001to recording in progress thank you we would like to welcome you to our school board meeting this is our regular meeting um today is Monday January 23rd board members present in the boardroom we have members Donnelly Holloman Jacobs lessons Wilson and Bellamy uh and I will announce when member Higgins joins us online we also have Dr Bryant um and several staff as well as our executive assistant uh Amanda Foster and our student representative Miss Ellie Shaw so with that Ellie you ready for the pledge whenever you're ready please join us the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God and indivisible with military and Customs for all foreign yes I've landed next is the land acknowledgment on behalf of the Anchorage School Board I want to take
002a moment to recognize and offer gratitude for the sacred ancestral lands of the denina people we acknowledge and appreciate that our offices facilities and schools are on the sacred indigenous lands and we honor the traditional care that has been given to this land throughout Generations we are grateful for the opportunity to grow learn work and create educational communities on the sacred land we extend continued respect for the many cultures creativity and resilience of us indigenous peoples chanon and thank you very much and that brings us to the approval of first of all I guess that should give my opening statement which I did already partially but again thank you for attending uh and supporting the work of the Anchorage school district and the work of this board we want to thank our students parents staff
003members teachers School business partners the entire Community uh we thank you for your investments in our district with your time uh your talents and your tax dollars now that brings us to the approval of the agenda the president moved to approve the agenda as written is there a second I've moved in second to approve the agenda as presented any opposition say no opposition the the agenda is approved as presented I also like to note that member Higgins has joined us virtually and that brings us to Item B our reports our military report welcome [Music] I'm Colonel Eric Dunn the mission support group Commander out on Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson thank you for giving me a few minutes tonight um for for our report it's it's really simply a huge thank you so I know many
004of you are familiar with the military lifestyle and and constantly moving and every summer the vast majority of of our families uh happen Cur moves and so we have a lot of families coming in over the summer every new school year but we also have a lot of families that move in the middle of the school year a lot of us have winter permanent change of station cycles and so some there are a lot of families that have to to move and switch schools from different states sometimes different countries to um just because that's when their move Falls but I'll tell you this school district has been across the board incredibly welcoming to the military families that move particularly during the middle of the school year we we get positive feedback from families not just
005for the schools on base but all across the district just things like the admin staff and the teachers being welcoming and friendly to the new students everything from special programs in in particularly are special needs children it has just been astounding and I just wanted to take you know on behalf of Team J bear just thank all of you and and thank the families thank the teachers um thank the school staff for for just how we treat our military particularly during the challenging time of of moves um and then just just a small positive note on base we got to welcome our kids back at our different elementary schools on base that was very fun I got to do that myself and so I'm thankful to the principles of Orion Aurora and Ursa Minor for
006allowing the base leadership to to be a part of that with that that's all that I have are there any questions for me thank you are there any questions for is it colonel done yes ma'am yeah okay thank you for being here yes um member Holloman I didn't want to say what you're saying is something I've heard over the years um I've taught in ASD and so I've been around a lot and I really do appreciate it I appreciate it being set out loud um I do hope the district um at the administration level pays attention to whatever it is we're doing right we don't get a lot of that but um also I mean certainly if there are other ways that we can make the transitions easier for um families and and for the
007kids um I I hope I don't know if we have an official conduit but I assume as the liaison you probably yes absolutely and as an as a matter of fact that Adele Daniels right there as one of our school Liaisons um she she works in in our group um we also have um Holly who works with her Holly winners and so um we they are awesome they they have great uh relationships with the principals with with the staff on as a school district um and then and then we certainly have relationships with with all of you and so yes absolutely I think it was it's good to hear thank you yes okay let's go with member lessons and then Wilson this really isn't a question it's a comment and I usually like to know
008exactly where I've seen the data I'm thinking about and I don't remember where this came from but my sense is that our military families are really doing an exceptional job of supporting their students and I think that is just it's something that has come through when I've looked to check in on how our students are doing and it looks like they're getting a lot of Home support so I think that's something to be proud of thank you thank you member Wilson I I don't have a question either it's just a comment I've worked with the Dell for many years on the school Business Partnership board and I just wanted to say thank you to to the military for your partnership um with the school district so I I love when a partnership goes two ways
009it's it's not just the ones so um the military does a great job partnering with the school district as well so thank you awesome that's great to hear thank you any other comments not seeing any thank you Colonel Dunn thanks ma'am Adele thank you keep it up keep up the good work and now our student report Miss Shaw alrighty so we had our last meeting on Tuesday and we started this meeting with an ASD themed kahoot and then we got started because we had to combine um this meeting with Decembers from the snow days this month's School spotlights were gerdwood handshoe Central service to gak and mirrors where each sap Representatives gave a slideshow presentation highlighting things that make their school special following that we briefly heard from Mr Gustafson and Dr Johnson and then
010had a conversation with Paul McDonough about the graduation regalia process and we were sent um little like surveys for each school to complete and so we'll have a follow-up conversation with him in one of the next meetings we then finalized and passed a resolution brought To Us by Eagle River High School titled implementing a mental health day policy in ASD and finally we wrapped up our meeting with announcements including our president-elects president-elect elections that will happen next month um for the student who will take my place next year and then we are also proud to be sending four Sab high school students down to Juno for the legislative fly-in with I think it's next week or week after the week so we are super excited to send them down there for that experience and then
011be able to hear back from them so hopefully by next month we will have a president-elect up here with me too and then our next meeting will be on February 14th uh Valentine's Day uh 10 15 here in this boardroom okay thank you very much any questions for Michelle who is now a senior getting ready to graduate and we just might not let you go all right thank you for that and this next report I'd like to invite uh Miss Melanie Sutton and Dr Cohen uh to the podium please we are lucky that Dr Cohen's in town while we are meeting uh we partner she's she's doing some wonderful work uh in well with Wellness Health and Wellness so I will turn it over to Mel I'll turn it over to you to introduce Dr
012Cohen welcome thank you so much thank you good evening Dr Bryant president Bellamy and school board members thank you for the opportunity to talk about the wellness partnership we developed with the Harvard's uh th Chan School of Public Health and Merrimack College for evaluation of our Wellness initiative awesome so our ASD Wellness initiative team Project Lead is our chief academic officer Sven Gustafson I am the implementation lead for this project and Julie Siri is our Elementary contact director's Siri Dr Cohen is our project evaluator and Chris Opitz asd's senior director of assessment evaluation is on that evaluation team as well so I'll turn it over to Dr Cohen to tell you a little bit more about our partnership awesome great thank you so much I really really appreciate the opportunity to be back here I
013just really feel very at home at Anchorage part because between the cold temperature the snow lack of daylight it's very similar to Boston so feel right at home I'd also like to say that I have two of my colleagues from Boston joining me as well my postdoctoral Farrell hello Dr Deb olarte who's also first author on one of the Publications that you'll be hearing about very soon and also my research center manager Tara Bailey as well so just wanted to give you a brief overview of kind of the purpose of the wellness initiative so this includes 30-minute lunch periods which is up from about 20 minutes as well as 30 minute recess as well as more movement breaks throughout the school day and so part of the goal of This research and we'll talk about
014this in more detail in a minute is really to understand a lot of the barriers as well as the successes that we're seeing within the school and to really help figure out what are the best practices for schools that do implement this as well as to inform policy and one of the things that is so exciting about this initiative is that Anchorage is at the Forefront of this in the United States so my background is I am a school researcher and I look at what are the most Innovative and effective policies to improve children's nutrition improve academic performance and reduce Health disparities and So currently for example there's no minimum Lunch Period links as a policy in the United States so oftentimes we'll go into schools and we know that even though we may have
015a lunch period length that also includes the time it takes to walk to the cafeteria wait in the lunch line and sometimes we see students not specifically in Anchorage but in other places that we've been who have five minutes to eat a lunch and this is something that a child relies on every single day throughout the school year this has a really important impact and so it was really exciting um when anchor School District piloted this a few years ago and I was able to fly out here and help to independently evaluate the impact um so I volunteered I donated my time for that to be able to have a completely objective assessment and so some of the results that um kind of what's informed um our research to date is actually what we found
