Anchorage School Board: 06/02/2026: School Board Meeting

Member McDonough, are you moving to remove that agenda item from our agenda?

I. If that is, if I was incorrect with what move to strike means, then you are correct and my procedural terminology was not. I'm requesting that we take it off the agenda while it is an inaccurate account of the written record of the district's committees. Okay, so there's a motion to remove ASD memorandum 178 BP 6151 class size from our agenda tonight. There was more words than that, but that's in effect what's been moved.

Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. Is there additional discussion?

Member Bellamy?

I think I, I think I, I'm trying to anyway as a part of the committee, the governance committee that moved this forward. It's non. In its non active action state.

This. I, I knew that it would change. I mean not, not that it may not be. It's to meet our deadline. We put it on non action so that we would have a place for it on the agenda and then we would, we would make whatever edits, amendments, CL Whatever we would make those things as we went through the process.

So I'm, it is already a non action item. I don't want to, I don't want to lose this place on the agenda because we have, I mean we have. It's a time, it's kind of, it's time sensitive. So I agree with Member McDonough that it didn't. This one 178 does not capture what we, what we sent forward.

But I also knew in our process that we would get to change that. So removing it from the agenda essentially is going to start this whole thing all over again and we're just not going to meet the deadline. So I, I'm not for removing it, but I am for it going through the process and, and, and being amended, substituted, whatever when we get to action. Member Blakesley that was going to actually just be my. Well, Member Bellamy's statement but in a question form was if it's on an.

Does it have to be an action item in order for us to make amendments to it and change it or can it be in a non action status for us to make amendments in it during this. Yep. Appreciate the question. Member Bleaksley I can't speak to the decades of board conduct. I can say that since I joined the board the board has chosen not to try and amend non action items and so we would amend when we get to action.

The inherent status of our non action agenda implies that we will not take Action to include amending it. However, what board members have done in the past is pulled a non action item to discuss, declare their intent to make an amendment, discuss the amendment. Amendment publicly to inform public discourse, and then we've. We've moved on, and then that amendment's brought forward, attached to our agenda prior to our next meeting when it would be an action item. And that.

That is how the process has gone both in my time here as well as I understand, since before that. Okay, so we have the opportunity to discuss amendments that would. We would want to see with this policy and we still have another opportunity before it's actually finalized. Right. As an action item at the next meeting.

Is that what you're saying? Right. Correct. Okay, we're going to do it. We would do it.

Retreat. Oh, the retreat is the other meeting. Special is where this would be the action item. Item, potentially. Unless the board found a reason to call a special meeting.

Although I don't at this point see that as being something that's. You don't say that yet. Okay. Yes, that. That's okay.

That makes sense to me. Thank you. Okay, I see. Member McD.

So I'll. As we're debating the motion to remove this, stating my intention is to correctly voice the will of the Governance Committee in the memoranda that has my name on it. And so for this to be the first memorandum with my name on it, and for it to be this egregiously out of what my colleagues and I discussed during Governance Committee. I did speak briefly to the President as this agenda was released to the public this weekend, asking what is the correct course of action where the attachment is not something that I would ever have put my name behind and signed, and it is yet here, right in front of me, and anyone in the public can open this attachment and read it. There was no course of action suggested to me except amend it yourself.

But. But that stating to my colleagues is then basically an admission that I wrote this in the first place, which I did not. And this is too far outside of the direction provided. So I did suggest to the way that this agenda was prepared that it's just simply modified to be read as approved by and then the actual staff in the administration that drafted this version of the board policy. And then it's not me modifying my own policy, it's if I have one, that I think the Governance committee would actually appreciate we're modifying accurately the administration and the recommendation that they raised for us.

Member Bellamy.

Okay, I'll enter the queue. Just Respond to Member McDonough Member McDonough, as I indicated to you yesterday when we spoke, the other option remedy you had available to you was to contact Administration. You were advised of the author from administration who authored the memorandum and advised that it would be a non action status and advised that you would have an opportunity to amend it when it moved to action status. At this point, I support keeping this item on the agenda as there isn't. There hasn't been a viable alternative pathway for adopting a policy and complying with state law proposed.

And so I will vote against this amendment to strike this item from the agenda. I'll say that, you know, this was the Governance Committee in the current construction's first meeting. I think as we have time to continue working as a group of seven, these items undoubtedly will get smoothed out. From a procedural perspective, it was unusual for the committee to ask for a draft policy to be put forward while also asking for minor edits to be made. I don't fault Administration for not capturing the will of the committee.

