ASD School Board Meeting 01-19-21

001[Music] right today is tuesday january 19th 2021 and i'm calling to order this regular school board meeting of the anchorage school district my name is elisa vichales in the boardroom with me i have board members marsette and board members hildy online with this i have board member holloman board member donnelly board member mitchell and board member bellamy uh dr bishop is with us tonight as well as several members of her team and we have an agenda up ahead of us we are going to start with uh our flag salute and member marsette if you could before we begin i would like to acknowledge with gratitude the denying of people both past and present who have lived on these lands since long before anchorage was here may we all be good stewards of these lands chennai

002we want to welcome you to our meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the work of the anchorage school district and this board the mission of the anchorage school district is educating all students for success in life the board thanks students parents teachers staff school business partners and the entire community for your investment in our district with your time your talent and your tax dollars next up is the approval of the agenda i would entertain a motion to approve i move to approve but first is there a second second all right i have a first and a second are there any uh amendments to the agenda if there are no objections the second was margo bellamy i believe i think for the record yeah we had two of them but that's good thank you

003okay are there any objections to the agenda as laid out the agenda is passed next up is community engagement uh first up is board conference and committee reports we will start with since it's nice and fresh in our minds we have finance committee and chair marsette there we go uh yes so we had our finance committee meeting we reviewed talked about the budget and the timeline and how we proceed with that we also talked about some pre-filed legislation and how that would possibly impact the school district we'll have more meetings on that to discuss and talk a little bit about um [Music] sr2 funds um and what that possibly might look like for the school district and we'll have a better idea when the budget's released thank you and our next meeting will be i

004think it's going to be the first or do we say the third week yeah but we're gonna change it right but we're gonna change that because that's oh okay that's what i mean march february yeah oh february says oh that's right sorry okay i don't know where i'm at and next up will be uh communications and chair bellamy yes thank you madam president we have not met since our last meeting however um unless i'm spacing out the time i think our next meeting will be february 9th um just a just a quick recap we did um in prep we actually did our legislative event where our priorities were presented to our legislators and that information can be found on our website and i want to thank uh kathy moffat and alan uh brown and and

005they're as part of the team to make that a reality and so we would look so that was our primary um event since our last meeting our next meeting will be february 9th following the governance committee meeting which uh will take place at 3 30 followed by communications at 4 30. thank you thank you and next up will be uh governance chair uh chair hilly thank you um so just to kick off there was a question in our last governance committee we met on the 12th on whether you're voting in a committee and so there was a follow-up with parliamentarian and mcfarland that yes in fact you do vote in a committee it's not a straw poll so if anybody has questions you know i'm happy to share her feedback we went through several policies

006one is on the boundary change something that's very relevant to everyone in our community but particularly maybe realtors want to be aware of it this is where beginning in we would start a 10-year cycle for for boundary reviews for the whole district and then as needed in between so that was voted to come to the full board so we should see that as a non-action item on our next board meeting and then a vote at the following meeting so months from now um we also went over our anti-racism policy and that's still in draft form so if there's any community members who want to provide feedback um you could look at it on our on our board docs under the governance committee meeting it's tagged under there and you can see the current draft of

007it we'll go over it again at our next governance committee meeting and then we would expect it to come to the full board for consideration um we had a review of discipline policies remember marsette was going over there and just talking about ways to reduce school suspensions and keep students in schools and so if you have any uh recommendations you could send those to member marsette who's kind of looking at that a little bit um we talked to about our non-custodial parent policy and that's going to be coming to the full board to review just a small word change on that one and then we went through our 6000 series um so that we have a type typo correction coming and looking into homework at elementary 61 54 just just looking into it we haven't

008made any uh move toward that at all our next meeting will be on february 9th at 3 30 p.m here or you could i'm sure zoom in as well thanks thank you um i want to just take a moment to acknowledge uh very excitedly that we have our student rep with us miss emily hickox welcome back we are happy to have you here tonight and if you wanted to just take a minute uh to say hi and if there's any updates from the student advisory board i would love to just hear what's been going on with you and your world yeah hi i'm you know super excited to be back and i'm really excited to be here back to share with you guys student advisory board this year has two new advisors ms lewis from

009eagle river and mr wheelis from diamond and so i've been working with them a lot and we've been trying to revamp student advisory board and sort of give it a new purpose and a bunch of new goals and so we're really excited we have our first meeting with students on thursday um and so we're just really excited to see the new direction the student advisory board is going in so hopefully at this next meeting will have more news to share thanks emily glad to see you back madam president madam president yes member donnelly thank you i was seeking we don't have the raised hand function apparently tonight on zoom but i was seeking recognition under the committee reports [Music] i do know where you're going with this and we're going to tackle this one under

010new business which is a little bit down towards the um bottom of the agenda um but i would like to make sure you do have your raised hand function it it should be on the bottom it's not on the bottom right but it's on the bottom center in the toolbar yeah i don't see it tonight you can have somebody reach out to you here okay we may have somebody give you a quick call and see if we can sort through that to make sure that's there for you um but i do have um a placeholder under new business for your resolution that you wanted to talk about um next up on the agenda is community outreach if there were any board members that wanted to share uh anything that they're hearing in the community or

011anything from community councils it might be of interest to the board as a whole [Music] and i see member bellamy yes i have a couple of uh recognition mostly of our students who have been engaged in community activities relative to dr martin luther king day of service i i'm just so inspired by these students not to mention their families and i don't have a full list uh but darante ware noah kemp samuel richard mark richard aaron richard stanley wright jr orion kemp zelda zolatel madison hill drummond williams jasser simpson to lisa ware and caleb reed and for those students who i'm missing i apologize but they were they collected over 4 100 pounds of food as a date of service activity and i am just so inspired by their efforts and i'd also like to

012recognize five students that participated yesterday in the mlk celebration of diversity and uh also national day of service i do not have their last name but they are connected with storyworks and they are isaiah stephanie premier mateo and fatima you know who you are you guys were awesome and you also inspired me yesterday and then my final uh comment uh goes to um our our own district for having a very wonderful um recognition uh uh page for dr king's uh birthday and for his uh uh day of service uh i thought that was very i got lots of comments um from the community and that was very it was very well done i did say final but one more thing today i participated on a panel that was sponsored by the alaska children's trust and

013the alaska black caucus and that was the national day of racial healing um and the conversations were very positive very uplifting and uh that actually was well attended so i thank those organizations for filling that void in our community thank you thank you next up is member hildy thanks i just wanted to pass on some thanks from community councils excellent reception from our nurses and covid um vaccine administration just um you know we've gotten lots of positive emails but just in the community people just blown away at how well run it is how welcome and positive and how efficient it was so it's just really fun to hear and certainly pass along [Music] awesome member marcep i just want to echo that um on the vaccinations i think dr bishop told me we gave over

0146 000 vaccinations about a thousand a day yeah um that is certainly impressive and it couldn't have been done without leadership and all the volunteers that participated i will tell you that i didn't even feel like i got it that was probably the easiest shot i've gotten in my whole life so um i know that everybody was uh very thankful um that we were able to open that up so kudos to our nursing staff our volunteers and to our leadership thank you thank you all right moving on in the agenda goal monitoring we're going to talk about grades for elementary and at this time i'll kick it over to dr bishop all right thank you madam president and i wanted to share again uh that as we do gold monitoring this year it uh is

015kind of not going by the model because our goals uh and this is for our community to understand that our outcome monitoring are really going to be showing evidence of our progress to our goals and the board recently uh in december approved the goals we are shoring up the interim goals and going to present uh by the end of this month an outcome monitoring calendar for those goals however this year we're just practicing just sharing data where we are during this pandemic year prior uh to um let's see i i believe it was in december or was it just the last meeting i shared the grades if you will for secondary and there was a question at a time wondering how elementary is doing and we have the data here but i wanted to share

016this with a little caveat that it is very um difficult if you will to understand where kids are utilizing grades at the elementary level a lot of times we do like to know uh we we look at progress by their grades but understanding what they know and can do is a little bit easier so those assessments and those standards and understanding can they do this can't they do this sometimes provides more data so with that just keep that in mind uh and as i move forward the grade distribution is by a mark and so it is not necessarily by every child because the children and how they were in class receiving grades really depended on which courses they were in so some students some schools provided a manner due to their staffing availability to do

017science and social studies at the same time while they're still doing their reading and math others had science in one semester they're going to do social studies in another so traditionally our schools were very standardized in the grades that they give but during this time students may not have received a mark for everything that they participated in certainly reading and math but not all and so i'm going to start with these data if you take a look at 19 and 20 which was last school year with the present school year and again these are fall of last year to fall of this year this school year there's quite a difference in the number of marks so the total number of marks grades given not individually one student could have received three of these one student

018could have received five of them so we had almost ninety seven thousand which would made it up a hundred percent of the data set this fall it was about fifty seven thousand made up the data set if you take a look at elementary or lower le prix um it's actually pre-k through second grade gives the o's s's and n's whereas the traditional abcdf is generally in third through sixth grade so that's how they're divided up and if you take a look at even the oh s's and n's if you could think of things such as um you know penmanship and and then a separate grade for spelling and a separate grade for participation so we like to just give progress on those different items but given the uh use of online learning and the zoom

019time the focus was really on the reading and math so os's and ends there's about 70 000 less than half in the primary grades so what you're seeing are last year's school year fall grades this year's school year fall grades and please note that a through f is generally the data set for third through six there wasn't too much of a change except in the area where students weren't doing well if you look at the d's and f's so the blue line is the fall of last year not last calendar year but last school year and then the recent fall that we just completed is in the orange and in the average or c range in the middle that grew c's d's and f's did grow they weren't necessarily statistically significant except for if you

020take a look at the f it did almost double in that category in k2 the grade distribution over the same time looked a little different our o's increased our outstanding grades increased in pre-k through second grade and our s's or satisfactory increased uh the uh others uh s plus of course decreased and the ends are needs improvement uh also similar like you saw in the f category and the grade distribution did increase again not necessarily that statistically significant but if you look at the s plus it really ranged into the more neutral or needing improvement range [Music] we always take a look then a little bit deeper about where are the marks going in which student groups so we look at ethnicity and then different student groups so we have our reporting we keep this