016during that pilot evaluation and because of that preliminary success that we saw during the pilot we received a large Grant from the National Institutes of Health to be able to come back and do this larger evaluation awesome so our program history as Dr Cohen was referencing is in May of 2019 there was a school board aired Hawk committee which recommended a pilot based upon these factors we then had our first year of the pilot program in 2019 um 20 School a year we had 19 participating schools in the wellness initiative study which is 30 minutes lunch 30 minutes of recess and addition activity opportunities within the school day and then 20 20 21 there was a slight impact as we did not attend school in person and therefore we turned to studying food and nutrition
017security as part of our study how to access it um various different aspects of nutrition security then we return to school in person and we had 15 schools were Revisited from the original pilot to check in and see how are things going now that we're back in person and what does that really look like as you're implementing the initiative this year we're studying 15 schools some are returning and some are new and they're once again working through the wellness initiative to help us learn again as Dr Cohen said best practices to help our principals and staff understand what can benefit our students right so just to tell you briefly about our research team I am the principal investigator but we also have a really phenomenal team um with really varied expertise as well including one
018of my colleagues Dr April bowling who's also at Merrimack College um as well as Dr Chris economos and Ken Chu who's at Tufts University and then our local partner here Dr Katie cuevo who's at University of Alaska Anchorage we have a full team of all University of Alaska students who are both um college and also Master's students in their dietetics programs who are all helping to collect um the data as well so we have a full team that's all here based in Anchorage and then we also have some additional Consultants with backgrounds in psychology as well as education so Dr Laura cartel and Deb Margolis and then also local collaborators here at the Alaska Alaska Public Health including Carol Fink and futempa and Lauren Kelsey so to tell you a little bit more details about
019our current evaluation the way that we're measuring the impact of this Wellness Wellness initiative with the longer recess lunge and movement breaks is the first thing that we're doing is we're measuring consumption so we're going into the cafeterias with I should say School permission um with parent permission child consent as well and what we're doing is we're measuring something called plate waste which is actually measures to the exact percentage how much kids eat of every single meal component another thing that we're doing is we're measuring their physical activity levels and what we're doing is providing children as part of the study something called an actograph which is basically it's a very um kind of broad activity monitor does not track kids or anything like that but what it does is it's highly sophisticated and measures
020all of their movement throughout the day so it can give us a very detailed information about their physical activity levels as as well as their Sleep Quality and duration this is something that came up during the pilot study a few years ago that we weren't anticipating was that we heard from a lot of parents that their kids slept better at night when they had more physical activity which in turn could lead to better attention behavioral um behavior in the classroom Etc so we want to objectively measure that um additionally measures of health status as well that we're I'm getting with permission from Anchorage School District and then we're also getting classroom behaviors again with parent permission and child permission teachers who decide to be in the study which is also voluntary fill out a validated
021Conor's abbreviated behavioral scale which basically talks about kind of disruptive behaviors in the classroom Focus things like that all the things that you would associate with like academic success and the ability to to learn um and then we're also getting more information on kind of participation rates with school lunches things like that as well to really be able to objectively measure what is the impact in Wellness initiative schools as well as compare that with match control schools so we can look at the differences between schools that have the wellness initiative or different components of it compared with those that do not um I want to highlight two Publications that we already have out this was in collaboration with multiple people from Anchorage School District including Melanie Sutton Dr Mark stock my postdoctoral fellow devil larte
022LED one of these studies as well these are all the results documenting kind of the successes challenges and best practices from um our pilot evaluation a few years ago and similarly any results that we get from this year we are going to be prioritizing first we're providing a report that we will disseminate as quickly as possible recognizing that sometimes Publications take time but then also working on Publications to help inform both best practices and decisions policy decisions with Anchorage School District all of our Publications are in collaboration with people from Anchorage School District as well and also to be able to highlight this at the national and international level as well so that other countries other states other school districts can all learn from the best practices of Anchorage School District foreign thank you so
023much and we're happy to take any questions that you might have very thank yous for being here and making time for us um I'm sure we have some questions um could you speak just a little bit on it sounds like for for those who may not be familiar with what happens in a school day that this is not something that you just set us yes you have to set aside time for meals but this is this complements the learning it does not just distract from the learning exactly so what we really heard over and over again during the pilot initiative was that even though the school day is not getting longer right and so um when we increase the amount of time for lunch and recess um that they are slightly less time for some
024other subjects but what we were consistently hearing and which we want to objectively measure this time around is that the students were more efficient Learners and so if we have you know 50 minutes for math but the kids are only paying attention for the first 25 minutes is that full 50 the best use of time compared with a student who maybe has 40 minutes for that but is really focused that entire 40 minutes and so that's just kind of a hypothetical example but the point being is that with a better nourished child with a child that has had more opportunity for movement breaks and physical activities is that they truly can be more efficient Learners and this is something that will objectively measure awesome thank you any other questions member lessons well first of all
025thank you so much for um being here and I'm again and thank you to um I guess team research um behind it takes a lot of people to uh parse to Envision the project and then parse the data um I'm wondering if you could just sort of briefly summarize um the there were two Publications and one of them is the teachers experiences and we're there I guess I didn't hear you speak to that specifically and what were some of the takeaways that you found with the um the teachers experience is implementing a school Wellness as far as recommendations for Best Practices yeah um thank you that's a fantastic question um what we found is overall many teachers were really positive about this and that one thing that will not surprise um the school board is
026that it's not a one-size-fits-all model it is such a diverse School District diverse schools and so really with the thing that we heard over and over again is that when there was more teacher flexibility and the ability for the teachers to provide more input into how to make it work for them they had a really positive experience and so an example of that would be with the longer lunch periods oftentimes teachers had to help more to support those longer periods and so in schools where the principal gave the teachers the flexibility to determine how they wanted to do that we saw some schools where we saw the first grade teachers swapping with the second grade teachers which days they wanted to cover the lunch duty and they had a really positive experience compared with some
027teachers who when they were not to say told but when they had less flexibility oftentimes they could feel more frustration and that's where we saw some of the challenges and barriers similarly teachers we often heard felt really relieved that they now had permission to do a movement break they didn't feel like they could be in trouble if you know their kids were doing a quick Loop outside and they felt kind of this relief this ability to be able to implement it on their own terms with that flexibility um many schools we also heard that it was easier when they had a full 30-minute lunch um recess compared with 15 minutes particularly in the winter time as you guys are aware snow gear can be really challenging but again so thinking about that working with the
028school and letting the teachers have a strong input having that supportive environment and the buy-in from the principal really was a recipe for success all right thank you uh member Wilson I'm I'm just wondering how the piloted schools were or the pilot schools were selected they volunteered a member Holloman um and this is a little more General I I would say I'm not surprised that if we back off a little bit let kids move around do some things that we get better results I as a teacher I used to say we really can't get more productivity from our third graders until we get them into a house payment and attract more a mortgage at a house payment they can afford and then you can put that kind of pressure that makes adults work harder but
029you just can't do it to kids and I'm kind of wondering if other studies you've looked at and all sort of aim at how much productivity can you get out of a child during a school day and part of it goes to the fact that we have a kid that struggles to read then we put them in a remedial reading class and we give them extra work we like bear down on them to learn this thing that they're having trouble learning with I've always felt it was counterproductive at some point and that as adults we get caught up in wanting really badly to have this work right that we we make it harder for everybody involved I'm just wondering if you know research that supports that and other I'm going to say distracting activities just
030like physical movements that aren't directly on task but actually make us succeed at our task in a better way so I think that's a fantastic question um some of the best prior evidence that we have is the unintended consequences of withholding recess and so oftentimes withholding recess has been used if a child is either as punishment or if they're falling behind in school work etc and really what has been found um is that when you withhold that type of movement break it actually that buyers and so that's really where the strongest evidence to date is um but actually the work that we did with Anchorage School District was actually some of the first that was really looking at that impact of physical activity really focusing on academic performance previously I've published looking at the impact
