Video Clips

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

Clips from Anchorage School DistrictClear

Susanne Fleek-Green “Once the school district has made that decision, we intend to go through a process like we are right now with Campbell STEM, where we are meeting with a much larger community, including the nearby community councils, to talk about what people would like to see that addresses the best next public step for that property.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:18

Paul McDonogh “I move that the Anchorage School Board direct the board president to draft a letter on behalf of the board to the Anchorage Assembly urging the Assembly to vote down AO 2026-130.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:40

Miss Miss Parrott (Anchorage School District)

“funds are available to, to go toward capital projects, obviously, as well as other funds such currently with the current law and interpretation, such as student nutrition, transportation, as you mentioned, potentially student activities, and those items that are truly outside of the operating fund.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:08

Pat Higgins “I'm not going to support trying to say don't let the public decide anything else again.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:21

Carl Jacobs “Esteemer memorandum number 047 is adopted by a vote of 6 to 1.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:12

Pat Higgins “We've got a couple of activities going on, and I don't think Abbott Loop Community Council has really signed on to this the way it's going forward.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:28

Susanne Fleek-Green “Our goal is that we are able to do that early in the new year and that we want number to be available to the school districts with at least an appraisal of the property and have it out for sale so that before the turn of the calendar you have at least a rough dollar amount of what that sale could go for and that we could execute the sale early in the new year.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:26

Kelly Lessens “this assembly resolution, which for everyone's reference is the resolution to— and I'm paraphrasing— um, have 6 board members be elected on a district basis and 1 board member to be elected at large over a multi-year period”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:29

Pat Higgins “has there been any community meetings at all in regards to what the plans are with Abbott? Because I live in that area, I don't see anything where we've given a chance for the community to provide input as to what they would like to see accomplished.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:13

Pat Higgins “I don't think we need to get out there and say we, we have to, we oppose this because we don't want the public voice to be heard on this issue. They want to go forward with it with the public.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:06

Carl Jacobs “that motion is adopted by a vote of 6 to 1.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:55

Paul McDonogh “There's a 2023 study of switching to— it's in the Journal of Politics. This is only 3 years ago, that said switching to district elections has empowered neighborhoods to block shared decisions and has led to reduced housing approvals.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:19

Carl Jacobs “I, I think my service is easier on this board knowing that I can advocate for the best interest of all students and not have to worry about what part of town I'm from or what part of town I'm representing that year”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:29

Kelly Lessens “I move to approve ASD Memorandum 047, Facilities and Land Returning to the Municipality of Anchorage, to transfer $3.96 million in available prior bond— prior year bond funds in order to demolish the Abalute facility and relinquish management rights once demolished, relinquish management rights of the Campbell Lake Elementary facility and relinquish management rights of the West Park parcel in Anchorage.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:17

Carl Jacobs “could we have a voice vote on the motion which is, uh, that the Anchorage School Board direct the board president to draft a letter on behalf of the board to the Anchorage Assembly urging the assembly to vote down AO 2026-130.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:28

Margo Bellamy “We have, as I recall, the fire— there is a person called the fire marshal that condemned this building. They let us use it until I think 2027 or 2028”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:23

Margo Bellamy “I believe that education is a community responsibility, and I don't think— and we should not be limiting the community's voice and, and how they vote for representation for education.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:40

Paul McDonogh “he had said that Abbott Loop was consistently on the possible demolition list because of its runaway repair costs. Um, the board did eventually vote through those very extensive town halls to close the school.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:56

Margo Bellamy “So while I understand how the assembly, um, organizes around communities and community needs, Education is a total full community responsibility, and it deserves that every board member, no matter what their zip code is, no matter what our students' zip code is, that we make systems or we create systems that are accessible and are reflective of the needs of every student in the city, not by district.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:29

Pat Higgins “I also have reservations that we haven't looked at Abbott Loop, what we can use internally within the city, within the school district, for to replace some of the administrative type functions. So I'm not going to support it.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:38

Rachel Blakeslee “I think fundamentally, um, I agree with all of the logistical problems that Member Lessens just laid out, highly concerned about that and how it almost sort of inherently doesn't accomplish the, the very intent of of what is being proposed”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:22

Carl Jacobs “the assembly voted on resolution regarding the West Park property at their last meeting, but I want to take a second to confirm. I was— I believe the vote on that was 11 to 1”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:45

Kelly Lessens “a significant portion of our students attend a school or program— program within a school sometimes— outside of their district. So if you are the family of a student who lives in District A and attends school in District B, or however we want to number them, Who do you— who's your phone-a-friend?”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:24

Kelly Lessens “I think that as long as we have a pretty robust choice system where 35 to 40% of students are mobile. Um, I think the district-based representation, to bring it back to Member Bellamy's point, really, really fails to serve students.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:42