021in line with the federal government's mandating our mandatory reporting categories uh so we have alaska native american indian asian black hispanic multi-ethnic native hawaiian pacific islander and then white and so these are the terms used uh when we report to the uh federal government uh in regard to our education data so if you're wondering like where are the marks for those different groups i'm going to show you in a little bit uh the actual graph so you can see a picture but again the top is last school year's fall and the bottom is this school year's fall and again the difference you can see is in the number of marks very fewer marks this fall but we like to look at it these are called a stacked graph and what it does is uh really

022picture wise it gives you an idea of some changes and some movements because sometimes just looking at a chart or a data set doesn't do it for you where we noticed a major change which is very different uh causing more differences than would be expected is when we look at where are the marks in a certain of the whole you would you want to know is that total carried out throughout the data set and if you look at the top the gray and then the bottom those are the outliers that this the data doesn't follow and again there isn't individual information that we can glean from this we are just looking at trends and so uh the top is our white students uh who received some of those marks so 35 percent of all the

023marks went to white students and nine percent went to alaska native students but then if you look at the actual marks that they received you see that the distribution changes it in doubles in the d's and f's or the f's and then if you add the d's so the d's and f's triple the total number of marks by just alaska natives and so we want to take a look at this and we ask ourselves why is this now in our data look we would drill down to schools still drawn to classrooms drill down to what we're doing for this data capture it's really limited by just the the limits of how the school year has been set up in addition grades at elementary school are sometimes looked at especially in the primary grades you want

024to base them on standards if you will and the composition for these grades is has changed and just the differences in the marks lets us know that so there it is lacking some standardization but again when you look at ethnicity here's just a different way to share that same information out of all the students this year in grades three through six who received a mark about 57 000 of them up at the top this shows again within that student group where the distribution is for a's b c's d's and f's and once again you're just looking at trends and differences and what pops out of course is what i shared in that other stacked graph is the alaska native american indian and the white populations don't follow the same trend as the others [Music] grades

025k through two have a different trend as well if you look generally there's the fewest f's and then it increases to a's and most of these groups but if you notice in our elementary grades we've really moved to the mean there's a lot of just middle grades given with s's and i believe a lot of that if i had to suspect is due to just the ability to get a true read from a zoom classroom our teachers when they assess are really making decisions about every three minutes in a classroom our teachers have checklists they're paying attention to what kids know and it's not necessarily a test as we would think of a test in our later years like kids sitting down to do some type of assessment a lot of times you're just looking

026at children's participation you're asking them to respond if they respond correctly teachers are keeping track of this and it's just difficult on a zoom and our high school students also when we had their grades when we really asked the the um what were some of the the setbacks in this um when we had i ready and some other assessments is we really don't know what students are doing themselves which students have support uh so getting students back to face to face is really important for us to understand what do they know and what can they do because again we want to prepare them for the next grade level but we had a lot of regression to the mean uh just really that middle area is where we said and and i don't believe it's a

027matter that we just probably knew that they were participating but we're not sure that they really have an account of that skill so by interest groups these are other support type groups that we have in the district and so here's another way to look at these now students could belong to multiple student groups in the ethnicity they're generally one ethnicity unless they pick multi-ethnic but in the student groups they could really be in every single one of these student groups so our student groups are economically disadvantaged students with disabilities and english language learners and it just shares the number of marks again not students but the number of marks in those categories and then the distribution of those marks um again one student can actually be in all of these [Music] and again here is

028uh the elementary fall grade distribution for economically disadvantaged students with disabilities and english language learners and how our kids did they're they're very comparable to each other and the n is where it says number of marks so economically disadvantaged is by far our largest group of interest in asd and consequently that shows a lot of the disproportionality with students of poverty that occurs in asd hence the board made quite a bit of goals about uh student groups and equity of outcomes and so um in any other given year these data would not um really be highly valuable because the reason you want to use data is to make actionable change to understand how different do i teach what can i do to adjust the instruction how can we uh think about you know is it

029the time the intensity you know where is the learning happening and what can we do this data set is is difficult it's the best that we can do uh teachers you know in recording student learning are doing their best but again it is a two-dimensional uh assessment and not all the time do we do we understand what students can actually know and be able to do thank you dr bishop um do any board members yes we do uh first up member marsette so thank you for that i think it would be very difficult to grade um individuals and the type of environment that we're in currently and and i know that our teachers are doing the best they can but one of the things i'm curious about a little different is um have we been

030tracking um possibly the behaviors of what we're seeing on zoom and what we might encounter when kids come back certainly teachers uh do you want to see the behaviors and have supports and many of our classes our aides and additional teachers are uh joining teachers in the zooms just to really focus on students that might need to be redirected we've also uh dealt with some discipline while on zoom uh uh behaviors uh and generally those are just outcries from students some are you know against school rules so they're disruptions in the zoom itself uh but um they as a district level unless it's entered in something more serious it's really handled at the school level and um really the just in reading the research lately the the lack of support um due to the pandemic

031in the mental health or well-being area that's been lacking because of the pandemic and that's just not in schools but ubiquitously in our whether it's at the family level and then children are in a family where um you know some some unrest might happen that they're experiencing it that uh the prediction is that schools will be behind a little bit in addressing this and again we we know that um the cognition of students uh you know we have really really smart students but unless we take care of that well-being as well in them uh sometimes they don't get their best learning out so we want to be sure to address that but uh district-wide outside of uh reports for support and things like that we don't have um data in like a a data dashboard

032or anything thank you next up in the queue is board member bellamy yes thank you um thanks dr bishop for really drilling down more into the data um because i i i think there's just so many opportunities there my question really is of the data that we collected last fall the in the end how how much of the end and the f grades um indicate just attendance where kids just didn't show up um that's one question the other has to do with you know really what does an f mean in terms of uh i mean when would we i know teachers did make the determination but i'm just trying to figure out how are we where is the opportunity for us to define what an f would mean across the board so we have opportunity

033i i don't believe that in grading because we tried to uh work i mean as i think dr stock said it was as different as teachers are um the grading is held so personal to them uh if you recall last spring we wanted to standardize the grading spent very a lot of months discussing this and um we got close but but not uh to assert that this is how everything is going to be that's really the importance of of assessments and so i do know that college preparedness if you will that grading really means a lot to college preparedness and in in comparison to sats and acds simply put students effort and completion and trying and redoing in grades is really about if you're going to work hard and a lot of college success is

034the stick with it yes i'm going to work hard so interesting enough colleges are okay they're bypassing sats things like that and looking at grades at the elementary level the theory is really flip side of that because we really want to look at the standards and and the standard marks like can kids do this are kids able to do something and we use really checklists and assessments all the time to do that in fact there has been some movement you know the map test map growth test from northwest there's a lot of districts in the elementary grades that that is what they send home for the grade reports to their parents because it is truly about what kids know and are able to do not a grade about did they do their homework or not

035so they're really standards based or is it you know your markspace so there's a lot of growth to do in that area i would say that that's one of the most difficult things in in education to come up with that we all are literally standardized in one way but i would say that our schools and principals and their their teams of teachers utilize the data well um they have quarterly data meetings they want to understand students at the student level as i said before is it more time needed for students to learn is it the intensity is it a different structure do they need a different manner to receive it so at the elementary level i would say our elementary schools uh with their supervisors have begun to really dig deep into not just a

036grade but the student learning do students understand and so at this point i don't have an easy answer about what we can glean from that but i certainly um will share as we move forward and move into the monitoring and understanding grades more that we'll know um the apps in regard to attendance i i don't have that data in front of me but again because attendance at the elementary level was very fluid if a child and his or her parent couldn't attend or because a parent was working couldn't attend the live zoom if they logged in later on and looked at the recording and then that was counted as being present so there's a lot of uh unstandardization if you will to that and a lot of flexibility but um those are great questions and

037i think they're going to remain with us i don't think as long as i've been in education they've been asked over and over again and and still to know uh one agreement about what truly does a grade mean yeah and i i appreciate that because i i really do think while i'm you know i get you know i'm dismayed with the f's i understand them uh and i i also know that they don't necessarily represent what kids know and what they're able to do thank you thank you next up in the queue is board member hildy thank you by the fun of getting to grade k into this winter without asd teacher my kids were like in for a quarter of homeschool so we got to go through these um i'm a little concerned maybe

038on the number of o's even fall of last year and this year when we talk about rigor and you know even seeing that reflected in you know i don't put it you know i don't say all the weights on test scores but that's a metric we use um is and i would never say ten percent o is in ten percent f so we never want to get into that kind of stuff but is that a discussion that comes out in data review and we're saying are we really um holding kids to the high level rigor if we're seeing a a lot of o's um or conversely a lot of f's have made you know reflecting i guess is there a reflection on the level of rigor as um shown in the grading that's a great

039question and in fact dr stock and i discussed that today and uh we have to ask ourselves that and and truly it came before this board in regard to our reading instruction when we had such pushback on our new reading program that it was too hard it was inappropriate for children we had a discussion that over the time that asd had had their prior reading to when we adopted a new the standards moved about 18 months i believe mark um in his look so what we had originally in our standards what we were teaching to years ago it the rigor did change with the standards and asd was a little just collectively as a whole i'm saying in you know in the aggregate we were slow to make those adjustments so that when we had

040and adopted a reading program it was looked at as too hard this is too hard this is not developmentally appropriate yet it was to standards so uh in that vein uh mark and i dr stock and i were discussing today that we really need those assessments to know we know 60 of the students in asd as an aggregate are below their peers in reading across the nation we know that through statewide assessments that are aligned nationally as well as through the nape we know that but yet grades reflect we're getting outstanding so that begs the question it does talk to you about what goes into and it goes back to remember bellamy's point what goes into a grade what is that that's why uh for me looks that we can look across the board and