031of what children eat at lunch and the impact on Executive functioning which is directly related to factors like academic performance for example and there's actually really strong evidence that shows that when kids eat healthier they're better Learners as well I think your point was more to the physical activity side and so there is a strong foundation for This research but what's so exciting about the research that we're able to do in collaboration with Anchorage School District is that it's really at the Forefront in terms of being able to really create a stronger evidence base around this with kind of thinking about this more holistic approach for the whole day thank you uh member Jacobs yeah thank you madam president thank you Dr Cohen and team for being with us tonight and thank you Miss Sutton
032for your work on [Music] Dr Bryant and his team I'm wondering if there might be a way for us to integrate um the ongoing um cohort in the pilot data as part of our goal monitoring is that something that we'll have an opportunity to suss out as to help that cohort of schools is um doing as we're looking at some of our outcomes pertaining to math reading proficiency and CCL data uh thank you member Jacobs that is certainly something I'd love to give more thought to to figure out ways that we can incorporate regular updates on this is it is extremely important so uh Dr Cohen you've seen our policy that is that that we revised our policy um it's on non-action tonight for uh you know before we vote on it but um your
033thoughts you have any thoughts um about how wonderful that is no I'm joking I don't want to put words in your mouth but what are your thoughts it is wonderful um what I think is really exciting about it is that there's really strong evidence that really supports it and what I think is also really exciting about it is that um it really given the evidence base that exists currently I think that there's strong research that would suggest already that these type of policy changes have the potential um to improve children's nutrition but also improve academic performance and really potentially reduce some of the disparities that we're seeing particularly that widen during copid um both Health disparities and educational disparities and I think it has very strong potential to be able to move all these child
034outcomes in the in the right direction great thank you yes remember Donnelly so some of our schools currently utilize lunch periods for study when students are falling behind so if you're advising they shouldn't do that then what are you advising them to do to replace that study time and sure those students get to catch up thank you for your question and I just want to make sure I fully understand it um were you saying that this occurs during lunch or during recess um recess yeah recess I mean so one thing that might be considered and again I want to emphasize this is not a one-size-fits-all model one of the things we were actually we started data collection today for example we were at Denali Montessori and one of the really interesting things that we've been
035seeing is around lunch in the classroom and so we actually were able to observe many of the lunch periods today including I had the fortune to go into multiple kindergarten classes and one of the things that I observed was that when they have the flexibility to have in the classroom many of the students were done within about 15 minutes many were not and so having that full 30 minutes made a big difference for many of those kids but the teacher was actually able to start doing reading exercises with many of the students in the classroom who had finished lunch first and so this was a really interesting opportunity to be able to see well if there are concerns for example around those kids who finished early right this was a really I thought Innovative way
036to be able to work with the kids in the classroom be able to continue doing that type of work while also giving those kids that need more time that flexibility I also again want to emphasize that that may not work for all teachers and I think oftentimes teachers can be the best source of this type of advice in terms of what worked for these kindergarten teachers it seems they they chose to continue lunch in the classroom and it seemed to be working very well I imagine that in some of the other schools teachers may say I really do not want lunch in my classroom and might have some really creative ideas in terms of when would be the best time so that it doesn't displace the recess so what would be a specific suggestion you
037would make to the teachers and Leadership at the specific schools that here in our district today are utilizing the recess periods or imposing discipline to get kids to finish their studies um what I would never want to tell a teacher or a school what to do but what I might say is that some of the evidence suggests that in fact they actually disciplinary issues can actually worsen when but recesses was withheld um we often see in schools that when recess is withheld for example you actually see more disciplinary referrals to the principal in the afternoon for example and we know when they're in the principal's office they're not learning either and so there is some evidence that suggests that being able to determine other type of wind blocks might be uh what I need I
038think I've seen that in English schools yeah so we use the same term in my own School District so I thought that was a familiar term but I apologize if it wasn't but being able to figure out what is the most effective use of time within that school to be able to provide these opportunities I think specifically for disciplinary referrals thinking about there's many other methods that schools have used whether they are kind of again it's so grade specific it can be really child specific but different types of disciplinary options for students that don't involve withholding recess because in fact it can help improve the child's Behavior when they come back recess what are some specific examples of those some of the things that I've seen in other schools for example that don't include sending
039a child to the principal for example is oftentimes even having again grade specific but oftentimes even having like the equivalent of they would not call it a timeout corner but the equivalent of a quiet Corner that often has like fidget devices for example figuring out what is the cause of it is this something that is kind of more behavioral based was there maybe some sort of interaction where with another student where there's specifically some sort of [Music] um I don't want to say negative interaction but is this based on kind of something that can be resolved with another student through some specific mediation is this related to um the child's Behavior where maybe even something the equivalent of if it's a child that actually has um would be better with being able to use for
040example a fidget device in the classroom being able to make these type of exceptions for students where they're not allowed where it actually can help with reorient the child's Behavior to prevent it to begin with is your report going to include options for teachers and principals like that so what our hope is we are going to be interviewing teachers and we are specifically going to be talking about kind of disciplinary issues um and so where we hear them we will absolutely be documenting kind of best practices um um one of the hypotheses meaning one of the things that we think will result from these movement breaks is actually seeing a decrease in these disciplinary issues um to begin with which in turn would actually make the lives of teachers easier and lead to fewer incidences
041where we would even need to you know think about what are these Solutions of course it's never going to be perfect there's always going to be disciplinary issues of course um but absolutely when we talk to teachers um in fact we can specifically ensure that we ask questions about that since it sounds like that's something the school board would be interested in we'd be happy to specifically document that as well while we do the interviews but thank you Dr Cohen thank you member dunway let's move over to member lessons thank you um this is really wonderful can you just give us a broad um are the 15 schools that we have enrolled in it this year that you'll be looking at at I guess the enrolled schools and the control do they include neighborhood Title
042One schools I mean is it a representative mix of the district as a whole do you feel like you're getting a good cross-section I guess is my question that was specifically one of the goals of this um is that we really wanted to find um we really want to be able to have results that are generalizable meaning that we're not going to one specific type of school and then making recommendations that may not be applicable to other schools and where we see even potentially consistent themes if we see for example we're consistently hearing the same things in Title 1 schools but we're not hearing in others we can also kind of specifically say in these type of schools here are the best practices of course it will be shared with everyone for everyone to consider
043but knowing that there may be unique challenges for example for them to be able to kind of implement what might be work best in those schools as well but the goal of this is in fact to be representative and to have to be representative not just of the schools but also of the families that participate in this as well okay one thank you follow up could you you just tell us a little bit more about the scope of this NIH Grant is it the one-year multi-year will you be back again um can you tell us a little bit more so the reason I'm smiling certificate smile is because I do get to come back again and I um and so far I've only come in Winter I do hope eventually I can come during a
044different season um but the the full Grant is for five years um it started last year we originally were planning to come out and then because of the covid related challenges decided to postpone this type of data collection until this year we were able to interview um teachers and principals really more on the focus around the impact of covid and the potential benefits as well as really understanding one thing that was really exciting actually was the resilience of the wellness initiative the fact that so many schools have continued it is almost unheard of in our field in terms of that type of resiliency and so thinking about the potential of this type of policy even during the greatest hardships and in fact many of the schools said it actually was helping them one of the
045key things we keep hearing over and over again is the impact that covet had on social and emotional learning and the opportunities that the wellness initiative provides for this social emotional learning both in the cafeteria and recess and that's one of the most powerful things that we kept hearing um and so this is we now have starting including this year we have four years of data collection um and so I will be able to travel return to Anchorage all of those years um each year we will be providing a report to Anchorage School District to keep you updated on all of our progress so that you are you do not have to wait for years for results we will be doing it as timely a manner as possible because we understand that this is really
