001[Music] regular school board meeting of the acreage school boards today is Monday March 5th 2018 all board members are present miss Plunkett will be momentarily in her seat uh let's see flexo Luke mr. Holman would you please lead us on the flag salute [Music] thank you very much we're going to begin with our safety moment in line with our destination 2020 goals addressing safety and security we share the following information restrooms are located at the far end of the hall directly across the atrium an automated electronic DPhil abrade er an AED is located across the hall in a white box and the first aid kit is mounted to the wall by the second exit we do not conduct evacuation drills during our meetings so if an alarm sounds an alert is announced this is the
002real thing please begin to take safe action immediately in the event we have to evacuate the building there are four exit doors and they're all located on your right and lit I have a little sign over them once you vent enter the atrium proceed quickly along the safest route to a door leading out of the building if you do not have a vehicle here or it's unsafe to enter your vehicle and you need a place to wait for help we have designated the parking lot next to the gas station as our rally point if you see something that is dangerous we encourage you to speak up and clearly alert the room of the danger you see and we encourage everyone to quickly begin to take safe action information will be provided throughout the event as
003available so everyone can best decide the safest action to take given the current situation and our specific monthly safety talk topics miss snowing please so my time to change the PAC's daylight savings time begins Sunday March 11th 2018 don't forget to set your clocks forward one hour this is always a good time to review the following spring safety checklist smoke alarms test your smoke alarms every month and replace the battery at least once a year if the alarm makes a chirping sound replace it immediately carbon monoxide detectors anything that burns fuel can potentially become a source of carbon monoxide an invisible odorless gas that can kill Co alarms should be installed in a central location outside each bedroom and on every level of the home these safety tips for CO detectors nearer those of smoke
004alarms change the batteries test them and interconnect them if possible also make sure events for your gas appliances fireplace dryer stove and Prentice are free and clear of snow or debris and your family emergency plan the National Safety Council recommends every family have an emergency plan in place in the event of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event spring is a great time to review that plan with family members more information on this and other safety topics can be found at the National Safety Council website at NSC thank you very much and our opening statement miss Spencer excuse me we had to jump in the head and have mr. Dave do arc hang on oh thank you madam president carry on is the simple such central yupik word for thank you is also the name
005of our site-based award of appreciation awards can be given to any employee or volunteer in recognition of achievements service or dedication Kiana's can be viewed or submitted by filling out an online keanu form through the asd website when keanu will be randomly selected from the website to be highlighted had bimonthly board meetings this meetings keyonna comes from Mandy Clark principal government Hill Elementary and goes as follows Kiana - butch - Pam butcher in publication services Pam butcher runs the print shop and she is always so helpful and positive anytime I have printing needs she has been especially helpful printing materials that have been translated into Spanish for our immersion program thank you so much we couldn't do it without you thank you very much get down miss Spencer the opening statement you want to welcome
006you to our board meeting and thank you for attending and supporting the work of the Anchorage School District in the sport the board thinks students parents teachers staff school business partners and the entire community for your investment and I just tricked with your time your talent and your tax dollars as partners we will respect your time and make this meeting as effective efficient and effective as possible if you are unable to be physically present for the entire meeting you may choose to tune into the municipality of Anchorage's channel 9 or YouTube to watch the livestream recordings of meetings are also available through the agenda and board Docs and are closed captioned in compliance with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act the primary purpose of the regular business meeting of the Anchorage School Board is to
007recognize excellence receive reports approve policies and contracts as well as decide on the rules and processes followed by the board to facilitate orderly decision-making the role is to govern not self management issues my name is Kaylie Spencer and I'm the Student Representative to the board I was elected to serve the ASD Student Advisory Board although my votes are only advisory I offer student voice to this body and thank you very much we now move to the approval of the agenda and I'll entertain that motion I move to approve agenda been moved in seconded is there any dissension see none we have an agenda approved we now move to public testimony on non-agenda and non action items the board welcomes public comments on agenda items both action and non-action as well as in general we value
008public comment as it both ensures that we remain aware of public thoughts ideas and concerns and it informs our decision making process we have a table front and center with two seats and microphones available for your testimony when I call your name you have three minutes to testify and you may begin speaking when the timer appears on the screen to your left when the number turns yellow you have 30 seconds left and when the number reaches zero please finish your sentence so the first name I have is Elena dre-dre juror Drager and because we have two seats I'd like to also invite Kim Maneri up to the second seat yes I'll push them to the end and move down the list then okay Judy Ellen says she okay so moving down the line oh oh
009you're here Judy elledge is here okay and Hester Sanders please have a seat please yes I'll put them at the end of the list we'll just keep their names on I'll put them at the end should come up any second and please state your name for the record my name is Alana Drager hi thank you all for taking the time to listen to me I do appreciate it I just wanted to share a story that happened three years ago my son was dropped off at elementary school that day by his grandmother who was visiting and in the recess a mother who is a school district employee but was a mother of a child in my son's class went up to my son and told my son that she had to address the child that had
010been one gender as another and that she had gone down to the court and changed the child's name my son was in shock one seeing the student he had gone to school with for four years in his class now being something completely different so my son was confused he's a child he doesn't understand they then walked into class and my son was still in shock and the teacher announced to the class that this would be happening and that this child's name was now this and this is how it would be done my child raised his hand and was told that he could not ask any questions he could not make any comments he came home seven hours later distraught this mother this is how he found out after a year of working with the school
