Anchorage school board weighs phasing $2.8M curriculum purchase to free up teacher dollars

The Anchorage School Board debated Tuesday how to spend $11.6 million in new state money, with significant discussion centered on a $2.8 million English language arts curriculum purchase that some members said they were seeing for the first time.

The budget revision proposes adding 50.5 teacher positions, split roughly evenly between elementary specialists and holdback teachers, at roughly $6.8 million to address class size bubbles. It also includes full funding for a new grades 6-10 ELA curriculum to replace the Springboard product that College Board is phasing out. Senior Director of Teaching and Learning Sean Prince told the board that the administration had recommended Savvas as the new vendor following a review process that included teacher surveys, field tests and public viewings of materials. CFO Andy Ratliff laid out the alternative: put $625,000 toward a pilot this year and spread the remaining balance across fiscal years 2028 and 2029.

Board member Kelly Lessens said she planned to introduce an amendment at the regular meeting later Tuesday to fund only the pilot. "My inclination would be to recommend at this time that we move forward with the pilot project so that our educators are able to implement and evaluate this program and intend to come back to the remaining dollar amount in this fiscal year with this board sometime in the fall," Lessens said.

Board member Rachel Blakeslee said the item caught her off guard. "The curriculum piece threw me by surprise," Blakeslee said. "I feel a little bit blindsided by it because it's a very large dollar amount that I think I'm seeing for the first time."

Board member Paul McDonough raised a harder objection, questioning whether a summer special meeting was the right venue. "I would find a really hard time funding and accepting the curriculum during a special meeting in the summer," McDonough said. "That definitely feels like predictable, foreseeable, regular business."

McDonough and member Pat Higgins also pressed administrators on whether approving the budget line, adopting the curriculum and approving the vendor contract were three separate actions. Higgins said he was concerned the board was being asked to treat a budget allocation as contract approval. Administrators confirmed the contract would still require a separate board vote.

The administration also noted that additional one-time state revenue, potentially up to $32.1 million, could arrive later in the fall. That amount depends on projected oil revenues determined by the Revenue Commissioner in late August, making it too uncertain to include in Tuesday's budget revision.