046important to help this this District um inform decisions as well as schools that may be deciding if they want to be implementing on the wellness initiative that are not currently depending on what occurs with the wellness policy um and so I will have the opportunity to return which I'm very excited about and we'll be able to continue our collaboration [Music] okay and so with that I want to thank you [Music] Pat let's I see you Pat you I see your hand you have a question unmute put it off mute huh uh yeah first of all I just wanted to say there's a couple of things real quick one thank you for this presentation this information is interesting and um I think it can make a difference my only my only um concern in regards to
047this is how we treat different schools um at one time I know within the school district that that uh this would be 10 years ago the title one schools the teachers 10 not to let the kids eat during the first hour uh if they came in and a lot of them being dropped off by the appearance right at the beginning and they didn't have access to the same level of nutrition and other the schools that were more well to do they always accommodated so I just whatever we do in this report my only only thing is that we're looking first at the kids and less than what each School want to do and I I think some of the things in here are really valuable for discussion and I appreciate it thank you thank you
048member Higgins okay not seeing any other hands come back to you Mr Donnelly thank you um you mentioned sleep as well the factors you're studying um are you including some sort of uh analysis of seasonal affective disorder and the inverse that we also have when it comes to our as we get closer to the summer months with the excessive amount of sunlight we get making it hard for kids to get to sleep that is a phenomenal question part of our research is every time we go and we give a child those activity monitors which also monitors sleep we are monitoring um the time of sunrise and sunset that entire week and so we actually have some collaborators who specialize in specifically that because you are absolutely correct we want to be able to look at
049the potential impact that um the time of year potentially has as well as that obviously that's not something that we as researchers or you as a school district can control but it can help to kind of help inform decisions things like that as well I think that's such an important point that we take into account when we're also looking at the results and so really accounting for that kind of seasonal effect that we see both with diet nutrition I'm sorry diet physical activity the behavioral disruptive behaviors that we're seeing um all these different aspects and being able to look at the impact on Sleep Quality as well by um season so you are spot on in terms of that's a really important line that we will be including okay and with that again thank you
050very much for your time and your expertise um and the team team Alaska yes anyway thank you guys we appreciate you thank you again so much for the opportunity absolutely thank you and if we could get a copy of both slides so we can get the links to the Articles now thank you thank you foreign that now brings us to item C our goal monitoring Dr Bryant thank you madam president I'll let the slides get pulled up uh let's go to slide one oh all right here we go all right thank you so today the the board will receive a technical briefing on Algebra 2 completion rates which are an indicator for the board's college career and life Readiness goal we'll review the format of the slides and then next board meeting will have a
051more in-depth discussion on the data and next steps so just to remind the public our board goal is for 90 of students to graduate life ready as well as College and Career ready uh by 2026 one of several metrics that we use to track progress towards success is the percentage of students that pass algebra 2. our interim goal is that 32 percent of students in Spring 2023 will successfully complete algebra 2. next slide this slide represents our year-to-year completion rate of Algebra 2 over time the dotted line it's a very small dotted line but it represents our Target which is 32 percent compared to our current completion rate which is 30 and on the table at the bottom of the slide you'll see the same data as well as the actual number of students who
052are completing algebra 2. and this slide shows the algebra 2 completion rate broken down by grade level it will also allow the board to see a comparison between uh 2022 and 2021 by grade level as well uh this next chart will allow the board to compare spring 2022 with spring 2021 data as well the columns also disaggregate the data or rather the rose disaggregate the data by race ethnicity and special populations and at the bottom portion of the chart the data is disaggregated by school type such as comprehensive Charter and special schools in these next few slides will provide an overview of the district's strategies towards improving Algebra 2 completion so this slide will provide the board with an overview of the overarching K through 9 grade goals which include ensuring student access to Algebra
0531 which will lay the foundation for success in algebra 2. the instructional Focus part focuses on the Mathematics Curriculum and the emphasis on multi-tiered systems of supports framework that will set all students up for success and then lastly at the bottom portion of this slide uh there's an overview of the approach to the goals which includes a continuous loop uh professional learning impactful instruction and data-driven practices and on this slide it provides a summary of the current strategies in place which includes curriculum instruction professional learning data discussions and our multi-tiered systems of support framework and there's also a report of our progress to date on those items uh and then lastly uh this is an appendix that defines uh for the board how we categorize comprehensive alternative Charter and special schools and with that uh
054that concludes my report and we look forward to our more in-depth academic discussion at the next board meeting uh were we going to have two today or just the one just the one and then next time okay all right so uh you have the report before you please send in your uh questions in advance if you can please so that we'll be ready uh to answer your questions sure you can have a clarifying question sure thank you just really quickly um is um under the special schools and programs credit recovery does ASD virtual like fit into that or not so if you look at um slide 10 uh you'll see exactly what we Define as special schools and programs um and I do not see um ASD virtual on that list so that's something that
055will note to clarify at the next discussion make sure it's in your list of questions remember uh lesson so we don't lose it okay see no other questions thank you Dr Bryant so now we are going to move on to our next item which is our public comment section the board sets aside an hour at the beginning of its meetings and an hour at the end or public comments um so we are happy that you're here and uh during public comments uh board members will not answer questions or engage in discussion um with members of the public this is the Public's time to speak and the board's time to listen when you entered the boardroom um there is a blue and white sheet that pretty much goes over the this expected decorum for inside the
056boardroom um if you are here to participate in public comments you will have three minutes to speak each person has allowed one opportunity to testify or comment on a non-action item uh when 30 seconds of your three minutes remain you will hear a little bell and that's just to let you know to finish up your thoughts because you have 30 seconds remaining an action item memo is first introduced will be introduced by the Vice President and if second by another board member the president will open the floor for public comment on that action item again you will have three minutes to speak um with that same notification at the end of of the three minutes um so we welcome you your your your contributions to our meetings I just want to go over a few
057uh rules of the boardroom uh we use Robert's Rules of Order uh to conduct our business uh and so just a few reminders um of cautions do not attack a member a members or a speaker's motive speakers May point out what he or she believes to be the natural consequence of a board action but may not engage in speech that personally attacks others please refrain from disturbing the meeting and basically that means no cheering Applause or outbursts attendees will not be permitted to interrupt the business of the school board language no profanity or foul language there is no place in our pup in this boardroom in a a Bianca school board for profanity and swearing if you have handouts that you would like for the board to have please give them to Ms Foster seat
058it to my left and she will make sure the board will get whatever it is that you would like for us to have so with those guidelines in place uh we do not have any student testimony tonight but we do have uh Community speakers signed up to speak I'd like to call Ted Phelps and Luke halter if you'll come to the front please uh Ted you will go first and welcome you guys have you will each have three minutes and your mics are already on that little red that means it's on right well thank you good evening I appreciate everyone taking the time to hear what we have to say um uh so first I just want to offer empathy for you guys um the the plan I'm I'm here at comment on is lengthening
059the school day and I know it's a tough test situation we're all in um but I'm here to speak on how it affects our business and the kids we coach um so yeah I'm the director of these programs at the Alaska Rock Gym and uh yeah we we offer programs for kids from age four to high school and we have a lot of our kids there after school time obviously um I just has anyone here been to the Alaska auction that's five o'clock in the afternoon yeah it's a crazy time um it's very busy it's our it's our busiest time in our current youth program schedule is built to accommodate the following uh the school schedule obviously uh the other one is getting enough time for the kids to actually climb and making sure the
060kids get home before it's too late and obviously the last thing is uh for our general membership we want to make sure the kids are out of there at six o'clock so the general membership can actually climb without kids being around we've looked at this plan and uh you know that has been put forward and we have decided that we just can't change our schedule around that we have to stick with our with what we have um because we just can't have kids in the gym past past six o'clock um unfortunately uh the way we've we've kind of structured things kids have already paid for this climbing time and we're not really sure how we're gonna make all that work um so that's that's the big effect on the kids and then our coaches too