011district we finally came to an agreement that my son would be protected at school in the same way that this other child was my issue is not necessarily the choice that the family for this other child has made my issue is that my child who is raised to believe in God and which is his freedom and to be protected at school was violated my concern is that my child whose limbic system is not developed um does not understand and now in sixth grade and these kids are all together because they are at an immersion school they're all together in a classroom and now the issues that are being discussed with the children because they were never properly taught by their parents whether it was to agree or to not agree they were not taught prior
012to walking into this now the the conversations are who has a crush on this child oh is that gay is that this is that and it is completely sexually perverse in our beliefs to even be talking like that now what we've explained to our child is this is that child's family's choice and we have to respect and love that child we cannot judge we cannot treat him differently we cannot pick on him we could not support bullying but we believe that this child was created as X period if the child and the family want to make this choice that's okay it should not be something that was done this way it should not be something that a child should feel uncomfortable being in their own space in a bathroom or a locker room and be
013presented with this without any parental anything no warning given to the families or the parents we have just as many rights as a non-believing family in God and even if it's two families that believe in God with different values all of that should be encompassed and embraced in a school it should not be this is the way it is because this is what is the thing to do now this is not watching out for our children thank you very much for your testimony but I want to say like five minutes more but okay thank you and you state your name for the record my name is Kim Minori okay begin button see the you may begin okay gotta talk fast all right I recognize that Prop 1 is outside of the ASD policy but I
014think it's an important part of the conversation that we're all having and we're getting a lot of calls at prop 1 from parents like Alana with their stories and there's a lot of people that are afraid to come forward because of the political correct culture so I wanted to basically state why I think prop one is the choice to increase privacy and to increase safety for more kids and for all the citizens in Anchorage my belief is that everybody is entitled to feel safe and to feel secure when they are in a state of undress especially our kids and especially transgender kids I wouldn't want my four kids or my three-year-old granddaughter to feel insecure or threatened or unsafe in a locker room and I wouldn't want your kids to feel that way so I
015want to start out with that clarity I want to also show say that I have great respect for the democratic process and for everybody's input here I am find that people disagree with my point of view but I think it's important that the citizens of Anchorage have the final say on this contentious issue the fact that the Assembly passed a Oh 96 and disregarded 18 different exemptions that were offered is why I decided to help sponsor prop 1 and it would have spared us this conversation tonight all 18 exemptions were struck down citizen input was disregarded so now we're having this contentious issue and it's dividing our community this is government overreach it is wrong and I think that's why a YES on one vote is needed we need to respect each other as we
016discuss these issues but let oh boy one minute disagreement is not hatred truth is not hate speech and biology at the risk of sounding trite but biology is not bigotry and my view as a woman that I don't want to be in a state of undress or wear a biological man has been invited in that does not make me a bigot I wanted to clarify in the last 47 seconds that a yes on one vote would do nothing to dismantle the protections that a or 96 put in place for transgendered people in regard to housing and unemployment that is the misinformation that is being disseminated and it is wrong yes on one vote would do nothing to dismantle those protections it would do two simple things it would create choice and freedom and options for
017private business churches and charities that's something that I think we can all agree on and for municipal buildings only it would create male/female locker rooms as it's always existed for centuries and I think that that is a very reasonable and common-sense approach thank you for your testimony thank you confuses Judy Ellen here oh yes thank you and I'd also like to invite up Hester Sanders please I'm going to read my comments I'm a little passionate and get excited so it's better that I read it so I'll try not to go too fast in this I am here to testify today concerning young transgender students I listened to on TV during last school board meeting I appreciated superintendent bishops comments that she was here to assure all children feel safe and welcomed in our school environment
018my heart goes out to children that testified I can't imagine the difficulty it took to make the decision and to come out publicly with that what saddens me most is our rush of encouragement in the district and how this could possibly affect the well-being of our students human sexuality is an objective binary tree X Y X X their genetic markers help health not genetic markers of a disorder gender is a sociological and psychological concept not objective biological one I believe your your administrative guidelines on working with transgender students from your ego Department that came out in 2015 I believe to be an arrow when it uses title 9 and the civil rights law as its basis since neither as a protected class I want to I wish to leave you with some questions to ponder
019and hopefully consider based on how we want to make all children welcome and comfortable in school my question is how uncomfortable do you think a young boy or girl in middle school during puberty might feel in the state of undress when a person of the opposite sex walks into the locker room this has happened at South High School and has been going on since last year how do you think a young student teacher or other employee might feel when they're deeply religious beliefs are said to be bigoted or discriminatory how do parents keep from filling their parental rights have not been violated with administrator guidelines or handed out that state in some cases however notifying parents carries risk for the student if the family does not support the students desire to transition prior to notification
020of any parent or guardian regarding this process school staff should work close with the student to assess the degree of which any the parent will be involved in the process these are students that still require parental permission to take an aspirin go on a field trip or play sports how do you think a young woman feels that has run track all her school years when her hopes and dreams perhaps of a college scholarship and track is defeated by high school boy who in the fall was on the male debate team who decided to run as a girl in the spring track meet it happened two years ago in Anchorage that is not what title nine years and it wasn't what it was meant to do and it's not equality of women in closing I asked
021we all stop and think about the serious consequences we're going to deal with from something that three years ago most of us have not even considered does not the rapid Nisour this concern you are we making decisions based on common sense in science or all we are all or all we are we all caught up in the world of social media and political correctness run amok thank you thank you for your testimony and I'd like to call up misty Nelson to the open seat please yes you may proceed please state your name for the record when you see the timer go ahead hi my name is Hester Sanders and I am a parent and my concern with prop 1 and what's going on with that is just as Judy said I have two teenagers and
