ASD School Board Meeting 10/06/20

001foreign um thank you madam president we are live all right thank you it is 602 on tuesday october 6th my name is elisa michaelis and i'm going to call to order the regular school board meeting of the english school district we have all board members present through this hybrid meeting with members mitchell and bellamy in person and myself member hildy member marcet member donnelly and member holloman uh zooming in dr bishop is also present in the boardroom as well [Music] next up is our flag salute and i would like to ask board member bellamy if she would please do that for us tonight thank you the board is honored to acknowledge that our community resides on the traditional land of the denia people both past and present it is with gratitude that we honor the

002land itself and the people who have cared for it throughout the generations we want to welcome you to our hybrid meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the work of the english school district in 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 we have approval of the agenda if we can get a motion to approve i move to approve the agenda as written thank you and is there a second second thank you um i wanted to request a couple of modifications and amend it just slightly uh before we do the final approval we currently

003have uh 25 people on our public testimony normally that allows for about 20 people as part of that public testimony in that first hour i was wondering if the board would be willing to support uh getting all 25 in that one hour or the just right up front so that we are not um unnecessarily keeping folks um past that time uh that was the first request was just to do all of our uh public comment uh at that one time and then i wanted to add after public testimony the second one which will go away maybe and right before school board administration comments um a section for maybe new business where we just need to have a chance to talk as a board um about the upcoming uh replacement process uh for a board member

004and there's a conversation on our joint meetings with the assembly uh so i just wanted to just cache that under a new business uh header just to create that time on the agenda for us those are the two things i wanted to add that would make it an agenda amended agenda was there anybody else that had anything that they wanted to add or subtract or move or comment on [Music] is there any opposition at this time to approving the agenda as amended [Music] all right here we go next up on our agenda is the military report and i believe that we have i saw his name is it uh colonel delameter thank you so much for joining us this evening oh thank you for having me yes okay i know the board has a lot

005to cover tonight so i'm going to be quick and brief i've got four items to brief and then i'll obviously take any questions from the group if there are any so number one just want to make sure the board is aware that right now uh joint based elementor richardson is um currently in the throes of one of our major military exercises called polar force and what this typically does is it tests our ability to generate military forces to send out the door to go do bad things to bad people and sometimes it also involves us receiving forces here for onward movement either to other places or for folks that are coming back to the united states so that's going on this week and next week um the only thing that should be it should be

006transparent to everyone in the community but we may see some traffic uh building up at the gates as we exercise some of our force protection elements at our base access points but other than that should be pretty transparent to uh to you and to the children that are attending our uh our schools um the second thing is is that we're getting ready to launch the red ribbon campaign which is a annual event for uh focused on drug prevention with our schools and our youth the 2020 theme is be happy be brave and be drug free and that's going to run from the 23rd to the 31st of october now normally we would have a march and some other activities and events that the kids would participate in their particular schools but because of the current

007environment and the virtual learning environment we're going to work on some art activities and some other things on the installation to allow them to kind of maximize and advertise the importance of that program um the third item is i just want to give a quick plug for our youth sponsorship program so our we have youth centers on the installation that really focus on mentoring and developing our our our military dependents we work youth ages 9-18 and we work with the school liaisons to partner with all the schools throughout asd to make sure that all those military-connected children are aware of the program there are applications available if you have any one angles uh for both youth and parents and it's that you can see that at the website jber life jaybearlife.com and we encourage folks

008to check that out the last thing i want to do is i want to say a big big thank you to the to the school district i had a discussion with dr bishop a few weeks ago and she let me know about a beta test of the volunteer tutoring reading program at some of the schools and she was kind enough to have aurora elementary on base be one of the schools that participates we currently have 28 students enrolled in that program it's a big win for military families because two things that they were mostly focused on was how to take care of our younger school-aged children our kindergartners and our first graders and also our children with special needs and iep so we're really really grateful for that program and we're so glad that we

009could be a part of that those are the only four items i had for the board at this point i would take any questions if there are any do any board members have any questions for the colonel i have a question i'm just remembering um thank you colonel for that update um i'm just curious how how have there been many cases of covet on the base or in the in the military world and how have how are things going are your folks staying healthy yeah for the most part we're pretty fortunate um and we're trying to balance obviously the uh the the public health aspects of it and also the you know the mission requirements that we have on the installation um certainly i think we've all noticed that there's been a rise in the

010instance across the uh the anchorage municipality um we're part of that demographic so we're seeing our fair share of that on the installation but we're taking a lot of steps to make sure we're doing the contact tracing and we're making sure we're reinforcing those mitigation measures so hopefully we're not the cause of any of the you know the issues that may be happening in the area but we're certainly we live in this we live in this environment we live in this community and we want to make sure that we're being a good partner partners with our um for the folks on the installation as well as the folks downtown and especially mindful of what that drives with some of the decisions recently with the um the return to in-school instruction and i know that dr

011bishop has kind of outlined how we're going to take a very very deliberate approach i actually exchanged some notes recently with mr tom roth because we want to make sure we understood what the decision matrix was we knew that before it was the you know the rolling 14 day case count but now we understand it's a much more robust there's eight criteria that we're examining now to make sure that any decisions related to the return to school factors those in and the military members and their families on the base are willing to uh and are very uh um willing to follow those guidelines for for safety thank you not seeing any other hands up in the queue again thank you very much for your service and for coming and sharing part of your evening with

012us and uh have a good night thank you next up on the agenda we have board conference and community reports i don't believe we've had any recent conferences but committees uh start with uh finance and remember marsap [Music] well we haven't had a meeting since our last meeting our next meeting will be on the 20th i believe and uh we will be entertaining um conversations about budget and of course we'll get our update from um andy and um jim on our update with um student count and those those type of things so they'll give us our continued update on where we are and what we're doing and how much money we have and how much money we don't have and it's always um interesting so we will see thank you i remember hildy with governance

013thank you we haven't met since our last meeting but uh we meet on the 13th of october probably a little earlier at three having a little longer meeting thank you next up communications uh member bellamy yes well likewise we have not met since our last meeting but our next meeting is scheduled for next tuesday the 13th at uh 4 30 and that will be an online meeting and if i might add i did attend the cube uh conference the council of urban i think it's boards of education which was my first and it was amazing lots of focus on excuse me what different how boards were working together with their superintendents um how boards were working toward more uh equity for all kids uh it was very enlightening and i will be sharing some information

014with the board thank you thank you very much for that and it was zoom i did not go anywhere it was a zoom conference yes thank you next up uh we have community outreach is there anybody that would like to share any of their experiences uh conversations or comments from the community uh since our last meeting all right um [Music] we will continue to work on that one next step goal monitoring thank you madam president uh as the gold monitoring is focusing on the board's goals and our look towards achieving those and the strategic plan is is coming and the data that we would utilize to track our progress uh has is not a complete set as shared last time due to just simply uh not having a testing last spring not having in the

015fall uh we've been uh meeting the outcome monitoring aspect with quest forward in regard to different programs and at this time i would invite sonia hunt kirsten johnson dr johnson and senior director hunt they will each take a separate place and uh two mics uh they're both present along with dr knutson who's with us online this is a joint effort in one of our initiatives called equal opportunity schools uh we've been working on this for about 18 months um but we can uh do we have another microphone mr brown okay they're going to simultaneously present mr brown thanks synchronously like our online journey all right so with that uh i'll turn it over to these three uh leaders thank you thank you so much dr bishop to the president to members of the board we

016present equal opportunity schools partnership so the equal opportunities partner schools partnership is a part of our equity plan under academic achievement it's the second goal and it's to partner with equal opportunity schools to create sustainable options for academic equity in all subject areas including honor and advanced placement courses in terms of post-secondary success research shows that academic intensity in high school drives college completion more than any other factor 85 percent first-time students of color and low-income students who take an ap or ib course pass the class across the equal opportunity schools portfolio 77 percent of first-time takers report a successful experience and again that's across the equal opportunity schools portfolio our theory of action is clear in that if we provide targeted and intensive supports for schools in advanced placement course offerings and engage engage

017underrepresented students then the number of underrepresented students in ap courses will increase and experience success so i want to pause right here to define what underrepresented students and uh dr johnson will get more into that and so will dr knutson what we mean here is underrepresented students particularly in ap courses the students that are missing this project seeks to provide equity and advanced placement hereby refer to ap course offerings in race and ethnic composition the goals are three there are three goals to increase the enrollment of alaska native american indian pacific islander black african american latinx and multiracial students and ap courses thus reducing the participation gap between their white and asian peers to provide similar ap course offerings at each of the major eight high schools and to increase the passing rates for students

018of color okay good evening on this next slide we are going to give an example of some of the data that we looked at for the equal opportunity schools so for the ap data we looked at data for the eight comprehensive high schools to really identify trends and enrollment and passing rates and this is part of a needs assessment that was done that's required for our title 4 grant which is the funding source for our work with the equal opportunity schools program and just as a little bit of an aside title 4 is part of the every student succeeds act essa that focuses on student support and academic enrichment and so title four specifically is intended to improve equitable access to a holistic education so that's how that fits into this grant and so we

019did the needs assessment and we looked at the data across these um eight high schools and this is an example of the data from east high school just as to provide you a mind's eye of what this looks like and as um as ms hunt explained earlier it's looking at the comparison of underrepresented students compared to white and asian participation in ap courses which is represents the majority of kids that typically take ap courses so as you can see here with east high school the weigh in asian participation rate has remained stable across the two years and when we look at specifically the number of underrepresented students to enroll so i want to just take a moment to explain what this is these are the number of students that are ready to be enrolled in

020ap courses but have not had equitable access so they represent our missing students in our ap courses so with this statistic you want to see this number actually go down not go up so you'll see here on this slide that between to in 2018 we had 245 students at east high school that we categorized as missing from our ap courses and to last year in 2019-20 that went down by 57 that is the direction we wanted to go so they're getting more underrepresented students taking ap courses at east high school the other statistic that we look at is ap exams receiving passing scores unlike the previous one we want to see this one go up so you'll see here um for the ap exam from 2018 19 we had 51 percent and then that went

021down to 42 percent last year there could be lots of variables it was a tricky year to take an ap test last may i can attest for that because i had a child that took one and it was it was a little bit challenging but that is a statistic we want to watch because we want to see that going up in our schools so next slide from these data what we did was identified how we were going to roll out the schools for participation in eos and for this current year there are four schools that are going to participate and bartlett and east are two of our title schools and um for part of the title four grant we need to identify our most needy schools and our title schools as part of that funding

022so we started with bartlett and niece since they qualify as our title one schools and we also added on service and south and the reason why service and south were added is because they have a well-established ap program at schools however one of the things that they need to work on is how they get more of those missing underrepresented students accessing ap courses at the schools so those four schools are starting this year and then as we go into the following year the remaining high schools will will participate in equal opportunities schools and to talk a little bit about more what that's going to look like in that technical solution i'm going to turn it over to dr johnson strepler right now thank you dr knutson uh through the president to the board um i'm

023excited about this project um it's something that at the high school level and secondary we've been working towards um for a few years now and it really does tie together some of the previous initiatives that we've been kind of working on to lead up to this um and many of those are board-supported initiatives as well um and so i just wanted to just touch really quick that that this builds on the nimzy grant work that was established at bartlett many about five to eight years ago or so um and we've done a lot of training with our our high school leadership um around ap and advanced coursework and increasing rigor and how we um we really look at that at a school level for our high schools and then in addition it's really going to

024tie into our our springboard adoption at the sixth through eighth level those basic skills that kids are going to get through the middle school years are really going to prep them for this next phase of coursework so getting back to the topic more specifically of equal opportunity schools um i just one of the things that i really like about this uh project with our high schools is that it provides a road map for our high schools to have these tough conversations about barriers for kids getting into advanced coursework um policies and procedures that may be in the way and and then provide the platform for that conversation as a staff and so the the process right now is starting this fall um we will survey staff and students at those schools um that survey really

025will lead to a conversation examining policies and procedures at the school level and and that survey also provides what you see here um a report that's called barriers for students and it looks at both students in medium and high income and also um in a lower socioeconomic status and and that's important to not only look at student demographics but also their socioeconomics because there could be various different reasons why kids have a barrier into that advanced placement coursework so it identifies where the school is doing very well but it also identifies where the school could really do some work so you'll see the different categories here um there's an adult incursion encouragement barrier so are the adults holding kids back um is there a benefits barrier and that sounds kind of you know contradictory but

026the benefits barrier essentially will describe um that maybe students or parents don't identify why advanced placement coursework would be important for a student um and and just their general trajectory thereafter general knowledge barrier kind of falls in that category too do we even know really what advanced placement is all about and why it's important um school access this is something that we have complete control over right um is the school providing the opportunity and the access for kids to be able to take those courses and then welcome this is really about the classroom environment do kids feel comfortable in that space and so you'll see this is just an example this isn't from the anchor school district this is just an example from equal opportunity schools but it provides you kind of a window into

027what schools will receive at the school level so from here they get their the barrier for students report over the winter um and then schools have a conversation about what their outreach plan is based on that information the other thing that they also get is what is called a student insight card and you'll see the beginnings of one up here on your screen and so in addition to the holistic school report they also get a report on each individual student that we need to provide outreach to and so it it provides a lot of information and we can just kind of scroll through this really quickly but it it's um not only do you get obviously the student name and all of their basic information but it talks about subjects they're interested in teacher recommendations

028it talks about what skills and mindsets are strong maybe potential area barriers for them as an individual student if you scroll to the next part of this uh insight card so and then it asks very specifically why hasn't the student enrolled in ap coursework um and i think that's really important when we're working with our teachers and our counselors at the school level so that they can have those individual mentoring conversations with students and invite them in so it also gives test scores so that you can see where that student is and um and then just um the student's own comment section so they can add their own comments so this is really uh a tool for counselors in particular to really advise a student well so um so that that's the tool that they

029use for individual outreach and then there's a plan for a school-wide outreach as well and then in the spring as students start to um interact with the staff around this outreach plan you do another assessment in the spring of how is it working do you need to make changes um and then we go from there so that's what it looks like through this spring and um just to kind of sum up um where we're at i we just wanted to talk a little bit about our commitment around this project um one is that equitable access and opportunities are keys to building a successful learning for each student that's something we really believe in and we use theoretical we looked for a theoretical framework to use as markers to make sure that we were on the

030right track and we use gloria lads and billings critical race theory for education and some of the components include curriculum is this equitable curriculum is this equitable instruction is this desegregation in gifted education is this school funding that we can direct towards this to ensure equity for all children yeah and really one of the the hard things um about providing access and equity is a good tool for educators to really dig into that topic and break down barriers we really believe that this this is enough in the right direction um so so that's why we're really excited about this project and and i'm actually really excited to get all eight of our big high schools on board um and just one side note when we bring west on board next fall um not only will