Especially because Administration's changes can be undone when the item moves to action status. If the majority of the war of the board so chooses. Member Higgins. Yeah, I'm a little confused now. If we're talking about a board policy, the board has to vote twice, right?

And this is not counted as one of the boards thing. This has just been there for discussion purposes. Is that what I understand is being who's in it? The board does not vote twice on policy changes. The board puts policy changes on a non action calendar which is being done tonight.

Member Higgins. And then the board votes and a second meeting when the item is moved from non action to action status. In theory, that vote could occur at our retreat. It also could occur at a special meeting if there's one called. However, I don't anticipate at this point a special meeting being called before the end of the month.

Does that answer your question? Maybe.

Member Higgins, if your question is specifically, can a policy change go straight to an action calendar? That has not been our best practice. Our best practice has been to notice it on non action status, move it to action status at another meeting to make sure that there are two readings. But the board does not vote twice on board policy changes. Hopefully that's of use.

I see member McDonough, the member Blakesley. Yeah. To member Higgins saying confusion. I understand this is already a confusing exercise. What I've asked the board to vote on is right now action item non action item F1 on the agenda that we're about to vote on states it is the governance committee chair's recommendation.

It's my recommendation that the school board approve this new board policy 6151 on class size. I reached out to the president as soon as I read this on. I think it was on Friday or Saturday. Actually, it was on Monday. Because on Friday and Saturday there was simply a part of our agenda called placeholder.

So I didn't get to read the policy that my name was recommending. So what I'm asking the board to do is strike it or remove it from the agenda. Because this is not the policy that I as governance chair recommend the board to vote on. And if this type of procedural problem requires us to go to a special meeting to comply with Alaska statute, it is what it is. But to me, it's the most honest outcome is for us to remove this from the agenda.

While it is not at all a policy that I would recommend the board to adopt.

Member Blakesley, is there a way to amend the wording in the recommendation while leaving it on the non action item list by saying, as an example, it is the governance committee's recommendation that the school board bring the policy, be board policy 6151 class size to this board meeting as a non action item for discussion? Like, could we. Could it be possible to just. If. If the issue.

It sounds like the issue at hand is the language here about the governance committee chair approving a policy that he did not approve or recommend in its current form? Could be. Could we amend the language while leaving it as a non action item just in the recommendation? No, you can't do that. That's not a thing.

After the item was posted. Yeah. It. Did not strike me as a transparent way to conduct ourselves, to pull an item, revise it and put it back up. That's not how I would want my local government to operate.

We typically don't remove things from our agenda as attachments entirely. I can't actually think of a single example. We typically attach substitute versions if administration or member of the board or the committee wants to attach a substitute memorandum for our next meeting, that absolutely could be attached to the agenda.

Yeah. Member Higgins, I see your hand is down. Okay, again, I'm just going to reiterate that in this case, the procedural move the governance committee chose to make was not something that was not typically done. The committee has before asked a policy to be moved forward with minor edits. What has happened, it sounds like, is the administration's proposed revision for the board to vote on has missed the mark of at least One member of the committee.

I think the best, most transparent pathway forward is for this to continue to action status, at which point a substitute could be prepared, attached to our agenda, and then voted on. Whether that is a substitute memorandum or a substitute board policy draft. Either way, I think would be appropriate from a governance perspective. That's what I Recommend here. Member McDonough,.

I will raise the point of personal comfort here in the statement that the President characterized this as like an unconventional means by which the committee is directing the administration. The President and I had a conversation in the committee room with doors open to the public right before the committee began, where I asked for specific advice as to the operations and procedures of ASD committees that he has asked me to chair. And so I was operating under the advisement of the President by making the committee's instruction as I did. And the term that we specifically discussed is does the committee tend to operate more loosey goosey than with the formal constraints of Robert's Rules? And my understanding to a room full of people who could also attest to this, is that the President said that is correct, that we tend to go a little further outside of Robert's Rules in committees and we tend to give direction, but not full on, like hand over hand direct drafting of policies.

Okay, I think that was just another point of debate. I won't treat that as a point of personal privilege or a point of information. Member Higgins. Yeah, I guess my only concern here is that you get something from a committee where they spend more time trying to dissect it completely and then it comes to the board and if there's issues about it coming from the committee to, to the full board, I would prefer to give them an opportunity to address that issue and then come back because they can go in more detail with the administration, with the issues and, and spend more time there to just to get it fully resolved. And I don't like the idea of it coming here if it's controversial in regards to what they're even saying, that that sets it up for, you know, all sorts of confusion.