022then I have a younger child that's ten and my two older kids they play sports and we are always everywhere you know all over different schools everywhere they go they go in the locker room and they get changed they have to change out of their uniforms whatever reason especially my daughter I guess I'm more concerned about her there's no reason that she should and she's here tonight but there's no reason that she should be afraid to go into a locker room because the guy's gonna come in and having a teen son who he's not at that age you know where he's all under girls yet but it's very easy for the boys the teen boys because I also work with teen boys easy to just say today I want to be a girl so I'm
023just gonna go into the girl locker room and when we were coming here I mentioned to my son that we were coming to this and he goes Oh mom that's so wrong and I said why why do you say that's wrong and he said because they don't belong there you know we're using the right bathrooms you know girls use girl bathrooms boys use boy bathrooms and if they're gonna change they need that privacy they need that they need that area that's their space and nobody should should walk in when we teach our children right and wrong we teach them those those little things that in their mind that go oh this is this isn't right and to alert us and to keep us as parents informed so if I send my daughter in and a
024boy walks in while she's changing her since it's gonna go off and be like this is not right this isn't correct and and she's gonna do something about it so what did she do does her rights get violated because she asked the guy to leave he says no I'm a girl today so she then decides okay well then I can't be in here with him because right we give all our kids all these warnings and so her rights are violated cuz she has to go out of the bathroom wait for him to finish when she's in the right bathroom so prop one is very important to me as a teen as a mom with two teenagers and one that's coming up in teen years because my kids are involved in sports we travel all over
025Anchorage and we go to different schools across Anchorage and so it's not just isolated in one school but it's everywhere and I just want to protect my children thank you for your testimony I'd like to call up Jennifer Mason I'm sorry if I mispronounced it white wiesen thank you and miss Nelson you may be young mr. Nelson um I am switching things up a little bit but I was part of the northern journeys grant that was done in conjunction with ASD as long long with the University and actually Jennifer and I just traveled together to Baltimore and to present on the northern journeys grant which was super exciting so that's why I'm up here but just to give you a little bit background the northern journeys grant the goal is to bring in culture and
026arts into the classrooms and so I've just had a super positive experience as a teacher and working with a student teacher who's finishing her MIT from southeast UAS and we've had artists come into the classroom from cartoonists to dramatic theater this is at the fourth grade level we are we have to had the privilege to go to the last museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center to go and learn more about alaska's cultures and bring those into the classroom so really focused on Alaska cultural state standards it's been amazing and awesome and I hear that it might be going away not totally for sure of the reasons and it haven't heard that straight from anybody but it's been such a blessing and an awesome opportunity for me as a teacher for my host teacher for
027the collaborative efforts between ASD and the University I'm also part of through AEA our professional development committee and we also work with ASDs EE JC committee so working with mentoring and I just want to say that it's been awesome and if there's an opportunity to keep it I really recommend it and I love being part of it again I think it's doing awesome things for our kiddos especially at the elementary level where we don't have as many extracurricular activities northern journeys grant that's all thank you thank you thank you for providing a start yes great thank you for providing the time for me to speak this evening I am a great one teacher as well as a parent of a child who attends the school in our district parents I want to extend my gratitude
028to the school district for partnering with you a concerning the northern journeys grant as Miss Nelson just booked this project is a collaboration between the University of Alaska Anchorage the Anchorage School District and the community arts and culture organizations this project is in its second year and has impacted 2,000 ASD 19 schools 26 student teacher host teachers and eight early to career teachers and mentors this grant has brought a national local art artist in order to promote community collaboration clerical critical thinking and communication as mesquita spoke her miss Nelson I just returned from attending the American Association of Colleges of teacher education conference yesterday in Baltimore from Baltimore and the common theme during the sessions it's critical that universities and school districts work together as partners hence I hope that ESD will continue to support
029to support the northern journeys grant my grade 1 students recently had an artist come from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC and he did in two hours by teaching drama what I've been trying to teach in for more four months concerning classroom management he has permanently changed the way I will use classroom management in my classroom I also would like to discuss how our educational system needs are changing toner weight Tony Wagner a Harvard researcher states our current education system is obsolete and needs reinventing he asserts that knowledge today is the commodity the world no longer cares if you are smarter than a fifth grader or hope or how well you do at Trivial Pursuit what the world cares about is not what you know but what you can
030do with what you know then the question becomes do you have the skills and do you have the will to use the knowledge that you have required acquired what kinds of skills will our people need in our in this new global economy he asks mr. Wagner interviewed a wide range of innovators from Apple to the United States Army he asked what's important he found and I quote there's a set of core competencies every young person must be well on their way to mastery before they leave high school not just to get a job but to be a continuous learner and active and informed citizen in the 21st century the following are following are his core competencies critical thinking the ability to ask the right questions collaboration across networks and leading by influence agility and adaptability
031initiative and entrepreneurial or pluralism effective oral and written communication accessing and analyzing information and lastly lastly curiosity and imagination in his book creating innovator the making of young people who will change the world he talks about innovators all having the same patterns and their development growing up they had play passion and purpose plays a critical piece concerning the development of oral language my friend Ariel Johnson a Hyneman fellow refers to oral language as manipulative turi manipulative to reading and writing much like unifix cubes are used as manipulatives during mathematics exploration as we embark on this installation of the reach for reading program I respectfully ask is time up from Earth can I finish your sentence um thank you that the Anchorage School District teachers and principals be a lot of the ability to use professional
032judgment regard to the needs of the students in each committee and each community I had some really good stuff and you bases send that to the board to you that would be excellent if I have parent feedback school board at a SDK $12 thank you very much for your testimony I'd like to call up Valerie Ekberg Brown please I'm going to read two letters here about our proposal from Chugiak high school to name our faculty lounge one the philip birch fiddle friday faculty room i am proposing that the Chugiak high school house one faculty lounge be named in honor of former orchestra teacher philip birch as the new philip Virg fiddle friday faculty room his family has stated that they would be honored to see this happen philip birch was an inspirational faculty member of