031we focus on ap but we'll also focus on ib coursework as well thank you very much [Music] madam president that concludes the goal monitoring and again it was not on model as as we have it but this was of interest to the board and uh just happy that uh this project is uh had an opportunity to be highlighted it's it's excellent and it was almost um probably 18 months worth of work to to turn this around and uh grant it fund it and plan for it so and get the buy-in needed so thank you and thank you i appreciate working on your a team ladies [Music] thank you very much i do have the hands up in the queue the first one up is going to be board member hilly thank you and thank you

032for your work on that i'm wondering what the projected um outcomes are for this grant work what should we expect to see how big of changes and then i was also wondering about a goal monitoring calendar for this year are we going to be seeing one of those so that we know what i know it's a weird year and our goals are kind of crazy but um is that something in the works through the president to member hildy certainly the outcome uh was the outcome monitor uh calendar was really in reference to the final push of the strategic plan and issues that we're going to drop where we're one step closer so we will have that done if that is um where the board takes their action then we will bring back a monitoring calendar

033for the board to take a look at utilizing the data that we know we can find and have for this process and for the first question i'll turn it over to dr john all right so thank you dr bishop through the president to member hildi um our outcome is that we would hopefully have equal representation across the board in our district and our advanced coursework where there's really no difference between what your demographics are and and what you're enrolled in um obviously we we want to see more and more kids enrolled in ap there's a lot of benefits um beyond just college opportunities for kids to be enrolled in ap um and and i could get into those if you're interested in a conversation sometime but um but the the benefits are huge for kids

034um even if they don't go to college and so our goal would be as many kids in advanced placement and increasing that rigor as possible and no difference in the demographics within the classroom [Music] thank you next step in the queue is member mitchell um thank you so much this is a very exciting program and my question was just very simple the um insight card on the students do the students complete that themselves or the counselor or their mentor or their teacher kind of probe them on that and then fill it out uh great question uh through the president member mitchell uh there is um it's kind of a combination um essentially there's some student input to that insight card and then there's other pieces that are input by teachers or counselors um and then

035there's also just testing you know basic data thank you next up in the queue i have member bellamy thank you guys this is great i um i'm really happy to see the barrier piece identifying the barriers and uh so the each school will have a plan to identify or to address each barrier or are we doing that as a district [Music] so to the president to the board to member bellamy each school will have their own plan um and because it's it's equitable work so making sure that every school has what they need in order to move um towards equitable access so some east the needs for east will be different than bartlett and some needs will overlap so they're individual it's their individual plans okay that's great and um so the the outreach piece

036for so each school then will [Music] look at their look at their student data and and find those kids who are who are capable but not in those classes that that that have demonstrated success right [Music] um yes so what every uh school will be charged to do so every school has to build basically an ap equity team okay and they will look at the data and what the research already shows is that there are students that are eligible to take ap they're just not taking it one of the things that the data also showed for anchorage school district is that the family engagement piece is important in ensuring that it's what the data showed or the surveys have shown is that parents and students know about ap courses they just don't know about understand

037the weight of what it means towards post-secondary success whether you go to college or whether you're more prepared for the workforce and so every school will have its own plan have has its own team to be able to delve deeper into the qualitative and quantitative data okay thank you guys that's great next step in the queue i have board member donnelly [Music] thank you madam president you mentioned you're using critical race theory to develop this program could you define that and could you explain how exactly how it's impacting how you're designing the program sure thank you to the president to the board to member donnelly so what critical race theory or any theoretical framework does it creates markers for which you can measure your work by right it gives you kind of like a standard

038or components or context for which you should be looking for so critical race theory was originally developed by an attorney derek bell is his name and it's been adapted to multiple settings to really identify equitable progress and in education gloria ladson billings talks about and these aren't the only components these are ones that apply to the work that we're doing um to be able to develop those markers or the context for which we should be looking for thank you let me go back to my other screen uh member martha i just don't think that was a definition i was asking for their impression of what a definition of critical race theory is [Music] sure to the president to the board to member donnelly so critical race theory art is defined by those components right and

039those components point to again the context for which equity should occur or which equity would thrive in various settings and this one is adopted to public education where we would look at is there equitable funding to ensure equity amongst for example in this context kids that are approaching gifted education whether it's um culturally responsive or a thought of curriculum instruction and those are the within the definition of critical race theory i hope i answered your question next step in the queue is member marsette so i can just say wow um this is really really a great um initiative that you guys have pushed forward um all three of you great job great job explaining that creating that equity among our students when so much else is going on something we've been looking for i think

040for a long time and it doesn't have an overnight so i just want to give you kudos and thank you so much for working on this [Music] all right i don't see any other board members hands raised in the queue and so i want to thank dr bishop and all of the presenters for that and i am just tickled excited to see those results a year from now and how it goes so thank you very very much next up in the agenda is public testimony i'm going to read a brief 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 and informs our decision-making process the school board encourages anyone wishing to provide public testimony to sign

041up in advance for telephonic testimony or in-person testimony or to email written comments by 2pm 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 and testimony in excess of one hour will be heard at the end of the meeting or may be submitted in writing tonight we are going to try and get everybody into the first one as possible you will have three minutes to testify [Music] with 30 seconds remaining a bell will ring to inform you so that you can't 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 speak an hour time to listen the board will consider

042all information shared by the public and when deemed necessary issues raised in testimony will be referred to the administration for follow-up i have a list of 25 people some are in person some are telephonic and so we will just start working our way down the list i believe our first person is there in the boardroom dane sutterfield if he is present perfect thank you for joining us tonight you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you madam chair thank you school board and dr bishop uh i'm being settled on the president of anchorage council of education and for board policy i'm here to announce the intent of the anchorage council of education american federation and teachers to enter into negotiations with asd for a contract that's upcoming from july 1st of 2021 through

043uh june 30th of 2024. i am humbled and honored to stand here you know it just moves me to know that i stand for about 455 people that don't ask a lot but they do amazing things for the school district um about 225 positions make up those 455 people they're specialists they're experts their managers their supervisors there's they're people that are that that are in the trenches every day making the school district work and making it possible for us to learn um teachers and principals can't do what they do without the support of my members um i also want to say that this administration the current administration has been um wonderful to work with you probably don't hear that very often there are a great bunch of leaders led from the very top uh dr

044bishop and her executives are amazing people they're great leaders they work well with many of my members and many different challenges that we face in addition to the pandemic to work through different uh work site issues uh problematic issues you know where sometimes things quickly go right into labor and go into grievances and complaints and those sorts and i have to say that this administration is one that is willing to listen and to roll up their sleeves and get down to the bare bones of what makes a work place safer and better for their employees and i want to say that uh out loud so everybody hears that um the the members that i that represented me that the titles are just endless but i wanted to mention just a few of them because i

045can't call them all out but uh i want to say that uh you know they're made up of nurses and interpreters and interventionalists and cranes claims technicians and transportation staff and safety and security and payroll and accounting and facility project management and the list goes on and on and on and i just want to say that they want to defend the benefits they have they want to they haven't asked because we kicked the can down the road a few times and it's time to come to the table and negotiate some better uh benefits for these individuals and we want to continue work with the district to improve their working conditions and uh you know they want their cola back they want they want to you know it cost a living adjustment coming their way something

046they haven't asked for and it's and now it's time for that ask thank you very much thank you next up on the phone is speaker number two rihanna gay rihanna are you with us tonight hi yes can you hear me we sure can you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you greetings school board this is rihanna again coming to you for the third time i want to thank all board members for their efforts of what you do for myself as an educator our students and community i am sharing my support and efforts to rename or modify any east side school after the late senator betty davis a former school board member and champion for all students and educators and education she helped our whole community with law and educational policies for all

047whether it is a high school middle or elementary find out where her residence was and name her neighborhood at school after her it we it requires uncomfortable change and that is what america was built on uncomfortable change with renaming a school after betty davis it is not and i repeat not taking away anything from past alumni nor current students nor the traditions of our community if anything i see it as striving for it and adding to the rich cultural awareness that we possess renaming is a notion that is asking alumni to build a bridge and not build a fence bridge building allows both parties to succeed i did some research and found out that about 101 schools within ascc 30 of them are named after men while only four are named after women those four

048include gladys woods whaley clark and meers middle if you have updated information please reach out this gesture is looking towards the future a new day is upon us where we have the power to make change let's be strategic we can make smart goals to start i leave you with a song with our own two hands we can change the world with our own two hands we can make it a better place with our own with our own with our own but it starts with us thank you for your time thank you next up in the queue speaker number three i don't see her in the phone list but i'll check to see if she may have showed up in person sarah reynolds weston all right we may circle back around to this caller uh speaker

049number four uh has canceled for tonight speaker number five is rebecca hayden rebecca are you with us this evening i'm here can you hear me i'm here can you hear me yes yes we can you have three minutes and the floor is yours thank you rainier harris a senior in high school recently wrote an article for the new york times about his experiences with systematic racism within his school he explained that racial slurs were common but dealt with swiftly and harshly if discovered he wondered what good it really did to expel students who engaged in racist behaviors forced to report an incident that had happened to him rainier worried about what punishments would be applied he was surprised when staff switched tactics and used re sort of press instead of expulsion the result was school-wide

050dialogues about racism and carefully mediated discussions regarding the outcome he wrote restorative justice doesn't allow an institution to simply remove the bad apples it inspires solutions that achieve value and respect for everyone it forces an institution to look at community-oriented solutions that make everybody uncomfortable not just those who are involved but it is the only way change can be made this esteemed board members and dr bishop is at the very heart of what discipline in school should look like when discussing solutions it is important to realize that instructing teachers and administrators about restorative practices is not enough punitive ideologies are deeply ingrained and manifested in automatic punitive responses to conflict therefore an important step in implementing any new disciplinary system is to address adult sel restorative practices are counter-intuitive they are practice deliberate responses to

051conflicts that intentionally build community that is not natural nor is it easy we take a great deal of care to teach our students about values like respect honesty integrity and so on so through programs like capturing kids hearts we learn to discuss and practice these words however when conflict arises or authority is challenged our student behaves egregiously we often resort back to a punitive mindset that seeks to remove the bad apple in doing this we fail to model the values we teach in the moment they are most important adult sel addresses the work of intentionality and respect with respect to conflict it addresses the end goal of community building rather than punishment and student removal and it addresses the hard work of integrity when faced with students that create automatic reactions of anger and posturing

052why is that so important because restorative practice is meant to be a pervasive practice because if we teach respect and value in the classroom builds model it when addressing negative behavior patterns the work is meaningless because of the values we teach only extend to the point of cooperation then reset rooms and offices become places where coaches and administrators feel pressure to reinforce authority structures rather than build community and finally because when students need the most intervention care and community support the adults are divided the message is mixed and the students are treated inequitably as we move forward as a district to implement restorative practices in our schools we must be mindful of the work and of the vision and we must begin with the adults in the building thank you thank you next up speaker

053number six is sydney olsen i don't see her online uh is there a chance she is there in person all right we will circle back around speaker number seven is reagan brooks reagan are you with us this evening [Music] reagan can you hear us hello i'm hi i'm here but i'm actually driving so i need to pull over may i go may i go after the next speaker sure so all right the next speaker so you will need you to mute thank you and then our next speaker is speaker number eight emily baker emily are you with us this evening here can you hear me yes we sure can thank you you have friends it was yours that's tough that's a tough process i'm glad i'm here um i am emily becker and i'm a

054retired asd teacher um i have lived in airport heights for 13 years and i've taught at airport elementary for eight years um and i'm calling in i would love to see east high school named renamed after betty davis i know a lot of thunderbird graduates and i really you know encourage you to reach out to more recent graduates and kids and talk to them about this possible change and i recently read a long article about many of our place names in anchorage and i really think that it's past time for better represent representation for our black community so and that's my testimony thank you very much thank you all right we're going to check in with reagan one more time reagan are you uh ready for testimony hello hello yes i am i am here

055i am perfect hey please thank you you have three minutes and the floor is yours okay thank you um my name is rhian brooks and i'm a parent of children in the anchorage school district and uh superintendent bishop and members of the school board thank you for listening to my testimony i'm speaking to you today to ask you to support the renaming of east high school to betty davidson's high school this is a wonderful opportunity for our community as a whole and i believe for the current and future children who will be able to learn about and be inspired by the late senator betty davis also and conveniently i want to point out that this name the name betty davis east high school includes the name east high so there are no worries or about

056concerns that some alumni have raised about changes to uniforms or confusion for college athletic recruiters or losing a sense of eastside pride and i also want to say that this is about more than changing uniforms which really wouldn't need to happen anyway and it's about embracing an opportunity to add significant educational value it will involve some paperwork yes but a pile of paperwork is so worth it in an instance like this so please listen to the many community members who genuinely support this renaming including alumni and athletes and more i also want to point out that during your earlier discussions this evening about equal opportunity schools one of the speakers spoke about barriers that might prevent some students from participating in ap courses and in particular that speaker spoke about welcome the degree to which

057a student feels welcome in a space the name of the school is not disconnected from this conversation the name of the school and who it celebrates can adv advance welcome or undermine it it's not hard to see how alumni if you can still hear me it's not hard to see how alumni negativity about renaming east high school could be undermining the welcome factor for students of color at east high i urge you to consider the renaming of an opportunity to advance welcome and as a result advance equality of opportunity in our schools thank you again for all you do to support students despite all the high pressure immediate needs you are currently addressing please don't hurry through this decision and miss a long-term opportunity to support learning and advance welcome in our most diverse high

058school thank you so much and for pulling over safely to do it our next speaker number nine danielle kemp daniel are you with us tonight daniel are you with us yeah sorry about that i thought i was a speaker number 14 but i guess i'm moving up in the world huh you are number nine you have three minutes and the floor is yours all right um thank you to the board for giving me this opportunity to speak tonight um tonight i only have one subject i'm gonna speak on and and it's gonna be brief but i hope you're listening all right my name is danielle kemp i am a retired army combat officer um i am a teacher here in the anchorage school district and i want to say emphatically uh and uh without any

059equivocation without any doubt as to what i'm saying that i support um the renaming of east high school for the late senator freddie jean davis like reagan said you don't have to necessarily take out the e all right uh in the game i mean for sporting scouts who still are looking for the name east that direction can still be in there it'd be betty davis east high school uh i'm i'm just fine with that i'm sure the majority of our community is just fine with that just to give a little background here buddy gene davis was born may 17 1938. let's put that in context okay senator davis was only one generation removed from slavery i just want that let that sink in for a second okay yes she rose to become alaska's first black

060senator and a long time anchorage school board member there was no stronger or hard-working advocate for our children women and for racial equity than senator davis i read that adn article a few days ago that disparaged the renaming of east high school after senator davis and one part really took me back it was uh i think it was principal spinella i believe said and i quote the renaming of the high school is a lot more than just changing its name there's a lot of reputation that goes along with that throughout the state through throughout the state and also in the lower 48. now what kind of message are we sending to our community to our children with we're saying something like that especially our children of color with it some folks in power don't want