So for, for simple reason, I don't think anything from any of the committees coming to us should be something that the committee clearly has identified and what they're providing to us is what they want. I, I would like to go ahead and, and move to postpone this, you know, and give the committee more time. Okay, I'll enter the queue one last time.

No. Member Bellamy. I see she hasn't spoken just once. Member Bellamy.

It's non action. Nothing's going no action's going to be taken on it tonight as we move forward. I don't want, if it comes off the agenda tonight. I mean, I don't, I don't know that in my seven years that we've ever taken an item off the agenda. We may have sent it back to committee.

This one has a particular time sensitivity.

So when it gets to action, we can do whatever we want to do with it. We can modify it, we can, I mean, we can amend it, we can send it back to committee, I guess, if we want to do that when we take action. But I think it's possible to do what member McDonough wants to do and maybe has done. I'm not quite sure. But our process is out of committee, non action, then to action.

And we have transformed things tremendously when it comes out of. When it goes to action. So the possibility and the opportunity is still there.

And I guess I'm, you know, I agree that things come from the committee. They don't necessarily come from one person on the committee. But. And that can be fixed too, when we get to action. I just would hate for us to, especially this time of year when I don't even know if we're going to have a quorum because people have already made, you know, made their, their summer plans anyway.

I just think that to keep it space to keep it on the agenda and make those modifications when we go to action, we have, we can do that. And that is not that that is consistent with what we've always done. And I don't think that that is outside of. I don't think that that has anything to do with being transparency or being true. I mean, it has to do with more processed than anything else with the same outcome to change the memo and the policy.

Because there's two different things here. To change the memo and. Or the policy to reflect what we need it to reflect. We have time to do that and we hopefully we will have a quorum for our retreat. Member Wilson, I saw your hand.

Do you have comments on this motion?

I. I did, but I had my questions answered along, along the way during conversation. Thank you. Okay, I have. Member Higgins. I am absolutely confused now.

On one hand, we need to go forward. It's a non action item. We won't be taking any action. But the other is time sensitive. I don't know why it's time sensitive.

What this thing is going to administration to do different than what they would be doing based on the timing of this particular action. What are they going to be Doing differently. Yeah, I can answer your procedural question. A few minutes ago. You may recall, Dr. Bryant, in my response to my question to time sensitivity indicated that we are required by Alaska law to have a policy in place that addresses this item before the end of the month.

That's the time sensitive nature. The other element of time sensitivity is we have a limited number of business meetings left. We have a regular meeting tonight and we have our agenda which attached to our board retreat. And aside from that, we would have to call a special meeting to address any other business. So those are the time sensitive elements.

I'm going to enter the queue now and just reiterate that I think the goal of the maker of this motion is to address what it sees as corrections that need to be made to the memorandum as well as the board policy. I myself have a amendment I'm considering to the board policy. And so I'm just planning on addressing that when the items in action status. I would propose that that's the best path forward from a governance perspective.

I think those are my comments. Seeing no one else in the queue, can we have a voice vote to address the motion to remove ASD memorandum number 178 BP 6151 class size from the agenda today? Member Wilson, just for confirmation. So voting yes would be moving. Would be removing it.

Voting no would be moving it forward to action item. Correct. Members for board members, a yes vote would be to remove the ASD memorandum number 178 from our agenda. A no vote which be to keep it on our agenda tonight. No.

Member Higgins?

Yes. Member McD? Yes. Member Blakesley? No.

Member Bellamy? No. President Jacobs? No. The motion is not adopted by a vote of 2 to 4.

Is there any other discussion on the agenda? Seeing none. Is there any opposition to adopting the agenda as drafted?

Seeing none, the adjo. The agenda is adopted. We'll move forward with board conference and committee reports. I'm going to start tonight and take the liberty as chair to indicate as this is our last regular business meeting that isn't attached to our retreat that I intend to, according to board policy, create an ad hoc committee related to addressing the school consolidation process and addressing improvements with the process, as well as addressing methods and means to increase transparency and public engagement with consolidation. When the board chooses to take that item up again for consideration.

The ad hoc committee as well as its focus guardrails composition will be announced to the board via email this week. And I understand from administration we've gotten a commitment that they are ready to support this ad hoc committee as soon as July 15th. Is that correct, Dr. Bryant? Correct. Okay.

