 000
175we just voted on that the leaf funding for membership in the Council of Greater City Schools for a reduction of 44 000. we voted on that delete funding for membership in the Alaska Association of school boards we voted on that uh Delete funding for membership and the National School Board Association for a reduction of 8.6 what is that 8.6 thousand eight thousand six hundred reduction in it so we voted on this the nsba reduce reduction in administrative service functions State functions code 510 550. that's that's new this that would be a new thing for us tonight to consider uh restore current people teacher ratio for students in grade K through grade levels K through two um I agree with the the the intent to uh um hold harmless K2 but the rest of it I
176do not I mean I will I can't vote for so I can't vote for the motion as it is member lessons going back to a few numbers so um earlier in January uh there was a presentation before the sun education committee by folks over at icer and they shared that when we look at education spending in Alaska when you adjust it for the cost of Inc living in Anchorage and then you adjust it for the national average um we are seven percent under what Nationwide funding would provide for education and the cost drivers for education in Alaska are small schools which is really not ASD Health Care energy and then housing costs so Statewide uh we're not getting enough funding I think that the BSA the 30 per student and increase to the BSA which
177will take place in fy24 will give ASD like a 2.6 million dollar bump which is not not even going to make a difference in in the PTR it will not make an evidence-based difference in our PTR ratios when I look back to a slide that was shared with the Anchorage School Board in February of 2017. um there was a comparison between what was the evidence-based model and what was then current ASD practice for Staffing in elementary school and we were you know nine and a half elementary teachers short at an average school I mean the difference between where we we are and what we're able to do by treading water and applying tens of millions of dollars of one-time funding um and where we need to be is is massive and hopefully people listening to
178this board meeting tonight will take some of this information and share that maybe they'd like their classrooms to be staffed adequately I guess that's my hope thank you very much other comments seen and hearing none um you can read them I just read the amendment number six uh we will vote on amendment number six in its uh on your screen if you need to read it again remember Wilson no member Jacobs nope member Donnelly yes remember Higgins member Holloman no member lessons no president Bellamy no hey that Amendment fails six to one we are now back at the original motion to approve the preliminary financial plan remember Donnelly thank you madam president and this will be my last amendment by the way um so the National Association of school boards and it's a de minimis
179amount of money for a 900 million dollar budget it's uh the dues there are 8 600 a year which is actually not a lot of money but it's very symbolic I believe huh the I'm hoping at some point we'll be able to talk about the substance of the concerns that's LED 26 State School Board systems and that says associations of State School boards Across the Nation to withdraw or distance themselves from the National Association Association of school boards um but not the Alaska School Board Association so the majority of States they're they're School Board associations they oversee those States have taken some formal action against the national uh Association of school boards because of the letter that was written by this organization to the Department of Justice it very improperly characterized and I've read it
180and researched it carefully many instances where parents were simply talking or disagreeing and it came and testified at their school boards and wanted him to be classified as domestic terrorists um the actual the actual drilling down into some 26 examples that were cited in the footnotes revealed that the majority of them did weren't what they said they were um this whole event was super concerning and of course we do have a resolution that's currently in the governance committee regarding this issue but since we are one of a minority of states that hasn't taken a Statewide position on this I really think that this would be a strong statement that this board could make that it just wasn't right to call legitimate parent testimony terrorism domestic terrorism in this station uh it was it was one
181of them most concerning events of the last three years and there's been a lot of concerning events in the last three years but that attack on parents rights that was orchestrated and planned and and inaccurate and improper and it said since been uh admitted that it was such by the national school boards Association but unfortunately not by the current executive branch of government um really needs a response I believe and so this amendment I would propose to delete the funding for the National School Board Association membership of 8 600 from this budget and that's amendment number one and I'd move amendment number one it's amendment number eight I'm sorry I see a point I'm in number seven I'm not moving amendment number seven this is my last Amendment and it's okay yeah thank you so
182can you put it up I mean um as soon as we get a second I mean I'm trying I just need a point of clarification to the maker so we just voted you just made a motion or amendment to delete our membership get uh or um not fund our membership with uh the National School Board Association is this the same motion no Madam president there are different motions because the other motion included many other items in it as as an alternative to the increase in class sizes of K through two in our district this this Standalone reduction to the dues that we would pay to the National School boards Association okay and so do you do you mind telling me what your amendment number one and two water when you start when we started the
183discussion number amendment number one this is uh I understand we went through this is the fourth of four dues associations we Paid Dues to right the first was the I believe the Alaska Association School boards then we had the council great City Schools then we had the education Equity Coalition so we have not previously voted as a standalone National Association of school boards okay thanks for the clarifications is there a second for discussion um member Higgins thank you I uh I want to respond to a lot of that questions and they are um because um at the time that the letter came out it was in in the nsba has apologized for it the current president CEO said it was a one thing to do we shouldn't have been involved we were being threatened because
184that we were committing war crimes and we were doing a lot it wasn't a civil discussion in many regards and we had some pretty um confrontive type situations in here coming into the building or leaving and I was was calm compared to other places in the country it was pretty nasty there uh in regards to different issues and it was very aggressive and the nsba responded in a way that I don't that they shouldn't have done they shouldn't have come out with that letter but at the nsba uh and in a public setting with what uh you know a lot of people there was an apology there issued in regards to it it was the statements about it that it was a mistake and they've expressed that repeatedly in regards to it but to Define
185that there was calm conversation that was in response to very aggressive and confrontive situation coming into some school boards in this country it was very um uh for some felt very threatened uh in regards to it and they had actual law enforcement they had to break up meetings it was it was pretty um it was pretty hostile okay I think that's a very safe statement to make so in regards to it uh they overreacted I think because they should have let the individual schools and they should have done that they didn't and so those who felt uh supportive of those confronting the school uh that became a big political issue nsba should have been focused strictly on students on schools and Lead that issue aside and they didn't do it but there was an apology