033Chugiak high school working with both students and staff in a cheerful and positive manner for all of his years of service as an orchestra teacher he taught at Chugiak for twenty years and his children are alumni of CHS before teaching he served in the US Navy in the Vietnam War those at his community celebration of life in the Steve premis auditorium will remember taps was played and the folded flag given to his wife Susan birch in honor of his service philip birch started the fiddling group entertainment as part of the traditional Friday morning fiddle Friday get-togethers in addition to a small fiddle group that played at the weddings and occasions of some of our earlier faculty members he was a resident of Alaska from 84 until his untimely death from cancer in 2009 just a
034few months after his 40th wedding anniversary Philip also taught Orchestra at Muir Lake middle school while his wife Susan taught music at shuya elementary school and then coached choir at Gruening middle school both Philip and Susan received the Alaska Music Educators Award for Excellence in 2006 in addition to teaching Philip performed in the Anchorage Symphony and Susan in the Anchorage concert course they were both Church musicians Philip birch is featured in the legendary locals of chugiak/eagle river book by Chris Lindgren who writes the falling Philip birch inspired thousands of music students over the course of his career he taught Orchestra Chugiak from 84 to 2004 his family wrote he was a grateful husband and gentle father dutiful son and loving brother Philip will be deeply missed we send him to his maker with good courage
035better for having known him please join me in signing this position in signing this petition to have the house won faculty lounge renamed as the Philip urged fiddle Friday faculty lounge in his honor in about a month's time we were able to acquire 50-plus signatures from our faculty and also substitutes who have worked in our building before and our principal mrs. Megan hack civil-rights members in Anchorage Philip birch inspired thousands of students in his career as jeguk high school orchestra teacher from 84 to 2004 in his honor the faculty and staff at shuyak high school would like to rename the faculty one lounged the philip birch fiddle friday faculty lounge mr. birch would play his fiddle for faculty members on friday mornings as part of a potluck tradition that continues that sugar high school to
036this day we are requesting the permission of the school board to honor the memory of Philip birch sincerely Meaghan hats well principal Chugiak high school thank you for your testimony and would you mind leaving that paperwork with the superintendent or her administrators thank you and that's all I have who signed up for non action item testimony is there anyone else who wishes to testify okay could you please come forward and state your name for the records just go ahead and give your name first my name is faith Sanders okay you may begin so I am a thirteen year old I am in seventh grade and I go I I am currently home schools and I play lots of sports I go everywhere to Wasilla Seward not just Anchorage and I'm always in the bathroom changing
037because I have to church I have to wear my uniform I will not appreciate if one day I come I will go in and then behind me there's a boy that walks in what would I do I mean that's not that's not to me that's not my security I don't know what to do after that I I would ask him to leave and if he says no I would have to go out and wait and maybe miss my game or something like that because I have to wait on him because that's not how I've been taught well I grow up I've been taught I need to have my own personal space when there's a boy that walks in it's not comfortable for girls that just mean especially at my young age and through these puberty
038teachers I don't want to go in and I don't want to see a boy there well I am changing I just don't think that's comfortable for me so okay thank you very much for your testimony and could you please state your name for the record my name is Talia Cannon could you spell Talia please ta Li a thank you um you may begin thank you I'm here to say that when it comes to prop one my biggest concern is that a lot of people try to paint us out to be hateful bigoted discriminatory people and we're not that way I stand in front of you guys and clearly you see I am a black female I know what it's like to be discriminated against not people judge you're no reason and I'm speaking from my
039heart to say that we are not hateful we are not bigoted prop 1 is about protecting our children I have four daughters who I care for a lot and I want them to respect people regardless of what they look like regardless of what they identify as but I want them to remain protected this is about protecting our children and if you look at the facts or look at other examples where people have allowed people who identify with what they feel like they are internally children girls have gotten harmed and I'm here to stand for those children for those kids who don't have a voice and to say I feel like this is government overreach allow us parents to properly teach our kids how to respectfully deal with one another when it comes to people saying
040that this is a civil rights issue I also do not agree and I am asking respectfully that you guys would take the time to hear out people like this young girl was 13 years old my daughters who are too afraid to be here and other kids who don't feel comfortable just like the transgender children want to be protected I want my babies and everyone's babies just as equally protective thank you thank you for your testimony so do you one else wishing to testify on a non-action item yes again please tell us your name my name is Jessica Mingus can handle the lesbian please mi n GU easy thank you very much I haven't been able to testify earlier I was on the AEA bargaining team so they asked us to wait until til that all
041went through before we testify it out of Port meeting and I not prepared to speak tonight I'm currently an elementary I ll resource teacher at 3 Eastside elementary schools and I've worked in some secondary summer programs as well as working with secondary students in my years in California before I came up to Alaska and I just kind of feel on the spot moved to come up and speak about some of the issues we've heard about tonight I don't currently have any transgender elementary school students that I know of but I've worked with several of my secondary kiddos who are transgender and I don't know any one of them who have taken it casually enough such a huge decision to say on a whim today I'm a woman tomorrow I'm a man to have it change
042that quickly day to day but I have known what it's like to grow up with a religion that's different from a lot of people around me I grew up in a kosher household and we didn't eat pork I never brought a BLT to school I was a PB&J girl but I never would have believed that my choices meant that I couldn't sit at a table with somebody who had leftover pork chops in their lunchbox and I've had students in my classroom before who were told that they could not check out books on mammoths because that was against part of their religious beliefs they didn't believe that mammoths existed and I was fine with that I wasn't going to censor any but anybody could check out from the library but if that's what their parents believed