Some more information coming for the board which could be addressed if there are questions at our next regular meeting or during the retreat. With that said, is there a board committee chair who wishes to make a report at this time? Member Blakesley yeah, I'll just make a quick report on the Finance Committee meeting.

So the Finance Committee had a meeting last week and we had prepared a bunch of spending scenarios in the event that all of the one time funding the ASD could theoretically get get, barring any gunatorial vetoes, different scenarios that we could start to discuss about how to allocate funding. But right before that Finance Committee meeting, we learned that the fine print in the one time funding bill, the Appropriations bill itself, had additional challenges in terms of the timeline around which that funding would even land in ASD's lap should it come to fruition. The fine print in the appropriations bill itself essentially says that in order, well one we have to get, it has to pass a gubernatorial veto. So that's challenge number one. If any of the money, even partial funding, gets passed and makes it survives a gubernatorial veto.

The second challenge is that that money, based off of the bill's language, states that we don't actually get any funds unless the state exceeds a specific oil revenue target of $6.3 billion. And that determination, it's not just based off of the price of oil at any given moment. It has to exceed a specific target by the end of the year. And that determination will be made by the Commissioner and the Department of Revenue August 31st. And that is another challenge because school starts before August 31st.

And so then our conversation in the Finance Committee meeting pivoted so that it wasn't anymore about the potential spending scenarios that we could discuss. And instead it was about how we navigate the fine print in this bill and the additional layers of challenges it it provides us. And one of the questions that was raised is what level of flexibility ASD even has in its ability to obligate funding prior to any prior to the funding actually being received. And again, that's very much dependent on us knowing with absolute certainty that that funding is actually going to manifest, that that oil revenue target has been exceeded per the bills language, which is pretty clear. So the status that we're now in before we can even have the discussions about how to potentially spend one time funding, regardless of how much it is, if and when it passes, is now sort of dependent on what the Commissioner says and when they say it.

So we'll talk about that later. But what the Commissioner says in terms of the timeline by which we, we find out if we have met that revenue target, that then releases any potential funds that pass a veto. So the committee ended up coming up with a recommendation that we'll talk about in this agenda today. To essentially direct the board president, Member Jacobs and President Jacobs and Dr. Bryant to draft a communications that would then be publicly circulated about the timeline by which we would need to know that that revenue target had been met by the state so that then we could start planning for what those funding scenarios could look like in the event that we receive any funding. So that agenda item will come up later.

But that was sort of the synthesis of our Finance committee meeting. That's it. Thank you Member Blakesley, Member Bellamy. Thank you. And thank you, Mr.

Chair for the ad hoc committee. I think, I think that work is going to be pretty exciting and I look forward to doing it. We have a joint assembly meeting, I believe this Friday. Correct. And that's at 10 o', clock, is it?

Here in our building, in our boardroom. The board also has its retreat. Retreat. Its retreat on the 12th and the 13th. And so there's no meeting scheduled for.

No communications meeting scheduled for June or July. Our next meeting will be in August and we will make sure that date gets out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Member Bell may. Member McDonough. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I agree with the communications Chair's enthusiasm about this ad hoc committee and I really hope that this business begins quickly and works well to get thousands of voices folded into how our schools should. But I'll.

I'll get into the governance report. So the governance committee met on May 28th and we ended up reviewing several policy and academic matters that I'll just quickly brief the board and public on. In the committee and in attendance were committee member Bellamy and myself, along with President Jacobs. And board members Blakesley and Higgins joined us to serve as an advisory component. And so we were not joined by member Lessons, who is a member of the committee.

The first business we discussed was a recommendation, or rather just a notification that the Secondary Education team has made changes to its Administrative Regulation 5144, which is specifically the discipline policy for students. The Secondary Education Department briefed the committee on amendments to this policy that would effectively expand the point at which a drug suspension moves to removal from the school indefinitely. Currently under administrative regulation, the district would remove a student from the school after the second offense of a significant drug related infringement. And this new reading of the Administrative regulation would expand that to basically three strikes with a progressive system of allowing for restorative justice practices to take place. And the committee seemed to be very enthusiastic, especially about the way the administration worked with its principals to develop this policy and has a proactive approach to restorative justice to offer the students who are in their first and now second violation before they're essentially removed forever.