061to quote unquote selly the name of east high school with that of the late senator betty davis that's a slap in the face to not only the davis family but to all black children who would to achieve as much as she did right so you know i think that if the school board wants to put their money where their mouth is and that they actually believe that black lives matter and that black education matters then they should be fully behind the renaming of east high school after the late senator the great senator betty gene davis thank you for your time thank you next up is uh speaker number 10 elizabeth colaviccio which i believe is in person if she is there good evening my name is elizabeth colavecchio and i am a senior at bartlett

062high school tonight i would like to speak to you about the effects your decisions have had on the mental health of high school students while i am aware that nothing is likely to be changed i would feel like i had let myself down if i chose to stay silent high school students have been expected to pick up the slack where others won't or can't we've been asked to learn many new apps to tolerate non-functional virtual programs to adapt to the isolation of seeing our peers only through screens and to being told we will have three classes only to find out that the weight of these three classes feels like an impossible task since they have been crammed into an unreasonably short period of time as a student who usually excels i have found myself feeling

063as if i am drowning my therapist has told me her waiting list has become miles long filled with teenagers who are cracking under the pressure of this school year we are being asked to do something no asd students have ever been asked to do and with seemingly little consideration for our mental health and the process of choices being made i understand that every choice made right now is difficult however i feel as if high school students are an afterthought in the eyes of the school board that because younger students need more support it has been decided that we need none at all but just because seniors graduate this year does not mean we are not valuable students worthy of resources and more than the bare minimum of consideration and communication from the people in charge

064i have been dissuaded from pursuing certain courses because the asd virtual program is an abysmal failure told there is simply no answers to my questions about academic extracurricular activities and got in the sense that i am being punished for wanting more out of my education than a certificate that says i did the bare minimum to graduate well i would while i admit i don't have every solution a minimum acknowledgement that this is an issue more mental health resources or at the very least suggestions of healthy activities to participate in would likely benefit the masses of us who feel so isolated under the current circumstances i do not want my peers my friends or myself to end up a set of statistics that you analyze to see where you went wrong only to repeat the same

065mistakes thank you next up is speaker number eleven alex lum or bloom alex are you with us tonight good evening we sure can you have three minutes and the floor is yours okay thank you so much uh my name is alex blum i appreciate this opportunity to speak i wanted to speak because i support the renaming of east high school to betty davis east high school as you no doubt know betty davis was alaska's first black senator a long-serving anchorage school board member and a lifelong champion of children women and racial equity in alaska it makes perfect sense to honor her legacy uh in a meaningful way and because of the remarkable diversity of east high student body betty's residency near the school and a representation of the area in the alaska house of representatives

066and the alaska senate renaming east high to betty davis east high school would be an especially impactful way of honoring his legacy i hope you'll take the step to honor betty davis and thank you school board school board members and superintendent bishop for this opportunity to testify and for your time thank you next up in person speaker number 12 sarah price can you guys hear me thank you school board for once again having me my name is sarah price and i'm a junior enrolled at eagle river high school in my last testimony i spoke of many relevant issues in the conflict of school closure but there is still much to be addressed in this complex issue i understand you're concerned for the health of your students and in a similar way teachers are worried for

067the health of themselves and their loved ones however kovitch should not be one of those worries in alaska copen is unfortunately taken 58 lives but should be noted that in 2018 the common cold killed 68. in alaska there have been zero pediatric covet deaths but across the nation last year there were 189 due to the flu was there school closure no because our education was not sized in the face of such a proportionately small threat i understand the fears of teachers who themselves or a loved one is at an extreme risk but i do and i do not believe they should be put in jeopardy but there are plenty of teachers who are able to do the essential job of educating our youth in the classroom and the district needs to start prioritizing this living

068in this world is risky there is no doubt about it when everyone present got in your car to drive here you risk joining the 3 million injured in car crashes a year but did that stop you from coming here evidently no life is filled with risk management and all the students who signed up for the option of in-person school accepted this risk and are pursuing their education in spite of it however not only were we fooled to think that we would actually be in school but the education we were offered as i previously stated is a glorified version of homework online school is not adequate and hardly the bare minimum of an education yet as myself and a diverse student body are drowned in homework stress and depression the director of learning for innovation for

069the district belittled our pains to quote-unquote bumps in the road our neglect of education is not a bump in the road our failing grades in poorly executed online classes are not bumps in the road not obtaining scholarships are not bumps in the road and our struggles are not bumps in the road 12 weeks of our education has been cut off and the rest set at a flying pace that students cannot keep up with resulting in double the homework and an unprecedented amount of stress while everyone focused on it on returning elementary school students who have six to 12 years to make up for anything lost high school students have a ticking time bond counting down to adulthood and our futures and asd is putting us last in line to teachers and parents you see what

070is happening to us you watch us suffer and stay up all night the entire school week so please find the empathy to assist us in getting back to school nonetheless we will advocate for ourselves as school board president has stated there is a silent majority and we will not stand to have our education taken away because of our circumstances myself and fellow students are developing a resolution to organize the voices of the large majority and work with the board to give high schoolers a true in-person option i implore high school students from around the district to join us in speaking out until we are back in school where we are truly safe and working to contribute to a brighter future for this nation thank you and i look forward to seeing you all at as

071many board meetings as necessary to achieve this goal thank you next up is speaker number 13 on the telephone erica salazar erica are you with us this evening hello hi there thank you you have three minutes and the floor is yours hi my name is erica kelsey i mentor three refugee kids through catholic social services all of them attend asd schools in september at your last meeting i sent a written testimony about classifying ell students as high needs for early return to in-person classrooms obviously that's not happening for anyone right now i have very little hope left that they can catch up to their peers and graduate high school no matter how hard they try or how hard i push them i originally wrote my letter regarding the ineffectiveness of online school for this population

072but the fear is true either way my time is limited so today you'll only meet gianni diani is 11. two years ago she began fourth grade at wunderpark a shy polite kid who loved her school and her teacher academically she tested below kindergarten and also qualified for special education but then she won the year-end award for the most improved student her motivation and willingness to work hard are intrinsic her pride in her accomplishments is electric working with this kid is an absolute joy last year she changed schools her classroom teacher was unresponsive and ineffective he did not respond to a single one of my eight emails over several months but he did reference one in conversation once so i know he got them in a parent teacher conference her stead teacher was unable to discuss

073her progress in math which should be 300 minutes of her week no one could tell me about her grades which either weren't posted or appeared as zeros the same is true today gianni told me on one occasion that her work was too easy and frequently expressed frustration at other kids bad behaviors i requested enrichment work to do at home twice it was not provided twice once she was absent due to illness for three days and i asked to pick up any missed assignments again nothing and she was marked as present for those days i wondered if anyone was really paying attention at all the kids were sent home in march the message to families was that there would be no new education for elementary students because somehow that was the only way to be equitable

074three people at her school told me she would not receive an asd chromebook so i bought her one weeks later school called to schedule a pickup time for her chromebook assignments posted to her canvas account right now do not reflect her iep nor did the packets sent home gianni has had a private tutor in reading this summer three times per week for 45 minutes her iep team set her goal for this fall at eight correct words per minute in the meantime she has progressed more than a year and a half i speak for her because her parents can't they don't understand your language they are so blindly grateful that their children have a safe public education they truly believe that showing up and doing the work will turn their kids into productive and successful adults

075as a citizen of this country a local taxpayer and a successful public school graduate myself i so wish that were true please help me make it true thank you thank you next step in the queue speaker number fourteen tanya aiden tanya are you with us this evening [Music] tanya can you hear us [Music] hi hello yes perfect thank you you have thank you for joining us you have three minutes and the floor is yours great thank you so much for the opportunity to address this body um i really appreciate the opportunity i didn't really prepare my statements but um it was very interesting listening in tonight about the conversation about equity and i'm really excited to hear that the school district is pursuing um you know looking at and exploring how how ap classes can

076be more equitable i'm actually here to talk about east anchorage high school and how i really would encourage you to rename it betty davis east anchorage high school i am a former alumni or current alumni former east high school student i graduated in 1991 and i felt it was really important to speak up as an alumni about how wonderful it would be to have this school named after betty davis um i think it would really reflect a student body the very diverse student body that was there when i was a student and continues to be attending east high school and i think it also would foreground for our community all the different stories and narratives that are present here that don't really get told many people have referenced that we have all these different schools

077that are named primarily after men um many of them are you know named um very few of them are named after people of color maybe only one is named after indigenous person um so i just see naming east high after betty davis is as a win-win it's additive it just adds more nuance and story to our community which is um exciting and something that students can learn from and all of us can learn from as well so thank you very much and i hope you'll consider my testimony thank you very much next up speaker number 15 in person ann thompson [Music] and when you're ready you will have three minutes and the floor is yours hello school board thank you for being here today and taking the time to listen i'm here today to talk

078about aquarian charter school special dispensation making the reopening a quarterly decision there's an understanding that murder schools are regulated by their individual parent-teacher run boards but this is an issue that is greater than the aquarian board and i wanted it to bring it to you to your attention basically a query and charter has asked to shutter its doors for the whole of second quarter and possibly the third quarter at this point asd is performing an evaluation on opening every two weeks where aquarium evaluates every two and a half months if aquarium is allowed to continue to evaluate quarterly it could mean once asd deems it safe to open schools that aquarian could stay closed to in-person learning aquarians should follow asd's plan on when to open its doors last night while sitting at the table

079dinner table preparing this speech my fourth grade son asked what was i up to it was then that i told him about his school's recent decision to shudder at stores till january then i explained to him that friends in the neighborhood may have the chance to return to school before him my son replied that he wanted that exact same chance to go back to school at that same time this was an emotional moment because my son felt as though his school was letting him down there are many benefits for children to return to in-person learning when asd deems it safe aquarians should return with all the other neighborhood kids i advocate for the school board to step in and decline this second and third quarter special dispensation amanda thompson i have two kids at aquarian

080charter school so please keep this in consideration thank you so much for your time thank you next up is speaker number 16 on the telephone susan ritter susan are you with us this evening susan can you hear us all right we'll come back to susan next up in the queue is speaker number oh marie acema marie are you with us this evening hi can you hear me yes we sure can thank you for joining us you have three minutes and the floor is yours hi thank you so much for um welcoming me this evening i just wanted to call in regarding the the name change and i'm calling in support of the change from east high school to betty davis east high school and just to give you a background news i do a lot

081of after-school programs at east so i know some of the students there and i love the school with a passion and i grew up on the east side i also have a son in the asd and um we talk a lot in anchorage about how we're such a diverse community and we we actually brag about it but it's it's not really something um that we embrace in a more authentic way and i think renaming east high school um to betty davis east high school is really putting our money where our mouths are and saying we authentically value diversity and i also think of my my students of color and my white students all of my students and how they need role models of color we all need that and we have them and why not

082celebrate them with the names that we give our schools and and you know i think it goes on and on from there so i really am passionate about this change i do think it's one of many things we can do and i thank you for for considering it because change like someone said earlier is hard but it's worth it so thank you so much that's it thank you i would like to circle back around susan ritter uh you are next on our list uh there you are good evening you've got three minutes no problem go ahead when you're ready thank you so much members of the school board dr bishop asb leadership members of anchorage education association and our anchorage community thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening my name is

083susan ritter i am in my 14th year as a life skills teacher and i have been teaching at service high school for the past past four go cougars prior to that i was an elementary school high school teacher i would first like to take this opportunity to thank ms star marcet for her service on the school board she is a strong advocate for all students and in particular students within the special education community thank you miss marcet for your advocacy i would next like to thank dr bishop for making the hard but necessary decision to postpone opening of our schools to face to face teaching why did dr bishop have to make this decision because numbers of coronavirus continue to climb upward i would like to share the following information from the alaska department of

084health and social services according according to the case summary on monday october 5th 2020 covet 19 cases are continuing to rise all across alaska and on monday marked a daily high of 194 new cases i would go into the details we see them all the time as a matter of fact i got a nickel today stating that our coveted numbers are increasing the department of health urges alaskans to take an exercise caution and take the following precautions so wear your mask watch your distance wash your hands avoid the three c's crowded places close contact settings and confined enclosed spaces keep contacts limited and social circles small avoid indoor gatherings don't ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble limit your errands outings watch out for covert 19 symptoms get tested if

085you just have one symptom or mild symptoms of course there are more of these guidelines but i won't continue on because this message has been repeated over and over and over and over from the spring to the summer to the fall so this is why i am not able to return face-to-face instruction because the anchorage community is not adhering to the recommendations suggestions request the near begging of the health professionals to follow these simple guidelines i know my students would be better off in my classroom with my team but until the numbers go down it is not safe to return to the classroom the citizens of anchorage need to do a better job at caring for one another dr bishop and the school board stay strong and continue to follow the science thank you so

086very much and have a good evening thank you next up i have speaker number denise oh mirage denise are you with us tonight denise can you hear us oh hello can you hear me i sure can thank you so much you have three minutes and the floor is yours yeah uh yeah my name is denise bemerent and um i am supporting the changing of the changing of name from east high school to uh betty davis east high school and um i have a lot of memories from that from the school cause i used to uh when i first got here to america because i'm from uh from africa i used to go there for my um for my esl studies and i'll take breakfast there there was a lot of diversities i had some um

087friends were from my country there it was fun and uh i think it's a very good and honored and giving you know the people of color uh not the privilege to feel like they're you know they're in the community they feel like they're all like together so because most of the schools in here in the u.s are named after probably like most of the people are white people but it's also giving the privilege uh the people of color thank you thank you very much next up i have speaker number 19 ali phillips mo ally are you with us this evening hi can you hear me yes we sure can thank you you have three minutes and the floor is yours hi my name is ally philip smo and i'm a family nurse practitioner and parent

088of an asd kindergartner and i'm speaking regarding the closure of in-person schools last friday dr chandler of the anchorage health department stated that there had been 76 filtering acreage who had tested positive first stars kobe 2 over the previous one week in contrast dhs stated that just one child in the entire state had contracted the novel coronavirus in a school setting after over a month of many statewide schools being open again that is 76 children in one week out of school compared to one student in over a month statewide in school by this metric it seems that we are looking at things completely backward and having kids in schools is actually the most safe place that they can be right now what i've experienced as a parent and seen in my practice in outpatient pediatrics

089is that keeping schools closed does not mean that all children are staying at their houses no many parents including myself are shuttling their kids between nannies family members friends and day camps some of the more organized families have formed pods of kids going from household to household with much less stringent mitigation measures in place than real school it is essentially like the wild west out there right now in anchorage for a lot of kids meanwhile in matt subaru where schools have been open with consistency and strict mitigation measures there was no rising cases in the weeks following school start on august 20th as cases around the rest of the state are rallying the matsu valley has seen just a modest increase may be coincidence but it certainly doesn't appear that schools there are contributing to