186they came forward with it they came out public with it I was there when the president made his speech and we got through it and it was it was heartfelt I believe him and um so we're evaluating the mistake or we're looking at the benefits of the nsba and I think the NSB does a good job of focusing on student outcomes on focuses on on the power of the boy to do things and so I won't be supporting this but I want to be fair in regards to the fact that the nsba did respond and that what the characterization of what was going on at that time was pretty hostile and in many school districts and it was bug page newspaper it was out there on everything you can think of and it was unfortunate
187it was emotional and they responded emotionally and shouldn't have could main focus on kids but I'm not um I I don't want to characterize that they haven't apologized because I was there when they actually did it thank you member Higgins any other comments yes member Holloman um part of the reason I I read the letter the USB I created I don't recall they called parents of testified domestic terrorists you seem to make a clear distinction to me that there were people that were trying to incite fear there were people trying to disrupt the board meetings and it seemed very clear to me they were referring to those people specifically but for people coming and offering testimony but I didn't get that and uh I think it's become a political thing I think it states that
188uh pulled out like that wanted to find something to be heard about and they did uh again we get benefits from our membership that are tangible that help our district otherwise we shouldn't spend the money on it um but I think this is simply a red herring that people have thrown up and and it's not really true if you go read the letter carefully they're making a distinction and as member Higgins pointed out it was a time where meetings were purposely being disrupted in ways that were frightening um in other parts of the country we didn't experience it here um although we have leveled up our level of security and caution about things compared to several years ago I mean we we experienced a little bit of it but not anything real bad so once
189again I will vote no one else um we're in it because we think there's value there that value is still there I I don't think the characterization of their letter is accurate thank you any other comments uh member Jacobs [Music] yeah I think I think the request is for the page and line items um you'll be able to find that on page 66 of the budget book under uh I believe it's small under uh line 490 other non-personnel expenditures that's other called other expenditures that's where our registrations and memberships for produce are and the total is 75 750. can I um so um and do we um are we actually cutting a check to the nsba or is this part of our membership with the aasb I believe we run a separate check to the
190to that Association thank you any other questions before we vote remember Donnelly thank you madam president um it'd be nice if the apology solved the problem but it didn't because the Department of Justice formed a special task force based on that letter and they've never dissolved it and to think that the United States Department of Justice is imposing that chilling effect on parents testifying at school board meetings because they were very reasonably believe that their government now is investigating them improperly um is really significant so why the letter was apologized for the ultimate goal was achieved by the people who wrote it and coordinated it with the Department of Justice might be because subsequent public records disclosures have seen and prove that it was coordinated between the people who sent the letter and the Department
191of Justice to give them an excuse to create this special task force to investigate parents so I find that incredibly concerning and disappointing in our federal government and that's why I still believe that it's appropriate to make some sort of statement and I wish we had the resolution before us to be able to debate it and argue those points but the board has chosen not to bring that resolution forward to the full board for that discussion thank you okay I see your mic's on down there did you want to talk or okay remember Jacobs are you good okay all right let's call for the vote the vote is amendment seven delete funding for membership and the National School Board Association [Music] foreign no member Higgins member Donnelly yes member Jacobs no member lessons no member
192Wilson no president Bellamy no guide Amendment uh fails six to one it brings us back to the main motion to approve the preliminary financial plan any discussion not seen any remember Donnelly thank you madam chair on the main motion this is my sixth budget I've had the opportunity to work on this will be the very first time I believe if anybody over there thinks it's different please tell me but I can't remember the board ever increasing the PTR the pupil teacher ratio for kidney Garden through two before we've always focused on the upper classes and I think I just ah I understand we're scrambling trying to find Cuts I've offered some additional Cuts here I just don't think that's the right thing to do I think we should hold true to the policy this board
193is as as prior boards let me be clear it's not this membership but prior boards adopted and that's not to increase the PTR in our our lowest most our youngest learners yeah and I I think you're probably right remember Donnelly except I do recall last year we we also use one-time funding um to to not have to increase class sizes so we're running out of those funds right now yes member Higgins well I will say this is my 11th budget for your newcomer and uh I can say that in the past the administration some party administrations for you just changing PTO all the easy thing to do to balance the budget I can always just add one and I don't have to worry about the funding and don't look at the impact of it so
194always a concern to me and I did see this as a last option kind of approach as opposed to the first one uh that was done in the past so I I don't like the idea of increasing PTO I agree with that but I don't think this Administration has turned to that as the easy option they put a lot of other things in there instead before they got to PTR and I feel confident we're going to get some money from the state uh how much I don't know and that at that time the big issue is going to be the board it comes back to the board for budget revisions and we will have the opportunity to improve uh reverse some of the decisions that are made tonight as what decisions are there and I'm
195sure PTR will be one of the discussions that we'll have so um from a practical standpoint the past has been with some prior superintendents this was the easy way to cut and this Administration is not proposing that during this period I appreciate the fact with that and I'm hoping that we can avoid it even now thank you thank you member Higgins uh member Holloman and of course the thing we don't talk about too much is a PTR cut basically balances us on the back so the people in the classroom it just it adds to their work uh workload doesn't give them more time to do their job it doesn't give them any more resources to do their job um it simply gives them more job to do um so it in some ways is a
196last resort but also once we skew it a little bit which we've done in the past to try to protect the lower grades for all the right reasons I made that vote too but if we continue to do that then we continue to disproportionately load the upper grades and we have a moral responsibility that those kids too um none of us are doing this because we think it's a good idea we're doing it because we think this is what we have to and trying to spare water grades is good but at some point it just becomes inequitable um this is I hope the easiest thing for the administration to walk back if we do get additional funds um that's based on the notion that there are teachers out there to hire which may be a