041say where are our kids and what next do they need to learn to make it to the next level really reviewing the standards that go into that grade is is what's needed and consequently right now i i did play some information in the board connect it's very difficult uh it's been difficult to change over everything we do for teachers as well as keep up uh with the needs of students while on zoom that's very hard for educators as well as being able to monitor that being able to find the time to meet together to say my students at this and my student and watch each other teach all those tools that teachers use to grow together have been really stalled or halted a little bit by this so uh to your question um we do

042know by our state reports our state tests as well as nape are very similar so we might not like either one of them but they actually tell the same story and so our grades tell a different story so then we have to ask ourselves how do our kids do and what do we want them to do and what advantages what do we promise them when they graduate from us so that that story is going to continue we're not there yet but um i would say our reading goals and our math goals and the career and college and life ready goals that the board has set will have we educators uh looking at that and again we're gonna look in the mirror about what can we do to affect that to have success for all students

043thank you did any other board members have any further questions for dr bishop and i i did have a question that there are more um i believe the correction more fourth fifth and sixth graders have uh a's b's and c's and f's third grade is an author grade so it's it's a little bit different and then there's some younger kids that also go up so it's not exact every grade level but we'll update in the data thank you all right moving up in the agenda is public testimony i'm going to read a statement the board welcomes public comment on non-agenda and non-action items we value public comment as it ensures that we remain aware of public thoughts ideas and concerns it informs our decision-making process the school board encourages anyone wishing to provide public testimony

044to sign up in advance for in-person or telephonic testimony or to email written comments by 2 pm the day of the meeting these comments will become part of the meeting record there is a one-hour time slot at the beginning of the meeting testimony excess of one hour will be heard at the end of the meeting or may be submitted in writing if you have signed up in advance for in-person or telephonic testimony you will be called on in the order in which you are signed up you will have three minutes to testify when 30 seconds remain a chime will ring to inform you so that you can finish your sentence additionally it is not our practice that board members answer questions or engage in discussion with members of the public this is your time to

045speak and our time to listen the board will consider all information shared by the public and when deemed necessary issues raised in testimony will be referred to the administration for follow-up i believe on today's list we have about 14 speakers uh the first one in person uh dave carter and thank you for joining us tonight you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you and uh yeah thanks for hearing me here um i am a 36-year resident of anchorage and i am a retired attorney and i am here on behalf of all of those parents and teachers and staff and community members who were shocked and stunned by what happened at our capitol building last january 6th obviously that was not normal it was so far from normal many of us of course

046would never have expected that this would occur um [Music] part of the problem that we're dealing with is social media when most of us went to school it didn't exist there were bullies to contend with but you know you dealt with those in other ways this is the new bullying and it's all you know it's it's in hiding in many respects um we need to deal with uh social media issues we need to have [Music] students teachers parents and staff educated and have resources available to them to understand how social media works i my phone number for those at home or kt you you and others is 349-4980 again it's 349-498-0 and you can certainly follow up with me there's a voicemail at the in my home i don't always answer calls from strangers but

047i'll return your call if you indicate that you're calling about these issues i have lots of suggestions to help the school district and help anchorage and help the rest of us understand you know why a number of people still believe that um joe biden wasn't um fairly elected and mr trump apparently was it's it's it's a real thing apparently and uh many of us i think most of us are shocked this is all happening on our watch uh some of us are older than others but everyone here i think understands what's going on and cares um and i have sent an email out to the school board the first one was to alicia on december 18th of 20 about social media before the uh the you know the mob that storm the capitol building and

048uh and i'm happy to share that with people too and then i followed up with uh one um to dr bishop and alicia about dr bishop's message which is not sufficient to adequately inform people about what happened there were people that showed up this was pre-planning with flex cuffs it wasn't just protests thanks very much four nine eight 349-4980 i'll be following up with you thank you thank you next up on the telephone danielle kemp daniel are you on the line tonight yeah you hear me we sure can you have three minutes and the floor is yours okay uh thank you to the board for having me tonight my name is danielle kemp i am a retired army combat officer teacher here in the asd i'm a co-chair of the alaska black caucus education committee

049and co-chair of the human and civil rights committee for the aea tonight i want to talk about the asd's new anti-racism and instructional equity policy and how i am in full support of that policy uh it's very important that this policy gets off to a great start you know it will provide the general framework and guidance that will inform our eventual anti-racism procedures for the district just want folks to be aware that you know this is not about some sort of uh indoctrination of you know kids or convincing them how to think but it's really just giving those folks kids uh free and comfortable spaces really to have those conversations about things that are important to them um you know the question really not at hand about whether the asd needs an anti-racism policy but

050really what that policy will look like all right this is not debatable especially with people of color who have reported incidences of racism and or discrimination within the asd uh and just to be clear you know racism takes uh several forms and really works kind of hand in hand with one another to reinforce those ideas behaviors and policies that include the individual racism interpersonal racism and institutional racism as well as structural racism one example of institutional racism in the asb is in the attendance rate versus graduation rate and dropout rate all of the non-white subgroups uh that we know of have a more than four percent gap between their respective attendance rate and graduation rate with alaska uh the gap is the largest at 27.4 in the gap a collective dropout rate for our students

051of color are three times the rate of their white counterparts all right um ah 30 seconds so you know i just want to really express to this boy tonight that we must we must put forward this uh anti-racism policy people of color and our allies are speaking to you and saying that the asd needs this are you listening i hope so you must thank you for your time thank you next up speaker number three on the telephone celeste hodge groudon celeste are you on the line with us tonight i am hello we can hear you you have three minutes and the floor is yours all right thank you good afternoon i am celeste hodge groudon the president and ceo of the alaska black caucus as many of you know our organization advocates for the rights

052of black people and other people of color in the areas of health education economics and justice yesterday we celebrated the life of a great man dr martin luther king jr not only was he the author of some amazing writing such as the i have a dream speech but a trailblazer and an advocate of civil rights justice and equity today we recognize national day of racial healing for those that don't know the national day of racial healing is an opportunity for people organizations and communities across the united states to call for racial healing by bringing people together and their common humanity to take collective action and creating a more just and equitable world the alaska black caucus led in partnership with the alaska children's trust a conversation where we shared racial healing is a process that

053restores individuals and communities to wholeness repairs the damage caused by racism and transforms societal structures into ones that affirm the inherent value of all people so here we are today how fitting is it to have before us the anchorage school district's new anti-racism policy for the record the alaska black caucus is in full support of this policy first of all i'm shocked there wasn't one in place which might explain why racism and discrimination has been running rampant within the school district how however while while our country has made some progress in terms of civil rights dr king's time during dr king's time we do know statistics tells us we have a long way to go as it relates to equity and equality of black and brown kids within our schools to ensure that the work

054of dr king and other civil rights leaders is preserved america schools including the anchorage school district have an important role to play in leading the conversation on equality equity and tolerance dr king himself understood the importance of education and advancing the conditions of people of color and in eliminating long-standing societal prejudices to that end again the alaska black caucus strongly recommends support of the anchorage school district's new anti-racism policy thank you very much thank you next up in the queue speaker number four reagan brooks reagan are you on the line tonight hello can you hear me we sure can you have three minutes and the floor is yours [Music] thanks so much thank you all for your service on the school board and thank you to all the educators and school district staff who are

055here today and are working so hard to support students my name is regan brooks i am a mother a parent of two children in the anchor school district i'm testifying today to express support for the anchorage school district adoption of an anti-racism policy the need for an anti-racism policy is simply not debatable i wish there was no racism in our schools but as many have shared in previous school board meetings tonight and elsewhere and as the school district has illustrated with its own data that's simply not true there is racism in our schools please do the right thing and make a choice to look forward support all students and do all you can to make asd a safe healthy just and anti-racist space for all students i'm going to pass the phone to my children

056now tonight they both chosen to testify this is just too important so uh hello thank you all my name is teo i'm 11 years old and i am in the fifth grade at chugach i'm testifying today to ask you to listen to everyone who is asking you to support an anti-racism policy for a district i think an anti-racism policy is important because who wants to be for racism that would be very bad because it will make people feel more comfortable and safe in school um and why am i even saying this stuff because it is just so obvious thank you all my name is mia i am 13 years old and i am in the eighth grade at romans middle school i am testifying today to ask you to support an anti-racism policy for a

057district i think this policy is important because it will promote healthy learning environments for everyone and because racism is harmful and why would anyone want to support racism in our schools thank you for listening to my comments thank you uh next up speaker number five in person i have megan holton hi thanks can you hear me okay yeah i just kind of got to hold it up a little closer there right and you have three minutes and please go ahead wonderful thanks so my name is megan holton and i have a four-year-old who will hopefully be an asd student at some point and then i also teach occasionally as an artist in the schools and i also graduated from west high in and i believe that being able to identify racism and speak up against

058injustice are life skills and i wish i had left west high with these schools these skills but i did not and i'm really excited and i strongly support the proposed anti-racist policy and forthcoming plan i think a clear actionable anti-racism plan is a key step to the system change we want to see there should be a clear policy and procedures for dealing with racist behaviors by individuals as well as protocols for reviewing learning tools such as textbooks that perpetuate systemic racism when i was in middle and high school i was tracked into advanced amusing air quotes here classes that were filled with predominantly white kids um there should be an anti-racism framework to discuss the tracking that i experienced as institutional racism i want to remind everyone that it's the experience of racism and not

059race itself that causes the poor outcomes that we are familiar with and anti-racism policy will support the change we need so that all students are able to access and enjoy the education at asd and benefit equally i'd also like to remind board members that there's no such thing as racism against white people there can be bias against white people but racism is the coupling of actions plus the power of systems the question at hand is not whether asd needs an anti-racism policy but rather what this policy should look like it should address the four main components of racism as mr kemp laid out and also as outlined in the proposed policy so that it's easier for asd community members and students to speak up and identify and discuss those problems when they see and feel

060it we need to cultivate spaces where young people can speak and discuss their experiences without fear and also with the knowledge that there will be an adult in a leadership position that can follow up with their concerns this is not debatable as too many people of color have reported incidences of racism and or discrimination at the asd and as a white person i know that i perpetuated racism through my silence as a young person systemic change needs policy and plans and this policy is a step on the right to the right direction and the school board must take its cues and guidance regarding the approval and implementation of this policy from communities of color this is what systemic change looks like and that will lead to the outcomes that we are all working towards and