043then I was going to let that happen because that wasn't infringing on anybody else's right to be who they were by allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that they best identify with not because the wind is blowing from the east or the west and it changes from day to day but because they've agonized over an important decision in their life that I believe that that right to not be bullied or abused in a bathroom where incidents have been recorded to happen is at least equal to people other students who might be uncomfortable it's new we we all have to evolve and I believe that this is one of those cases and I just felt strongly to come up and speak on it tonight thank you thank you for your testimony Katherine Katherine do you
044know if it if is it just not working this evening er the Muni is doing a town hall and it's their Channel and so they have taken over the channel until they're done with their Town Hall and as soon as they're done with their Town Hall then they will switch to our feet okay should be live on YouTube now though yeah that was my understanding is that they are streaming it on YouTube okay thank you thank you for clarifying that that's the first I've heard of where we've been usurped okay is anyone else wishing to testify thank you very much for your testimony we will now move on to our report section and I see Colonel Knight here to give our military report good evening madam president dr. bishop and school board members thanks as
045always for allowing me to come and speak to you a little bit on what's going on out at the installation we're just finishing up a fairly large arctic edge exercise Arctic shield you may have seen some Marines and additional army folks running around town we are looking at a fairly heavy exercise schedule throughout the the spring and into the summer we'll start a large exercise the first week of April which may affect some school bus movements and we'll definitely coordinate that with school district the 4 to 5 Airborne Brigade Combat Team is starting to return from Afghanistan which is relatively positive that will return through May and so you'll see families be reunited and then they will instantly go on blockly which means you may seize additional kids missing school as their their parent comes
046back from Afghanistan and then they take some time to kind of read a night we have about 200 people from the 90th Fighter Squadron down in Florida working at the weapon system evaluation program shootin live missiles and so that will happen throughout the rest of the month I'd like to thank the school district for their continued teamwork with us on the weather calls we've had some interesting situations over the last month with the weather and the coordination that we rely on you and and and talking in the morning it really assists our ability to make a call and so we appreciate that and we'll continue to work lockstep with you we're gonna welcome mr. Tom Roth and mr. Shannon Bingham out this this Thursday at our Community Action Council to talk at the school start
047time study and and set up something so we do and I appreciate you incorporating our population into that and some of the unique challenges we have with start times and other things for the other the children so again we really appreciate that and then I'd like to just kind of hit up on some community engagement so we are planning on bringing out students from wonder Park in Mountain View Elementary School's at the end a April to see some aircraft and see the working dogs and a variety of other things and so we're looking forward to having them out there as well as we've been coordinating with the the Mountain View Elementary Principal to engage the Mountain View Boys and Girls Club for the special needs disadvantaged youth today that we're having the day prior to
048our Arctic Thunder open house this year so we're looking forward to getting some people out there and it should be a pretty amazing event so with that that's all that I have for everyone does anybody have any questions yes not a question but a comment it isn't just this event that you've done with Wonder Park and with other schools so I want to thank our armed forces for all you do for all of our schools because you do a lot and we appreciate it thank you any other questions from board members Thank You Carly thank you we move to our superintendent update thank you madam president I have some brief comments and we're going to start let me see what's the start safety update there we go I just wasn't sure which one of us
049to begin I did want to share with the board that during the work session you may have seen some of our administrators not here we actually did have one of another one of our safety meetings upstairs with our community and some staff as well as internal community as well as external to organization meeting and we are bringing some information this Wednesday to the Governance Committee to share and as we know we are addressing and focusing on school safety we had some guidance to review the internal processes and procedures and understanding the importance of what what our responsibility is and being prepared if one of the biggest items and because we know of social media areum what what is true and what isn't true we're really coming up with internal and external communications really how do
050we respond to threats whether they are real threats or perceived threats can be confirmed or not confirmed we either way we need to communicate we talked about facilities this was a section of this as well as the processes and procedures of what happening in school rather what is happening now this morning we were invited to be on a call with the governor early this morning at 9:00 with folks from commissioners from Health and Human Services Police Department folks in Juneau folks in Anchorage just to discuss the bigger picture of school safety in our state and Tom Roth Joe Schmidt mark stock and I presented information because they asked what is the president's present state of schools out there and can you provide us some information so we were one of three school districts that were
051able to speak we did share so that the board understands when we look at people in staff that the budgetary impacts of flat funding actually have affected the number of people in schools over the last five years we've reduced about 14 security staff in secondary schools and about three and a half counselors and secondary schools and as we know and what we know about safety presence is key to be present in a school out in hallways communicating with kids seven of eight high schools do have dedicated SROs and two of our ten middle schools have dedicated SROs and so we share that we aren't in every school with a dedicated SRO but we did share our good communication and cooperation with APD and feel that the Anchorage Police Department supports at schools as you know
052they are spending more time around school sites and we did have someone notice that we wanted to share with the board and our family that APD is when they can take a route that is near a school they are going to take that route and be around our schools as far as equipment our update to the governor this morning was in 2013 which was post Sandy Hook tragedy that happened in 2012 we were provided by the state legislature s safety money one-time safety money an interior lock surveillance intercoms radios duress buttons and many of our electronic systems were provided for however these are now aging and there isn't funding for replacement we do look to move to transition to keyless entry systems for additional security and replace and upgrade analog surveillance systems to digital so
053we do still do analog which isn't as good as a digital system and and timely the governor as you know in his operational budget for school districts did not include an increase to the BSA but there was quite a large capital budget so we did mention that that actually ASD and other school districts could benefit from some of the capital money to put infrastructure into school buildings for school safety and then finally training and Joe Schmidt did an excellent job of educating the folks on the committee in regard to Alice which is alert lockdown inform counter and evacuate and can be used in any of those orders in fact we look to evacuate first and speak to real incidences as you may recall they did share that the communication system at Stoneman Douglas was encode