197little bit of a fiction at this point but that's that's the hope and goal and and it certainly looks more optimistic this year in the legislature than any other time but at some point I think we do have to be fair to kids in every grade level um we do front load a little bit in the lower grades for the right reasons but we we can't just keep pivoting to that and hold them harmless while things get worse and worse for our upper grades so I do really like it when we support the budget um and I hope we get to make some very worthwhile revisions thank you member lessons yeah I just wanted to underscore that we've been backfilling our budget with federal funds for a number of years we spent 864 365 dollars
198in FY 22 on classroom teachers we spent 24 million 387 417 um dollars um oops sorry an additional 24 million uh and change in FY 22 on classroom teachers from sr2 and then we allocated again 56.2 million dollars for classroom teachers from sr3 and the only reason as far as I understand that we can roll over about 20 million dollars of federal relief funds to fy24 and that we have such a substantial fund balance to put towards next year's budget is because we're already balancing the budget on the backs of our teachers and students this year we have hundreds of vacancies they are already experiencing understaffing they're experiencing Reliance on long-term substitutes on J-1 Visa holders and teachers who are stretched by Gumby to to make it all happen so um I thought I would
199read from my if I can have a favorite page in the budget book uh I do and um it's just gonna I'm gonna give us the forecast for fiscal year 2024 25 the district will exhaust the remaining stimulus funds and spend its savings down to the board minimum and will be faced with difficult choices on how to provide an adequate educational student the budget shortfall for fy25 can roughly be calculated as the usage of one-time federal grants 20 million and fund balance that's an error um 45 billion plus two to three percent normal inflation on existing costs um for an estimated shortfall of 78 to 85 million so that's fy25 a 78 to 85 million shortfall for FY 26 2526 um and FY 2627 the district expects to contend with medical and liability insurance cost
200increases above the rate of inflation and normal inflation on salaries benefits services and supplies which will generate additional shortfalls of approximately 13 to 20 million each year these shortfalls could be exacerbated by prolonged periods of higher than average inflation as seen in 2021 and 2022. and then here's the kicker these budget shortfalls over the next three years could result in the elimination of over 1200 positions in order to close the fiscal glass Gap and balance the budgets if additional Revenue sources are not provided we desperately need additional Revenue sources to adequately fund education thank you very much not seeing any more hands yes I just want to thank member Holloman for sticking up for my twins in ninth grade you know the way I see it they had the advantage of having a low PTR
201when they were in kindergarten first through second grade and it paid off paid off the rest of their academic careers and that's why I think it's such a focus I want other kids you know to like mine have that advantage um and I just wanted to read from the budget document and that's including the state of Alaska on the on behalf payments the total for all funds for this budget is 960 million dollars up about six percent increase from FY 2223 uh that's just we're just under a billion dollars now for our School District budget thank you hey thank you all right so the motion before you is to approve the preliminary financial plan um we'll do a Voice vote member Donnelly no member Higgins member Holloman yes member Jacobs yes member lessons yes member
202Wilson yes president Bellamy yes and that the that that motion passes six to one all right thank you we going on now to memorandum number 107. I think remember Donnelly you pulled it I'm not in prison I'm gonna move to approve ASD memorandum number one zero seven uh the approval of the sixth grade to Middle School transition plan uh recommendation from Administration is to approve the two-year transition of remaining Elementary sixth graders to comprehensive middle schools in a second okay moved in second to approve the sixth grade commit to Middle School transition plan um are there any questions uh my member Donnie you want to speak to your why you pulled it I was just hoping to have the advantage of more debate on this in my decision-making process some of the concerns that I
203have are the impacts to the the well overcrowding that might result in some of the middle schools from this from this process um and also I'm trying to fully understand and it's complicated because of the Middle School model which has additional planning periods in the middle school years um unless you have adjustments to the PTR so you have more kids per class than moving kids from sixth grade to there might actually cause additional increases in cost but I think the plan is to compensate that within a higher class sizes so I was just hoping for more discussion of that before I actually voted yes or no on this because those are concerns I have okay thank you um Dr Bryant did you want to share the intent of the share this and plan yes um
204so at a high level um it sounds like the two questions are around overcrowding and the Middle School model will will there be an increase in cost and what we've shared is that as a result of the uh PTR adjustment that we proposed um you know the Middle School PTR is different than the elementary PTR um that it would be a net wash um because we'd be maintaining the Middle School model um and I'll go ahead and defer to my team if you have comments on either the overcrowding issue um or the um the actual cost of doing this um I can give a quick history um several years ago when we uh the board voted to make sure we kept the Middle School model when we talked about it during budget process the the
205team got together and and they really started working with the teachers and and Leadership at the schools and that's when they realized that that really some schools were already um wanting to have more of a middle school-like model as as member Holloman talked about by increasing the PTR even internally so that's when PTR was increased and it was so teachers could get to planning periods so it wasn't just the administration that came up with it it was a committee and I don't think Kristen's she is Christian's here tonight she was working as part of the and she can come all right good evening um board so through the president's uh member Dolly's question about um just kind of where that came from um if you recall uh Middle School model essentially was a big sticking
206point in aea negotiations uh two contracts ago and so um out of those contract negotiations there was an MOA to develop a middle school scheduling committee um at that time we had eliminated that what what we've kind of referred to as an extra planning period um in general discussion um and and the committee with folks from ASD Administration principals um and the teachers union um all came up with the agreement to take the extra PTR um in Middle School in a place of adding that period back into the schedule and so that's how it was paid for and it was a joint project and at the time the board agreed that increasing that PTR in place of that extra period of the day so that's how it was paid for at the time moving forward
207that's that's the discussion item here tonight obviously for the board to decide to answer um through the president to Mr Donnelly to answer about the overcrowding that's one of the reasons why we asked to have all of next year to be able to study this um to be able to take a look at all that we thought that it was premature to be able to give a recommendation to do this move next year that's why we asked for all of next year to be able to work through all those issues that could come up as we really analyze our our middle schools okay thank you guys thank you remember Higgins this is a pretty big issue to me from looking at the impact on students and I look and I've tried to go back and