090increases and even prompts the question as nearby anchorage surges could schools there actually be a protective factor in limiting spread we talk about people in the community needing to wear masks limiting mixing between groups and keeping track of their movement to aid contact tracers if they test positive are we ignoring the biggest tool our community already has to help accomplish these things for children yes this is personal to me as the working parent of a kindergartener but i also am a healthcare provider who cares about the well-being of the community and cares deeply about the long-term health of children in this community please asb school board remember that the monumental decisions that you are making are resulting in known harms to children without much solid evidence of benefit school openings have been correctly called an

091experiment but let's not forget that continuing to let families and students fend for themselves in the chaos of a closed school system is just as much of an experiment how long are you willing to continue this school closure experiment if community cases continue to rise throughout the fall and winter as many health experts expect them to and if there still isn't any evidence of benefit to close i urge you all to keep an open mind not based decisions on conventional wisdom consider all the evidence and work towards the goal of returning to in-person school to limit the known catastrophic lifelong health effects that i'm sure you're all familiar with that will certainly occur the longer we wait thank you thank you very much next up speaker number 20 is celeste hodge groudon celeste are you

092with us this evening celeste can you hear us oh can you hear me yes we can now thank you you have three minutes and the floor is yours great thank you anchorage school board members and superintendent bishop i'm coles hodge browden president and ceo of the alaska black caucus i know this is a particularly challenging time for you as you work to do what is best for the children in our district and i appreciate all your hard work on their behalf these times have us all very focused on the present that is both understandable and important but i ask that we also remember steps we take now can have long-term impacts investing in the renaming of east high school to betty davis east high is one such step a step that will bring many positive

093long-term impacts i appreciate the afd aiming committee to report and the superintendent's recommendations to name the east high auditorium and fairview elementary school after senator davis according to the superintendent the naming committee followed asd policy however after review of this policy it's apparent asd didn't follow their own policy in this renaming process i also want to share the fairview community council has had as yet internal discussions about renaming fairview elementary school after former fairview teacher and principal dr elfeldra davis dr davis no relation to betty davis was alaska's first black teacher and principal of that school and first black principal of alaska i highly recommend you not name we rename fairview elementary at this time instead leaving open the possibility of a future renaming a fairview in a process that is gaining grassroots support in

094the fairview community unfortunately there will be nothing to do effort because they didn't receive the survey or what i call the straw poll and don't typically visit the east high website or facebook page where the survey was located now the awareness of the campaign to rename east high school to betty davis east high is growing and becoming mainstream news stakeholders like my daughters salisa and selena senator davis's granddaughter felicia gladys langdon gladys langman mother of trade and langdon who played with east acreage high school and many many others who never received the survey or new of the survey are weighing in supporting the renaming many community members have pointed out that betty davis deserves the honor of having east high bear her name and it is time that our local major high schools begin to

095bear names that reflect the wonderful diversity of our community therefore i ask you to either create a policy regarding school renaming or apply the existing new school policy to the renaming of this school as we all know rules and institutions are important and to proceed without them is unacceptable non-transparent thank you so much thank you next up speaker number 21 annie massey annie are you with us this evening annie can you hear it there you can hear us yes now i can hear you can you hear me we sure can you have three minutes and the floor is yours i'll do my best for three minutes thank you madam president and board i'm here to report that as a parent of three children enrolled in the anchorage school district my children desperately need to return

096to school in person i recognize our students have work to do and that what this district is providing in a virtual platform is a poor substitution for an education i support opening schools and request the board votes on this decision today a majority of children learn best in person and if you do not understand that then you have been out of education for far too long or you do not have children the dramatic shift in daily life due to pressured shutdowns is threatening our children's well-being of which as a member should be your first commitment school closures are radically altering stability for kids of all ages of all backgrounds and abilities throughout asd anxiety depression anger weight gain or loss suicidal ideation increase abuse neglect self-harm and hunger are a few consequences associated with school

097closures what's more the solution for education to simply become virtual is also problematic for many sleep problems eye strain headaches apathy intense stress and overwhelm have become the new normal for children since when was it ever okay for our children to spend more than one to two hours in front of any screen now it's completely acceptable since when do teachers expect children little children to accomplish what amounts to inappropriate expectations to perform technical multi-step processes and tasks abstract in abstract learning environments that are completely foreign to them since when has this board not reflected on our neighboring district practices for elite matthew burrow and the kenai peninsula are operating with proper safety protocols why isn't anchorage here's the way i see this i estimate somewhere around 80 000 have voiced their desire for students to

098be in schools and i say that because i look at that as evidence by their enrolling their children in your at school model and not the virtual model to me that's evidence that parents want their kids in schools enrollment may be down but when 40 000 students have opted for and enrolled in the at school model it sends a clear message that parents want their kids to be in school in closing i want to make a point of awareness that in dr bishop's report to the board she notes that that thousands of chromebooks were distributed and reveal have revealed to them that students accessing youtube on these devices report suicide as a top search result we adults need to decode that message now and not later when children do this they're sending a message that

099they need help i for one decode that as a message to pay attention listen support and lead and i hope you do this decision is ultimately up to this board i'm so yeah bless you take care you so much thanks next up speaker number 22 pamela gildan pamela are you with us this evening pamela can you hear us hi can i hear you can i hear can you hear me it's been a long day you have three minutes and the floor is yours um dear school board members in anchorage school district my name is pamela gildan um i probably sound familiar because i have testified on this issue before i'm a fifth grade teacher at fairview elementary i'm calling in today because i'm disappointed in the solution pres presented to my school to help lower

100our numbers in our classroom before i presented information on our class sizes we have roughly 31 students in a 6th grade class 31 and a 56 combo 31 and 5th 28th and 4th 28th and another 4th 32 and a third grade classroom 26 and second 25 and seconds 25 in first 31 in a k first combo and 28 in the kindergarten class and those numbers are probably higher now that's old data our school has begged for additional teachers to help with the student's teacher ratio in our classrooms our principal and assistant principal have spoken up our teachers have testified as the school community the staff does all it can to support our students and show them the love they deserve we understand that there are many moving pieces within the district right now however we

101are not happy with the solution presented to us in regards to our student-to-teacher teacher ratio we were told that we would only be getting one teacher transfer i'm told that our pe and our teacher will now become classroom teachers this is great news in one way because our class viruses will now be lower however now we are losing two of our generalists for interventions now those two generalists will not be able to do small group interventions with our students which they desperately need turning our generalists into classroom teachers sounds great but in the long run it will hurt our school this solution is just like putting a band-aid on the problem it is not fixing it in fact it's disconcerting we need teachers to be hired into our school to take those classroom roles not

102our generalists taking our generalists away from important interventions is not the answer when we come back to face to face we will also no longer have those generous for support again we're failing our students our district needs to focus resources on keeping classes at reasonable sizes we can provide the resources necessary to educate all students instead of hiring more positions for the district office which do not directly impact our students overcrowded classes even with extra para educators to prep provide extra help in the class is not what's best for our kids having large class sizes is unacceptable for our students taking our generalists used for important one-on-one and small group interventions is wrong asd needs to know that we care about class sizes in our schools we care about small group interventions we need to

103make sure the district knows we expect them to spend funds on classroom teachers so that our kids get the education and support they deserve these students need extra support from us the solution to this problem is unacceptable putting a band-aid on the problem will not help us in the long term we need teachers i love fairview elementary i love my students and i love working in title one please do what's right for these children the education that they are still receiving is not equitable and it won't be until something is done about this that is all thank you very much speaker number 23 has cancelled tour on to speaker number 24 megan mcbride um i saw her on the list but now i don't so i can maybe circle back around uh speaker number 25

104kerr moore kur are you with us tonight [Music] kurt can you hear us hello can you hear me yes we should thank you so much you have three minutes and the floor is yours hi my name is kier moore i'm a parent of a student who will go to east high next year um and i just want to say thanks to all of you for the hard work that you're doing in these really trying times um i'm here to speak in support of renaming east high to betty davis east high school afd committed in 2019 renaming a school after senator betty davis rather than rushing through this decision hastily i'd like to ask you to deeply consider what this could mean for the black community in anchorage by um by creating an inclusive and fair

105process for accepting support for this if we want racial equity in our schools we have to be bold it isn't easy and we shouldn't be looking for easy solutions like naming a smaller school after senator davis or making micro gestures of inclusivity to stay away from anything that draws attention from those who are unwilling to contemplate and consider the importance the weight and the fair share of pride and this for black students and black people in anchorage thank you thank you so much all right i'm gonna go a little off script here i have one phone number that is called in ending in zero five seven if that happens to be one of the three speakers that i missed uh sarah weston sydney olsen or megan mcbride this would be a great time to unmute

106and join the conversation if you are one of my three okay well i wanted to give an opportunity to that phone number um we'll go ahead and check back in with these three folks if they call in for possibly the second public testimony after that list is done i would encourage all board members to make sure you've had the opportunity if you haven't and the public can go out and see all of the written public testimony that is attached to our agenda that has been submitted up until 2 pm today next up in our agenda is the superintendent update and at this time i would like to turn it over to dr bishop thank you madam president there's three items that we will be covering today for the report and i will have some assistance

107uh with that one is an update on um the the first one is an update on our stance with school opening the second one is uh really mark dr stock is going to talk to engagement and then finally uh the superintendent's report on the betty davis naming committee update i'd like to start with school start and the decision guidance and uh our director of nursing will uh jump in in a minute but i just wanted to start with what we've heard this evening from uh students as well as parents is absolutely what i would say would be my assessment we are not doing a good job of educating our young people with distance delivery the decision that was made last monday was based off of being in the highest risk category but there is no

108surprise that this summer when we were in the medium risk as well as when we utilized the new cdc guidelines there was immense pushback internally to this decision [Music] the mission of our school district is to prepare all students for success we are not meeting that mission i saw the aea survey as an honest assessment of where our staff was about a quarter of them for personal reasons do not want to begin the 76 or so that either had some trepidation or none at all i see that as favorable i enter the community organizations that i partake in whether it's the store a gas station a doctor's appointment this office with my own trepidation every day which ensures my safety i remember to wear my mask i practice the social distancing i wash my hands

109use you know sanitizer when i'm with someone whose mask slips i kind of gesture to like be sure to get that up being laissez faire is not what we're asking for what we're asking for is to meet our mission for children and prior to last monday i did have support of the state state officials and it was caution given with the rapid increase hence you know the postponement was made but asd will never because of our location in the largest city in close proximity we'll will not find ourselves in a medium risk at least for a year i would suspect we cannot wait a year to educate our children in buildings this is passion in my voice it is not a sign of weakness in making a decision i'm letting you know covet is killing

110our children in more ways than one and we need to stand for children today jennifer patron as i turn it over to you thank you dr bishop um i'm just going to share my screen all right through the board president two members of the board and as you all know on the 15th of september asd adopted the new cdc indicators and thresholds for the risk of transmission in schools and i'm just going to go over what today's numbers are looking like for anchorage as you can see our case rate today is 340 which puts us in the highest risk which also indicates that we're in an upward trend in our community the percentage of positive cases is holding steady between a three to five percent range at 4.3 we've also increased increased testing capabilities and

111we um in the last 14 days have tested about 23 000 people in anchorage which is really good and we're actually number one in the united states in our testing capabilities which is actually a good thing on the other indicator that we're in the red for is the percentage of changes in the last seven days compared to the previous seven days and we're in the red at thirteen point two percent which indicates that we're in an acceleration phase for covid in our community and then looking at on the bed numbers for both inpatient and icu beds we've remained pretty much the same and also with our percentage of individuals that are covered positive in our hospitals i think it's really important that all community members take action to not only protect themselves but also protect

112others so that we can decrease the spread of covet and our community as this meeting was going earlier i got an email from the state that indicated that our election number in alaska or are not is 1.03 um anything over the number one indicates that we're we have a high epidemic spread in our community so our goal is always to be under one for that far not or that reproduction number right now we have five four thousand active cases in all of alaska and we're just working hard to get all those people back healthy and just attempt to mitigate the risk in our community and that concludes my update thank you jennifer patroness and i want to apologize for my passion i appreciate those that uh update and now for the second part of our

113report uh we have some information from dr stock in regard to engagement data uh this was a request from the board and we hope to continue monitoring this uh but dr stock is going to share some of our struggles presently with this but how we look to report to the board thank you thank you dr bishop so what i'd like to do tonight is just share with the board what the data collection pieces are that are currently underway and we don't have the data to share with you tonight because it has to get vetted and looked at by our leadership teams and we have to sort through a number of issues with regards to how we collect it make sure that we've got exactly what we want but here are the collections that are currently

114underway last year you remember we did a lot with the engagement and we we did things like measure the amount of students in terms of logins we have significant numbers now that everything's in remote and they're using different platforms we have to go through the k through six which is the calvert uh program and sort through all the login pieces for calvert we've got apex and running in grades six through 12. so we have to look through that and then of course our face-to-face when we're in face-to-face or currently remote those teachers are all using the canvas platforms so we have to sort through all that in addition we're finding out that the login data there's a lot of families that go in like say in the elementary and they'll go in through another program

115called clever and they can bypass the canvas and therefore we have to track a lot of different pieces to give you what we're hoping is accurate information with regards to logins what i can say without giving numbers is that i'm pretty confident that our overall login rates are are higher than they were in the spring and that we're we're getting closer and closer to to getting all those pieces taken care of there's still families with connectivity issues that are still struggling to get those those internet connectivity pieces resolved but what we're looking at we're looking into attendance and engagement and i want to point out that attendance is a little different so comparing apples to apples is is a challenge because in a current remote environment attendance is a bit broadly constituted in terms of

116students who may may miss the morning zoom meeting but then they watch the video and then they turn in all their assignments and they get everything done and then get coded as present and so but we will share with you the overall attendance rate all of the student sub groups student groups that we track and then of course all the grade levels we're also looking at all the grades in student marks and both with student groups and of course then doing some comparison with them the marks for asd virtual and that would be both the k through 6 and the 6 through 12 and also share with you the marks uh as far as the students in asd at school or the the remote instructions so that's all underway as soon as i'm able to

117get that vetted and share it with cabinet on monday at our next board meeting we'll do a full report and that's all i had thank you dr stock things can never just be easy can we darn it all right um the last report is uh the betty davis naming project update and i wanted to provide an opportunity for the board to really ask additional questions in addition to the written report presented and i would uh like um our senior director sonia hunt to come forward as well as i believe elementary senior director dan barker was involved in this initially to share the report and really to be present to answer questions we do have a principal here principal spinella for his part in providing feedback and support to the team us well i believe um