061if we end up having kids who don't come we're probably gonna end up cutting coaches hours and those coaches do do depend on those hours um so that's kind of the big impacts that we're seeing on this um also add that adding days to the end of the year would be a much easier thing for us as a business and a community to work around than five weeks of totally rearranging our schedules to try and accommodate the the changes um I've spoken with the dance theater across the street and they're in the same same situation they're they're uh their programs are also in a schedule in a similar way so they're going to be kind of in the same boat as we are um but yeah so that's that is what I have to speak
062on for tonight I appreciate you guys taking the time and uh thank you and thank you very much okay next Mr halter thank you very much uh yes my name is Lou Coulter uh and I've been a youth educator and a coach for over 15 years I'm currently the head coach for youth programs at the Alaska Rock Gym uh as we heard from Ted just now many essential youth programs will be unable to alter their schedules around the school day extension proposal and I'm here to strongly Advocate that this proposal not be adopted for that reason but there are other strong reasons for not adopting this change and I'm going to talk a little bit about the effect on our kids not just our businesses a child's educational experience does not end with the school
063day across Anchorage extracurricular activities school programs provide essential unique and enriching experiences for music Sports Arts languages tutoring and many more adolescence is a type of significant growth and development made inside the brain and it's worth thinking about the range of activities and experiences our children are receiving we have to ask how important these experiences are in shaping the sort of brain our children will take into adulthood family reaching is also an important part of our children's educational experience giving a child's life structure that promotes healthy rhythms in sleep and eating schedules these rhythms will be directly impacted by school timetables new and different experiences help children develop an independent identity explore grown-up behavior and move towards independence as they learn to take healthy risks these experiences help children find new creative and expressive outlets
064for their feelings at a time that children might be expressing and trying to control new emotions these experiences help youth practice boundaries limit setting and goal setting with guidance from professional Role Models while also building social emotional connections with other youth you choose to adopt this scheduled change you are choosing to deprive children of these enriching experiences that promote healthy growth and development without these positive experiences during youth brain development our children will be more likely to choose risky Behavior Express more and stronger emotions and make impulsive decisions students parents teachers and supportive organizations like mine would be able to plan for and have routines disrupted far less if it were instead considered to extend the school year by the requisite days instead of adopting this month's long daily disruption thank you I yield my
065time thank you very much next I'd like to call Kaylee Berry and Allison Myers hello my name is Kaylee and I'm here tonight to talk about how valuable the it has been for me to work with an instructional coach and to advocate for the position to remain a strong and vital force in our schools when I first started with ASD the coach of my building was one of the first people to reach out to me and welcome me into the community at my school she took the time to learn about me both professionally and personally she asked about my strengths and areas of growth as an educator she asked what support would look like for me and she took the time to learn how she could best help me so that I could better support
066my students the first four years of my career as an educator I worked in a district that did not have the support of instructional coaches and I can honestly say that I grew more in the first year working with an instructional coach than I had in the other years I could sit here for hours and let you know the value that the instructional coaching position has added into my career but at the end of the day it boils down to the fact that my biggest cheerleader is just a short walk away from my classroom and on any given week I've had anywhere from three to five personalized many professional development sessions to refine my skills as a teacher the instructional coach handbook for ASD says coaching is the linchpin for our vision of excellent instruction
067every day for every student everywhere I wholeheartedly agree that in my experience the instructional Coach position has been that vital element to my professional growth and development to ensure that I am delivering excellent instruction every day for all of my students I can't help but Wonder then is this the best decision is it best to cut the position that this very district has deemed the linchpin to Our Success I urge you to take a look at all of the potential a position like this has when you allow the coaches to be working in their buildings with their staff rather than being pulled out of the buildings to go elsewhere come into the schools and see what it looks like when a teacher like me seeks out the support of a coach and how quickly we
068start collaborating to find a better way to deliver that excellent instruction to our students see how we set goals and create plans to become better teachers see how we put that plan into action come and see how we gather data to monitor our progress towards our goal come and see how much capacity a position like this holds while I do not envy the position that any of you are in as you are making decisions regarding the budget deficits that our district is facing I also do not envy any of the new teachers who will be coming into our district with one less person to support them I do not envy the k-3 teachers as they embark on implementing a new reading curriculum with one less person supporting them I do not envy the teacher who
069sees room for growth in their professional skills and doesn't know where to go to get that support for that growth I don't envy those teachers because until I worked with an instructional coach I was each of those teachers I know what it's like to have a coach and I know what it's like without a coach and this difficult career becomes a little bit easier with a coach by your side thank you thank you miss my knives good evening um first thank you for allowing me to speak today my name is Allison Myers and I'm here to ask the school boards to consider keeping ASD virtual as an option for its students my son Elijah has attended ASD virtual for the past three years and the ASD virtual program has been such a blessing to our
070family the teachers are amazing and the Learning System Calvert even with its occasional glitches has been a great learning tool there are several families like my own who have utilized the program for the last two to three years and while I cannot speak for all families for mine the program has proven to be an awesome learning experience for my son Elijah is currently in the third grade but in the 2019-2020 school year for kindergarten he attended an ASD School in person during this school year he was regularly bullied by another classmate this classmate not only go with my son but several other students in the class the situation was brought up to the teachers the parents and to the administrators yet nothing was done this happened right before the pandemic so the school year ended
071abruptly but we knew we wouldn't be sending him back to that school I looked at the homeschool programs offered through the school district and inquired about them but when I learned that the assigned teacher was only there to consult and not actually teach lessons I was torn I began to research our options and that's when my husband and I decided we would try the virtual program when students went back to the classroom in 2021 we decided to stick to the program because of how much our son has blossomed had blossomed during that time the virtual program has given my son a safe place to be himself to speak freely and to learn without worrying about any negativity during his learning experience he has made friends and proved his test scores consistently every quarter and has
072come to love going to school the teachers make The Learning Experience engaging and rewarding and are always available to help in whatever way they can whether it's to walk him through a lesson he doesn't quite understand helping him get in some extra reading time or giving this mom a virtual hug letting her know she's doing a great job whenever I reach out they're always there and ready to help and listen I have so much more that I could say the three minutes is not enough time to say it I will end with this at the last meeting I heard one of your board members State something to the effect of how he loves hearing from the kids about their experiences and that the kids are what it is really all about I am hoping that
073this Rings true as you are making your decisions and that it is about every kid including the ones that have benefited and will continue to benefit from this program thank you so much for taking the time to listen thank you very much our next two speakers are online uh James day Mr Dave can you uh unmute star six to unmute Mr day so I will come back to Mr day uh let's try Mr Boyle David Boyle [Music] star six can you hear me yes we can hear you you have three minutes and welcome thank you uh president Bellamy school board members my name is David Boyle and I want to thank you both for the opportunity to speak and for your service to the community before I begin my topic I noted that the board
074asked the military representative what more could the district do to serve the military children I would suggest the district implement the purple star program which the state department of education has posted on its webpage the state has established a purple star advisory School Board as well already the Fairbanks Kodiak and Ketchikan school districts have implemented this program and with the largest military student population Anchorage should do the same now to speak on my topic which is equity as you know we have an approved Equity policy in the district which is not being applied equally board policy 614 instructional Equity says Equity is a fair treatment access opportunity and advancement for all people Lord believes in equity for all students for their academic achievement and board policy 410 non-discrimination in District programs and activity States The
075District programs and activities shall be free from discrimination based on sex race color religion gender ID Etc regarding discrimination on based on gender I note that male student achievement is far below female student achievement in the state's standardized test peaks in the Alaska star a matter of fact since the 2016-17 school year males in the school district have consistently performed about eight raw percentage points below females now that's by the way seven years of data this equates to about 20 percent lower achievement on the standardized tests we have to ask why are girls out performing boys are girls being favored over boys especially in Elementary classrooms or is it because boys lack a role model at home there aren't many male Elementary School teachers nationally about 10 of the elementary teachers are male so boys