061i believe that the proposed annual equity report that is outlined in the proposed policy will help keep us accountable to that plan and those desired outcomes that we want to see thank you thank you next up on the telephone speaker number six leon james leon are you on the line with us tonight yes hello good evening my name is leon hymas um and i live over in university lake with my family and thank you to the school worker allowing me to testify tonight uh it's it's very encouraging to me to see the school board pursuing an anti-racism policy and the prospect of raising graduation rates of lowering disciplinary rates of lowering dropout rates and of generally working to make anchorage even more anti-racist is very exciting i think that it it's really sorely needed uh

062especially with the events that have transpired since uh on and and since january 6th and right now i'm um i'm looking at a picture from black lives matter uh clause in washington dc and they have a sign up that says sedition when you're white they let you do it uh and i think that you know i feel like every day there's just you know even more and more powerful messages that uh we're not doing enough to fight racism in this country and the you know today we just passed the historic and tragic marker of 400 000 dead americans from the pandemic and the pandemic has disproportionately affected people from the bipod community and so i just really wanted to urge unanimous support for this anti-racism policy and i think that it's critical that we redouble

063our efforts to fight racism uh especially right now and as it you know just becomes overwhelmingly clear that we today as a country have not done enough and it would be great to see anchorage uh start to be a leader in in the nation uh on that front and so i would encourage unanimous support of this policy thank you very much thank you next up on the telephone speaker number eight alex blum alex are you on the line with us tonight [Music] alex if you can hear us it's star six to unmute all right we will go ahead and come back to him uh the next speaker will be mary richards mary are you on the line with us tonight hello hello can you hear me okay we can hear you thank you for joining

064us you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you hi my name is mary richards and tonight i'm here as a member of the alaska black caucus the national writing project and teacher leader of the alaska poetry out loud competition tomorrow a historic moment will take place a 22 year old woman a 22 year old black woman amanda gorman will carry forward the united states tradition of writing and reading a poem in honor of the inauguration the title of her poem is the hill we climb gorman's purpose will be to spread a message of unity in an interview on martin luther king junior's holiday she exclaimed that the power of poetry is everything poetry is an art form but it's also a weapon it's an instrument it's the ability to make ideas that

065have been known felt and said she asserts that's a real type of duty for the poet gorman goes on to say that one of her favorite writers audrey lord also a black woman has said there are no new ideas just new ways of making them felt and that's what i try to do so tonight in honor of poetry and light and the spirit of unity i to sing america and share a poem this one comes to america by the way of british poet christopher reed before sharing this poem i'd like to honor and acknowledge my ancestors who came over on the mayflower from england i am a proud daughter of the american revolution and a defender of our constitution reed's poem is from his collection titled the late sun the name of the poem is

066death of a barber not mustafa but one of his colleagues cut my hair today that's when i learned that mustafa had passed away a victim of the virus intimate work the barber's fingers scissors and razors to debating with professional gentleness crown sides back and neck almost a caress i've been going for ages to that little shop he used to have the stones with climbing plants and parakeets in cages before i learned mustafa's name and something of his life but as etymology fails us touch and tact are the same for months now no one had touched me except my wife and i was looking forward to a needed trim i got one as expert and luxurious as any of mustafas but it was not from him superintendent bishop and honorable board please remember you wield great

067power and must protect students teachers and families asd's current guidance of three to six feet in classrooms is unacceptable and leaves our most economically diverse schools and most equitably challenged students most at risk of contracting covid19 thank you for advancing forward the proposed anti-racism and instructional equity policy let's look forward to that new poem tomorrow thank you thank you next up in the queue uh speaker on the telephone marge stone king marge are you on the line with us tonight hi this is marge stonekin can you hear me we sure can thank you you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you i'm a mother of two alumni of the anchorage school district and a member of the alaska black caucus allies for change group and i'm here in support of the anti-racism

068and instructional equity policy brought forward by members bellamy and mitchell thank you so much to me this is foundational um it is um to echo uh celeste hodge groudon's comments earlier somewhat shocking that it hasn't existed previously we need to go beyond non-discrimination um we need to do better than that i am one one with the school district in being proud of the rich diversity of cultures and languages in our district and i've often bragged of that to my friends in other communities outside alaska at the same time i am a member of the white privileged community and i saw that throughout our journey through the school district and i think that this policy will give the the beginnings of being able to address that equity perhaps it's natural that white teachers have a bias

069towards white students just a thought not a science uh statement but just a thought and i understand having heard the previous um presentation from the superintendent just now that echo or that race and ethnicity is looked at in a number of different metrics i think that the annual and annual equity report bringing all of those pieces together might paint a better picture and be able to to show where the gaps are to show the problem because we know that we need to see the problem to recognize the problem to be able to address the problem so instructional equity that you know can mean a lot of things and and hopefully it will mean a lot of things going forward but perhaps it starts with looking at that compiled data and looking at that picture and

070recognizing that yes we have racism we have structural racism institutional racism in the anchorage school district and we can do better let's humble ourselves and take that first step i encourage your support and putting this forward uh and passing it thank you thank you i'd like to go back up to a previous speaker alex blum alex are you able to join us tonight we sure can thank you you have three minutes and the floor is yours [Music] thank you so much um thank you and school board members i really appreciate all the work you're doing to support and improve the education of increased students my name is alex plum i'm an anchorage president and i'm here to express my support for the proposed antivirus and instructional equity policy submitted by linda bellamy and mitchell because

071it will help us confront and solve an urgent and important problem historically and currently anchorage schools have marginalized and discriminated discriminated against students of color particularly black and alaska native students our schools just haven't been designed to serve them which means that in many ways they've been designed to fill them that's why anchorage schools successfully graduate only 63 percent of alaska native students and 81 percent of black students compared to almost 90 percent of white students the good news is that this policy is a tremendous opportunity to address that inequity and by fixing the problems facing some members of the asb community the entire community will benefit as the writer jenny ledell has put it pain comes not from one part of the body but from systemic imbalance you have an opportunity with this policy

072and with all the work that will follow it to help restore that balance i urge you to do so this initiative is good for everybody there's going to raise the achievement of all students and improve the entire school district and that's radically abstracting about the future but to speak and personally i'm white and every time i've been part of an institution that dedicated itself to creating an inclusive environment and trying to achieve equity in its results i have benefited my peers have benefited through the institution as a whole please don't miss this opportunity please support us and if we look at policy thank you for your time thank you next step in the queue on the telephone shelly crazy sick shelly are you on the line tonight yeah hello hi thank you for joining us

073you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you very much my name is shelley kurjazik and i am actually an executive officer with the national education association who is asked to listen in uh by the educators of anchorage and i would like to begin by applauding your initial efforts to start really thinking really proactively about ways that you can work to fight the systemic racism that exists not just within anchorage schools but within all of the schools in our country so i applaud your initial efforts and i wish to echo many of the other thoughts that have been have been shared by by some of the speakers i do wish to share with you that the bulk of my job over the past six years has been working with school districts and chief

074state school officers to help them deal with the implementation of the every student succeeds act as you know equity audits are actually a required component of meeting the federal law and that is just one step that's included within this and one of the misperceptions i've seen between with members of the anchorage community not understanding that we must first evaluate and understand our system makes people think that we are blaming someone for the system the truth of the matter is that the systems are not the fault of one person but failure to work to correct those systems can be i wish to share with you also that i've had the opportunity to work at length with the commissioner of of alaska with dr michael johnson on the implementation of every student succeeds act and with all

075with other work within the state and with some of the work he's hoping to do with the native alaskans that live in your fabulous state i am excited by what i see you doing i wish to be able to have the opportunity to lift up the anchorage school board and the work of the anchorage school district and say this is a necessary first step toward advancing education not just for our students of color but for all of the students of this nation thank you for your initial efforts i look forward to your continued work thank you uh the last speaker i have on the telephone marney hartel marty are you on the line with us tonight marny if you can hear us it is star six to unmute can you hear me now we can

076thank you so much you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you my name is marnie hartill i'm a teacher and also serve as vice president of programs for anchorage education association speaking as an individual in support of the school board's proposed anti-racism and instructional equity policy it's absolutely crucial that we affect change for equity in education so that all children have the quality education they deserve regardless of the color of their skin the neighborhood they call home or other factors unfortunately the anti-racism and instructional equity policies come under scrutiny in social media from i don't know those who lack the courage to learn or who i have the compassion to listen or merely pull from the same playbook of ignorant revisionists who create fiction unsupported by any professional american historicist these are

077further attempts to erase history disregard generations of trauma and continue structural and institutionalized racism we need to teach our students media literacy how to recognize propaganda identify fallacies and reasoning source check and debunk fake news and become careful critics of the spread of misinformation in social media the lack of these skills directly led to the insurrection witnessed january 6 led by white supremacists and conspiracy theorists in october of 2019 anchorage education associations human and civil rights committee hosted our first public community dialogue which brought together youth parents community leaders educators school board members to talk about issues that impact education and the leading concern gathered from parents and community members in those discussions was that our schools could do a better job of providing culturally responsive instruction and decision making our port city of anchorage

078is a gateway to the world we need to prepare our students to be compassionate globally minded scholars who demonstrate high academic excellence and one thing i enjoyed about the aea community dialogue was the conversation and the hum of the room the fantastic food and the fellowship where has that fellowship gone we cannot allow violence racism hate and ignorance to pollute the hope and futures of anchorage students we cannot allow infighting social media posts pointed emails and dismissive comments to tear down the power of holding positive courageous conversations through meaningful discussion our children and the adults in the room can listen grow and discover new things which open our hearts and broaden our minds a friend of mine wrote to me today that our discussions must quote embrace the pain of the healing process i completely