118that's it and oh and diane tinkle there you are i see you hello you can wait hi uh and dianne teagle opens thank you for being present as well the principal of fairview at this time i'll turn it over to the committee because i'm not sure who's going to present first so uh as a backdrop to everyone i wanted to share that this request came to us after the passing of senator davis it is noted that uh she provided a great service to public education and to our state all around uh and we are delighted and believe that she should be memorialized in the school name we absolutely support that and the three names that were considered actually were recommendation from the city at the time at the time that the board received the request

119the request was for this building to be renamed and due to not owning a building uh the board president at the time just said hey i think we should uh think about a school that actually will stay there for longevity i had requested to be part of the naming committee when i heard that the city and the muni decided to do that uh that wasn't granted however at the last meeting thank you member bellamy was part of that naming committee and she requested that we the district be able to listen in uh to find you know the final stages of that so uh dan barker i think was the person who was able to do that and uh from there we uh hit a pandemic and um are catching up on processes so with that

120i'll turn it over to dan barker thank you uh thank you am i there okay uh thank you uh as dr bishop said i'm dan barker senior director of elementary and i uh had the privilege of starting this process for the district and at that point where we began uh dealing with some of the pieces in the epidemic it was necessary for me to switch that work over to uh senior director hunt who's gonna pick up after me so i know we have some slides if we can move to the second one i'll give a little bit of the background stuff sorry while i turn so i can read it here um dr bishop spoke through the background here of where we started which which uh was my involvement right so so we had the

121initial request for that process where where we would come up with that naming piece that went through the municipal group member bellamy was a part of that meeting i did was able to attend as the school district representative for uh the final meeting of that group where we reviewed options for areas that senator davis had worked with in our community that group generated three names at the time one was the airport heights elementary name because that was again par a portion of that east anchorage area where she had worked historically another was fairview elementary i have the privilege of being a former principal of fairview so i had a little more experience with that community and its connection to uh to the late senator and then the third of course was the recommendation for east

122high school as one of those options the committee group from the municipality discussed those options they made a recommendation that was to come back to this group and sent that letter forward i believe in december and at that point we had begun by working with those three schools in our process which involves connecting with the principal having the principal then reach out to both their staff and their community constituent holdover stakeholders excuse me in the case of both the elementary schools that involved their pta slash pto organizations in the case of east high with uh mr spinella i believe that was through several of his booster groups that they were going to get that information out so that was at that point i had uh direct the principles to reach out to those communities to

123start talking with their uh parent organizations make them aware of the requests and the effort and what our process would be which was to form the groups uh and take their feedback from local communities about their uh experience and where they wanted to go with that naming effort at that point we get up to uh late february when it was time for us to submit the recommendation back for the superintendent which would then move to the next phase of working with those groups and covet hit of that at that point of course i had some other duties with regard to the elementary division and so senior director hunt was willing and able to step in and take over for me thank you so much good evening members to the president to members of the board

124dr bishop my name is sonia hunt i'm the senior director of the office of equity and compliance and um thank you dr bishop and thank you senior director barker for uh outlining the beginnings of the process so covet hit in march and we had to just look at how we can engage communities differently um same fervor but just differently and so the committee convened again that included the three a member of the uh the director of secondary education martin lang michael webb the airport heights elementary school principal diane tequil opitz the principal of fairview elementary school in sam spinella the principal of east anchorage high school and we convened and here was our thought process how do we create questions that are simple a short survey to increase the likelihood of completion um that we

125would provide options to the community in terms of what this could look like based on even the feedback that the principals had received when they were gathering qualitative get data uh before recovery pre-coded um and how can we get the community as a whole to weigh in in terms of varied stakeholders so we identified five key stakeholders parents community members students alum and faculty or staff and the survey was circulated um starting august 28th and uh commencing or completed uh by september 12th so more than two weeks about two weeks of circulation within the communities so pretty much it was data collection data review and a recommendation made there were four questions uh given to the communities of airport heights and fairview elementary school five to east high school as they had an additional option

126so the options were to rename the school to call brands of school and in the question to cobrand the school it was defined are you in favor of co-branding a school and i'm going to use east anchorage high school as an example to east anchorage a betty davis center the third option for east high school because they had an additional option was the auditorium and so the question read as another option are you in favor of naming the auditorium after the late alaska state senator betty davis and so we um received the responses from all three surveys um east high school being the largest group of participants which numbered at 1 645 participants and i will let the principal of fairview share more about the fairview circulation and then sam spinella hello thank you very

127much i'm diane tiklopetz i'm the principal at fairview we reached out to the community with the survey was sent out to our school body as well as a couple of the local church groups facebook and we had also the staff responding as a rule of thumb the response for renaming fairview was really positive uh the of the total renaming uh only 22 or so were um not in favor and over 77 percent um responded that they were in favor of that and in addition to the respondents to our survey we received a letter from the senior center which is in our community and that represents all 1700 members of of the senior center and they were thumbs up very much in favor of renaming um and also the co-branding was um they were very positive

128about that so as a whole i think that um for fairview it's an honor and um we're thrilled to be considered uh for renaming after the late senator [Music] thank you i'm sam smith the principal of east acreage high school uh the way we uh distributed this survey was through our east anchorage um website we did we did a a survey that was sent out through our blackboard tour to our parents and to our students we also use book we have a facebook page that's sent out to the community we have a large following in facebook and we had connections with different alumni groups that we sent the survey out to and then those are the groups that we sent and we used to reference to the um [Music] do you want me to give

129the results did we get the results okay the the role of the uh the responses that we had were over 1600 responses and that i believe there were 84 percent of the students reading or 84 renaming said no and 15 said yes the co-branding of the school 78 said no and 22 said yes naming of the auditorium or the theater with 29 no and 70 yes thank you and a part of the survey i failed to mention is that it was open-ended for people to give their reasons for not wanting to rename the school and for fairview for airport heights some of the themes were it being uh centered on an option being east high school or the neighborhood history not being in alignment with the renaming fairview the themes were centered on political leanings

130so they were greatly in favor of renaming or neighborhood history and for east anchorage high school the themes were centered on legacy family tradition or recommendation of the name being used for an elementary school and and so the recommendation was yeah i think continue yeah okay so the recommendation of the committee was that it is the recommendation of the betty davis facility naming committee to rename fairview elementary school and the auditorium at east anchorage high school into the betty davis elementary school and betty davis auditorium of east anchorage high school respectively thank you and thank you i would like to add in regard to uh you know the naming of the schools and facilities in regard to community input the intent of uh the policy is to ensure that community is involved and whether the

131struggle was a member and so due to coven and having to adjust and do things differently uh we used uh electronics similar to how we're doing lots of things now in order to get the feedback and certainly we did receive the feedback in regard to folks were thinking about it so i support the recommendation and uh leave that to the board for its discussion and determination thank you thank you and if there's no questions then we're complete not sure all right i've got one hand raised in the queue uh so far member mitchell uh yeah thank you for the work on this um a couple questions i'm curious um i know that the policy you may have just addressed this but i know that the policy discusses having five citizens from the community to be

132on the committee and i'm wondering who they were if we had five citizens um on the committee or um if not why we didn't do that and i'm also wondering um i know that the fairview community is interested in naming um potentially renaming fairview elementary after another you know as we heard earlier uh the first african-american teacher and i'm wondering from the principle of fairview um if that's something that hadn't um reached her attention or she thinks that's not as appropriate um because it seems like that was kind of the will of that community the direction they were going there and in terms of the poll that you guys sent out i'm curious um i know you allowed an opportunity for people who are opposed to the name change at their particular school to put

133why they were opposed i'm wondering why we didn't allow people who were in favor to um you know why why we didn't allow them to say why they were in favor of it um so yeah those are just some questions i have about the process to the president to members of the board to member mitchell so the format of the committee um decided on a broader outreach strategy to engage uh various citizens of the community before um the survey was decided as the outlet or the means to which collect to collect the the insight or the opinions of the respective residents of the each community principles have been talking to their pta presidents they have been talking to members of the community they were the principals were the outreach persons in order to be able

134to engage the community um so that's the process in which we did things i want to make sure that i'm asking answering your second question your second question can you say that again i'm sorry i think it was in regard to um principal diane tikl opitz in regard to uh the other naming which came up as a result of this okay so i will i can let uh principal tko opens answer i will start by saying that we were unaware um until basically late last week that that was even a consideration by the fairview community the three options came from the municipalities committee and so at that time they they were airport heights fairview elementary airport heights and fairview elementary schools and east anchorage high school and um remember bellamy i'm not sure who was

135on the citizens who were on that original committee okay it was uh celeste hodge grodden diane kaplan from rasmussen deal pop and felix rivera although he um yeah i'm felix rivera from the assembly and i'm missing somebody but um that's myself and and then the recommendations came to us from that and that is correct although the recommendations were in priority order and that order was east fairview airport heights and i can't find that the memo because they sent it back but it was in priority order there was a priority in tame in terms of the naming uh uh member bellamy through the president uh it is in the december memo which i'm like i know we as administration have so i'm sure we can get it for you okay so we'll turn it over to

136did you want to speak any more diane to that or yes i just mirror what um uh ms hunt said that we we just weren't aware of anyone uh else or any other considerations for uh renaming fairview it just only came to light last week it's not that we're opposed or anything like that we just didn't have that information [Music] thank you and then the last question was oh um when you receive a a no and they had to explain it [Music] sure so at the time of creating the survey we wanted to make sure that the survey was short and we wanted just for reference to be able to cite the trend of why people would say no to the renaming of either three of the schools i will say that the participants shared

137positive and they answered the question directly and some shared positive sentiments in remembering the late senator betty davis [Music] thank you next up in the queue i have board member bellamy so i did want to mention a couple of things uh thank you one was that there was a priority in the recommendations that came from the muni um when we when the superintendent did spoke to each of us last week um there were a couple of and there's a historical piece that we that was that was uh gave me a bit of thought relative to east having a name already attached to it like the bit you know just like we have uh service handshoe bartlett baggage though you know back in the day we were building huge monster facilities and eventually we broke them

138apart so you know i'm so i'm not so that historical piece did have a gave me pause because i mentioned to the superintendent that i i had forgotten about that in terms of history but benny benson has now since moved to its own location as a facility so how much of that if anything did it play into uh the process of the historical significance of benny benson being already attached to east high school or was it thank you uh to the president to the members to member bellamy so um principal sam panetta did bring that up that there were um found he found old maps of the school that called it um east benson high school um we did some further research and what we found was that there were two of the with the

139original intention to blend of high school and the middle school the portion that would have been the middle school was named benson right um that portion of the school the other portion was named east anchorage high school okay so are we currently using anything uh relative to benson at east high school then um i can answer that because we looked in cpnc as well um there are hallways uh it's the benson wing where that is so they uh internally we call that students know that that's the benson wing but there isn't uh presently uh an official name of east benson high school it's uh the benson wing and it was of course the benson middle school as you suggested so i i guess my my my my wonder i guess is uh i i understood

140that there were three recommendations from the city and i guess i just don't quite get why we did not do uh i know why we didn't because it's it's only we i see betty's work as impactful for the city of anchorage not just three schools but since those three schools were recommended it just seems to me like we should have somehow done a broader uh survey because it is apparent uh through the testimony that members in our community and they are not all black people they are members in the community who are concerned and who who have who have not been given a voice other than through testimony so i mean i live in between east and airport heights my son is an alumni i don't i know he didn't get a survey he didn't

141see the survey but he doesn't visit the east high school website so how would how would for how would people get the survey if if i i'm just trying to figure out how broad how broad was the survey and my other question is before we got the information almost before at the same time we as a board received the information from dr bishop there was a newspaper article that in that newspaper article which i don't know how it happened but it gave it it gave a whole different view than what the superintendent presented um because to be quite frank when i talked to the superintendent we talked about the historical significance i was at i i said to her seems like a reasonable compromise now in looking at the entire process i'm just not sure

142i don't know how i don't know that we did our due diligence in terms of uh hearing from people and i know it's coveted i know it's difficult uh and our priority has to be to get kids back in school this is this is not the thing that i want it to be tripped up on but at the same time i just think that um i there's no i mean i'm sure fairview would want betty i'm i'm sure i mean not that that's not a doubt but that doesn't reflect i don't think that reflects the the what the community is is wanting and when we look at however we look at this however we get through it it's going to be very impactful not to deny fairview okay but to hear the voices of this

143community and so yes there is a recommendation um i feel different about the recommendation today only because there are so many uh i mean if you look there's 95 emails in the in the box right now in in our email box right now half of those are unnaming so um anyway i i don't i don't have the answer but i i would have wished that we had done a more comprehensive citywide kind of thing um i found out about the survey on september 10th i think it was so anyway to the president to the board to member bellamy thank you so much for your reflections on this i will say that um the survey um for example i'll use this as an example east high school has over 2300 likes on their facebook page when

144the survey was posted i mean literally the response rate was actually better than district-wide surveys that we typically get and having almost 2000 responses um i do think that as any process they're always reflections of things that can be could have been done differently i will say that during copay times this was a way to provide community input or to to to give access to the community to a survey in the safety of people's homes right where they can complete it and they can share it um i do know that i mean 1645 is a lot it's substantial um now well that's almost the population of the high school itself if not greater and so what we found from east high school the persons that responded again we gave three options to rename to co-brand

145and i give we even gave an example of what that co-branding could look like east anchorage high school a betty davis center in the question itself and um the third option of naming the auditorium and so of that survey what we found was of the 1645 responses seven point two percent were parents eight percent were community members eighteen point eight percent were students forty nine point seven percent were alone and six point three percent were faculty or staff [Music] thank you next step in the queue i have board member manager okay thank you i you know again i'm just um a little puzzled i'm let me go back to the policy um i just headed up bear with me for a second oh too many screens hang on the pot um so do you want

146me to read it you want me to read it sure yeah that would be great alicia if you have it up bp 79-11 the superintendent or doug is me will be responsible to appoint a committee for the naming of schools facilities fields and other areas and then there's a corresponding ar for administrative regulations that mentions some of the committee stuff that people have talked about so the part that i wanted to just reread was the part that said that it would consist of at least five community members and then also um the outreach that um they recommended i guess i'm just concerned do we know i i talked i have heard through phone calls through text messages through personal emails through school board emails i've heard from so many east alumni who said they did

147not know they didn't get the survey they didn't know about this they completely support naming east high school after betty in my mind it's it's the thing that makes the most sense um i i guess i'm just i'm wondering the policy is so clear that it should be at least five community members and having three principles is not the same as having five community members and then i'm wondering you know did we go to community councils i know that mentioned going to a church um what other um community outreach alexa if you have that in front of you can you read again to me or to everybody sure so you're talking about the ar so the committee so this is the administration regulation which is not board policy it's how board policy is affected um

