Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Anchorage School DistrictClear

Kelly Lessens “The second bullet point is the restoration of 5.5 school-based nurse FTE, which amounts to $715,000, which would permit— and this is really based on the board's conversation during the work session at the early June meeting— permit an FY27 pilot of a fully staffed regional nursing model.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “the contracts we have, I think most of them have about 5% wage growth in them for next year. Uh, 5% across all of our budgeted items would be about $30 million in growth. Um, that coupled with about $14 million in one-time funds that we're spending this year currently, that's how we get to about the $45 million structural deficit that we're facing for FY28. So yeah, if we do, even if we do get the energy relief money, the $18 to $20 million, we still have, you know, $25 more million to go or so after that.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “Reopening closed schools changes from 7 to 4 years”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Carl Jacobs “ASD Memorandum Number 006 is adopted by a vote of 6 to 1.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “the amendment is essentially to strike the English language arts grade 6 through 10 curriculum for $2.7 million bullet point and the supporting language on page 2 of the Memorandum 006 and replace that expenditure in that language with the following investments, which total the same $2.7 million. The first bullet point is $1.2 million... $1.2 million for 9 additional classroom teacher holdback FTE to address class size bubbles and scheduling conflicts at all levels.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “for the ELA curriculum options, in the recommendation, it funds the entire, about $2.79 million, purchase in FY $625,000 in FY27. The other payment options that we have are about $620,000 or $625,000 in FY27, and then a little over $1 million in each of '28 and '29.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Paul McDonogh “the state undermined our own justification, and so this Amendment, and the reason I'm taking over the Lessons Amendment is not to remove those as priority. I think they'll need to be brought back, but it's because it's this dollar amount. $2.78 Million is nearly identical to what we said we recovered from the first year of closing Campbell.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Rachel Blakeslee “it sounds like we don't know— we don't know if the school is legally, technically closed, but that's something that— because the paperwork hasn't been submitted to DEED because we haven't reached the fall, so that's something that legal needs to vet.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “looking ahead to FY28, I just want to recap that much of this funding is one-time., and it certainly does not eliminate ASD's long-term financial challenges.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “the amendment to the amendment restoring Campbell would do a good thing, but it would also prohibit the ripple effects that utilizing those funds across the district would enable.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “The budget proposal reflects a spending plan for approximately $11.6 million in new revenue that was recently approved by the legislature. Board Memo 006 directs these resources to the immediate priorities before students return to school. The largest investment restores more than 50 classroom teachers to help address class size pressures, elementary planning time, and scheduling pressures across all levels.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “Starting with HB 263 was the state's operating budget. It included about $144 million in one-time funding, of which ASD would receive approximately $5.5 million for energy relief and $32.1 million in one-time funds contingent upon revenue that's to be determined as of August 31st.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Carl Jacobs “Amendment 2 to Lessons Amendment 1 has failed to be adopted by a vote of 3 to 4.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “Alaska Middle College, the $437,000 that we've been discussing earlier, that's generally mostly a result of just increased participation in the program. Just more kids are taking those college classes.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “I am concerned that in two— sort of in two areas, well, maybe three, that primarily that the recommendation, the initial recommendation to invest in the English language arts curriculum, is not something that the public has had a robust opportunity to weigh in on as a board action item. There has been a prior public process, but it was news to the board. However, I also recognize that there are time-sensitive concerns with respect to establishing a pilot for that program.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “It also proposes allocating funds for a grade 6 through 10 ELA curriculum. Curriculum. Uh, to be clear, the board is not being asked to adopt a new curriculum tonight. That would take place at a later date per our normal public process for boards approving curriculum.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “finally, it invests $625,000 for the SAWAS My Perspectives Grades 6-10 Curriculum Pilot Materials.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “this payment would be for our— it would help fund the second semester of school so we could get through the first semester. But if we don't have the funding in place for second semester, it really is going to limit the number of kids that can participate or the classes they can take.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “we must be mindful of the projected FY28 structural deficit of more than $45 million. And just to recap, to balance the FY27 budget, we had to make $90 million in reductions across the entire district.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Paul McDonogh “this is the last time that a vote can even exist on this issue. And I don't relish constantly relitigating old business, but the old business is about Campbell, and it's about the justification this board gave in choosing to close— declaring that it will close the school. Um, and basically the way that Juneau has responded, I think, warrants a public response from the board.”

Anchorage School Board: 7/7/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jul 7, 2026

Rachel Blakeslee “the first bullet here on classroom teachers, that $6.8 million, the language here reads that it would provide 50.5 FTE for classroom teachers to adjust the metric for elementary special specialist teachers to provide planning time for elementary teachers”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Paul McDonogh “I would find a really hard time funding and accepting— the word accepting— the curriculum during a special meeting in the summer. Lots of people have other commitments. Um, that definitely feels like predictable, foreseeable, regular business, and I would encourage my colleagues to consider with care the public process required for us to be able to affirm knowledge contained within a curriculum”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “The recommendation we put before the board funds the entire $2.8 million purchase in FY27. I'm working with the vendor. The other payment options we have are to put $625,000 to it for the current year, which will fund the, some materials, the pilot, the pilot program and some professional development surrounding that, and then pay the balance in FY28 and FY29.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “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.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Rachel Blakeslee “the curriculum piece threw me by surprise. It— 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. I didn't know anything about, um, and, and is a big chunk of money, especially when we're talking about a spending plan for a dollar size that's almost equivalent to the amount of money that we we're advocating for the public around the levy.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Jim Anderson “the risk of multi-year commitments in a contract is that board members leave for lots of reasons, and a new board may not feel as obligated toward a contract that was signed 2 or 3 years earlier because they weren't on the board then. So there, there is risk in doing it.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “The budget revision reflects approximately $11.6 million in new revenue that was recently approved by the legislature. Essentially, the top priority continues to be educator positions, so the proposal adds more than 50 classroom teachers that would be used to address large class size bubbles and provide scheduling relief across all levels.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Sean Prince