079agree with him the human and civil rights movement began with we shall overcome we still have work to do now we transform thank you for hearing my testimony thank you that brings us to the end of public testimony for everybody that was signed up uh we have the section on our agenda and on board docs for any written testimony that was submitted i encourage folks to go out and take a look at that when you see them next up on the agenda is the superintendent update at this time i would like to turn it over to dr bishop thank you madam president and school board i wanted to uh just begin by i had uh quite a bit of time reserved for my report to share about our school start and uh to all of

080our parents and and little ones out there and our teachers who had expected to be back the decision was difficult in the manner that i just hated to disappoint so many people but easy to make uh using our protocols for safety in regard to icy roads and so um i let the experts be the experts and we were out at 4am riding the roads and they were just too dangerous so tomorrow january 20th we look to have a great day in school but on that note if i wanted to share just uh some good things and this one bright little girl's face says it all uh one of our principals sent this in and i just want to thank our teachers she has the expectation of the world and we need to deliver to this

081little gal here uh and all of our kids uh in school i just wanted to share this and that many of our teachers just really invited their kids in to and their parents to see their classrooms if parents weren't available they really zoomed in and allowed them to zoom around their classroom and really see the picture this next one is a video and just the outreach of schools and teachers and communities this was made uh by denali montessori and just take a look at this just spend a minute with me to share the kinds of communication uh and the creativity that was uh planned really to have a good start for our kids knowing things we're so excited you're coming back to school things will be a little different for the beginning and end of

082our school [Music] 30 to the days do note the front door will be closed there won't be a crossing guard until 9 15. if possible parents are encouraged to stay in their cars while the playground is closed until 9 15 once it's open it will not be for playing upon entering students will go to their designated class meeting spot until it's time to go in pickup is staggered between 2 40 and 3 and the same meeting spots will be on the playground if you are late in the morning at 9 35 or after go to the front door and ring the bell please remember keep social distancing and masks are required for all students parents and staff it's a different school routine but we can make it work together as a denali community all right

083so that's just a little fun and on our next board meeting we will have for sure some updates about our classrooms and uh you know just all the information that we can provide you in regard to our school start so uh regrettably we look to uh presenting that to you at our first meeting in february i'd also uh have um would like to have tom roth as well as jim patronis to uh health services update that i will uh follow up on their comments [Music] thank you thank you dr bishop through the board president if if we can go to the the next slide please [Music] so just very quickly i'll say a couple of words and then pass off to a miss miss patronus the uh the director of health services but i i

084think the board is aware that uh last uh the six uh wednesdays six january that the the the district hosted a a uh covet 19 vaccine clinic here in the education center and i think several several eligible board members had the opportunity to uh to go through that and that went on for about seven and a half days with with what i think were really pretty exceptional outcomes so so this evening i'm going to ask uh miss miss patronus to debrief on a couple things the first will be just to give a a snapshot of where we stand with regards to testing in the district and then talk a bit more about the the vaccine program so with that i'm going to pass off to uh to jennifer [Music] thank you so we'll start with

085covid testing we do have the five capstone testing facilities that are right now um on hold just due to some permitting issues but we'll continue to work that and let everyone know once that is open the anchorage school-based health center um is they're going to be opening for their testing sites later on they're just working out a few last minute logistical constraints but they are in secondary and they'll be opening up soon as well the visit health pop-up testing sites are open and they will continue as planned and then we did last week get 20 abbott id now machines from the state of alaska and right now we have 15 of them dispatched and the nurses are ready to begin that rapid pcr testing immediately five more of those machines are here at the ed

086center and those nurses will be getting trained later on this week so we're excited about that so in the last seven and a half days our nurses were working really hard here at the ed center giving out vaccinations and they gave out over six thousand we were only allotted six thousand for anchorage school district and we borrowed an extra 200 from a regional hospital there were no wasted doses we made sure that every vaccine that was in each vial was used and we had over 32 nurses involved over the course of the seven and a half days we had a lot of fun doing it and we can't wait to give the second vaccine in february the next slide is just a picture of our nurses in our morning huddle [Music] and then a picture

087of our nurse here east high school getting her vaccine our vaccination plan is going to follow the state of alaska's plan and here on this slide it outlines who is eligible in which tier and in which phase right now we are in phase 1a with all health care workers some of our special education teachers and tas and life skills classrooms and we're also vaccinating all 65 and older in those 6 000 vaccinations that we gave over half of those were 70 and older we had a young man that was 101 that came and got his vaccination and over a hundred people that were in their 90s so i think that is just amazing and i'm so proud of our nurses and i would uh just like to add on to that and uh really share

088it it was a a tremendous effort and we are so happy to have fulfilled this one thing that school districts do understand uh especially large school districts like ourselves uh is understanding scale and understanding how is it that you can disperse in a fast amount of time or do a large-scale project and certainly giving vaccine almost a thousand a day while registering people for the vaccine was was a major task and i i want to say thank you as well i believe that that was our niche uh in this is that um immediately on the first day we had um as you know the the state system had some uh trouble spots at the beginning and uh it was really under uh you know gen patronus and tom's leadership that uh initially the first day

089they came and said people aren't understanding and they don't have a reservation and uh jen said i'm not gonna turn an 80-year-old man away that walked to our door so from there i think tom just called i.t and i t brought computers and people and this whole place was just set up so i just i just want to thank them and to reach out but you've heard jen say that it was just fun it really was a fun day and we wanted to communicate and we continue to communicate to our state and our city that um the government agencies really are not set up necessarily for scale we do scale uh anchorage we educate you know 45 000 students uh when we talked in the past with partnering with the city and bussing it was

090difficult uh those discussions were difficult not because it was hard to agree or disagree on anything it was understanding the scale whereby the city transports about 2 000 people a day asd was transporting twenty four thousand people twice a day we understand scale in regard to feeding students when we are open we feed about 20 000 students two meals a day asd understands scale so when it comes to the next vaccine in the clinic we look to our state and to our own health department to turn to us for scale we understand that school will be in session but many of our nurses want to figure out a way to share and cohort themselves so that they can still volunteer uh tom roth chief of operations has already investigated partnerships uh not only with health

091care workers but college professors came and were trained and joined us so that they can bring their nursing students uh we actually had nursing students uh already participate so uh we stand ready i just appreciate um the work of the team here and their expertise no one in the state one single entity has dispersed over 6 000 vaccine no one but the anchorage school district thank you thank you and i know that we had just uh discussed this in our earlier meeting but jim is going to whip around and share publicly in our meeting just the pre-filed legislation that he worked with uh the chair of the finance committee on member marcet [Music] thank you dr bishop during the finance committee this afternoon i did brief the highlights of the sr2 funding asd has received

092their allotment from the state and it's just over 50 million dollars with the intent of this grant to fully reopen k-12 schools to facilitate all of those facets of education to help close the learning gaps uh created this year it covers a broad range of everything we've used and and will continue to use from i.t equipment through programmatic assistance and supports and deed did retain a small portion a little bit under 16 million so we do expect that there will be additional block grants coming down um i think most of your tracking there also was the draft president-elect sr-3 bill has been put out at least initially in draft form it contains about twice the sr2 k-12 funding so we'll see how that plays out over the next few weeks so for the pre-flight pre-filed

093legislation uh the legislators filed on the 8th and the 18th and the 15th of this month they just started session today and so there's over 20 plus bills that have already been put out i'll cover just briefly eight of them that we're tracking that will go through several modifications most likely through the session and i will keep the board um a prize the first is house bill 45 it talks about con compensability for workers compensation the assumption that if a worker that's been designated as essential and part of a declared emergency during contagious diseases uh you would presume comp uh compensability um if they caught the contagious disease while on the on the job that just came out it hasn't been discussed in any committees yet as well as the rest of them so i'll

094uh move forward to house bill 67 it's a return to the 20 million dollars above the foundation formula that all the districts received a few years ago with the intent toward helping with academic recovery senate bill 6 it would be a statewide retirement incentive program for employees who are retirement eligible in a defined contribution plan who are 50 or over for both pers and ters senate bill 8 is the alaska reads act very similar to what senator begich put out last year and it would be a five million dollar statewide three-year grant toward multiple districts focused on early reading and and actually uh the it is about reading but it is called the pre-k so i'm not sure that the pre-k is an acronym for um reading for all kids or something like that so

095the name of the bill is pre-k it just is the old reading act bill so you were correct in your other title thank you um senate bill 15 is a bill put out just this past week and it's really for elected leaders assembly members board members etc that they could incur a 1 000 civil penalty for violating the open meeting acts i put this out really for the information for school board members we would certainly make sure that we don't violate those within the district but wanted to make sure you were tracking it senate bill 16 both senator begich and senator gray jackson from anchorage would would proposes an increased minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour statewide senate bill 18 is elementary class size reduction bill currently unfunded but it proposes a five-year grant

096for districts who can come up with a plan work through deed and get approval to start reducing class sizes for grades k through eight and finally senate bill 42 is really a pretty broad bill focused on early education and reading staffing ratios and really a big piece of it is the course credit for those students especially high school students who could get classes or certifications outside a normal school day and still receive course credit for those sparring any questions those uh we wanted to just publicly share those again uh knowing that we will be following these and and uh there's lots of things to discuss at the state legislature and those do include education and impact on education i just want to close by uh sharing um there was a public testimony on social media

097this evening and i do encourage um i shared with our team here if you have an opportunity uh seeing the movie social dilemma uh it is a netflix movie on um social media and its impact and the use of uh ai or machine thinking uh to create a reality so uh very good i encourage parents to watch it with your children if you'd like especially your teens it's pretty powerful and i just want to end uh again with the thank you that um the well-being of a community um the strength of a community is really based on its ability to take care of its young as well as take care of its seniors or its elders and i share that asd after this last week was really involved in both of those and i'm uh

098proud to do that and so thank you school board uh for supporting our venture into giving the vaccines uh and tomorrow with the start of school it will also be taking care of our young so thank you that concludes my report thank you uh board members have any questions or comments for dr bishop member marsha you are up so i just want to um kind of uh support what dr bishop said um i know no other organization in this city that can give out a thousand vaccinations in one day um you know i i have heard that possibly vaccinations are given out so that it's equally distributed between sites however when you have an office that can only give out 20 to 40 vaccinations a day and you have an organization that can do a