054and as you know ASD moved away from code we don't say you know a Code Red because we don't everyone in the building might not know what that is on that given day and so we are very blatant in our communications there is an intruder at the side exit West Wing of the building by rooms whatever and so that we really equip our students and staff to be able to think and the first goal is to move away from danger and then we also sustained currency on all statute statutory drills and we did mention that the cooperation with the APD as well as the fire department is is ongoing so I wanted to update the board on our safety and security and let you know that some language will come forward for administrative regulations so
055that we really articulate the communication that happens internally in a school again for real threat so perhaps a real threat as well as those that aren't substantiated but they run they run out there on social media and people don't know whether they're substantiate it or not so a manner in which we actually communicate either way with our community our community our students and their parents and we're going to continue this work the governor is creating another task force if you will that includes law enforcement and school people and Tom Roth have suggested that Joe Schmidt served on that committee and represent ASD as well as other people in the state due to his training and expertise and in the school safety so with that I just wanted to share that information additionally at our last
056meeting for Finance which happened at the the last board meeting we did have the kafir' come forward so the comprehensive audit and wanted to share that that committee was able to answer questions from the auditor they were here it is moving to the district to actually our agenda item for a board approval and we just wanted to provide and let our you know board members know and provide any time now to ask any other questions Jim Anderson or CFO has prepared he'll come forward if there's any question on the financial report he can certainly answer them now if you have any before the board is asked to vote on it it is on action items so we wanted to be sure that there was that the board felt comfortable and all their questions were answered
057before we were able to get to that time in the agenda the questions were answered at the place as well so you may have shared with each other so I know this isn't the first time you see seeing none we can always again at the time that it's up for vote asked as well and I wanted to end on good things because the school safety is a priority for us and it's the tragedies that have happened is really you know brought us together in a way in our community and we're thankful for that but in addition to our focus on staff and students there's just lots of good things happening in ASD and I wanted to share this past weekend some items that occurred I wanted to let you know the list of candidates for
058Presidential Scholars Program that ASD had 29 students that are eligible for that which is terrific and that is a high scores on testing nationally so they're competing actually nationally across the United States for this quite a high number here and a few of the kids I heard their names and I saw the list of names so they were here today so they were in our audience today the 2018 AUSA First National Bank World Language declamation contest was held at South High on March 3rd and I want to let you know that our very own South Anchorage high school received the academic award with a collective 3.85 GPA for their folks competing all in all 142 awards were given to ASD students from eight schools and again this is a the world declamation is a statewide
059competition but we had forty third place goers forty-eight second and fifty-four first the most out of anyone's so even given our size and our ratio that was still more than expected so we were proud of that all languages languages yeah so South Chugiak service diamond Bartlett West Eagle River and East participated and the five languages were French German Spanish Chinese and Japanese the categories were trivia poetry impromptu in dialogue and there were multiple lever levels including new to the language immersion students as well as AP so we try to compete apples to apples and oranges to oranges so it was fair native speakers as well as non-native speakers also Bartlett army JROTC cadet at aliy Mobley won the 8th Brigade essay contest her essay on emotional intelligence was selected from over 115 entries from eight
060states and the Pacific region her essay is now moving forward to compete at the national level we want to congratulate her for that greeting middle school won a coveted globe trophy for geography now a youtube sensation Paul Barbado who came from GM who went to greening Middle School last week he attended the competition and the teachers Michelle O'Leary and Caitlin berenguer applied and won this opportunity for their students and it was quite fun we presently have March 21st we're celebrating music in our schools month and ASD music in our school showcase we'll be featuring student performances at 5th Avenue Mall in the ED Center also we are celebrating art in our schools in the opening was last Friday at the Anchorage Museum and it was standing room only it was a terrific event tooter elementary
061when the Fallen challenged elementary division a three thousand dollar prize and that was by michelle Cutrone a teacher there if you're looking for something to do coming up basketball March Madness March Madness is upon us on the 22nd to 23rd they not only have the basketball championship at the Alaska Airlines Center but also the Alaska cheer state competition will be March 21st there so always always that I believe that from now into the end of the year these it's going to be packed with millions of opportunities for kids and celebrations for kids as well now through the end of the school year so I wanted to end on there are good things happening in ASD thank you thank you very much for your report dr. Bishop moving to our Student Advisory Board representative report miss
062Spencer okay so we haven't had another student advisory board meeting since the last school board meeting our next meeting will be held on March 29th and just some of the things we're going to be going over our our district-wide miracle minute which is where every school in the district will be having one minute set aside where we will donate as much money as possible to raise as much to raise as much money as possible within that one specific minute and also something I'm going to tackle is getting out information on Becca's closet which is Becca's it provides free lightly used or unused prom dresses or other formal dresses for all high school students in Alaska it takes place here in the ASD educational center the dates for that are March 24th and 31st April 7th
06314 21st and 28th and these are on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. great thank you very much we moved to board conference reports I don't believe we've had any board members at conferences we do have some coming up this month so let's move to committee reports I'll start with finance miss Snelling our finance committee did not meet today we are meeting I think on the 19th is our next meeting and we have the p-card audit so far on the agenda thank you very much and governance miss governance met on the 21st of February to review and approve the ARS associated with the alternative charter programs the apprenticeship AR and a revision to the construction advertising our our next meeting our superintendent mentioned as well and it is this Wednesday the 7th from 3:30