“College Board had announced their decision to sunset the SpringBoard curriculum, which was something that we had already entered into a long contract with. But this was about halfway into the actual 6-year adoption of that curriculum”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “the recommendations are 50.5 teaching FTE.. In the memo, that's split between elementary specialists and holdback teachers. That's about even, about 50/50 split on that. Really though, this really is going to effectively allow us to put about those, those 50 teachers back into schools kind of where they're needed, just like holdbacks.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “this proposal also includes a full funding for a grades 6 through 10 ELA curriculum, which is in need of replacement because the current product Springboard is set to be phased out by the vendor. This could be an area in which the board could choose to fully fund the curriculum or instead amend the proposal later tonight to fund the curriculum in phases, and the latter would give room to add additional resources for students such as teacher holdback positions”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “if we subtract $600,000 sorry, $25,000 or so from that $2.7 million, we can actually then leverage the remaining $2.1 in other immediate ways this evening that would be aligned with conversations the board has already had about the importance of teachers, perhaps about the importance of nurses, perhaps about the importance of other priorities this board has already identified.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Andy Ratliff “The English language arts curriculum, about $2.8 million is needed for the 6 through 10 adoption, as Dr. Bryant said”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “we do have a looming $40 million structural shortfall for the next fiscal year. That's largely because the FY27 budget budget was partly balanced with a small amount of one-time funds, and healthcare costs, utilities, and wages continue to rise. It's incredibly important that we're mindful that each recurring cost we add, such as a salary, will grow the shortfall”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “would supporting an investment in pilot materials this evening be a fundamentally different action than a full adoption of materials, which could conceivably take place in the fall at a regular board meeting with a multi-week cycle?”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Kelly Lessens “it's exceedingly helpful to hear that we can divide potentially this purchase into 1, 2, or even 3 budget cycles. That's actually more generous than I had anticipated. I had sort of asked about that question right after we received this memo and got an update um, earlier today on that, the $625,000 figure. And I think it informed the amendment that I drafted that I'll introduce at the meeting later this evening.”

Anchorage School Board: 07/07/2026: School Board Work Session · Jul 7, 2026

Pat Higgins “I think this gives a, a good reflection that we're not at odds with that study, and I think that's an important issue.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Paul McDonogh “this version with its red lines does a good job at achieving what we think is the proper means of coming up with class size averages through evidence-based analysis of the science, while still also acknowledging that our main job is to comply with state statute.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Kelly Lessens “President Jacobs said in that meeting, I want to send the legislature a bill, right? And this gives the administration space to develop its own guidelines for pushing effectively, for pushing at the bill for the delta for the class sizes that we have not been able to attain for a very, very long time and don't appear to be able to attain in the near future.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “is it the board's will to get the financial delta for both class size targets, both the one in the bill as well as the Pikus Avenue? I'm assuming so. I just wanted to clarify.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Paul McDonogh “I move to approve ASD Memorandum 178, um, with the S version attached describing the board policy for 6, 1, 5, 1.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Dora Wilson “the repetitive nature of continuing to communicate that particular message, I think, is awesome because For many reasons, that message is not received. And so just to kind of put that, prioritize that in the messaging that needs to be in what I'll call the basic messaging. But basic messaging is really important for those legislators and for our community to understand that we cannot have smaller class sizes because we cannot afford to have that.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Dora Wilson “I understand that the legislature would like to see certain class sizes. We don't have the budget for that. I also absolutely would love to see the lower class sizes, which our students need and deserve. Again, we don't have the budget for that”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Kelly Lessens “the superintendent shall ensure that key stakeholders receive this information within 1 week following the board's annual passage of the district's budget”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Paul McDonogh “one of the larger intents here is that we don't unintentionally endorse the legislative position on class sizes. Um, I think people in this room especially know Alaska has local defined in our state constitution. And I actually was a critic of the HB 165, but then it's, it's movement into other bills, uh, because the state can recommend whatever it wants, but it's up to us to actually determine what is our standard.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Paul McDonogh “I appreciate the board's intent in this policy where we have basically two tiers. Um, I'll make a, a note for the record that the way this reads in the Intention of Governance Committee, seems that the, the top 2 numbers are indeed the maximum compliance thresholds, and we're, we're still not in compliance with those. But the second numbers are the scientific evidence-based numbers”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Paul McDonogh “this policy makes it clear that the science is that they're inadequately funding our district. If we do not have the, the Pikus Oden numbers, which can be amended by a future governance committee and then a future board, if the science changes. Um, but if we don't have them in here, it makes our ability to raise a lawsuit a lot more unclear”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Pat Higgins “the goal here is you got litigation going on in regards to what is, uh, adequate funding, and we don't want to do anything inconsistent with that.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Carl Jacobs “That motion is adopted by a vote of 7 to 0.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

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