208look at some studies but 2007 to do and there's a more recent one with Philadelphia and looking at the pros and cons of this issue and it just did real highlights of it factors in favor of sixth grade elementary uh sixth graders in Middle School have more um behavioral problems than peers in elementary sixth grade is an elementary school test higher than those in middle school and it refers to a recent study within Philadelphia supplementing the same thing and holding through with what Duke has done so academic income outcomes were impacted uh sixth graders in Middle School more exposed to older teens may have more negative influence in Middle School are usually larger than Elementary rightly of all that has an impact as well and um they tend to be located further away from home
209and that's a factor as well factors in favor of middle school and let's look at both sides of this issue right sixth graders in Middle School have greater access to extracurricular activities I think the superintendent make reference to that and that's an important issue I know for a lot of kids placing sixth graders in middle school a lot of sixth graders more Independents that can be approval con and then middle school offers Innovative programs in which sixth grades might be might want to participate so there's a number of issues there but I'll put to the conclusion and this uh it's kind of interesting it's all Financial based some of this school districts out there putting fifth graders in Middle School some have eliminated the Middle School to put seventh eighth grade than the others it's
210all financially driven decisions it's not uh student uh based and that's where I fall into the problem but when I look at the conclusion I always like that the sixth grade is a critical time in the child's education because it's a time of physical and emotional transition from childhood to adolescence the real answer to whether its way to belong depends on the particular sixth grader there were some children who would rather who would be better off into school because they were mature enough to deal with the actual challenges other sixth graders are unprepared for such a drastic change and need the security of an elementary school the decisions have to be made for whole classes of sixth graders however the factors in favor of keeping sixth graders in elementary schools seem to outweigh the reasons
211for placing them in Middle School I my mine is always voting kids first okay and academics is a big issue to me and I know the issue of how many schools how many what we could do we we give a presentation where we're going to go to Middle School up to 113 to make this accomplished okay so you get a sixth grader in a school with 116 that's a pretty big deal uh to me and that's a concern this issue is being voted on with the idea we're going forward but this is not like the budget we're just voting we'll wait and see more money this is to move forward with this and that's a serious concern to me because I haven't seen any studies out there looking at this that really supports the idea
212that is better for kids uh I it saves money just like moving the lemonade Middle School putting sixth and seventh graders eighth graders in elementary and or changing at seventh grade in elementary eighth grade ninth high school and breaking that up because of financial considerations and fraud is a number of states where they've had districts that they've had to do this but I don't want something totally driven by finance and I haven't seen something to me compelling that this is okay for kids that this is going to help them without a negative impact so when I vote the first vote I vote every vote we vote if we're voting on the outcome of kids and I just don't see it here now I don't mind this discussion going forward I think that's reasonable but this
213vote is one to say Let It Go move it forward it's made I'm not in that position I haven't seen anything presented to us that says this is best for kids I have read too much that says it's not best for kids and that's what's going to drive my vote on this issue what is best for kids it's the idea of changing them it's so we can change the number of schools and how we structure it that's a financial consideration okay that's Finance that's not kid based academic outcome at least in this in these studies the one in Philadelphia supplementing the one would do there's nothing I've read that shows this good academic for kids to do this to move kids at this age into that area for all these kids and so you know
214I I'm going to urge to know because at this time but I'm not opposed to discussing this move in the in the future but we've got to have a master plan on what we're doing academically so if you can show me that this money is going for something and it's going to affect academic I'm open to that because that's that that becomes a cost choice what's best for kids but right now I don't see that in front of us and I read the stuff that says this is not best for kids academically is not the best I don't want to vote for that and say this is a sunk decision at this point in time without that additional information we're voting for kids we're voting are we voting just to change the district with the
215with the schools for finances and money and all which other districts have done and they've said that the primary issues seem to be always Financial driven and it seems like that here so I don't want it to be a sunk decision until we won we got the funding too we have it part of a master plan to try to deal with the academic outcomes then I'm if you convince me this is necessary to save money to do something else and and it's compelling that we're going to get better academic outcomes and it's going to make a tough decision but right now I don't think the evidence that's out there um supports it we're going to help academics I think we're going to hurt kids and uh without a without a within this approach it's not
216beneficial so I'm going to end up voting no and hope that this discussion one if it does fail that we bring it up again but not that it's a decision based on the information that we've got in front of us and it doesn't take much research to see what the outcomes are with the studies done by by Major institutions let's see member Holloman and then lessons um this question is more concerning than a lot of the others to me in that in essence we're giving a go-ahead and then the plan is going to get developed and things are going to happen and I don't know that we ever get to revisit it as it reads it doesn't seem to me like we do um having been in middle school I'll say that we have some
217seventh graders that show up look like we ought to send them back to elementary school for another year or two they're not quite ready yet um you have others that you look at and you think they don't really need to spend too much time here they're ready for the ninth grade um we do have sixth graders in some of our middle schools and to my knowledge they're doing okay I I really did appreciate how when we did some of that to release some overcrowding we were able to get parents a choice and say would you like for your child to stay in elementary for sixth grade versus going on to seventh grade um to me that would be ideal but I don't know if we're looking for that [Music] um I I am going to
218say I'm uncomfortable voting yes on this as well just because we quite see the outcome of it um or understand what all the options might be and I'm wondering if if on this particular motion we might be able to get if we defer it for a time um if we're able to look at it later in the spring without disrupting the budget process for the administration that's right sure thank you uh very much to the president uh member Holland and Holloman and member Higgins um you know I truly respect um your perspective and desire to perhaps have more time to consider all the different options um I think some context is important um that it appears that this isn't the first time that we've had this conversation and I I do want to say that
219my bringing up this conversation uh has more to do with academics this wasn't rooted in some sort of financial benefit or gain we started talking about this earlier this year in the context of a budget reduction because we were considering uh the idea of eliminating the Middle School model it was very clear um across multiple board members there was not a desire to do that but there seemed to be curiosity in the idea of moving sixth graders to Middle School um so I just want to clarify a couple things so one um this wouldn't be new to ASD this is happening in Middle Schools right now and I will say as superintendent there are some quirks to this hybrid model that we're doing right now that do concern me um so one of the reasons