064to 5:00 in room 150 and we'll be going over the safety and security they are information thank you very much moving to communications mr. Donnelly please yeah we have not met since our last meeting but our next meetings going to be April the 10th Madam President you have requested that we consider a Council of great city schools resolution regarding school safety for that meeting so we will have that on the agenda and we'll probably have a lot to talk to talk about after the municipal election which at the time please it'll be at our normal time 11:00 to noon room 150 thank you people to ten thank you and that concludes our committee reports I'll entertain a motion on the consent agenda I moved to approve the consent agenda ASD memorandum number 134 personnel report
065and moved in seconded board members please vote then the motion carries seven years earn a we have an agenda sent agenda passed and moved to action items now I move to approve ASD memorandum number 138 and adopt the attached resolution in support of HB 3 3 3 and act authorizing a municipality to adopt an ordinance I'm going to drive we need to do the student hearing first thank you I move to approve the expulsion of student associated with ASD incident 1 2 5 3 3 6 3 has discussed an executive session my colleges second it's been moved and seconded board members please vote and that motion carries seven y a0 name okay so at this point we moved into our action items and we again will have a segment for public testimony similar to what
066we had earlier I have a table front and center and when you there's two seats and a microphone available for testimony when I call your name and you'll have three minutes to testify and you'll see the speaking you'll be can maybe in speaking when you see the timer on the screen to your left when it's turns yellow you have 30 seconds left and when it reaches zero please finish your sentence so I'll entertain the motion and then we'll open it up for public testimony we'll close public testimony we'll have more discussion and then we'll get our student advisory board vote and then we'll move to the official vote I made to approve a SDA memorandum 138 and adopt the attached resolution in support of HB 333 and act authorizing municipality to adopt an ordinance purpose
067prohibiting the use of cellular telephones while driving in school zones or on school property it moved in seconded open for public testimony seeing no one wishing to testify and closing public testimony opening up more discussion you know for discussion we'll move our discussions close will move to our student advisory vote yay now board members please vote and the motion carries seven yeas zero name I moved to approve ASD memorandum 132 and adopt the attached resolution and supportive music in our schools month from March 2018 second it moved and seconded we do have one person signed up for public testimony I'd like the call Bruce would to the podium art to the front chair and Mary Wilson I'm not sure if you want to maybe do both since I put I would sort of speak to
068both of these motions sure choice sure good evening everybody nice to see you in September I reported to the board the good news that fine arts here in the Anchorage School District has a direct positive impact on student academic achievement now the high school level GPA is higher SAT scores are higher JCT scores are higher for students enrolled in fine arts classes in addition those same students enrolled in fine arts graduate at a 10 percent higher rate than the general population and achieve 90% attendance eight percent more frequently these fine arts students are the same students demographically as all of our students at the ASD youth art month show opening last Friday that dr. Bishop mentioned 4,000 parents students teachers and supporters came to see student work in addition we also have shows this month
069at C Hall the lucic library Eagle River library and the mall at Sears once again thanks to support of this district and good teachers we have started 2400 beginners on band and orchestra instruments district-wide and have 93% of our sixth grade elementary students enrolled in this instruction of course in honor of this special month on March 21st as mentioned we'll have multiple performances from ASD music groups at the Fifth Avenue mall and here the Education Center in terms of decisions in difficult times something that is more your role than mine it seems as though and the good news is that middle schools will be instituting either a 7 or 8 3 a day which will continue to allow our youth to explore important electives in their lives just at a time when a substantive examination
070of what interests them is so critical in languages art music thanks to some very fine work here in this building at secondary education this means that electives will once again be available to many students not just a few thank you so much for these resolutions thousands of lives are affected positively thank you for your testimony I sure you don't want to speak miss once just to make sure that I invite all of you if you haven't made it to the museum I know that Madam President made it down on Friday it's an amazing show and I encourage you to see it or to you listen to the music that's going to be here on the 21st thank you very much sure what else wishing to testify on this resolution closing public testimony opening for a
071board discussion closing that board discussion our student advisory vote yay what members please proceed to vote in the motion carries 78 0 name I moved to approve ASD memorandum number 133 and adopt the attached resolution in support of youth art month for March 2018 second it's been moved in seconded public testimony is now open see no one wishing to testify public testimony is closed for discussion is open closing board discussion students eyes or vote yay board members please vote the motion carries seven yeas our own aim I moved to approve ASD memorandum 1 3 0 and authorize the superintendent to accept funds from United Way of Anchorage in the amount of 200,000 years in YCJA to connect students to schools and community supports in order to improve attendance and increase academic success is there any
072public testimony public testimonies close more discussion is open I do wish to take that opportunity for a moment as the board representative on the 90 percent by 2020 group this is some of the work that we've done in that strategic impact group in terms of finding ways to support the graduation initiative by supporting students in the at all levels in terms of getting the services they need from the community in order to make them more successful in school so I'm proud of the the work the group has done and I'm very I'm thrilled with the collaboration with the Anchorage School District in making this possible than the expansion of the plus schools through this initiative closing board discussions Student Advisory vote gay board members please vote and the motion carries 7a zero name I moved
073to approve ASD memorandum number 139 the comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30 2017 and authorized the superintendent to afford this report to the Commissioner of Education state of Alaska in Anchorage assembly second I moved and seconded is there any public testimony seeing none on closing public testimony opening for board discussion snowing I just want to take a moment and thank Jim and all of his team for getting this all pulled together every year it is one of those semi painful tasks and long hours get put into it to pull this report together that is mandated and to go in and do these deep dives that are important to be done you know in our systems but I just want to just recognize the accounting team for everything that they've done