099thousand a day i think it's more important that we are thinking about our community and getting them vaccinated as soon as possible and doing what's best for our community and moving forward uh with us with hope and and uh moving forward so that we can move forward so i i just like to throw that out there that um i'm hoping someone's listening and that they will uh think about this uh the next comment i wanted to make was um i am kind of disappointed about today too but i understand about the roads um i've been invited to lake hood by the principal and uh assistant principal and i'm so excited they're both excited to have me there i'm gonna be uh visiting the school and seeing firsthand our students coming in and then i'm also

100gonna be visiting creekside park which i've been invited to both of these schools and as i said before um i walk the talk and talk the talk and if i'm asking teachers to come back i'm going to be there so thank you thank you next step remember mitchell thank you um i had a couple of questions one that i was planning to ask and i'm not exactly sure what the status is based on this patronus presentation but um i know that all right i'm fairly certain that we were offering testing for any teachers or students who were planning to come back to school and i'm wondering um if we were able to do that and if so how many how many um were took advantage of that available themselves with that opportunity and then i

101also had a question about um the number of elementary students who are coming back do you want me to ask that one now as well or should i follow up with that well let's give um jen patronus a chance to answer the first question and then we'll follow back around for your second one [Music] through the board president to member mitchell we did encourage staff and students to get tested last week prior to returning today however we encouraged them to go to the muni established public testing sites and we did not receive those results and we're not privy to that information unless they share it with us [Music] okay um but it sounds like we're going to have our own testing facilities up and running because i know you know based on universities that have

102been very successful with their keeping covert rates down the key is really you know weekly testing and actually um member mitchell our testing is going to be for symptomatic uh only and the surveillance testing is the city so the city has those two sites for surveillance testing asd is taking place in symptomatic testing okay thank you the other question i had was um in the board connect if i've read it properly it sounds or if i interpreted the data accurately it sounds like out of all of our schools roughly 44 of our elementary students have opted to come back to in person is that percentage correct uh through the president to uh member mitchell not exactly 44 would be the um the total amount that we would be expecting to come back but there would

103be some who of course we're not expecting to come it's not so it's 44 of our student bodies will be back in the school so um 8 000 students at the elementary are those would be the rough number that we're expecting what's really difficult is that we've got families that are still kind of waiting and see we're seeing the asd virtual numbers bump up by the hundreds in the last few days as people think it through so it's hard to come up with an exact even an estimate of exactly how many are going to physically show up our hope of course without the inclement weather was to actually have you a head count today with an actual number that we could look at and that would be real bodies but uh at their next board

104meeting of course in our board connect we'll put that out for this week so you can see the actual number okay so it sounds like we don't really know yet um but my follow-up to that is then for the um 44 or for the students who come back the ones who are not coming back they're all going to have to go to calvert is that correct because there won't be the zoom option anymore and remember um mitchell the 44 is a pre-k 2. right no no i understand that of the students we anticipate of the students we are offering in-person school too at this point um well i guess it doesn't include the self yeah so at the other ones assuming if that percentage that we're estimating at this point or anticipating the 44 then

105the 56 percent the option for those students is to do the calvert asd virtual is that correct necessarily because some of the 56 percent are three through six grade students who are still on e-learning um of the students in pre-k two um we had about 300 um move over to uh online learning through asd virtual so 44 6 of all other students because 56 who are not going also include 3 through 6 who are in um zoom learning with their teachers now okay so i misinterpreted that number so the 44 let's say there are just for round numbers this is obviously not correct but let's say we had 10 000 um pre-k through 6th grade students then you're saying we're anticipating that um four thousand four hundred of them will be in schools in k

106through two and then the 5600 is either third through sixth graders or the k through second graders who aren't going to in person is that correct correct okay so we don't know what percentage of kindergarten through second graders were expecting out of just that population we don't know what percentage we're expecting to come back to live in person classes at this point we'll figure that out when they show up tomorrow we have an estimate and we're planning for them uh but until they show up it's it's really hard to to suspect but it's about 80 70 to 80 percent [Music] those data with you early on um in some schools it's upwards of 70 80 percent some it's 60 but it is a pretty high percentage of our when we did our survey of pre-k

107through second grade really of all elementary thank you next up in thecube board member bellamy uh i think my question has been answered thank you [Music] any other questions or comments from board members so i debated on whether to comment on this but i i have nothing to lose so i'm going to do it um we received um a letter from um aea and it's out there everybody's seen it so it's it's public knowledge about the school board uh working with them to make sure schools are safe and you know i know people send us different articles but i just read from the director of cdc nationally that said school district schools are not spreading i mean they're they're just like a non-event they're not spreading the virus and i have to say when i

108look at this in perspective um i had someone send me um a message and i think they put it very well and they said kudos to all the child care workers wow what a bunch of brave 19 to 25 year olds working away for ten dollars an hour risking their lives to take care of your kids well that's exactly how i feel about our teachers there is and again i i know there's fear out there but we have a job to do and that job and our first responsibility is to our kids and the mission and vision of this school district and i would hope that those that are considering maybe not coming to work tomorrow we'll rethink that because this is about the kids and i understand um the fears but man when i

109read this comment about child care workers who have been out there all this time taking care of kids and not i haven't heard anything from them um i i just want to put it in perspective so i hope our teachers will think about that um when school starts tomorrow thank you thank you all right not seeing any other hands up in the queue or anybody frantically waving we will go ahead and move on in our agenda it'll be the consent agenda is up next and remember bellamy if you could kick off you can send it i can thank you i i moved to approve the consent agenda consisting of asd memorandum number 072 which is the personnel report and the regular session minutes for november 16 2020. are there any uh comments on either of

110those consent agenda items by board members i missed it who was the second on that one who's that andy andy that's what she yeah that's what you thought all right no seeing no comments or questions katie if you could please do a roll call vote remember mitchell [Music] remember merced yes member holloman yeah member healthy yes remember donnelly yes vice president bellamy yes president michaelis yes madam president yes member donnelly thank you i just want to bring a point of personal privilege my hand raising function is still not working okay we were wondering that earlier we'll keep an eye out for you and listen and i believe the consent agenda passes with seven years and zero nays next up are our action items i'm going to read just a quick statement the procedures for agenda

111item testimony are as follows an action item memo is first introduced by the vice president and if seconded by another board member i will open the floor for public testimony if you've signed up in advance you will be called on in the order in which you were signed up you will have three minutes to testify when 30 seconds remain a chime will ring to inform you so that you can finish your sentence after all testimony closes i will open the floor for board discussion before finally calling for the official vote the voting results will be displayed on the screen and i do have one person but it is um on item number five so uh vice president bellamy if you could kick us off with asd memorandum zero seven zero [Music] i move to approve

112asd memorandum number zero seven zero and authorize the award of contract for providing district-wide duck cleaning services at various anchorage school district locations on an as required basis for a three-year contract in the amount not to exceed 383 400 with two one-year option periods in the amount not to exceed two thousand five five hundred i'm sorry two thousand fifty-five two hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred dollars for a total contract value not to exceed six hundred thirty nine thousand two hundred dollars to jnk power vac do i have a second second all right first and a second are there any board members with questions or comments on esc memorandum 070 oh remember marsette so i did have a question about this um when we do duck cleaning is that like during the summer when students aren't

113in school i'm just not sure what the process is for that through the board president to to member marcette uh i'm going to have to come back to you with with the more definitive answer there there is no specific timeline although i would offer that probably the majority of the work does occur when staff and students are not in the buildings but if there's a need that this contract is available for for us to bring uh this contractor in to take immediate action uh if if necessary but i'd be happy to have mr hargreaves follow up and give you a more definitive response uh to your question just uh follow i just didn't know like i don't know what involves to do duck cleaning so i don't know if it's like particles fly through the

114air or you know i i don't know so i guess i'm just asking so i appreciate your follow-up thank you any other board members with questions or comments seeing none katie if you could please do a roll call vote remember hildy yes remember holliman yes vice president bellamy yes remember donnelly yes remember mitchell yes member marcette yes president michaelis yes [Music] asd memorandum number zero seven zero passes with seven years and zero nays next up i move to approve asd memorandum number zero seven four and authorize the superintendent to redirect 5.3 million dollars from the 2015 through 2018 bond project balances to earthquake recovery capital projects have a first and a second do any board members have any questions or comments on asd memorandum zero seven four numbers hey do you see your hand okay

115was i recognized madam president yes you are thank you i just want to thank the administration for proposing that these funds go towards the earthquake projects i think those have to be our highest priorities we need to make sure our schools are seismically safe and repaired from the damage that was done and so i was i was pleased to see that that was the emphasis that was placed on utilizing these these funds as they became available thank you any other board members with comments or questions seeing none katie if you could please do a roll call vote remember hildy yes remember mitchell yes member marcet yes member donnelly yes vice president bellamy yes remember holloman yes president michaelis yes [Music] asd memorandum 074 passes with seven yays and zero nays next step next item i

116moved to approve asc memorandum number 073 and authorize the allocation of up to 200 000 from the 2019 from 2019 c unallocated capital project interest earnings i'm sorry capital project interest earning funds to apply to the orion elementary school roof replacement project [Music] have a first and a second do any board members have any questions on asd memorandum 073 [Music] seeing none katie if you could please do a roll call though vice president bellamy yes remember mitchell yes remember donnelly yes remember hildy yes remember marsette yes remember holloman can you see him [Music] remember holloman i don't see your videos if you're giving uh [Music] and president michaelis yes [Music] and asd memorandum zero seven three passes with seven years and zero nays next item next item i move to approve asc memorandum number zero

117eight zero and adopt the tentative agreement between the district and the anchorage principles association also known as apa which will establish terms and conditions of employment for individuals in this unit during the period between july 1st 2020 and june 30 um i'm sorry one more time on the second i couldn't hear uh dana mitchell seconded thank you all right i have a first and a second i have one person who has signed up to speak on this asd memorandum it is patrick freeman and sir are you on the line with us tonight and if you can hear us i'll be star six to unmute [Music] i know he's i see his name there but i don't see him coming off mute and he's my only speaker so ordinarily i would patrick if you can hear