148yeah are you talking about the board in front of you so the ar says the committee will include a central office administrator as chairperson our principal and at least three at least five other citizens in the community and then it says citizen board members students ptas or other parent groups school personnel community councils and community members at large may submit names for consideration by this committee and then the superintendent will make the final recommendation to the board so that thank you you're absolutely right i was getting confused between the policy and the ar correct and i'll we'll take responsibility for the ar uh in the coveted times uh in regard to ac and especially since it wasn't one school in one place it was three schools that were recommended to us um to be fair

149we wanted each of those schools to be represented by the community group and that's how we started it they were getting names at the time covet hit hit how do we engage our community the intent of that is to ensure that community engagement happens i support how we enabled community engagement to happen and there is a lot of emotion senator davis deserves recognition absolutely for her service um i would say and share after the same article miss bellamy that you saw my name was in there so hundreds of emails came directly to me and not to the board and they were um i would say the opposite of the ones that are coming now they were not in favor and i've asked to have those uh for the board to see um this is uh

150emotional because of the time but it is again the process was built around responding to a timeline for which i think three times in public myself as well as this board were addressed by the black caucus for not going fast enough and selecting it that member senator davis deserved to have this and so we kept that in mind about their request to be able to do this and at no time did i expect that the um community involvement in a larger sense trying to engage people electronically um would be determined as kind of a a negative thing it was honestly uh in hindsight i see you know if that's what it would have made people more comfortable is having individual just three people decide um i i'm i missed that one i really thought that

151it would be more engaging to hear from the greater community and uh as far as you had a good question about what are those things and facebook and listed alumni remind i don't can you speak to those i think that was also a good question that was asked um i don't really know some of those i'm sorry can you repeat that the engagement um that's the the question about um it's the uh flaws really are people feeling well i didn't have a say um even though the the response rate was pretty high considering surveys that our district gives but i guess the thing is when you we publicly we put it on the east anchorage or east anchorage high school facebook page which has a a big following and then we had some contacts with

152some alumni groups that would also sending that out so i'm sure there would be some people that would not be connected in some way or another or hear about that we had several people that were hearing about it and following it and also getting the survey by different ways i had several people contact me to get the survey and we were able to get it out that way as well can i just ask dr bishop when you say um you got people a lot of emails and half of them were against they were against the recommendation of fairview they were against east what were they against after reading that article they actually it was more than half the majority that i received were uh requesting similar to how the board has in your inbox to

153to not name east high school so basically they were responding to the um article and saying they supported the fairview recommendation that the community had come up with no no they didn't necessarily say they've supported fairview um they just supported they just that's correct they did not say i support fairview the the specific ones and i can get them but the majority were they were not in support of renaming their high school and the majority were alumni but i could go back i just asked um janet uh to assist me my assistant to assist me in getting that to the board for your review but then they started coming into the board as well uh all board members not just me so then i was i i didn't but it it it's a shame what's

154happening um because i i know that uh remember davis wouldn't um want controversy she she's very sharp and knew what uh that that uh in my recollection of just working with her that i i wish you know hindsight's 2020 but the the coven 19 had more impacts than we think and uh but i am i have a strong um support that the process your policy was followed and it looked different in the ar because the times were different had we not received the outpouring of responses um when we send a request out district wide to the community and to all of our um students and their parents uh on budget we usually get about 4 500. and so i kind of gauged that wow seven almost 1700 or maybe 1650 said something uh i thought

155that was a good response and then i wanted to know well were they present people in the school now did they actually reach beyond the school and that was my first question and looking at the data and they actually were more outside of the school than they were in the school uh people that were associated at one time and so in looking at those uh supporting details of the data uh while it didn't mirror the request of the municipality to have that be first uh there was still support and i was happy that fairview their responses came back overwhelmingly positive well and i guess um again without you know seeing those things i you know east high school betty davis camp campus or facility is is an odd name is that what they were reacting

156to or were they reacting to the betty davis east high school and what reasons i mean from an educational perspective it just makes so much sense to attach i mean that was and i guess i mean it just having her name attached to our most diverse high school makes so much sense to me um i guess i'm curious what was their opposition to it did they feel that um you know remember mitchell i don't think we'll ever get to your specific question no i i mean because they didn't share it they just said they opposed it and that was it no they shared right she gave you the the information about when if not what were the reasons and they were that they didn't want to lose the east identity was the primary reason i

157think that we saw it wasn't it and if you i mean to me that i i don't know i mean i i think it's it's difficult because of the way it was presented in the cert in the poll was a little bit i don't think it ever proposed to betty davis east high school as an option which retains that east identity so i i you know all right remember mitchell i'm going to go ahead i've got another board member with their hand up member hildy thank you um yeah i appreciate the process and discussion on the process um you know as a board we'll be able to pull it from non-action if we want to amend something we can do that um i think it's important to note you know one person did write in

158about the history of east anchorage uh thunderbirds as indigenous culture and that those strong ties to people there already so when we look at you know this whole process is a little unusual in the first place we could say we want to rename a school to honor a diverse student population we would cast a very broad net we we chose to do something differently for very good reasons um but it's very unique the ar isn't really written for this situation um this is where we're at this is the point we're at so i just encourage board members we'll go through the process if you want to make a motion to amend something we can do that and um or if not well then we'll um with it we can vote to table things we can

159vote to amend we can do lots of things but just um we'll go through that process thank you and i know we are having the conversation right now it is a non-action item uh today with uh depending on the outcome of potential action item in two weeks remember marsett i see your hand raised um i i have a comment on this but actually my question is in the first part of the superintendent's update um i i did go through all the emails that we received and it is about 50. i mean i'm not i want to do whatever the community wants to do um and i support the community in that effort but um i do see 50 50 in the emails that were received and i just went back through several of them just

160now just to kind of confirm there's a lot of them but there are more about opening our school than there are about um naming east high school after betty davis and betty davis was a very close friend to mine um i took her back and forth for board meetings many times and um i do value the input that she's given to our community and and and what she's given to this community so the process will happen um as uh alicia hildy has explained and i'm sure that we'll have more discussions on this but i do want to ask about and actually it's uh and i'm sorry i can't remember your name but it's our our director of nursing and you know when we talk about going back to school is it safe to say that

161with more testing and i mean on every corner it used to be a uh that drug store now it's cold testing um i think that's a new motto and um i i kind of think with all the new testing and the fact that people were having symptoms that they didn't even know about that they were the same amount of people walking around with covet 19 as there is today but just because there wasn't as much testing and people weren't thinking oh it's just a cold or something is that is that an accurate statement through the board president member marc seth um since i don't have that data i can't say for sure but we definitely have increased our testing capability significantly since july on in the beginning we were only testing people after they had

162symptoms for two or three days and then the tests were coming back negative but what we didn't know back then was that it's key to test the first or second day of symptoms because that's a more accurate reading because your viral load is higher so as we've progressed and learned so much more about this virus and increased our testing capabilities our numbers have went up but they we have done quite a bit of testing and quite a bit are also coming at positive which is expected well i i will just say right now um with everything that we've done in preparation for what would have been a school start i am in support of starting our schools as soon as possible back in classrooms so i'm just going to put that out there publicly and

163say dr bishop i support you when we go back to school let's do it you i don't see any other hands up in the queue and so at this time i would like to go ahead and continue working through our agenda thank you dr bishop for the update next up is our consent agenda and remember bellamy if you will kick off um the first motion and i will be asking katie to do a roll call vote uh since so many of us are on zoom today yes uh madam president i move to approve asd memorandum numbers yes i'm on the right one number zero three zero and authorize the superintendent to accept a grant from the alaska department of education um that's our action items we need to do our consent agenda first oh the

164consent agenda i'm sorry my apologies i moved to approve the consent agenda consisting of asd memorandum number 032 the personnel report and our executive and regular session minutes of august 18th gotta hear that have a second second thank you uh katie if you could please do roll call for us remember holloman yes remember marcette [Music] thumbs up remember mitchell yes president michaelis yes vice president bellamy yes remember donnelly yes member hildy yes i don't know if we're gonna do a screen share but i do know that the consent agenda passes with seven years and zero nays and so now we can move on to our action items and memorabilia i move to approve asc memorandum number 030 and authorize the superintendent to accept a grant from the alaska department of education and early development migrant

165education program in the amount of thousand dollars to purchase books and reading materials for distribution to eligible migratory children second thank you just as a point of clarification uh nobody had signed up for public testimony on our action items so at this time are there any board member comments or questions on asd memorandum zero three zero seeing none katie if you could please do a roll call vote president michaelis yes vice president bellamy yes member donnelly [Music] remember hildy yes remember holloman yes remember marcep yes remember mitchell yes asd memorandum number zero three zero passes with seven years and zero nays next step i moved to approve asc memorandum 029 the selection of bisic dursk sizer incorporated dba d bds architects as the designer of record for the east high school earthquake repairs project and

166authorized the superintendent to enter into a contract with bd bds architects for professional services in the amount of seventy four thousand ninety seven dollars for the purpose of a full building survey field verification and prioritization of all potential scope items thank you do any board members have any questions or comments on asd memorandum zero two nine um just as a point of clarification the um the full motion just to make sure that board members do see this before they vote um the part that reads additionally the administration recommends the anchorage school board increase authority to execute future contract amendments to 950 000 a future amendment is anticipated for the remainder of the design and construction administration services that will increase the total design fees over the 500 000 mark so before we voted i just

167want to make sure that that was read on the record and board members knew they were voting on it and see no comments or questions katie if you could please do a little call vote no no remember mitchell yes remember merced yes remember holloman yes president michaelis yes vice president bellamy yes remember hildy yes remember donnelly yes [Music] asd memorandum number zero two nine passes with seven years and zero nays and next up next item i moved to approve asd memorandum number 031 and authorize the award of the term contract for the purchase of fleet fuel services for the district's use to holiday station stores llc for the period october 31st 2020 through july 31st 2022 with two additional one-year renewal option periods with an estimated district-wide annual usage of 546 000 for each fiscal

168year so thank you are there any board member comments or questions on asd memorandum 031 not seeing any katie if you could please do a roll call vote remember holloman yes remember marcette yes remember mitchell yes president michaelis yes vice president bellamy yes remember donnelly yes remember hildy yes asd memorandum zero three one passes seven years and crnas and next item [Music] uh next item i move to approve asc memorandum uh number 038 the draft goals and guard rails outlined in this memorandum do any board members have any comments or questions remember hildy i'll just comment that this is our draft goals to go back out to the community remember marcette's been working on this with her committee um so we welcome community feedback on these and they can be changed revised or tweaked so

169i look forward to this process [Music] thank you not seeing any other board members katie if you complete uh remember marsette sorry i'm not quick enough i just want to say ditto all right katie if you could please do a roll call vote vice president bellamy uh yes remember donnelly yes remember mitchell yes member marcet yes president michaelas yes remember hildy yes remember holloman yes asd memorandum zero three eight passes with seven years and zero nays onto the community all right that's the end of our action items next up we have uh on our agenda are they non-action items is there anything that anybody wanted to pull for further discussion remember hildy thank you could i pull ast memorandum 36 and 40. and number marcet can you scroll down so i can see him is

170that possible i want to pull i want to pull the one on the school start update okay 35 oh no that's not it where is it yeah just item number one one yeah okay all right got three items pulled here we go uh we'll go ahead and start it off with the asd school start 2021 task force update and um star you pull this so i'll let you start um i think this has been really hard for everyone and i know how hard it is um with the fear out there but i have to agree with dr bishop um you know i don't know how soon we can get kids back in school now with the changes but even at home i see um and even with other kids i see boredom i see lots

171of suicide i see grades um just plummeting [Music] it's not that i want to put our kids in an unsafe environment because i don't think that's what we're doing but i think for the mental health and for the and just for the continued um health of our students uh mentally everything i can think of we have to get them back into school um everything dr bishop said i'm seeing i'm seeing it in my own family i just hope that um when the time comes that the board will really consider how this is impacting our students and yes we want them to be safe and i believe we're doing all of that and above and there's other schools doing this and we can get our kids back in school and i think we have to look

172at the long-term effects of this and it's not that i don't um it's not that i don't understand the risk for teachers that they put out there but there are options for everything if you look at grocery store workers if you look at nurses they're all doing what they have to do and i'm not trying to minimize anything for anybody but i'm just saying as a school district our job is to educate kids and so we have to do what we have to do and by golly if you want me in your classroom all day to be there and i can be there i'll be there because i will be where the kids are so i just hope when the time comes and if i'm not on this board i hope the board really considers

173um what's best for our kids thank you sorry it wasn't really a question it was more of a comment thank you the next step in the queue is board member bellamy so i just had a follow-up with to uh star's comments dr bishop um i don't i don't know that the boy we have not been as a board i don't know that we have not been supportive of of of the plan to get kids back i mean we we do we want that to happen as well so um the the thing that um kind of sticks with me though is that 25 of our teachers who don't won't go back they have options right i mean they they they have options can we run schools on of our teachers [Music] and how will we get

174around that how i i just don't know not that it's uh sure um that's a good question uh through the president to member bellamy we are one of our groups is to have uh contingencies for not only substitutes but also reassignments of people who certificated who would uh go to classrooms and teach so we're doing our due diligence that meeting the classroom need in the classroom is priority over other things and in the district and and we're working to to solve that i don't know that uh 24 of people um could we'll choose that option today i mean you know they might have chosen before we've shared the numbers in regard to uh we have had members who took retirement before they thought you know because they didn't want to go back uh honored those

175uh as well as anyone who didn't feel like they could go back uh to work and i would like um matt teifer could you speak to that uh in regard to uh those that request uh when we do go back uh not to work can you just share that [Music] yes thanks dr bishop um through the president the and has been raised by the teachers association what the district's response would be with respect to a mid-year resignation um specifically whether there be action taken uh on a breach of contract claim to the professional teaching practices commission and i have indicated to the association that the district would not have any interest in pursuing such a claim if the resignation in fact relates to a concern about returning to a work environment where they don't feel

176safe so nor frankly do i think the commission would have any interest in pursuing a you know a licensing restriction related to a bona fide concern about returning to a workplace that uh the the employee is not comfortable to return to so i've made that clear to in my communications with aea leadership that's there's no intent to be punitive that's not to say it wouldn't be disruptive to our operations so there need to be a case-by-case determination as to the reason for the media resignation which is typical for our protocol in in making a determination whether there should be a ptpc referral so that process would be followed but i can make that commitment to this this board as i have to the association that it's not the district's intent to be punitive if someone

177has that concern and that was just a member bellamy a a reach out from your original question but again all hands on deck and and i appreciate uh your public comment in regard to supporting kids going back i want to share with this board that i have not felt the majority of the board uh say those things uh to me and give me that uh feedback and so i do appreciate the comments made this evening uh this is serious uh we do have information about our children and inner predicaments and um [Music] uh it's ferpa information it's hepa information but i can tell you that i believe kids will be better served in our schools knowing knowing at this time that the mitigation and the science behind that is more of a factor to our