074and say thank you very very much I will echo that but I would say it's very painful not semi painful and but have a very dedicated group that puts in the time that needs to be put in to accomplish it and I wanted to also say thank you I let go that and say how seniors wear I think it had to be prepared three or four times so really it's a cakewalk now by comparison but it is it's a huge effort and especially in the uncertain atmosphere that you have to create it I think most people don't understand how little you know about what the funding is going to be and yet you have to put together a workable budget and be ready to amend it over and over and it really adds to the
075complexity Ellie thank you and I'll just note that document is over 500 pages and it's not fluff so thank you any other board discussion closing board discussion Student Advisory vote yeah the motion carries seven yeas zero name and that completes the items on for action on our agenda today we are now moving to future items or future business do we need board members have items they wish to have considered for inclusion on a future agenda miss percent maybe not a future agenda but the bill and I'm sorry I don't know the number of it right offhand but the bill in the legislative right now on the public school trust fund I was hoping we could get a a comment or a kind of what our our school districts thoughts are on this bill the time
076right right so noted by the superintendent be so much in action tomorrow but I'm learning how to facilitate a conversation at a board meeting on school safety so it would be more of a discussion item is there a way to facilitate that I'm sure there is madam president when we've had discussion only items that will show up under non action it'll have a topic with it that says discussion only and then depending on any preparation the board wants us to do or if you want to facilitate we'll just be ready with information so that's the process by which we've done it in the past which can be done if the board places that on their agenda Madam President I'd be interested doing someone like not at the next meeting but maybe the meeting after that
077okay and I'm wondering if that might be something appropriate through a work session or where we have well there are work sessions aren't televised you know I mean I mean accompaniment committee meetings oh you mean like he's here you're here yeah might be appropriate for a work session yeah you're right because I really would like to get community with it okay great thank you very much just to pull the board is there another sort of second on that a sense of yes thank you very much anything else from board members great then we move to public testimony another opportunity for a non agenda or non action items is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify see none I'm closing that on public testimony section and we move to school board and administration comments any
078board members miss Marsha just a reminder that on March 8th at 6:30 at the East High School theater there will be a screen documentary film on 100 years one woman's fight for justice nationally acclaimed producer director Melinda Janko will host a special screening of her award-winning film unfortunately I'm going to be at a community council meeting talking about bonds or otherwise I'd be there but this is something that you know it talks about 100-year junkman janko's documentary is 100 years two flicks the courageous story of always Oh Eloise Cobell a Blackfeet woman from Montana who raised questions about missing money from government managed Indian trust accounts and the resulting 30-year fight for justice for 300,000 Native Americans whose mineral rich lands were mismanaged so pretty moving story I want to take a moment and say
079some thank you to board members I want to thank mr. Holloman and dr. Bishop for the testifying on HB 339 for the BSA increase that was one that the students in Merced and I also spoke to when we were in Juneau earlier in February I also want to thank mr. Holloman mr. Donnelly and Miss marsett and correct me if I missed anybody for attending the legislative caucus this past Saturday and bringing some feedback to the board on what's happening in Juneau with our writers also want to recognize I was I worked on the indented for many years but I was very proud to see the Eagle River Junior ROTC as the color guard for the start of the Iditarod and I'm making us proud also a comment we I've heard frequently in my time on
080the school board critique that we don't do enough with civic education in our schools yet I saw just in looking through my media reviews this morning that Tudor Elementary School was just awarded a thirty thousand dollar library update award for their global citizens program and so I'm they've shared information with children in fellow spear students in Argentina they exchanged Peace banners with kids in Morocco and they've learned about overfishing from experts additionally I wanted to give kudos to the students at Eagle River High School and our own miss Kaley Spencer for their peaceful sit-in on Friday speaking about their concerns about public funding for education public education funding and also there were students outside of the legislative caucus on Saturday also stating their opinions so if you need verifiable evidence of students involvement having learned
081the Civic process I think these sand is fine examples of what they've done so kudos to our students we said just I think a couple of our students might be going to Washington DC on the 24th also for the March would you speak about well I know I personally am going down to march on Washington on March 24th my mom was the recipient of the Milken educator award so we are going to be down in Washington at that time and we as a family are going to be participating in that March I think Delavan other-- member of the Student Advisory Board she is our personal relations officer she may also be going she hosted or she was the leader of a walkout at service high school in regards to Safe Schools and protection against gun
082violence and she had a law firm offered to pay for her trip down to Washington as well which I'm I'm so proud of her for doing that it's a great great example of student advocacy and student leadership on her part I hope to see her down there so I know there are several students who are going to be on there at that walk the final comment I have to make is we had a reference earlier to the romack middle school stem day and if board members in the future they do these annually if you have an opportunity to participate you will be very intrigued I went into the session where they were dissecting cow eyeballs very interesting I didn't stay for lunch thank you very much are there any other announcements for board members yes
083mr. Holloman oh very quickly from what I saw in the news I wanted to say that I appreciate the stance the district took with students it reacted I think in the aftermath of an event like parkland emotions and feelings are very high and and I don't think anybody encouraged students to walk out or stage a demonstration in any way but it seemed to be tolerated it's not the right word but it seemed to be allowed and from what I could tell the student behavior was outstanding they made their points I went back to school I'm in touch with colleagues around the country I can say it's not the case everywhere that in a lot of places they've attempted to keep any any kind of display or action out of the school off school grounds not
084during the school day and it creates a lot of stress and I think what we had was stress relief and respect for the opinions and I appreciate all the staff and the superintendent in the comments that were made thank you any other board comments announcements illustration anyone sitting over there named announcements no I probably said enough Madam President but um might I go out on a limb and I don't want this particular wrongly but I actually thought that the scenes were quite clever and some of their sign-making and so I do want to give credit to those young minds that they caught people's eyes thank you thank you I'll entertain a motion for adjournment I move to adjourn been moved and seconded no dissension we are adjourned thank you [Music]