220why I brought this up is one the the PTR allocation for an elementary sixth grader is different than a Middle School sixth grader I think that's quirky and I'm not sure why why that should be um another academic component to this uh is the fact that you'll have a teacher teaching sixth graders at an elementary school and he or she is using a different curriculum than his or her colleagues at that elementary school um if we were to make this shift then all um teachers would have a greater community of practice um perhaps in some sort of PLC or professional development to work with their colleagues using the same curriculum um this would provide an opportunity for alignment and I would say the number one driver for me is just having consistent access to enrichment
221opportunities in academic mix um you know I am concerned I mean there's certainly a case be made arguments on both sides that if you're a sixth grader in an elementary school you may not have access to the same breadth of different course options that a sixth grader in a middle school might have think about all the different types of math classes that are offered at a middle school that just aren't offered in an elementary school and that goes for electives too uh you know this initially came up because we were having a conversation around sixth grade band and Orchestra what if they're a universe where all of our sixth graders because again this is happening in some of our middle schools have access to the same electives as their peers who may go to a
222school that happens to be um six through eight I know maturity comes up a lot in these conversations um but I also uh want to speculate that perhaps and maybe the research can support this there might be some disruption to only being in a new school for two years before transitioning to a new school in fact in Tennessee uh one of the reasons why they went 612 across their huge portfolio I think it might have been Memphis is for one exp uh expanded access to academic offerings and then um two to maintain that consistency and minimize disruptions of transition from school to school um so there have been rich dialogues and perspectives on this issue on both sides uh I do think it's important that we start focusing on academics which is why I said
223consistently since January we got to start making moves and this in addition to the conversations we're having around school start times are moves that um could potentially have a positive impact on student outcomes so regardless of whether or not this passes tonight that's fine but I do want to just communicate that it's time to start making moves that have the potential to help our students achieve academically and it's not really costing us anything so in these austere Financial Times it seemed like something compelling enough to put forward now as opposed to relitigating these conversations that have happened before so that's just my TED talk thank you okay thank you very much uh member lessons you were next I think this is a topic I appreciate that input um and the thoughtful conversations that preceded it
224um my own thinking has evolved over the past four or five years and I have a sixth grader right now and one of the things that I'm observing is um changing sleep patterns and I think well if we have sixth graders in middle school we might be able to align sixth grade middle school sleep needs with I mean sixth grade sleep needs with secondary sleep needs rather than an elementary level right if we're moving element if we move elementary schools to an earlier start time potentially that would leave and then we left sixth graders in elementary school that would put sixth graders who may be physiologically requiring a later start time on that earlier shift so you know as we think about some of those changes to inputs you know that's one of the concerns
225that um that's one of the things that I'm thinking about um I would love um for sixth graders to all have access to World languages um which they cannot they can have them if you know you're lucky enough to be at an immersion school but if you're at a regular neighborhood school you're not getting Spanish or French or German or any of the other language possibilities uh that our secondary schools offer um not that this is about my student but um if a student is ready for more advanced books than can be found at an elementary school library the contents of an elementary school library may not be enough for a sixth grader with a voracious appetite for reading if you are a sixth grader who is capable of doing more advanced math work right
226now in an elementary school you might be doing um on your Chromebook trying to focus on a math lesson that's self-directed while your teacher is doing a whole group instruction uh for other students so there are challenges um within the current model that don't allow for differentiated needs or that expanded access to the electives to regular and dedicated time for for social studies and PE um so I think that there's a more robust academic diet if you will that could be available to students to meet them where they're at in a middle school setting and I'm really you know one of the first school visits I did last year as a brand new board member was to an elementary school and we had this conversation and that's when I first learned that you could live
227in one side of Anchorage and be a sixth grader out of middle school and then if your family moved across town you would be enrolled in an elementary school and that just really astounded me because it is an odd hybrid system and I don't know if anybody actually does that but you know logically it could happen so I think it makes a lot of sense to um have one model for sixth grade um and yeah if you had asked me five years ago I would have said no um I I want you know I think students need to stay in that Elementary model as long as possible but I think that if you were to talk to an 11 year old or a 12 year old um you might find that a lot of them
228are capable and ready ready for the challenge as are you know as hundreds of students are doing right now at Clark bagich and Mirror Lake so I I'm gonna support this I'll go ahead and just tag on to what member lesson said regarding one model for sixth grade um I I think it it makes sense for me we have students that are sixth graders in Middle School in our district I'm I'm also a huge advocate for our college career in life Readiness goal and for me this fits right into that our students that are ready for advanced math that are in elementary school struggle with trying to find those Services if if they have um oftentimes their parents have to help them accommodate taking a class somewhere else [Music] really being able to offer course
229options that allow our students to not only I have the opportunity to to do some Hands-On work to select future careers but also to deselect their future careers because deselection for me is just as important as selection for for students particularly at our Middle School and High School level and and then they're it's just for me it fits into focusing on allowing our sixth graders the opportunity to be better prepared for college for career and to be better life ready so I I will also support this thank you uh let's see let's go to member Jacobs and then Higgins because you've already had a turn remember Jacobs yeah thank you Mr President I um that was a probably a no on this a couple months ago um and what I think swayed me was our
230last college career life ready Cool presentation where we heard from the administration that um the transition [Music] school might actually improve Algebra 2 completion rates um then I you know did some thinking through kind of the the pluses and I think the argument for keeping things as they are was kind of a inconsistency across our middle school campuses probably is more financial related than um moving six the remaining sixth graders to middle school and so I think I guess Philip here put students first makes things more efficient and aligns with our board goals regarding making sure our students our college career and life ready so I will be a yes on this thank you thank you very much member Higgins we'll come back around yeah I just have some follow-up questions I guess to this