Secondly, the committee discussed the board policy 6151, which we just debated and as a, as a update on the discussion to the board that the committee had. I'll note that the reason we had this reading, which was actually originally a part of a March governance agenda, is that last year the Alaska legislature passed, I think it's HB 64, which then was signed into law and is a part of Alaska statute 14.03065. And this obligates all school boards that have a certain number of students. I think it's like 45,000 as our ADM. So the large school districts in Alaska have to now, under Alaska statute, adopt a maximum class size policy.

So that's really what we discussed during the discussion. The policy that the administration brought forward was a close parallel to the Fairbanks School District's policy, which is also compelled under this Alaska statute to have a class size maximum. And it, it also contained suggested changes from the association of Alaska School Boards. The committee then brought two specific directions that reached full concurrence of the committee. The first is that the proposed class size thresholds in this reading, which says 23 students in grades K through 6 and 30 in grades 7 through 12, would be considered the adequate maximum under the Alaska statute.

And those numbers come from the Alaska statute, which then come from the House bill, which do not come from scientific analysis of education practices. It's just what lawmakers decided to write. So the committee found this to be an arbitrary number. And even though it's in compliant with state law, we've already committed ourselves to an evidence based review of the literature under the Picus Auden study. And we have seen that adequate class sizes include 15 students in grades K through 3 and then 25 students in grades 4 through 12.

So there was a big difference in the Alaska statutory requirement numbers and the numbers that we have already considered to be best practices. So the committee seemed to be in full concurrence that we should be committing what we think is the evidence based standard of education practice, not just a compliant number that lawmakers have decided to put into like an Alaska statute. Secondly, on this policy, President Jacobs himself Asked for the administration to include a way that the board can actually show the cost of implementing adequate class sizes because currently even if we have the 23 and 30 student maximums, we are way out of compliance of even those numbers. And there's a significant cost in the range of tens of millions of dollars that the state of Alaska would be obligated to fill if we are shown to be out of compliance of their own standards. And so those two changes were requested for administration to bring forward and.

As. We discussed earlier did not quite make their way into the final reading for the non action item. The last thing that the committee discussed was recommended. So the board during our last meeting referred back to committee the health education policy BP5004 1 because at the time it was requested to be amended for the middle school model changes which were then reverted. But we then tried to use it as an opportunity to change for the elementary curriculum which is being refreshed and basically superseded with the CKLA platform.

We did not reach like any form of consensus during that meeting. So we've tabled that and we'll be bringing forward to the board after the summer break more robust modifications to our elementary curriculum policies. And then lastly we had a quick note from the student advisory board resolutions and administration remarked from student advisory board resolution 2601 that credit by choice opportunities for middle school students or former middle school students who completed a world language are currently available and that the the school level administration and counselors can work better with those students to offer them the opportunity to compensate middle school credits into high school. And then SAB Resolution 2503 is a recommendation for the school district to adopt basically like a seasonal pass for parents to go to athletic events. And the administration's recommendation at the time is that this would take an extensive study of how we.

How we have the whole operation of activities passes and that we would. We would have to bring it forward at a later date after that study is completed for for there to be a successful implementation of board policy that allows for seasonal passes. And with that that is the conclusion of the governance report.

Thank you. That completes board committee reports. We'll move on to public comments. Welcome to the school board's first and only opportunity this evening for public comment. We've set aside a time slot the beginning of our meeting to hear from the public.

During public comments, board members will not answer questions or engage in discussion with the public. This is the public's time to speak and the board's time to listen. We utilize Roberts rules of order to run our meetings. The Robert's Rules of Order guidelines include do not attack a member speaker's motives. No profanity or foul language.

Please refrain from disturbing the meeting. No cheering, applause, opera or waving of signs or posters. If you have handouts you wish to share with the board, please hand them to Ms. Sullivan, who seated to my left. There's more information at the handout near the door regarding public comment guidelines.

Our first testifier tonight is our student testifier and then their parents could Islay MacDonald and Rob McDonald please come forward.

Welcome. You have three minutes. You can begin when you're ready.

Hola. Buenos tardes. Senor Higgins Chamay, Member McDonough Strastiche Dobrecher, President Jacobs Nihau Member Bellamy Con Bonoir Blake slee and for Ms. Wilson. Hello. Guten Abend, Frau Wilson.