076have no role models in the earliest most impressionable years in elementary school maybe the instructional practices do not fit a boy's learning style we know that boys do learn differently many of them prefer the Hands-On learning style by the way I'd like to know the percentage of male Elementary classroom teachers in the school district if it is low I encourage the district to actively recruit more male Early Education teachers so boys have a role model they can look up to but boy is not encouraged to succeed both by a lack of Parental Guidance and a failure to match a boy's learning style then that boy will usually fail farther behind and ultimately many will drop out of school there is a gender gap in K-12 education we must recognize it confront it and solve it
077in the name of equity it is a fair thing to do finally I noted that the school board discussed quote systemic racism in its anti-racism policy discussion and it appears Mr Mr Boyle I'm sorry your time is up but thank you very much um let's go back to Mr day Mr day can you unmute Star City hello can you hear me yes we can hear you you have three minutes all right all right thank you for giving giving me the opportunity to speak um this um I'm speaking about um the virtual ASB um kind of the virtual program will be cutting our children short and putting them at risk of failure the pandemic isn't over nor are snow days virtual ASD is the ultimate safety net for our children and these times of uncertainties we
078can at least guarantee them their education no child should have to worry about how would I get my education if schools are closed where we clearly have a solution for the problem key in them is cheating our future I myself have two children that in the ASD virtual learning program and they are excelling at a faster rate than in in-person learning with virtually learning my children are able to get the education while learning basic life skills and traits so in more ways than one the virtual program is a necessity for all our children and in their future and that's all I have to say thank you very much Mr day and let's see let's call forward Lauren Kelsey and Norman Beasley III of the second foreign welcome you have three minutes learn you first thank
079you so much president of Bellamy and all the members for allowing us to speak um it is still fairly close to the New Year where many of us have resolutions to be more physically active and eat healthier and so seems appropriate and exciting to be here voicing my support for one of your non-action items the revision to the school board policy on student nutrition and physical activity um when member Holloman mentioned during the military report that you don't very often get to hear what you're doing right at the school I think this is one of those times that you should really be proud of all the good work that you're doing around supporting your students in this area um not only is are your health and physical Educators a really strong program but the process
080that you went through to engage the public engage many of you on the school board in this review process having people from secondary and Elementary education on what what would this really look like in the schools teachers and then the online survey to get community members as well as having multiple um family and parents on the Review Committee I think you could should be proud of the process that you went through to make sure that this revision was meeting the needs of your community and just wanted to point out I've been following I work with in public health and physical activity and nutrition and these Wellness policies are required for any school district that participates in the physic in the school lunch program but a lot of times people just kind of pass a policy
081it sits on the book and it's not really looked at for what fits well with your community what can be implemented well and this is not an example of that you guys are really doing a good job of making sure it meets the needs of your students so just wanted to stop there I know you got to hear earlier about all the recent research around how physical activity and nutrition both impacts as students Health but also their learning also their in-classroom behavior also their ability to sleep and have good mental health there's quite a few that it spreads out into a lot of pieces of our lives so it's a nice opportunity and just thank you for taking the support to make sure that the students at Anchorage School District are as healthy as they
082can be that's all thank you very much else Mr Beasley yeah thanks for having me here uh just here to just kind of talk about what I've been dealing with for the past four years of me actually deep diving into my two daughters that are in the school system I have a 15 year old back when she was a 10 year old going to 11. uh there's a lot that's being done in schools that's kind of not being told to parents um it really ticked me off to say the least I had to learn about restorative justice through my daughter I didn't actually understand even what that was uh took about seven hours of watching videos reading data I'm a data cruncher I like data I like numbers um she got kind of I'm just
083I'm not gonna say attack but she would pull down the stairs by her backpack and then they said do you want to talk to your assailant and that's what they asked her and then I kind of looked at myself and said if somebody punched me in the face I'm not really gonna sit down with them they're probably gonna get choked out because I'm not just gonna get attacked and not kind of like defend myself um that was something that happened about uh two years ago about two three and then she kind of told me just recently when I kind of found out about what that phrase was uh that's a problem with me I understand schools or whatever you're trying to do help these kids get them through life understand lessons um there's no adult
084in this world that's going to get thrown downstairs that's going to want to talk to the person that threw them down the stairs guaranteed I I find it ridiculous um on top of that I had to listen to my nine-year-old that was seven uh had to explain to her that color doesn't matter because she was learned about what black people are and then what white people are and then having to go sit in a in a more advanced placement because I pay attention to my daughters I spend the money I spend the time I grind um that's what my parents supposed to do and uh yeah so my kids have a bright future heaven because I I spend the time and that's a problem for me is when the school starts trying to step into
085my time they're my kids let me know what I need to do hand me the paperwork grind at me they're my kids uh that's starting to be pushed out of the way I respect what you're trying to do because there are kids that don't have parents like me they don't stay there they're gone I haven't seen my dad since I was nine cam 36 I just saw him this year I get it it sucks but sometimes you need to start stop looking at the numbers and start looking at the kids outside of numbers that's me genuinely looking at What's Happening Here you're trying to get doctors you're trying to get therapists trying counselors you're trying to do stuff you're just not you're doing the best of what you can do but you're starting not to
086look at what's going to be the best that's that's all I got thank you very much and that concludes our last person wanting to comment uh there are attached to the agenda you will see some written uh public comments so now we are on that brings us sorry to item e our consent agenda Madam president I moved to approve the consent agenda as presented second moved in second to approve the consent agenda as written I will do a voice because remember Higgins is not in the room whenever you're ready Amanda Holloman yes member Higgins yes member Donnelly yes member lessons yes member Wilson yes member Jacobs yes student representative Shaw yes president Bellamy yes all right it's up now thank you and the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously thank you and that
087brings us to our action item the president I moved to approve ASD memorandum number 097 approval of 2022 2023 calendar adjustments to extended weather related school closures is the recommended as the recommendation of administration that the school board approve adjustments to the school calendar outlined in this memorandum second moved in second to approve memorandum number zero seven I'm sorry zero nine seven uh calendar adjustments due to extended weather related school closures is there anyone did anyone sign up to testify on this one okay no one signed up to testify on this one uh let's just start with you Dr Brian sure uh so I've shared the details of this plan uh in Prior discussion with the board so essentially this memorandum just summarizes uh that plan which would be to make a minor adjustment to
088the week of February converting current teacher conference days into full days of instruction and converting a day that was previously for staff into a full instructional day for students and then lastly adding 30 minutes to the school day effective January 30th until spring break uh This was done in close uh collaboration with Union leadership which includes teachers principals totem and others and as I've said um on numerous occasions there's no perfect plan out of uh six snow days which is truly unprecedented but this plan uh truly prioritizes student learning places an emphasis on the importance of instruction particularly given where we're at in terms of student proficiency both in ASD and across the state but is also minimally disrupted to the calendar so with that I will open it up to any questions great thank
089you Dr Brian questions board members any questions that were not answered before yes remember Holloman and I don't really have a question but comments I I'll support this and I can't remember when we had to do this last it's been a while because I was still in the classroom and it's been a while um and to a lot of the letters we've gotten in comments it's not ideal um teachers optimize what they have and what they're accustomed to and even changing the length of a period you know this is going to get added to a class time somewhere it throws you off your game a little bit and that's never good but the only alternative really is to add days somewhere and in the fundamental flaw in that is they won't be very well attended
090if we take spring break days or we take days at the end of the school year and add them to the calendar um teachers go into that knowing they're only going to see some of their students and that kind of demolishes everything you really can't cover anything very important if you know that 25 or 30 percent of your students are likely to not be in the room that day so I I know a lot of people are unhappy about this the phrase checking a box has come up and a number of the communications in a sense that's true but only because we have to follow the law and the law specifies the number of school days and says we have to make it up if we don't attend those um I I know everyone is