118us at star six to unmute okay i was there to give him an opportunity um i don't quite know what to do [Music] okay um patrick the other thing you can try is if you can hear us but can't get unmuted if you want to hang up and call right back in we'd love to hear from you might be a little bit backwards but i guess in the interest of time since um i have been able to connect with him um are there any i see he did hang up so maybe he'll call right back um were there any board members that had any comments or questions on the apa contract remember marcette i just wanted a a huge shout out to um our our staff and to apa for coming together on this contract

119um i know it's uh it's it's been um difficult and there's been a lot of uh going back and forth but i i am truly appreciative of everyone that has put this contract into motion thank you thank you uh still waiting to see if uh patrick calls in uh were there any other board comments or questions i'm dr bishop i know that uh our team has recommended the board to prove it and i just want to put an exclamation point on that and i am really happy about this and hopefully in my starting time patrick is on board [Music] hi hi roger we can hear you thank you for calling back in i'm sorry about that i want to say good evening anchorage school board um i'm patrick freeman proud principal of willard bowman elementary

120and president of the anchorage principals association tonight dr bishop spoke about the importance of grades and student learning to board members in the next couple of months your anchorage principles will lead all asd schools back to in-person school during challenging but improving community health times the principal position is a very difficult one has it has increased in stress and demand since the pandemic and racially tensioned times many who have not been in a school leadership position do not understand this demand to describe what principles did before the pandemic and these tense times what we do now today is on the fathomable to many despite these increasing challenges anchorage principles have been resilient in expressing opinions and following through with the direction of the school board and asd leadership i recommend the anchorage school work to

121approve the adopt the asd apa negotiated agreement this contract will allow anchorage principals to move forward and focus on the goal of educating our student students during a time of the increasing importance of reestablishing our great public schools in anchorage i appreciate your time thank you thank you so much uh i had member hildy's hand up in the queue i just wanted to share my excitement for this i know so much hard work has gone into getting to this day and i'm i'm just i'm very proud of everybody who worked and just to recognize you know being a principal is hard in normal years this year has just been and i know mr freeman mentioned it just un unbelievable the challenge um the the leadership required to lead a school parents everybody with a different

122view everybody you know really suffering too like people teachers staff everybody's going through hard challenges and they're leading everybody through that as well on top of working toward academic gains and now re-entry um so i'm just incredibly thankful and i'm um yeah thanks all right not seeing any other hands up in the queue katie if we could please do a roll call vote remember mitchell yes member marsette emphatically yes remember holloman remember hildy yes remember donnelly yes vice president bellamy yes president michaelis yes pleased to announce that asd memorandum zero eight zero passes with seven years and zero nays that concludes our action items next up on the agenda are non-action items there are two items there are there any that board members wish to pull for discussion today all right not seeing any hands

123waving or hands up in the queue here we go uh next up is new business um i've got a couple of things on my list i know a couple of board members have a couple things they want to talk about as well the first thing i'm going to do is read one letter however i received it twice from two different bargaining units so for the sake of time i'm reading the same letter once dear andrew who is our senior director of labor relations pursuant to the terms of our current collective bargaining agreement kindly accept this as sufficient notification of teamsters local union 959's desire to open the collective bargaining agreement for the purpose of review and or amending all articles appendixes supplements agenda and or letters of understanding of such agreement teamsters local union number

124959 will be negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with your company that may affect area and indus industrial standards as well as other teamster members the public services division affiliated with the international brotherhood of teamsters and joint council of teamsters number 28 have a constitutional responsibility to assure that their affiliates preserve and protect area and industry standards and not take any action that adversely affects the interests of any teamster members consequently any proposed collective bargaining agreement with your company must be reviewed and approved by joint council of teamsters number 28 and the international brotherhood of teamsters trade division prior to being submitted to effective members for ratification this approval process shall not delay reaching an appropriate agreement uh please contact business representative derrick at to schedule a date and time your represent will be available to

125me uh sincerely teamster's local 959 gary dixon we receive this on behalf of the anchorage school district food service group and our transportation bus drivers in attendance as well uh same letters so um they are in compliance with board policy 4143 for negotiations and just wanted to get that on the record on their behalf and uh look forward to our team getting in touch with them next up um so i've been working my uh wrapping my head around board policy 9320 which talks about meetings and attendance and all of the parts that go with it and how we have our attendance reflected on our website um and so for board members reference like i say it's board policy 9320 and one of the things it says is board members must physically attend 75 of the

126regular board meetings over a 24-month period there have been a lot of times where the boardroom has been closed uh by mandate from uh legacy municipal yeah the mayor um and so trying to figure out how it all works but i'm going to um i've worked with katie and uh she's worked with it to put together uh a different look at our attendance so we'll have our overall attendance as the board policy says that if board members get prior advanced notice from the board president that their uh telephonic participation will count uh is a remote attendance but we still have the policy that talks about this 75 physical attendance so there's a little bit of conflict in there so what i'm proposing is we have an overall attendance rate that is listed and a physically

127present attendance rate that is there and it does have the same legend that talks about where we hear where we remote or we remote because we had to be you know stuff like that um and so wanted to let board members know that that is um going to go up and going to go out and change to have it be to match and align with our board policy that that is out there um but just want to give board members a heads up on that also wanted to uh give warmers we've talked about it kind of part and parcel to a couple of uh meetings earlier today january 30th we'll do our winter retreat it will be from 10 to 4 and the things we're going to do is a deep dive into the legislative

128bills that have been filed get more information from finance uh from some folks down in juno to help you know just show us where things are uh we're gonna do the superintendent mini evaluation so watch your email because we'll send that out ahead of time and go through that and then we'll also do our board self evaluation with aj from the council of great city schools uh starting at about two so we're looking about the window of ten to four just wanna make sure that everybody's calendar is uh on the ready for that um i have two folks that have reached out to talk about possible new business uh the first one is mr donnelly he sent out a resolution to board members earlier today wanted to give him the opportunity to talk about it

129and as a board figure out where it goes from here thank you madam president before i speak to that i'd like to speak to something that was raised at a recent assembly meeting and that is the municipal voters guide for the upcoming election [Music] i don't know if you all remember what happened in the election this last year but the voter's guide was pathetic to say the best for it there was almost zero in fact i think there was zero information about candidates in it and i think one of the greatest one of the greatest things state government has going is the state voters guide where all the candidates have statements in there and photographs and and and positions and that helps level the playing field in a democracy and in a republic such as

130ours it allows non-incumbents actually a fair equal access at least for that one moment in time to the voters and i remember growing up seeing that voter's guide on the kitchen table my parents and them studying it before every election that's become an alaska tradition and i think it's just a shame and there was there was a lot of comment about this at the assembly meeting that the city of anchorage doesn't use a similar system for our voters guide and i'm wanting to put forward uh an issue before the communications committee to uh actually take a position on the what should be in the anchorage voter's guide and i would advocate that there be more information about candidates i think this is especially important with school board seats we all know school board seats you

131run i think the vast majority of our citizens are not aware that our school board seats are not by district they're they're the entire city of anchorage and to try to finance a campaign like that is incredibly difficult it's like running for mayor it's the same parallel as running for mayor and and so anything we can do to level the playing field for all the candidates i think would just be really good for our city and for the electoral process so i would hope that we could get together and talk about you know advocating some something in access to the voter's guide that would actually allow voters that kind of information about candidates um so i'd like to just put that forth as an issue to be dealt with in the communications committee um maybe

132go on the agenda there all right so the first thing i'd like to do that's one topic um trying to get the will of the board does the would the board like to see um you know participation somehow in you know candidate profiles with the city or something like that um go to the communications committee as you know something to discuss remember hildy uh i'd be open to just i mean i'm not on the communications committee but um i i think it would be a good one to discuss if there's a way to make it more um better access for voters but that also seems a little weird if i'm running for office saying that so i don't maybe i shouldn't say that that sounds creepy now i don't i won't have an opinion i'll

133take that back remember merced um i mean we already do we have training for school board candidates if they'd like to attend um i i just have a tough time when we've got we're returning to school we've got an anti-racist policy we have i mean we have so many other things going on i don't feel this is the time to take out of our schedule of representing and advocating for students to take on uh this type of project so i would not be in favor of it remember bellamy thank you i think uh in keeping with our practice uh board members can bring things forward we discuss them and if it makes it out of committee then that's what we go with uh so i'm not sure i even understand the issue as it's presented

134tonight um although um i am for giving people more information how that's how that might be done and what our resources are that's a discussion i think for the committee thank you uh member bellamy as chair of the communications committee is this a topic that you would be willing to put on your next agenda to just have a discussion see where it goes it is a topic that i'd like to research further and um and discuss yes all right then i will hand that off to you remember donnelly did you have one more thing you wanted to discuss thank you madam president um originally on the agenda tonight was going to be a resolution um that i had prepared the subject matter is that on december 18th of last year the united states justice department

135filed a federal a felony criminal complaint against a zoom employee for working with the chinese communist government to use zoom to censor multiple public meetings in the united states of america where criticism of the chinese communists was expressed in those meetings obviously we're heavily reliant on zoom here [Music] dave are you there i thought it was just me all of us um and remember bellamy you have your hand up i didn't know if it was on this topic or the last one oh thank you last one sorry babe we can't hear you i think dave is frozen [Music] yeah dave try turning off your video if you can hear us i see that your audio is still on but [Music] all right so he's going to figure that out so let's just pause for a

136minute on that conversation and we'll go to uh member marsette who wanted to bring up a topic i'm not sure if this is committee or if it's um request for information or just exactly where to put this yet but i've been reading page by page are student handbooks and given some of the policy changes that we're going to be making i think those are going to have to be revisited anyway one of my concerns is as i'm reading i don't see anything in there you know we talk about giving um appeal process and i know through my own experience but it's been a while so i just want to ask this question is when a student is suspended and what i was told was that you know the handbook has the appeal process i'm wondering