I wanted to greet each one of you and would do so for member lessons in one of the languages used by Anchorage language immersion programs. Language is amazing, and it is not only indicative and representative of the cultures from which it comes, but recent evidence shows that it also impacts the thinking of the people within that culture. Lyra Boroditsky recently did a TED talk where she contrasted words in German or Spanish that have masculine or feminine nomenclature. And for the example she uses is that the word bridge and German has a feminine ending. And because of that, many Germans will describe bridges in stereotypical feminine terms.

It's elegant. It's beautiful. In Spanish, bridge is a masculine word, and people will often describe it as strong or tall. So languages really impact the way that people in different cultures think. ASD has an additional language program of which you may be unaware within Campbell Stem.

Unsurprisingly, I'm going to talk about that tonight. There's two languages that are spoken there as well, and those languages are math and science. And math is based on a logical framework where things either are or they're not, or things are greater or lesser. And because of that, we have kids that are learning core essential things to help them discern truth and reality in this world. And when, in a world of competing social and political narratives, AI deep fakes, being able to discern reality and what is true will be a critical skill.

Unsurprisingly, I don't agree with the decision of the board to close it. But something that member Lesson said at the last meeting really struck with me. And there's something the way she said it made me realize that it's not a $90 billion budget shortfall. This year, it is 180 million dollar shortfall over three years. Many years ago, right after high school, I was trained as an EMT and then eventually a ski patrol.

A core module of that was triage. In the event of a mass casualty incident, you would go in and you would immediately assess whoever's first on scene. Green, yellow, red or black. Green is somebody that can walk. Yellow needs care.

Red needs to be evac immediately. And black, even if they're talking to you, they're dead. You guys have had done that triage work over this past time. And although I disagree with your labeling of Campbell as black,.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Welcome, Ms. McDonald. You have three minutes if you would like to testify. Please be you when you're ready.

You have this. You're. You're so brave already being here. Give me a start for you.

Can I start for you?

Member bolts. He thinks you can do it. Sure. Let's do it together.

Thank you for patience. Can I read for you? Good evening, Anchorage School Board. My name is Isla. I recently did a science project for the Alaska State Science Fair.

My. My project was a prosthetic leg for cats. I saw a cat once that only had three legs. I wondered if it was harder for that cat to walk. You want to take a deep breath?

You're doing so good.

I do have to say, even as an adult, I find you guys mildly intimidating. So.

May I continue to read on her bath? Thank you.

Yeah. You want to break me talk. You got of time. It's okay. It could work.

Okay, I will do it. Too quick.

I wanted to help when I researched, I found other cat prosthetic designs. None of the designs I found had a paw. I wanted to build a prototype that had a paw. For my prototype, I used Legos to build it.

To find the right size, I measured the front leg of Luna, our black cat. Don't be worried for Luna. She has all four of her legs. I wanted the prototype to have joints. Like a real cat leg.

I was worried that the prosthetic might be uncomfortable for the cat where it meets the body. I put on a tiny pad at the top so it would be nice and cozy for the kitty. I was happy when I got a first place ribbon. In the next design, I would like to put springs in it to help the cats jump.

I think you got this. So we've got a minute and two seconds. You want to do a deep breath? No. You're so brave already being here.

I did this project on my own with the help of my mom and dad. It has Great. Been great being at Campbell STEM with other kids that like to learn science and engineering. Being at a school that makes science important helps me learn more about the things that I want to learn. I want to be a vet when I grow up.

And Campbell STEM has so much for girls like me that love science and math. It's a super great school. Please keep Campbell STEM open. Thank you and good night. Thank you both for your testimony.

Our two community speakers to be heard tonight are Imre Manyoki and Cindy Mendez Espino.

So, Imre, if you could come forward. And then Cindy is online. Welcome you three minutes. Please begin when you're ready.

Yeah, so last meeting it was here. There was another testifier that was talking about how he grew up in the system and now he's doing good. And I, you know, he's now writing contracts for the Anchorage school district. And, you know, that's good that there are some people doing good from the diploma that they're getting from the school district. But my concern, I was trying to show you guys this last time, but I ran out of time.

So the basic stats where we have this, you know, this 2.7 GPA is basically like what you might call a success rate. What you're saying is that they've studied that, they've done some studies and found that people that are around this GPA rate have a lot better chance of success. Success. And so what I'm suggesting is the goal should be that we have this 2.7 GPA be the graduation standard. See, right now we have the graduations up here, usually around 97% or so, but about 55% are above this 2.7%.