091going to try to make it work and get something useful out of it but it is an unfortunate circumstance so we we didn't have much control um I think what the administration has brought to us grab some time back to make instructional time without screwing up the schedules of thousands of people so thank you thank you member hellermann any other questions or comments remember uh lessons yeah this is not a question it's a comment to share that I really wrestled with this I had parents come up and say this is wonderful I can work 30 minutes longer I had Parents share with me that this was terrible that they had important uh medical opponents for their children that were scheduled on a regular basis we heard from community members business owners and said this is
092really going to cut into our um you know our revenue streams our models we heard a little bit of that tonight and it's really a terrible situation and it's not of our making however I thought a lot about recess on lunch recently and for a while I was thinking wait wait a second recess and lunch and frankly specials are time that either shouldn't be made up with instruction or or are gone poof right how can you make up an art class just here and there um but then I continue to Crunch the numbers and I'm quite satisfied that we actually aren't even making up the entirety of uh the minutes that we've lost and I think that in the end this is the best of a bad situation um so I'm looking forward to seeing
093how our schools and our school leaders really take the lead and make the most of these extra 30 minutes and um I will be supporting this thank you member lessons uh member Donnelly is inconvenient as this may be Alaska by Alaska state law we already have only 900 instructional hours mandate per year that's as opposed to the vast majority states that require 1080. so that's 180 hours less our kids are getting than kids in many other states in fact the majority of other states so we can't afford to be losing any more instructional hours for our for our students and we also have only 170 a minimum of 170 instructional days and most other states have at least 180 up there also so the combination of those two is really I think one of the
094factors that we're so challenged with our education delivery of Education here in Alaska thank you I just have a question uh Dr Brian are we are will we just not have any parent-teacher conferences or are schools going to come up with a creative way to um what's that that kind of look that's a good question so we are not mandating that all the conferences that would have taken place on those conference days take place um but just like any time that a parent wants to request a conference with their teacher they can reach out directly and they can schedule something at a mutually agreeable time right thank you the other questions yes Michelle um so from a student's standpoint I was curious because I've heard students saying about like practice start times and game start
095times of how they can't get out of the school and across down to Ben Bokey in half an hour to 45 minutes so do we know is there going to be like a pushback of start times for practices or events or is it just like coaches are being lenient with being late uh I'll ask uh Mr Gustafson if you want to speak to any conversations happening at the campus level and I'm actually going to pass that on to Mr Johnson's jumper because I know they've been working on that all right welcome so to our student Advisory Board member um through the president um our competitions are being rescheduled when they need to be um so some of our games are being rescheduled but some of them aren't so it really just depends on when the
096start times were when the students need a report and if the school day impacted them there are some rare instances where students will get out a little bit early so that they can make their competitions foreign thank you Ellen thank you Dr Jones all right seeing no other comments no other hands uh let's vote whenever you're ready I will do a Voice vote I'm sorry because we're not all in the room member lessons yes remember Holloman yes member Donnelly yes member Higgins yes remember Jacobs yes member Wilson yes student representative Shaw yes president Bellamy yes and that motion passes unanimously uh to accept the administration's recommendation [Music] to approve adjustments to the school calendar as outlined in memorandum number 097 thank you and that brings us to item G which is not action items these
097will come back before you next week um it so so that uh they will either come back to you as a consent agenda item or an action item sometimes they're both because they start out as Concepts and we pull them down into action but you will see them again not next week but the next meeting we have no one else signed up for public comment so that brings us to the superintendent's update thank you madam president good evening ASD board and community so January seems to have flown by and with the aftermath of snowpocalypse and other urgent operational challenges behind us I personally feel energized and ready to double down on what's needed to tackle our board goals which are academic this work won't be easy and will require major discussion on topics such as
098school start times a potential Ela curriculum adoption and a proposal for the timing of a potential sixth grade to Middle School shift um with the potential adoption of a new Ela curriculum in particular I am asking the team to begin thinking through ways to provide time and support to our teachers who are critical players in ensuring a successful transition stay tuned in the coming months but in short I recognize that at the high school level we offer teacher collaboration time with the late start at the middle school level we offer teacher collaboration time through the middle school model I want to think through ways for elementary teachers to have opportunities to collaborate with their peers in my view that would be part of the strategy to meet our reading and math goals I also want
099to recognize we're nearly at the finish line for adopting a balanced fiscal year 24 budget it was truly a teen effort over the past six months and that also means that fiscal year 25 planning is right around the corner it remains to be seen what will happen in Juneau but in the absence of some sort of structural reform such as a DSA increase our deficit is on track to grow from what it was this past year even if the legislature provided generous one-time funds it'd be difficult to restore services that have been cut over the years as the bulk of the district's expenditures are recurring costs are people as I began my own advocacy work for ASD I hear over and over again from some that this session is about school districts quote unquote asking
100for more money so I want to clear something up the districts around the state are not asking for more money we're asking that systematic flat funding which are Cuts is finally addressed after seven years and that's in the wake of chronically declining academic performance across the state I love being a resident of the 49th state but frankly it's time to ascend from being ranked 49th on so many academic outcomes lists and start becoming the leader in the country for educating students cuts to education aren't working and this is a window of opportunity to make it right in partnership with State leaders we can set Alaska up for success by doubling down on a commitment to ensure that our schools are great so see you in Juno and that concludes my report thank you Dr Bryant
101any uh questions for Dr Bryant I'm going to go to Juno with him he's fired up and ready to go speaking of which we will have a delegation in Juneau we will have members Higgins lessons and Wilson along with four amazing students um and teacher uh uh that was Daniel's last name Lewis Miss Lewis will be the chaperone okay questions any questions comments to the superintendent's report uh member lessons could you share you said that the fy25 deficit is on track to grow do we have a number right we can make estimates but just a reminder we really plugged a lot of our holes for this year's budget with one-time funds that will not be available going into the next fiscal year so it could easily be over 80 million dollars and we don't have
102those funds to plug that Gap this time around yeah that's a good question and something for us to all remember other comments okay thank you that brings us now to board member comments uh let's see where am I gonna start today [Music] I'm going to start online with Mr Higgins remember Higgins yeah I don't get all the remaining time but thank you I I want to just make a couple of comments one is in regards to the to the shift in the schedule um it's not so much to me uh how do we pick something that's going to be agreeable to all it can't be uh for all of the individuals have personal needs and and conflicts but I do applaud the superintendent and the way he went about it with Communications and leaving it
103open for discussions and the process he had defined to us earlier it's um it makes a lot of sense that when you have that type of dialogue and you can do something like that you're you're way ahead of the game and I appreciate that uh a great deal but also it bothers the superintendent while we may be passport of the snow uh the joke on The Tonight shows have been that they close schools because it got too warm and so this week we're looking at a warming temperature with maybe some rain so uh welcome to Anchorage again and uh new experience and be aware of what's coming because it can get the warm weather can be just the opposite of what we hope and there have been times in the past where we Face times
104where we've had scheduled changes either because of volcanic ash at the city and we had to be closed for a bit we call that uh you know the earthquakes a variety of things but I like the approach that's being taken to handle that in regards to it so my appreciation and I do agree with everything the superintendent said in advance to finances um you know it it's not just how we adjust to it is the cost long term we've got a high inflationary rate and we have low adjustments from a compensation standpoint with salaries and light and we were like the rest of the country recruiting for positions that there were less and less applicants it seems like and that is going to impact us long term without the inflation adjustment factors as well so
105some of this will putting off because of budget using budget so savings and transferring that and some of it it's just postponing the inevitable that we're going to have a problem with this so I appreciate that I will not be in June on Monday I mean Sunday and Saturday and Monday but it all goes right I'll be back Sunday evening and then I'll be into uh Juno early next week to be able to join some of the discussions with the legislators and I'll be back and forth you know to continue the discussion with them throughout the entire session I have that opportunity and I'll take advantage of it thank you thank you sir all right let's go to member Holloman um too much to say except tonight does seem like a night when we talk