137do we give i know in iep meetings we get a policy but i'm wondering do we give anything to parents given that a lot of our parents are not english speakers guidelines or information on how to file an appeal um so i think that's something that's missing from our handbook too so i think you know we also have in there that uh tardies we can uh suspend for tardies uh out of school suspension so what i'd like to recommend and and i know that we're not in charge of ars but i would like to remem or recommend at some point that the handbooks uh uh committee be brought together to review the handbooks and update them with changes i feel are necessary [Music] i didn't hear that um through the board president remember marsette uh

138the handbooks are reviewed every year at the end of the year and we will bring up the suggested changes from the board about the kinds of things we'd like to see in accordance with policy okay and um bless you and i'll get um the protocol that you talked about in regards to suspensions to you well we'll um respond to that as well at each level thank you all right so that was all that um i had for new business uh oh member bellamy yeah i just wanted to uh remind the uh or at least asked the superintendent uh whenever it's uh convenient and and not and um you know interfere with uh reentry if we could get um feedback from our principals on how how they are doing um the restorative justice practices uh because

139i i just i know of some wonderful things that are going on but i don't know all of them and so i i don't need to know all i just want to have a representative sample of what principals are doing um you know by each level thank you remember hildy uh just for uh in response to member baloney we we do have that in governance right now kind of work so i think it'll be incorporated into that whether there should be a policy or should not i think that's planned in that in that discipline review we had mentioned sort of justice at the last governance committee meeting so we'll consider it when we talk about that we can we can look at that uh yeah thank you for that clarification although what i'm looking for

140is what we are doing now um where the policy might the policy is i hope it's a little bit different in my mind but our actual practice right now is uh what what my comment was relative to thank you and madam president i would just request it gets put on a request for information uh just the we are literally all hands on deck uh in getting school started uh working with the testing as well as the vaccine uh in the near future but i would happy at this similar time that it's discussed to be able to to share uh generally i think um secondary especially likes to share their their practices uh with the board and and what they're doing we've had some principals come and share as well but um i think the the

141impact and the focus right now if we could uh keep it and then put that on the rfi for future thank you uh and we'll do that remember marsette so i guess i would say too if you go out there and look at the statistics for suspensions i mean of course we haven't been in school so there's really nothing to compare it to except for you know last year and then compared to year before that but we really don't know how that's going to progress in in the following year so um you know i've been a real advocate for looking at that and i i do follow it very closely um but i agree with you it's going to be very hard to look at what we're doing now because we're definitely not doing what

142we would normally do so [Music] all right so we have dave on uh katie's phone and we're going to try and do this on speaker uh to the event that it works and dave can you hear us hello katie yep we're we've got john's speaker phone we're gonna see if we can make this work um yes go ahead [Music] we can hear you dave um and i've got your on speakerphone up to the microphone so go ahead well my internet has totally gone down here in a very uh inopportune monument moment um i have no internet connection whatsoever um i was about to say that that an employee of zoom has on december 18th been charged by the united states department of justice with interfering using zoomed interpretation decrying that and taking a strong position

143that we are concerned with the interference by chinese employees of zoom in china especially interfering with us united states public meetings and that it should not be allowed to happen i think it's um [Music] uh kind of puzzling to me that i was disconnected from the internet for at the exact moment i was bringing that request up um but um see that as it may that's what i'm going to recommend uh that uh we proceed with the resolution that i had had drafted that was on the original agenda for this evening um i was subsequently told to utilize this process to have referred to the communications committee all right do you have uh as i mentioned before member donnelly had sent out this resolution to the board earlier uh today or through katie and want

144to find out the will of the board for forwarding this on to the communications committee if any board members have comments as well as member bellamy uh as communications chair and member mark you have your hand up so my concern is one of the things mr donnelly is asking for is that we no longer use zoom we use that for many things i guess i would recommend mr donnelly if you're uncomfortable with zoom maybe you could join us at our school board meetings in person um but uh i do not think it is um not that i don't disagree with your saying mr donnelly but uh i uh i just don't think this is the thing we need to want and need to spend time on it doesn't support our mission or our vision for

145our students remember holloman you have your hand raised i was just going to advise mr donnelly not to say anything bad about the phone company while he's on the phone we may never hear from him again um i would support this going to the committee for review [Music] remember bellamy did you have any thoughts now that you have a first and second for a discussion no okay okay for i apologize but uh i'm glad you can hear me it's hard for me to hear you um i would just like this matter to be taken up in the communications committee in a timely manner since it's uh it happened on december 18th that this really heinous act by the communist chinese was exposed by our u.s department of justice yes go ahead member bellamy i i

146i really don't know what to say about this um i don't although i don't see how don't i don't sense that the anchorage school district is in it as is at um risk or threat uh lots of things go on in our country that are alarming but we don't have to take them up at a local level um i i would want to hear more from our technology people as to how they assess the threat and i would like to you know so if if taking it to a committee would would give that insight uh but i'm i'm i really i i don't really know what to say about this i mean it's it's to me i just can't i i'm just having an issue wrapping my brain around why this would be important uh

147for us right now and what the urgency would be thank you uh dr bishop did you have some information um yes madam president i would like if our chief information officer could make a comment about that he knows quite a bit uh through the board uh president to um dr bishop in the board um this is something that we did look into at the time there was an individual at uh zoom that did commit what they believe committed some crimes around um around this they immediately fired that person at zoom and they have been cooperating with the doj on the investigation around this but this is really no different than any other technology company that does business with um with china they have to agree to the chinese laws to do business in china so

148for instance uh not only is zoom in that boat but microsoft apple uh linkedin tick tock uh airbnb um hundreds of other companies have to follow the rules of the chinese government to actually operate in china and so right now we do not route any traffic through china at all and so i have no concerns on that from a data security standpoint with zoom and any of our data routing through china thank you and board member hildy you had your hand raised oh yeah and i'll just review the procedure because sometimes we get a little confused if anybody can put anything on our board agenda if you have a second you just get it to the president and if it's not on time for the next meeting then it can just go on for the

149one after certainly there'd be plenty of time for that so it only takes two people to get anything you want to talk about on this agenda for our big meetings if it stays on the agenda that means four people are okay with it right because it only takes four people to take it off the agenda when we approve our agenda so what can happen is during that discussion point we could say oh let's refer to community we've done that before if we don't want to take it up for a vote at that point you know because it's a motion somebody's put on um but otherwise we just bring things to committee chairs so people you know usually twice a year i'll ask you what do you guys want to talk about for governance this year

150or we go through our you know 6000 series and and then what we do on governance you can do at any committee you say well here's this one policy and do you guys want to talk about this and i asked the committee members do you want to talk about that and you can be on anything because certainly it's the board's choice that we talk about but it goes through um the chair only makes the agenda and then the committee decides if that's what the what they want to work on um so in this case it sounds like maybe there is support in the communications committee and that would be something they can discuss but you would just contact the committee chair [Music] all right margo did you catch all that i caught it should i

151have member donnelly reach out to you uh i uh sure it's fine i mean the next committee meeting i'm not calling a a a meeting earlier than 2 9 so it will be at that meeting february 9th that this and his other item would be on the agenda [Music] thank you all right we will let him know disappointed clarification yes ma'am who are the two oh i see was it uh donnelly and andy who's on where are the two people i think that's yes okay thank you all right anybody else have any business they want to bring up out of the blue all right i'm seeing a bunch of shaking heads no um i do not have any additional public testimony and so next up on the agenda is school board and administration comments are

152there any school board members that have any last comments they would like to make uh or administration comments that they would like to make remember holloman [Music] um you know several other people will remark on this i might have to as well um but i was over at the district office doing a little bit of work uh on the same day that i had an appointment to get a shot and as several people said uh it was run really smoothly really efficiently but also the energy level um inside the building was really great and as a couple people said you know like we we finally feel like we're doing something we're really doing something that uh you know one of the biggest concerns to us has been the amount of covet in our community this

153is an opportunity to actually help knock that down which will make every single thing we do safer and i really applaud the administration for taking the steps to ramp this up as well as everybody that staffed it was just really alert really focused on the people that were coming through and of course there's a lot of concern about people having reactions and being prepared to deal with medical emergencies it's not simply just getting a stick in the arm people had to be watched they would walk through to get their next certificate as a lot of you know i spend a certain amount of time on social media and i spend a certain amount of time talking to people that don't usually have very nice things to say about the anchorage school district um everything i

154have seen has been positive everybody that came into contact with it was just really impressed with how it was carried off and and that has long-term benefits for us uh so to uh jen head of health services to the superintendent um into tom roth you guys were key people that i saw out there but also all the staff participating whether they were just forming people on the lines working at desk everybody i think really made the community feel welcome um just you just don't expect people to be that happy about getting stuck in the arm and sitting on their way again but uh the feedback from the community has just been positive and you you all made us look really good that thing thank you thank you next up in the queue is our student

155rep emily who before you speak i just want to say i am so very sorry because this is the first time we have seen you in just [Music] a while and we didn't call for any of her votes tonight so i'm so sorry about that we will make sure that i have a big post and no for all the future meetings going forward because that's why we want you here so we can hear from you um and so please speak share no problem it's all good i just wanted to say that obviously student advisory board was really thrown by the pandemic and everything and so we weren't able to give you guys a student voice for the first semester but on behalf of the students i think that everything is going as well as it

156possibly can given the circumstances and [Music] we're really grateful for all of the hard work that our leaders are doing so that hopefully we can get back in the building safely and as soon as we can um personally i'm really looking forward to getting back in the building and really thankful for all that you guys have been doing because it's crazy times and i'm in awe because there's so much work that goes on behind the scenes that i don't think that lots of students realize but we're all very grateful for and so i want you guys to know that that on behalf of the students we're very thankful you guys don't hear from us all that often and i'm here to try and make sure that you do and yeah thank you and dr bishop

157yes thank you madam president to the board and uh thank you emily that was a kind thing to say i i wanted to also say that mother nature permitting we will start school tomorrow and i look forward to that day so thank you all that have planned and put their best efforts towards tomorrow thank you all right i don't see any other hands raised in the queue at this time i would entertain a motion to adjourn i moved to a journey all right