231one because um I I think this is a good discussion because there were pros and cons for different kids okay and I think that's true I think uh the lessons you refer to you know a good example of someone who can benefit from it but the reports from duke and the Philadelphia talk about the overall impact for all sixth graders and talking about those who aren't ready for this for a variety of reasons and how it impacts academic outcomes what do we do as a as a district for those kids that are not in that position to be able to make that transition from maturity and other issues they're just not ready to be in the Middle School model uh and it impacts adversely their academic outcomes I don't know maybe the superintendent does any
232studies out there that supports that that isn't the case and that these studies are showing anything other the van the fact that overall and I will agree this home students benefit there's no question but overall results come down and we if we don't have a plan in place at the same time but how we're going to handle the students that in that boat I think we're doing a disservice to a lot of kids that's my concern that's why I like uh remember Holloman talking about maybe this is something to defer until we have that type of plan because we don't have it right now in place so those kids that just maturity wise um and and academic issues for other issues the ones that the studies show but not going to be as successful when
233we move them into Middle School what are we going to do to prevent them from falling back and that brings the great academic outcomes and we're talking about until we can prepare them for college and that's true for a lot of kids but for a lot of kids it's going to have just the opposite impact it's going to undermine me I'm going to think it lower academic outcomes it's not going to be beneficial and what goal is that we want to we want the best for all kids and I just don't know what the plan would be or if there's any academic data showing that this type of transition does benefit the majority of kids and it goes up because I don't see that in looking at it I agree it benefits some kids I
234don't disagree with that at all but I just don't see the plan but what we're going to do for those kids that are going to suffer from this decision any other comments so the vote before us is memorandum 107 approval of the sixth grade to Middle School transition plan uh the motion is to approve a two-year transition of remaining Elementary sixth graders to comprehensive middle schools let's vote member lessons yes member Wilson yes member Holloman yes member Jacobs yes member Higgins no member Donnelly yes president Bellamy yes and memorandum 107 passes six to one and that brings us to uh non-action items these items will come back to you next uh at our next meeting um there is no more public comment difference in something I know you've been waiting all night all right I'll
235try to keep it brief but I have a couple things I want to touch on so good evening ASC board and Community uh with the fiscal year 24 budget uh finally behind us in many ways um I'm ready to keep the momentum going on keeping academic outcomes as the focus you know moving sixth grade to middle school I love that we had an academic discussion just now on the pros and cons I think that's a healthy process and we don't have to always agree but I'm glad we're starting to talk about this and not all that other stuff about buses and all that all that good stuff um so in any case um I'm glad that we're starting to um really put our money where our mouth is and start having conversations about what matters
236for kids which are the learning experience in our classroom so uh we look forward to beginning planning um on Sixth Grade to Middle School specifically so that 24 25 goes smoothly and families and students are made aware of this shift um so next meeting an item for board action is our recommendation to proceed with accepting the state's Grant dollars to implement a new k-3 Ela curriculum such a move is also directly aligned with our board goals to um to ensure uh Elementary reading proficiency so while any um curriculum requires supported teachers to implement well one of the major considerations used to select a new curriculum was the impact on the teacher experience the easier it is to understand and Implement curriculum with Fidelity will set up our teachers specifically our newer teachers up for success
237and we appreciate the dozens of teachers and instructional staff who participated in a comprehensive vetting process so our re-energize focus on academic outcomes will also include Community conversations about school start times to gather input on whether this change would be a positive one or not for students and the community at large the other week the board received debrief from psychologists on some of the potential benefits which make a compelling case to look into this change more closely and with the fiscal year 24 budget planning coming to a close uh will gear up for another cycle of planning for fiscal year 25 and I wish I could say it will be a less painful process than this year but unless something changes at the state level with regards to school funding we're looking at an even
238larger deficit going into next year as member lessons shared earlier tonight and there'll be fewer options to minimize impact on students and learning next year's deficit could easily be over 70 million dollars which is a staggering amount so with that said I was blown away by how engaged and knowledgeable our legislators were on this particular issue when I visited them in Juneau last week there will never be a universally popular solution for how to address such a big issue um when state revenue streams are stagnant but there seems to be a sense that something should probably be done about this and now we just need to go through the process of deliberating what that something should be so some may wonder what ASD would do if we were to receive more funding from the state
239but the public needs to understand what I just mentioned previously we're currently facing a structural deficit of a substantial amount of money so unless we receive a substantial amount of recurring funding we'll still need to be making budget cuts and looking very closely at our operational footprint so in other words we'll likely be maintaining what we have at best and realistically even with more funding we need to start thinking about how we want to reimagine the ways that we do business to support student learning during these lean times so you know one example I want to share that I think the public can relate to is bus funding so for example in transportation funding was held flat since 2015 districts including ASD essentially continued paying bus drivers 2015 wages in the 2022 Market and what
240happened districts including ASD had to suspend bus service for students and how did we get out of it uh in ASD we raised the wage by 25 to be more competitive and we're so glad that our our drivers are back on the streets but now the cost of doing business has risen in that area I wouldn't be surprised if we needed to move in a similar Direction with other groups of employees because chronic vacancies could indicate wages are not competitive for some positions that investment in Regional competitiveness increases the cost of doing business as usual so let's talk about teachers for a second the state of Alaska only produces 164 teachers a year and that's for the entire State 164 and yet ASD alone expects at least 180 teachers to retire or leave the district