178medical experts that the masks the distance the hand washing and the routine i would not say that it's easy and that it's going to be easy we've found and we do have children in schools now we're doing our reading program and we've found as well with our sports that it takes a constant reminder of everyone to be create a habit and we know that even when we try to change our own habits it's it's work to do that uh but it's it's work that is well worth the benefits uh to children and and we want to support teachers in the those efforts and i do want to share that many many many many teachers have reached out heartbroken over the circumstances of their children and and uh they are doing their best again i don't

179want to say that it is a lack of effort it is not it is 10 times more difficult to do their job today as a teacher via zoom via virtual than it was last year it's not about efforts it's not about will it is about the outcomes and the reality of what's happening to our youth thank you next step in the queue i have board member hildy uh thank you i just wanted to echo some of what remember martin had said and um you know nobody has said just go back to school and ignore science nobody's done that at any point i want to thank superintendent for working so closely with our state and local health authorities always being right at the front kind of ever changing data and new research that's coming out this

180is an evolving pandemic but the impacts on children write it a child dying from covet is not worse than a child dying from other harms that that we're not imagining are happening but that we know are happening that you can't talk about for various reasons but um children are suffering in anchorage and we don't get to compartmentalize all of that it has to be a holistic consideration and keeping true to our mission right why do we have schools we are to educate children if we're in school that's what should be happening and as a board that's our responsibility to monitor that um so i thank the superintendent for her work on that i don't know how that can go if it's some kids if it's step wise if you know with you know we talk

181about the metrics for opening the whole district or opening up elementary you know but it doesn't necessarily have to be all of those things so um i thank you for all the people who are working to figure out that very complex way forward thank you next up in thecube board member holloman well there this gets complicated pretty quickly there definitely are people in the community that are saying just open it's safe there's no evidence etc the feeling i get from most people is they don't feel like it's safe they don't feel prepared to let their kids come back yet [Music] and it it is really difficult now and i'll say that as a someone that spent years in the classroom you know that for a certain number of kids school is the safest cleanest healthiest

182place they spend very much time it's not simply that they learn things and they get smarter it's their safe place it's where their rules and structures they don't get hit they they get some food that is healthy for a lot of kids it's it's a real bonus to be there in so many ways and for other kids not there's no doubt in my mind that there are children in this town suffering because of bad conditions at home and there's no way to know the exact number of that but at the same time we also have seen where covet can be like a wildfire and right now we're in a spike up we've had the longest stretch of uh new cases per day over 10 days we just got the highest per day case we've had

183since this whole thing started and and there's a reality that our schools or our buildings are something like giant lungs where they inhale in the morning with hundreds or over a thousand kids and they co-mingle for a bit and then they exhale back into the homes and apartments and and wherever kids are are living so the the potential isn't just about staff or even just about our children it's the potential for making coven move through the whole town and i don't think anybody is sure yet exactly how much of a vector schools will be in that case but i do applaud that the superintendent has laid out a plan that's got metrics we can watch those we can watch what's happening we can kind of see what's coming i think if we're going by those

184then people will know in advance when we're approaching a time where we're going to go back and they can prepare for that and i think that's as important as anything else that we can't just suddenly say two weeks off we're good and we have to be prepared to back away we we had a plan two times based on metrics both times what was happening in the community derailed that um everybody wants us to be over i'd like to go see my mother i'd like to go see my wife i'd like to be able to spend time with my son but our bubbles aren't normally enmeshed so we stay apart from each other to that degree so that one of us doesn't transfer it to the other this is hard on everybody but it would still

185be hard on everybody if we were back in school and kids started getting sick it would actually be worse so i would urge i we want kids back as soon as we can do it in a reasonable way and it won't be risk-free for kids it won't be risk-free for adults no one's saying we wait until that happens but we do have metrics out there and i do hope we stick to them because they're based on on logic they're based on looking at what apps are too many people too close together when there's so many cases in the community and it will be hard but i do hope we stick to it i do hope we look at ways of bringing groups small groups back into schools like we're doing with the reading groups um

186athletics i would say is something of an experiment that made sense because again you're working with small groups of students who've got some leverage over them they want to be there we still have had issues with getting them to obey the rules even though we could make some clear sanctions about that so we're experimenting and we're getting some kids back in there it's not going all that well it's going pretty well but bringing a large number of kids back into the school building on a daily basis um to me right at the moment this looks like a bridge too far when things are clearly out of control in anchorage right now so i i hope we stick to the plan we've got um and stay strong with it thank you i don't see any other

187board members hands up in the queue right now um and this is always going to be you know a topic at every meeting and uh whether it's at meetings or our inboxes or our council meetings or you know our cross-sections of the community you know that we all talk to this is going to continue to be a discussion um but it is good to hear um everybody wants to do what's best for the kids and the understanding that there is a lot more you know to the questions um or the metrics being looked at you know we're looking at the broader child um in the broader community and just appreciate the conversation and next up uh member hildy i believe you pulled items three and four we'll start with asd memorandum zero three six thank

188you yeah this comes from the governance committee it's on community events and invitations um it it's saying that if board members get invited to community events you know of course you encourage people to go and that you kind of pay them for yourself or submit a request for it to be paid out of the school board account um i just wanted to you know i don't like to wait until the week of if somebody wants to change something but i don't plan to support it i don't want um i think our salary covers this sort of thing and i want every dollar going into the classroom so i don't want to like spring that on people next week as a vote i'll just put it out there now and if somebody has discussion on it

189that's great but i just want to be open about what i plan to do are there any other board members with comments or questions on history random036 remember marsette um i i don't know if i heard you're not going to support it alicia no i mentioned that during governance that okay because i just don't want any more money coming out of going to the classroom but i you know there was support and governance so we push it forward and that's the appropriate thing to do for the full board to consider well and i'll just mention why this was brought forward anyway and that was because um as president we're always approached with um different things and sometimes board members show up and sometimes they don't and sometimes they have good reasons um and there was

190nothing in policy and so we were really kind of katie and i were like okay well what do we do with this you know what should we do and so we just felt like a policy should be put in place um whether it gets amended or whatever but we need it it seems to direct the board president and and helping her or him to make these decisions thank you not seeing any other comments we'll go ahead and move on to asd memorandum zero four zero also which uh member hilde has pulled thank you um this is the one yeah i wanted to i don't think we make motions to amend but i wanted to know what the board thought um on doing something more substantive like i i would envision it as and even from

191the start the betty davis leadership academy and i see little like third graders you know being mentored by communities and funneling like leaders when they come to asd to that school where it's really a an intentional act to build leaders in our community we don't have that at the you know a leadership focus school and i i think it would be an excellent opportunity to do something beyond just putting a name on sometimes i did you know i didn't know the willard bowman guy until this process and somebody emailed sometimes you can name something and the history just doesn't stay but when there's an intentional part of it when there's something more than that um and and i think i don't want to speak for betty but i think part of this is um raising

192up like future leaders um who can follow in her you know footsteps like that and i i would just be curious on your thoughts are there any board members that have thoughts that they would like to share relative to your question or comment remember mitchell i i love that sentiment i think that's a really interesting idea um it's a program that would cost money to train people in and to implement and it's a program that can be eliminated um and i i mean i really appreciate the thought behind it because it is universal across the district and it's something that could really be empowering for our students i just worry that it's not um something that we may have capacity for and um again it's it's there's a lot of potential impermanence there thank you

193i believe board member bellamy has some questions just similar to what uh member mitchell said and i guess just some clarification healthy are you suggesting that i'm not quite sure i'm following what you're suggesting are you suggesting that we name it i would just be moving to change the name to the betty davis leadership academy instead of becky davis elementary school [Music] okay yeah oh assuming we go with an elementary school okay or something else but that's what i was thinking okay and this understood that the leadership part would be so betty it would be um uh and i guess we could do that whether it's uh uh uh elementary or or high school but going along with the superintendent's recommendation that would be the elementary school that is what we decide to do thank

194you all right i don't see any other comments or hands up in the queue um this will be coming back to the board in two weeks uh as an action item we can certainly continue the conversation uh then moving on uh the second public testimony i do not have uh the three people that had were missed in the first round i don't see them as being called in at this time and so uh hopefully we can reach out to them and maybe get their written comments if they would like to submit them for us uh moving on to new business um so i've got a couple of things and i apologize for not having them um you know kind of out ahead of time and our last i'm gonna the first one i'm gonna talk

195about is the um at our last joint meeting with the assembly we had talked about possibly moving the time to later in the day to make it more easily accessible to more of the public instead of the 10 to noon which we have traditionally done and so uh chair rivera and i as well as uh katie and uh barbara the uni clerk have gone back and forth on some potential options and we looked at for the next two meetings monday december 7th from 4 to 6 pm at the asd education center that's traditionally our meeting at the asd and then monday march 8th 2021 from 4 to 6 at city hall monday march 8th does happen to fall at the monday of spring break but you know the ed center is still open and active

196during that time we did clear that and it works better for the municipality because that is traditionally the budget meeting that we have and earlier in the month happens to be better and so december 7th and march 8th from 4 to 6 were the proposed times and i wanted to do a quick straw poll of the board to see if they would be in support of accepting those two dates and times and so i'll just kind of do a quick rundown of board members just give me you know thumbs up or thumbs down i suppose say those times again four to six pm on monday december 7th and monday march 8th can we start having meetings a little later in the afternoon i mean the the municipal charter specifically envisions people being able to have

197ordinary jobs and you know like a 4 30 or a 5 o'clock start time is much more conducive of complying with the intent of the charter our meetings have been creep creeping more and more into the earlier afternoons more and more frequently which makes it more and more difficult for people with ordinary employment to to attend those and this is the point of this conversation if you know this board would rather do something like five to seven or something along those lines um that is the point of indication of moving it later in you know the day uh knowing that 10 to 12 was you know you know a concern of the community uh that was recently voiced and so um that's what i'm wanting to know and so dave you're suggesting uh five to

198seven uh katie you have your hand raised that's remember bellamy her mother thank you now i know i'm never telling me mondays will i can't do mondays um between five and eight i can't okay but i can catch up i guess i can watch the tape later or check in okay um member mitchell i i think either of those will work for me although the monday the first weekend of spring break i traditionally there's a i i hopefully i would be back by four or five uh we have a long-standing family tradition that weekend okay uh member hildy i'm fine with it i thought crystal kennedy mentioned they used to do that and still you just don't get a lot of people coming to this meeting period um so in that case i'm more inclined

199to do the thing that's more efficient to all the paid employees time but it's fine um and member donnelly you had no issue with the dates but we're suggesting five to seven that that's correct madam president okay remember marsette i'm actually gonna abstain because i wanna be there for one meeting and i won't be there for the other one so whatever the board decides is fine with you okay remember holloman i'm fine with it okay all right i will take that information and feedback and see what we can do and come back to the board um the next meeting and see where that one goes um but thank you for the feedback and then the next item that i had is um the filling of um member marset seat um i wanted to take a

200look at the process and you know go through policy and all of that kind of stuff and start the conversation one of the key components of it however is so we can either do 30 days before during or no later than 30 days after the vacancy of the seat if we are to do it before the 30 days prior or at any time prior to her last meeting it does require a written notice from her saying that it is okay to advertise and move forward um so all of that is kind of predicated on one more letter from her so i'm just letting her know that and so i have some tentative dates picked out but um like i say all of it is um making sure we have that advanced notice and approval i

201know that a couple of people had board members had asked about it and so um remember mitchell you had questions um which ones did you have where do you want to start well i guess i don't know if we want to do things one at a time but a question that i had is um you know when we did this when we rewrote this policy and thank you member hildy for spearheading that we did it to just streamline the process since then the assembly had there um they had to replace a member when assembly member amy demboski moved to a different position and they uh intentionally chose a mem a person who would not run for election and who could hit the ground running and it made me think about the fact that um you

202know originally when we went as we were approaching the process initially we thought that the person that we appointed filled out the remainder of the term but they don't they only fill out those last few months until the following election so it got me thinking about the fact that there is a learning curve when people join the school board and does it make sense to have somebody who is appointed is going up that learning curve and is going to run in the next election it seems like a lot so i just wanted to ask my fellow board members what their thoughts are does it because we could going into this process specified that we would like somebody who i don't know if there's anybody available there's 11 assembly members there's only seven board members i

203don't know if we have the assembly had the good fortune that they had people available who were prior assembly members and who could hit the round running um i don't know that we are in that particular situation but you know last time around we did end up choosing somebody who really had a lot of knowledge of the district and didn't want to run for election so i think that ended up in some ways working out quite well so i just wanted to ask board members what they thought if we want to maybe have that be a parameter or if we don't think it's a big deal for somebody to be filling a vacancy for the last few months getting up to speed and also running a campaign at the same time remember hildy you have

204your hand raised thank you and those are the one of the issues we uh i i mentioned to a member of the chaos i sent her a summary of our policy and broke it down for this particular situation that was a criticism i had when we did do um filling betty's seat temporarily because we kind of talked about it at that meeting and i thought we should really have clarified if we as a board only want to fill it for that temporary piece then to like be considerate of the people applying and their time when you communicate that i i support doing that because i don't think somebody who's campaigning can you know be a really effective member for those three months and we need somebody who can you know really help um so i

205would i would absolutely be in favor of communicating that we're really looking for somebody if that's what the board is inclined to do but just for that temporary time and member marsette you have your hand raised so i actually think that's a bad idea um because every board member runs for re-election every board member andy holloman is running for state senate right now um that is the democratic way i mean that's what they're supposed to do to say that we're only going to feel this with past board members if they're out there um i think um that's not always the best choice and i think we need to go with the process we've had and subscribe process and leave us open and do the interviews and realized that you know all of us as board

206members one time or another have ran for reelection and i don't think it's kept us from fulfilling our duties i certainly don't think andy would agree that it's uh kept him from his duties as a school board but this process needs to be open and it needs to be open to everyone and when we start being selective um i i think that's the wrong way to go remember donnelly i agree with member marcet um for additional reasons though let's say that four members of the board decide well we're only going to accept former people or people who already have done it that i think is completely inappropriate because that's like pre-deciding ahead of time and saying that the other members don't even have a say in it what the outcome is uh i think that's

207really a bad idea i i totally agree how to be open to anybody who wants to apply who's a who's uh eligible to apply and serve and that if you as an individual board member want to state that your criteria is that that's completely appropriate i mean if you want to announce that your criteria is i'm looking for somebody who's not doesn't want to run for the office and has some prior experience that's reasonable but it is not reasonable to try to utilize a majority of the board to dictate that policy to other members member mitchell sorry i saw other hands up before i put mine back in so i thought i was later in the queue um yeah and i i definitely respect what members don lee and marcette are saying and i i