106about a lot of different changes we're having to make in response to things that are happening the weather the legislature budgets Etc it it always falls down to our building staff the administrative staff in this building of course makes plans and you could call them more plans and everybody knows how well War plans were they're great until the battle starts and the the battle is out there in the buildings uh but again having been there and talking to people they do a great job once kids show up and they figure out what they have to do of making the situation work and and we shouldn't ever forget that thank you thank you remember lessons sure um I wanted to begin by saying thank you for those who organized and made our border Fleet possible um
107and then the outside partners with whom we collaborated and um it was really valuable I got to spend three of the last four days with this group um so we came together as a team um but but I mean that in all sincerity um it was a good time to reflect recharge and renew that was a theme I'm moving it into my comments um I wanted to say good luck to students it's battle the book season and so thank you to all of the teachers and Librarians who are have been putting and of course the students and the parents um who have made this event possible I think that the district battle either this week or next week I know that fifth and sixth graders because I saw a picture have read 2 731 pages
108but as I was reminded some of them have read those books more than once um so they're working hard so good luck to all of the district participants and thanks to everybody who participated at the school level um and then I just want to encourage members of the public we heard people speak tonight on really important parts of delivering a different mechanisms for delivering education um through our instructional coaches through ASD virtual um through classroom teachers through support staff um we can't do what we want to do unless we have the funds that need that are necessary to make that happen so I encourage members of the public to stay engaged with the progression of legislative activities continue to share your stories with your representatives and I look forward to going down to Juno with
109Team ASD okay thank you remember Wilson I also look forward to going to Judo um and last year the Highlight for me was the opportunity to take students and a teacher with me to visit legislators so I look forward to that again it's an amazing experience for our students an amazing experience from our legislators to hear directly from our students and a and the teacher so that look forward to that being the Highlight again for this trip also wanted to to highlight a few other things the alternative schools and programs Expo is scheduled for Saturday February 4th from noon to 4 pm and this is an opportunity to come and learn more about the unique schools and programs that ASD has to offer so please take a look at our website there's a flyer on
110there again it's February 4th from noon to 4. and also I have the the great opportunity to attend the Junior your achievement awards and Dr Bryant was there to celebrate the educator of the year so our Junior Achievement educator of the year is Sean Schubert who is a teacher at King Tech High School I've worked with Sean for many years yes he's amazing the energy level that Sean keeps um it it just I I can't imagine how he actually how the students can keep up with him he has such great energy so congratulations to Sean okay thank you remember Wilson remember Donley oh I'm sorry before you go remember Donnie let me ask uh Miss Ellie you're coming just excited to spend the last I think I have three months and three weeks until I
111graduate about so don't have a countdown at all I'm excited to spend them up here and also excited to have my president-elect with me soon and I'm gonna go to a basketball rivalry game thank you all right now remember Donnelly uh thank you very president I got some phone calls today about uh one of the nine action items we have tonight that'll be up in a couple weeks before the board uh minimum 100 which is a revision to the student nutrition and physical activity policy some of my questions earlier tonight were addressed towards some of those comments that I received so I'm interested in any specific suggestions to those schools that are currently using recess as a study hall for students having academic or behavioral issues what kinds of options um they should be recommended
112to utilize if they're not going to be able to use continue to do that under this nutrition policy I think we need to generate some specific suggestions for those schools um also um memorandum 98 which will be up next week or two weeks from now uh which is under in our boards is identified as patriotic exercises I'm very interested in exploring some expansions to that um specifically um things that I've talked about before and brought forth before to committee uh regarding the Pledge of Allegiance increasing the actual language in the policy itself regarding the compliance with Pledge of Allegiance and also um possibly considering some guidelines for Constitution Day also maybe some specific recognition of Pearl Harbor Day in 9 11. and I continue to Advocate that the national anthem and state flag song has
113some level of minimum uh use and instruction in our school district and I might bring something up on those at that time it's going to get public notice of that two weeks in advance thank you member Conley uh I think according to our process though we start those things in governance you may speak to whatever you'd like during the debate or the discussion but if you're offering changes they start in governance correct that's not the way the robin schools the Border work that's it rapid schools of order Spanish chair our process to get new policy is to go through governance are you thinking are you are you planning to change this memo is that what what you think yeah I might offer amendments to the memo okay in order at Robert's Will's order especially when
114it's to the same specific board policy section it is it's just not the same thing I don't see the Patriotic and uh what else would you mention you said patriotic but we are forewarned and it's fine it's actually the name of the section uh one of the two names of it is periodic exercises bp6115 within BP 6115 and I think I gave more notice than this board provided when they did the East High name change foreign [Music] Jacobs thank you madam president um did want to acknowledge that the the change that we made towards um School uh calendar um adjustments earlier tonight will Impact Staff who wanted to thank our education professionals across the district who are going to carry that burden um you're appreciated and um well um the the snow days and um
115the plowing situation that unfolded across our municipality as it did elsewhere locally was out of the board's control we know that that wasn't in your control either so thank you for helping us make the best of an unfortunate situation um I will not be joining our contention in Juno but I will be busy contacting legislators both in and outside of the Anchorage delegation and did want to encourage the public to do the same as new legislators were just sworn in I think we have roughly roughly 50 turnover um anyone who's interested in finding out who represents you can go straight to the ASD website um our asdk12.org fy24 page as a link to identify who represents you there is a an ongoing week-long presentation by the Senate Finance I'm sorry the Senate education committee which
116is already digging deep into some of the financials of K-12 education funding and so there's heartening news that um a serious look at the challenge that we're facing we've been grappling with all summer and fall is being examined uh so now it's not too uh soon to take um action please do contact your elected officials well they certainly appreciate hearing from us as board members I think the students will probably be better received by just a little bit at least and so I'm hoping that trip goes well for our our Learners there who are able to make the trip with that said you know wanted to address uh the the comments that were made earlier regarding our FY 25 deficit I'm hoping we can begin engaging in a conversations and informed conversation as we did
117with our fy24 budget regarding fy25 I think the opportunity that um that we have to be as transparent and information based as possible as we approach our next budget season um being uncertain what our reality is and given the you know 40 to 50 million dollars in one-time funding we're having to allocate to make our fy24 budget whole it's it's deeply concerning and it could have been larger but the board did vote to make some more significant cuts which I think was a prudent move with the uncertainty in Juno so lots of work to do appreciate everyone's time tonight thank you and thank you very much uh just a couple of I have just a couple of things um governance will meet this Thursday at 11 is that right Andy are you me yeah no
118Communications meeting uh this uh this month thank you and I think uh just a reminder to board members to get your questions in for the CCL goal a monitoring discussion um our next work session is going to be I think our on 2-7 will be our budget briefing um so we are moving along at a pretty decent clip point of information [Music] yes if we're not having a Communications meeting I can't remember now which one was at 12 and which one was 11. to come is it two-way governance to 12 . I can't hear you that could be change I think okay 11 o'clock eleven okay what's this so um so with that I think Andy you got the answer to your question um I think uh I just wanted to just kind of I
119mean when I looked at the list I've got a list of 19 items here and I don't even have the budget on the list because it's just like it's got its own list right but we've got all we've got school starts we've got um the Abbott loop I want to thank the staff for the avaloop discussion uh the planning that's going into that I could feel the um the hard work um of the hands and the hearts in that so I appreciate that um looking at um just of all the things that we have to do and everything on this list is focused on kids whether we're looking at uh this changing our boundaries our school start um restructuring how we deliver instruction uh I think we're um I I think we're in a good
120place it's not easy and it's not going to be over anytime soon uh but we are I think we are focused in the way that we need to do so that our kids will um have get the outcomes that they deserve and that we desire so with that do you have any closing comments I just wanted to quickly share that as a J.A board member I had the honor of presenting Mr Schubert with the award of educator of the year he's truly phenomenal and it's well deserved and I shared to a crowded room of Business Leaders across Anchorage that the secret to meeting our board goals are retaining and attracting fantastic Educators just like Sean so congratulations Sean and drive safe out there I hear there's going to be some freezing rain so um all
121vigilant oh he's learning okay all right with that I will uh accept a motion to adjourn Mr adjourn second moved in second to adjourn any opposition