241at the end of this school year so what does that mean that means we'll need to assess our regional competitiveness not just with Alaskan teachers but also with the Pacific Northwest and nationally just to keep our classrooms filled and yet we're the only state in the Union to not offer teachers the option of a defined benefit retirement which some argue um gives teachers a promise in the hope of a stable income after completing their service and I'm not advocating for a specific policy here but what I am saying is that we do need to compete with 49 states that do offer that as well as higher wages and greater spending power that could mean a rise in doing the cost of business again so I may sound like a broken record at this point but
242I felt compelled to try to share the same point in a different way with the public and investment in education at the state level would be positive thing but ultimately the main focus is on addressing stagnant funding in light of unprecedented inflation the conversation on funding right now is just on funding the cost of doing business as usual so for that reason if we're fortunate enough to receive more funding it could realistically still result in cuts and streamlining until we're right size and stabilized in our operations so thank you for attending my TED Talk um again and I'll just close by also re-emphasizing that the focus is on the Abbott Loop community so that students are supported during this difficult time and transition to new schools next year um that work continues and is a
243top priority so thank you and that concludes my report foreign Dr Bryant um any questions comments before we move into board comments okay so uh thank you Dr Bryant um we're now going to board comments uh I'm gonna start with member Holloman and come around sure feels like it's been a pretty long year and we're over halfway through it so what could go wrong um I I do want to thank the the public and staff for participation in the whole budget process this has been longer because it started earlier I I think that was a good move on behalf of the administration to really get a lot of information out there early um I think the the things we've looked at even if we wound up not taking action on them immediately give the community
244an idea of where we're headed and what we may be facing in the near future um and I think it has raised the discussion about whether or not we are still competitive um I started my career in education in the early 90s when there were literally thousands of people lined up to work in this District when schools that knew they had vacancies didn't fill them until the week that school started they just went down the west and called and if you were by your phone you might get a job with the Anchorage School District and if you weren't they were just going to roll on to the next number um and things have really changed uh in a dramatic fashion and and part of it is I think as a district we have to look
245more at caring for our staff and helping them develop in ways that are meaningful to them to some degree I think we're still walked into the idea of developing them in ways that matter to the district um and that never creates a warm fuzzy feeling on professional bubble today but um you know a whole lot of people love this District they love working for it they love the community and we have to grow that we have to make that stand out somehow in order to retain those people and bring other people in thank you very much remember lessons so as far as I'm concerned planning for fy25 begins now tonight um and as we shift from fy24 to fy25 I will look forward as member Jacobs alluded to administrative updates regarding any and all possible
246efficiencies including you know an understanding of what we might do with the Ed Center um to help plan for as Dr Bryant shared you know how we're going to do business as usual with stagnant funding um or conversely how could we reimagine education in really exciting ways if we had adequate funding to do what we could only dream of um so as we get there as we think about that future I want to amplify and paraphrase um something shared by one of our principals um in a comment to the board creating a school that has a chance of teaching and supporting hundreds of individual non-standard human lives requires investment yep absolutely thank you remember Wilson so I have spent the last two Saturdays like seven in the morning till four in the afternoon um volunteering
247at our elementary basketball tournaments and I don't know if all of you know about those but uh I I just wanted to acknowledge uh Mr Leroy Jones he is a teacher at Willow Crest Elementary for the past 20 years this teacher's been committed to coordinating a basketball league for elementary students um many of our elementary schools participate in this league and the culmination is is two tournaments one last Saturday one this Saturday this past Saturday and it's an opportunity for our students to participate in a basketball league free of charge so some of for some of our students this is the only opportunity they will have to participate um in a structured League like this and I just really appreciate all of the Educators that volunteer their time because this is after school this is
248weekends this is their family time that they're giving up to coach these kids and give them this experience um and and I just also wanted to point out that you before Mr Jones was able to get a sponsor for this event he even paid for the trophies out of pocket so it just I appreciate the commitment of our many Educators and and how they go above and beyond for our kids so I just wanted to say that because they are amazing um I also appreciate the commitment of our community organizations um one of our folks that testified today I believe um talked about the kids having the opportunity to meet two-time Olympics speed speed skater Shawnee Davis um and that was our community organizations that came together to to bring him up so that our
249students had the opportunity to meet him um I really believe you have to see it to be it and it's really nice that many of our organizations try to bring those um opportunities that they wouldn't necessarily have um to meet some of our fantastic Olympians and whatever it may be to meet our students so thank you to all of them for for all of their work um I I was not able to attend the um Alaska black caucuses uh Betty Davis excuse me African-American Summit education or Summit this this weekend but I I know that they had a an amazing education Forum um several of you were there so I just wanted to point that out because I I know there was a robust discussion and um it was very beneficial for the community to
250hear more about our fantastic education system here in Anchorage we also have a career fair ASD has a career fair tomorrow here at the Ed Center and it's entitled join our team from 3 P.M to 7 P.M so if you know of anybody who would like to learn more about employment at ASD please ask them to come participate and and talk to our folks here again that's tomorrow from 3 to 7 P.M here at the Ed Center also the 2023 online Lottery is underway so I'm always excited about that because again parents of kindergarteners could get to find out or future kindergartners get to find out which schools they they have the opportunities to attend um also please take a look at our family survey it's a school climate and connectedness Survey that is available
251and we want to know what you think about your child's School your answers will help ASD to understand how they can work to improve the school and also um more information on the website and we also have a Communications committee meeting on Thursday at noon so if you're not um if you would like to um either you can attend in person or you can watch online live stream so thank you very much remember Donnelly I want to thank member Wilson for mentioning the elementary basketball league because for years it was very much under the radar and wasn't really an official School District function and and Mr Jones has done a great job over there at Willow Chris my my elementary alma mater and uh I kind of had to track that down as a parent
252to even discovered it existed so it's really good that we're talking about it now thank you um you know I I've raised concerns for the past six months over the process by which the district reviews uh books and and other instructional materials um and I I remain concerned um that this really important process um is not something that's open to the public now um the the controversial concerns committee at this point in time well just meetings in private uh Public's not allowed to observe them they don't record minutes of the meetings to my knowledge and the membership we don't even us board members don't know who all's on the committee at this time and I I have previously expressed concerns that I think that seems to be directly in conflict with the open meetings and