Paul McDonogh “the only thesis I can come up with is distributing board power to school-level autonomy will achieve what the community is yearning for. Um, and really the best way we can do that is by retaining 7 at-large members.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:57

Paul McDonogh “Member Handeland proposed AO 2026-130, and it was moved to be voted on at the November 4th meeting.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:49

Carl Jacobs “there was a 2014 study by the Fordham Institute and indicated that districts where at-large board membership elections occurred had correlated better with positive academic outcomes.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:17

Kelly Lessens “recall that Anchorage is about 2,000 square miles. It's a big place, about the size of Rhode Island. However, Mat-Su and Kenai are each larger than the state of West Virginia at about 25,000 square miles.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:36

Carl Jacobs “could you confirm the board's understanding that the assembly at their October 6th meeting passed a resolution pledging to allocate the proceeds of a sale of the West Park property mentioned in ASD Memorandum Number 047 to the district”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:39

Carl Jacobs “ASD memorandum number 047-2627, facilities and land returning to the Municipality of Anchorage, to transfer $3.96 million in available prior year bond funds in order to demolish the Abbott Loop facility and relinquish management rights once demolished, relinquish management rights of the Campbell Lake Elementary facility, and relinquish management rights of the West Park parcel in Anchorage.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:26

Jim Anderson “they made it very clear that they would like us to demo it because they were looking at a deficit building the next year's budget and, and didn't have the funds to either demo or renovate it.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:13

Jim Anderson “currently we do not have an approved waiver from the fire marshal to occupy that space as a school. We had explained this to the mayor's team.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Oct 20, 2026

0:28

Larry Morris

“the library area again has those parallel chord top-hung trusses that, as you can see in the photos there, the structural engineer said that we had to do repairs or replacements. On top of that, in the gym, the walls need to have some structural upgrades to them.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:42

Larry Morris

“FEMA also gave us a grant to do a full design for mitigating all of the structural requirements, seismic structural requirements, to bring it up to what would be 125%”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:15

Kelly Lessens “these things are dynamic. They change from year to year. But I have found prior CIPs to be interesting, informative, sort of, you know, what did we think would be prioritized and where are we?”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:21

Dr. J Harrett Bryantt (Anchorage School District)

“one of the slides you'll see today will be a much larger list of potential projects than we'll recommend actually having on the bond proposition, and the work ahead is really going to be narrowing down that list to the final proposal that'll be before you in November”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:21

Dr. J Harrett Bryantt (Anchorage School District)

“I do believe that it is important, as I've shared before, that the district pursue a bond this April, but I do believe that the size of the bond should be smaller. And by smaller, I mean lower than around $60 million.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:08

Larry Morris

“One of them showed our deferred requirements at almost $1.5 billion.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:25

Larry Morris

“it will actually create a new secure vestibule by rearranging the administrative area, expanding some of it. It—. The roof, as you can see this in the next sheet, it has a few leaks. It's a very old IRMAA roof. We also have some structural issues.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:24

Larry Morris

“Obviously, everybody knows East High School is fairly old. Um, the electrical service is one of those that we have which ASD actually owns it from the time it leaves the main all the way onto the property and into various junction boxes.”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:34

Larry Morris

“Here is how we can say what we come up— came up with as our top 130 million of projects on here”

Anchorage School Board: 10/20/2026: School Board Work Session · Oct 20, 2026

0:41

Dan Whitfield

“With classes between 45 and 83, connecting with students is nearly impossible. All the extra things that made Golden View Band special I can no longer provide— jazz band, lunchtime practice sessions, extra help before and after school All gone.”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

0:35

Dan Whitfield

“I would like to extend an invitation to all of you to spend a day in my Goldenview band room, witness some of the amazing things my students do daily, and see how my schedule and student load is impacting them.”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

0:12

Herper Kushner

“It is day 10 of school and we are burnt out. We are burnt out. Our coaches are exhausted. The teachers are exhausted.”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

0:35

Dan Whitfield

“2 Years ago, 6th graders were integrated into the middle schools, and I was blessed with an additional halftime band director to help teach the added 150+ students that were enrolled in my band program.”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

0:16

Bruce Scheltz

“I respectfully request the board to reconsider the position that you no longer have these building subs to rely on.”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

0:19

Tammy Hoag

“All other teachers have 5 classes with 2 planning periods. That is a huge constraint on that classroom.”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

0:31

Tammy Hoag

“Parents deserve to know that a teacher with this record is being asked to carry this heavy load and whether he is given the resources and help to do it successfully. I urge you, ASD, to look into this”

Anchorage School Board: 9/1/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Sep 1, 2026

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