208guess um that isn't completely what i meant i guess i should explain it a little bit more i agree that um andy halibut is able to run a campaign for a different office and elisa michaelis had thought about doing the same thing i think it's a little bit different when you're an experienced board member but when you're trying to get up to speed um and you're running a campaign at the same time i think that's a lot um and i it i'm not trying to dictate anything to anybody i just wanted to raise it as something to consider and um remember donnelly i i absolutely hear what you're saying i i used that as an example i'm not saying we would necessarily say that a prerequisite is that you have to have been a prior

209board member but i do think that um having you know again mr foster when he was when he stepped in had not been a board member but he had certainly been around the district for a few years so he knew how things worked um and i'm not saying that would be a prerequisite either i just think it's a lot of it's a lot of work to come up to speed and be running a campaign at the same time so it's just something i wanted to put out there for people remember hildy my criticism was that at our last process through this during that interview process board members started saying oh i think i just want somebody for the interim and if that's going to happen it should be communicated ahead of time um i don't

210we can do either way it doesn't really make a difference to me but i don't want it to be that we didn't talk about what we really mean through this process and if the board as a whole says there's a possible way we're going to do it then don't waste people's time i mean that's what it comes down to and i don't want new issues to be raised just like at the last minute that's not fair to the candidates it's not fair to their families and the time they're spend it's a lot of work those guys put into that last round um so just that we're respectful of the people who are applying remember holloman i do want to say it was a goal in my life to be on the board long enough to

211hear member donnelly agree with remember and now you're like i'm not sure what i have to look for now but i'll think of something um i i agree with what they said though um we this this is supposed to be open to the public and it should be open to the public and we're going to get a pool of applicants we got about 40 last time no two of them were alike you could make some broad categories and put some people in them i think people's feelings about certain qualities evolved as we looked at that pool and started to narrow it down but very purposefully going into it i wanted to be ready to look at everybody that was willing to put their name in as a public board i think we owe the public

212that uh yeah we all probably may have some preconceptions but i i think it's fair as a board not to come to any conditions like that in advance after everybody's names are in we're starting to what accountant we may we may have arguments or feelings like that but uh i i wouldn't want the board to even engage in discussion to where somebody sitting at home would go well not much point in me putting my name in there it should be open to everyone and we should look at each person starting off and start narrowing it down i think that's how it's meant to be thank you i want to ask board member hildy a quick question as somebody who is chair of the governance committee and who has uh you know gone through this policy

213and um you know interpretation and you know all of that kind of stuff um and i don't know do you have it up in front of you yeah i'm just pulling it up but i probably haven't memorized uh 92-23 um it's the last sentence of paragraph one and it says under no circumstances shall the incumbent participate in the deliberations or voting process and the selection of the incumbent's successor and so i want to have stars voice a part of it to the extent that it's allowed by policy yeah so she can help pick her her person i think she knows that right i just want to make sure that i'm interpreting no i didn't know that um okay i want to make sure i'm in her i want to make sure i am interpreting correctly

214when it's yeah i do i'm just envisioning what we went through the last there's only six board members participating in the panel so that is the correct thing you don't get a vote on your your placement i didn't know if conversations like this count as deliberations on oh well i don't think this is going to be our norm i know you know i i i think the deliberations will come when we are doing the interviews and um yeah i guess i'm not concerned right now yeah and actually and my my bad because i didn't realize that was in there i guess but um you know one of the problems we had last time uh selecting and of course we didn't have the uh board member with us whose position was being replaced was um that

215it was tied and we didn't have anybody for a tie breaker um and i guess um i guess i'm kind of sad that i don't get to participate in that process i'm sorry this is still very wrong with me [Music] and the other thing i did want to mention is that this isn't a couple of months it's a year and uh four months the board would be serving so it's not like they're going to be on there for six or seven months um they are going to be on there for a while uh member hildy uh no they'll just be on there till the general election and then they the on the ballot will appear a fourth board member position for the remainder of star's term of one year so that's from state statute okay

216i didn't realize that i thought they would be um through the term we were confused too that's why i had to do the work to figure it out okay so um clearly we have more conversations um you know to have and um as i mentioned you know in order for us to advertise it on the leading edge of it um you know the 30 days prior or to start that process ahead of time um it will request remember marsette's um written approval to do that and so um until um you know that gets submitted i hesitate to put dates out there um to set an expectation um until that process and we're following our steps in order and so um appreciative of the three-month lead time uh but we uh want to just follow our

217process and as soon as we have it you know you know laid out and nailed down in terms of timing um it will get out to the community um you know so that that can be done and so um were there any other board member comments or questions on the board vacancy uh topic at this time okay remember bellamy yeah i'm sorry my computer died no it's good a different perspective as the person who went through the boards process um it was long and it took all day um [Music] and i'm so i'm not sure if there's a way to maybe not take put it all in one day if you have 40 people split it up i just think that keeping people hanging around all day well it may be a moot point because

218of kovid but we may be doing a different kind of process so it did take a l it did take a long time but i thought the process worked um and so um and thanks for the clarification on the term because i originally thought it was to finish out star's term but it's only to finish out go to the next election so the person for star is only gonna be serving from january 5th well 12th or whatever date until the election in april correct uh until may it's after they certify it so it's like mid-april give or take okay but yes out of about a four-month term and not to mention if andy gets elected that's another story sorry that's very true there is that wild card out there um that it might be filling

219two seats um which will just you know that much more so and so we'll see where that goes um remember hildy um yeah i just wanted to mention that last time we kind of voted privately it is supposed to be a public vote so just for board members to be you know aware of that you know it's going to be a public vote if your friends running and you've got to vote against them they're going to know um so just just for comfort level people to know that and then i agree with margo on scheduling if you do 10 people for this hour or something like that just to it was a very long process and um but it was good but we could we could set some schedule thing or something yeah all right

220um that was all that i had for new business i did get an email from member holliman is that something you wanted to discuss now or was that answered during the course of the meeting um a little bit of both it's something that could come up in governance as a start and uh if it can be referred to governance to start there and then come to the next meeting that would be okay uh this dealt with the the uh putting the board on record saying that we did not want the district to take action if a someone quit because of concerns about coven if their job assignment changed to where they're meeting closely with people and before i'd heard that the district wouldn't do that but hr director teeford kind of put himself on the

221record as saying we wouldn't be doing that i still think it's appropriate for the board to consider it but it could come in committee first and then come to the board um at our next meeting alicia i will go ahead and forward you the language um and uh maybe that can come up at you know your next governance committee meeting i know we can have a conversation there remember bellamy did you have a comment or question or was katie sand just not taken down yet um no i had i did i had a question on uh and i don't know if it's even appropriate but regarding the our seats on the aasb board and how um stars uh member marcette's resignation might impact that because i think both of them were just elected last year

222right are re-elected last year i was only elected for one year and so nominations can be submitted um in november or ahead of time but i will that deadline is november 9th okay then you can submit october 9th but my term will end in november when they elect new board members okay so the question to the board would be do we want to submit a new name from our board to the aasb nominations committee to have somebody from our board fill that seat at the november annual meeting of aasb uh member mitchell well i know there are several people on our board who feel pretty strongly that aas that asd should have more than one voice on that board since we are by far the largest district in the state so i guess i would

223encourage um somebody else to step up if they're interested this member bellamy i am interested but i would like to have another chat with uh star member marcel and mitchell so one of the things we're going to run up against is this is our only public meeting in which to um do you know either a nomination or a you know straw poll vote that says that's okay to be submitted um and so i don't know how you want to handle that uh member marsette this is also the deadline for new resolutions if we were going to submit them to asasb so i just wanted to throw that out there uh member hildy um i'll give a very rough straw poll if there's somebody who wants to do it i support that person doing it so

224good good good on you so um i i can't imagine we got a long list of people who've got you know so that that's my my vote there i would echo that sentiment uh member mitchell i i would echo that as well and i know member um donnelly that this was a big concern of yours so i just want to see if you might be interested in putting your name in the ring but i guess i would say if member bellamy is interested maybe we can just say that you know if she decides to pursue it that we are okay with that and if anybody else wants to throw that you know i i think we could maybe say this evening if there's a couple people who are interested that we're fine with whichever one

225decides i don't know is that appropriate does it need an official on the record nomination does it need that i mean does aasb require that from their nominations process yes it does need to be official and they do have to fill out a form and it does have to be submitted all right so uh remember hildy um if remember donnelly isn't interested i'm fine i was figuring it out if he's not interested then i'll move to just nominate member bellamy and if she changes her mind i understand but we could at least get it on the you know record remember donnelly did you want to [Music] i would happily support member bellamy [Laughter] i i've done my time with this particular organization [Music] all right i moved that the anchorage school district school board um

226supports the nomination of margo bellamy to the aasb board of directors second i got it first i got a second uh making this quick is there any opposition all right by unanimous consent that motion passes i hope that works katie i will include it in the minutes we'll be good thank you all right we're going to move on school board administration comments anybody have any last final thoughts they'd like to share for the night from the school board or the administration [Music] remember donnelly thank you madam president uh so critical race theory has a lot of serious concerns expressed against it in academia and in i'm not as familiar with how it applies to education so that's why i thought it was important to have a definition of it earlier in the meeting if it's

227going to be utilized to develop an equity program and so the the author that the the cited earlier gloria ladson billings uh from her article towards a critical race theory of education actually defined it i mean i had asked the staff to define it but she actually defines it in that article that she wrote as quote critical race theory is a radical critique of both the status quo and purported reforms in the article they disparaged the civil rights act and civil rights laws they challenged the notions of neutrality objectivity color blindness and meritocracy i find the challenge of meritocracy as a value to be particularly concerning to an academic institution madam president because we fundamentally reward merit and hard work the one of the troubling things to me as an attorney is in the article

228uh gloria gladstone billings uh asserts that uh american society democracy which is american society is based on property rights rather than on human rights and i as an attorney think that's just fundamentally inaccurate and the opposite of what our founding documents which envision that our human rights are a direct gift from god and not from government so they certainly don't anticipate that our property comes from god they anticipate that our fundamental human rights come from the supreme being so i think that assertion is fundamentally inaccurate um and finally it advocates or she advocates creating your own reality theme and in reading the book that that we were all uh given uh white fragility that's a theme that runs through that book of white fragility by redefining generally accepted terms and creating your own themes you

229can deal in alternate realities and that's very concerning because these alternate realities are not based in actual fact even in this article the author recognizes that most of this is done through storytelling and not through actual academic analysis and if that's going to become the basis for anchorage school district policy that's concerning and i'd really like a fuller analysis of the appropriateness of that remember hildy um yeah i was also surprised seeing that in the presentation my i guess assumption was that it was just pulling those measurement tools as independent of the theory but i i would not see our district adopting or supporting that particular theory without you know board input on that so um if my understanding is correct they're just using measurement tools that happen to be part of that but are

230also independent measurement tools i'm i'm comfortable with that um but if there was a movement toward that i would want to know about it so i agree remember holloman um different topic completely i i just wanted to voice support for what the superintendent's done in guiding the district so far emotions are high about it and concerns high about it and i think the decision about whether how we resume and when we resume is very tough it's it's a very large district it impacts people in so many different ways um so far i think we've done well and i i look at the decisions that have been made for alaska and been made for anchorage in particular and and they've been tough it's affected everybody's life in negative ways but it's not lost on me that

231if you want to look at statistics we are among the a small handful of the best places to be in the united states right now in terms of health and safety in terms of being able to go about your life to some degree with minimal or very low risk of contracting a disease i don't think it's just happenstance i i think it is the result of the actions that have been taken a lot of people said at the very beginning at the outset of this that if the steps we take are successful it will look like they were extreme and if they're not successful it'll be completely out of control we're still in control of it although this week looks a little a little shaky but but it's still in control we we have a

232fire that's contained at this moment but i know there's been huge pressure and and huge public opinion pushed in every direction as a superintendent um i think you've weighed out the reasoning well and uh i just hope we continue in that way i i know everybody wants kids back in school will you if for no other reason it just works better everybody that's going through this knows that distance is good for some things but it's not good for everything by a long shot and for a whole lot of kids it just doesn't work very well at all especially for our younger kids so we want to get them back there but we can't compromise their health um especially when there's a potential for the impacts to help lasting years and years as opposed to just

233being a cold or an episode that they get over so i i support everything from the original cancellation of district affiliated travel back in the spring the delay of asd going back for a week after spring break um after that decisions got made more on the city and state level for a while but i supported the superintendent's decision to start back slightly delayed from our normal date and the decision to put that off when the numbers changed i had a lot of concerns about the october start date but again when the numbers changed i think we followed our plan um and i think we still have to do that that we we have to make a plan by numbers and then stick to it and it's not as easy as it sounds by a long

234shot but i do appreciate it thank you next step member mitchell i i'd like to echo what member holland said i very much appreciate the um deep thought that's gone into operating the district i appreciate all of the work that everybody's done in terms of working through what it's going to take to go back as safely as possible and it is there are so many competing um issues here and as i believe that member hildy has a master's degree in public health or public policy they're you know you have to weigh the competing um um pluses and minuses and i agree with member holloman that we want to keep kids as safe as possible but it is a fact that keeping them out of school is compromising their safety as well we know that mental

235health is suffering greatly we know that kids are in really horrific situations that are safer in schools so we are balancing all of that and will we be able to avoid any kind of um you know when we do go back hopefully you know in the not too distant future will we be able to avoid any transmission no we'll be able to avoid any um you know it's it's a trade-off it's it's weighing one set of risks against another set of risks and doing what is perceived to be the less risky route and i i do hope that um you know it's just tough i mean you know if you'd asked me six or eight weeks ago i would have said we should absolutely get back as soon as possible and then the cases started

236rising and um anyway i i really really appreciate all of the analysis and um all of the long meetings and reconsiderations of all the different conditions and um you know everybody in the district from the top down and hopefully we'll get through this without with minimal damage due to staying out longer and due to starting too soon and it's a delicate dance and balance i want to say thank you to all of the board members for their participation tonight the administration for all of the information and the guidance and um conversation tonight i want to thank the community for calling in and giving their you know public testimony and their written testimony and to all of those that are watching and participating in their own ways um our next meeting is two weeks from now

237october 20th between now and then there's a lot going on uh there is going to be a governance meeting a communications committee meeting uh council of great city schools is having their annual conference um there's just a lot going on even before right before our next meeting will be finance committees so we've got a lot of work going on um october 15th is also you the next update from the superintendent on you know where we are as a return to school so um i just i encourage everybody to continue to stay engaged keep engaged you know and you know keep looking and working for those solutions um you know as we move forward and go forward um margo you have your oh just a shout out to our principals for october is national principles appreciation

238month um and i appreciate the the information that was in the uh asd connect and on the website thanks thank you [Music] seeing no other comments dr bishop did you have any last final comments before we closed it up no madam president i think you have spoken enough thank you all right everybody have a wonderful night look forward to you know connecting with everybody as we continue to move forward on doing what's best for kids have a wonderful night thank you this meeting is adjourned good night