253open records laws um I the work session today I asked for a copy of because I was advised there was a legal opinion that said somehow this was all so I've asked for that we make that public because one of our primary goals here one of our the ethos of this district is transparency and this seems to fly in the face of that transparency um so I'm really hoping um that we can make that public that legal opinion and and let the public weigh in on whether or not this is the proper way to conduct this process for for uh formal complaints regarding particular uh instructional materials thank you thank you remember Jacobs Community president um I did want to Echo the sentiment that I think we need to start um our fy25 budget process
254or at least outlining and making it clear to the community and to lawmakers who are working in Juneau right now what that might um look like for us start that process sooner than later um what I've heard from a couple lawmakers now is that they you know they weren't sure kind of the scope and the magnitude of some of the problems across the state that would um occur in various FY 24 budget cycles and so um I think everyone should be on the same page with what's at stake for fy25 so that there isn't any confusion um one school districts react to What happens when the session ends and then I just would like to say and I think this was well said earlier by member Holloman that's um our staff are doing more with
255less and so the I guess my appreciation goes out to administrators support staff our Educators our District administration for making learning happen every day you have a board that supports you thank you um and please continue to connect with us and reach out to let us know how we can support you thank you very much remember Higgins oh god oh and 55 minutes I want to appreciate the time left in the meeting but uh I I uh first of all want to comment and I appreciate the superintendent's comments I think it was a good discussion this time I like it they were opposing cons a lot of the decisions we made we need to have an opening and say let's talk about both sides of every issue and let's always make sure that when you
256get a sales job it's not just one-sided and it's both sides and I think this was a good discussion tonight so I want to appreciate that um I I agree we need to move more 2025 we're not done with the the budget for next year because we don't know what the legislation is going to do and so we're trying to talk about how we're going to remodel the house while we're putting off the fires and it's burning so it it's very difficult and a distraction but I do think we have to get to the remodel issue we're going to talk about outcomes and and opportunities even if we weren't having budget cuts and they kept it up we need to look at opportunities to improve academics and that means if we need to get cut
257and areas and do more and others I'm I'm 100 supportive of that um a couple of observations just for tonight it hit me by doing the presentation that I had to look up a term uh mtss and it and the point was that we're we're having a meeting for the public and the Public's not following us when we say sped when we say ell when we say mtss they're not following what we're talking about because it may be terms we use all the time but it's not terms that they understand and and I appreciate the public that's logging into this and looking at it whether students they're just parents of the general public that they understand what we're talking about sped being special education whether English language learners but it means more meaningful if we
258use that expression rather than the initial letters that that may confuse people and I really want them to be able to follow us and understand what we're talking about because it impacts their kids it impacts the the district so I appreciate that um it was a little disturbing tonight listening to the censorship comments and things of that nature that were out there because I don't think this bowl Lord has ever taken a position to want to not deal with issues but I do understand that transparency is critical and that even I don't want to be in that position where we're Banning books and doing things overboard I will mention in 1990s right before my wife was on the school board one term and they banned the American Heritage dictionary because it gave definition to words
259that were used on the playground and so they could look it up and find out what they were saying so they thought that was bad and they banned it when my wife got on school board I gave her that book uh to celebrate who being elected to the school board um I I I I don't want us and the issue of playing censorship on the board by the same token I do want to appreciate the fact that they were raising concerns that they think are legitimate in regards to their reading material and I hope that there is a process here to make sure that there's a transparency of what's going on but I I'm not in favor of banning the word gay other places Dan the wood this band of wood that all these this
260this this isolate Community parts of it things like that but the same token I there's legitimate issue associated with some of these concerns too so I want to weigh it both ways I don't want to just wash it underwear but I don't want to get in a book Banning mode at all but I just don't know the Rope the role of the boy has been to to rely upon Educators to make those kind of decisions and um uh we look towards the administration to do that we don't get into an abort I don't want it to become a political issue but it is legitimate to say that there I appreciate them raising their concerns and I hope that the proper review was conducted with it so with that [Music] thank you Miss Shaw do you
261have any final comments no okay thank you so I just have a couple and then we will uh pass to the superintendent I just want to thank the staff for dinner tonight it was wonderful we appreciate your thoughtfulness thank you um I'd also like to thank member Jacobs for stepping in um this last few weeks for um and taking on the president duties while I dealt with some family issues so thank you member Jacobs I'd like to thank member lessons for taking the lead on the assembly resolution the partnership with the assembly to increase the BSA um and I want to thank the assembly for their resolution I'm hoping it passed tonight or at least they they it went through their process tonight uh to support and increase the BSA um other than that uh
262I I do want to thank everyone for showing up and I did want to do one clarification if I could um there was never an intent by the this board to silence a parent we did interrupt uh there was a point of order uh that uh disagreed with the ruling of the chair when that happens in Robert's Rules of Order the board votes to either uphold a chair or not uphold the chair that vote was again that was a procedural vote it was not a vote against the parent the parent was allowed after being interrupted the parent was allowed to continue in his uh that testimony uh so sometimes I say that because sometimes when we conduct ourselves using Robert's Rules it does look a little different to people to the untrained eye uh but
263it was an interruption um an objection to the chair's ruling which goes immediately to a board vote and that was the vote so I did want to clarify that I was not in the boardroom I was online um but that was that process so I just wanted to clarify that Dr Brian do you have any comments and on that note happy School Board appreciation month again this is clearly a very challenging time to be a school board member in America and I am just blessed um so I'm blessed to be surrounded by uh this wonderful set of colleagues so thank you for the many hours you put into ensuring that our kiddos are in good hands thank you hi hearing no other comments um I'll entertain a motion Twitter