And then we have 40% below 2.5, 20% below 2.0 GPA. And so rather than, you know, waxing eloquently about the success stories and the people that are doing good and benefiting from the system, my concern is the people that are not benefiting from the system. This is kind of bottom 40%. And, but beyond that, the. These are stats from the past.

You know, this doesn't necessarily reflect that students graduating today at the 2.7 are necessarily going to be very successful in the future, because the future is changing fast. And what, what I estimate is, you know, I think not many people would argue with me too much. A big problem is a lack of student motivation. And my theory is that for a lot of these students, that it's. This hostility against schooling is something that starts in elementary school.

That should be something that we should focus on is that keep young students enthused about learning, keep it interesting and, you know, but closing all these elementary schools, that's just doing the opposite of that, you know, And I, I don't know how you guys can, you know, rationalize it because watching all these students testify and everything, I thought you guys were going to keep them all after all that, you know.

Thank you for your testimony. Our last community speaker to be heard tonight is Cindy Mendez Espino, who joins us online. Cindy, if you could hit Star six to unmute. You have three minutes. Please begin when you're ready.

Good evening members of the Board. My name is Cindy Mendez Espino and I am speaking today as the Community Co Chair of the Multicultural Education Concerns Advisory Committee, or ME cac. As members of community and district leadership and advisory groups have engaged in ongoing conversations about right sizing, enrollment trends and educational equity across the asd, we believe it is important to acknowledge that school closure decisions cannot be evaluated solely through the lens of the most visible or organized public advocacy. While we understand and respect the emotional impact of school closure decisions on students and families and communities, we also recognize that the voices most consistently represented in public testimony and organized advocacy efforts often come from individuals with the greatest access, flexibility, educational backgrounds, language access, and familiarity with navigating systems of influence. Many families and communities impacted by broader district inequities under resourced programming or or long term operational instability may not participate in these processes in the same way.

Their absence from public discourse should not, however, be interpreted as a lack of concern or investment. NECAC members have expressed support for the district's rightsizing efforts due to the long term educational, operational and equity considerations associated with declining enrollment and the maintenance of significantly under enrolled facilities. These perspectives reflect experiences working across the district with diverse student populations and communities, including those who are historically underrepresented in public decision making spaces. We also want to express concern about proposals to create additional ad hoc committees regarding school closure decisions without careful consideration of the capacity and accessibility barriers many of our most underrepresented families face. Participation in committees requires transportation, child care, schedule flexibility, confidence in navigating institutional systems, and often a level of educational or procedural familiarity that not all families possess equally.

Without intentional support, these processes can unintentionally reinforce existing inequities by centering the perspectives of those with the greatest ability to to participate rather than those most impacted by systemic disparities. We remain concerned that reconsidering closure decisions, primarily in response to temporary increases in state funding, risks shifting the focus away from long term sustainability and equitable resource allocation. One time funding does not eliminate the ongoing realities of declining enrollment, staffing challenges, or the need to ensure all students have access to stable, adequately resourced learning environments. As a district community, we must continue.

Thank you for your testimony. If you would be willing to submit your full comments to the board, I can tell you that we would appreciate hearing from you. That completes our public comment for this evening. We will move forward with our consent agenda. Is there a board member who wishes to pull an item from the consent agenda for special consideration?

Seeing none. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as drafted?

Sorry, I was. I pushed the wrong button. I pushed the one on the left. Can I pull Just because I had a conversation with the superintendent speaking to the. I'm looking at.

I don't even see it on here now. Is the resolution on here? Oh, okay. Never mind. Sorry.

Okay. Mr. Chair, is there a motion to approve the concession? I will move to approve the consent agenda as. As it's presented.

I'll second.

Signal discussion. Can we have a voice vote to approve our consent agenda? Thank you. Member Higgins? Yes.

Member McDonough? Yes. Member Blakesley? Yes. Member Bellamy?

Yes. Member Wilson? Yes. President Jacobs? Yes.

The consent agenda is approved by about a 7 to 0. Well, that completes us through action items. Our first action item is student hearings. Is there a motion,.

Mr. Chair? I move to approve the student hearings as discussed in executive session.

Mr. Chair, can. Can I. Can I carry the motion with the wording in the agenda? I'll carry the motion.

I'll move to approve the expulsion of the students associated with ASD incident numbers 1454025 and 1455532 and 145531 and 1455529. And finally 1455534 as discussed in executive session. Motion made by member McDonough, seconded by M. Is there discussion? Seeing none. Can we have a voice vote on this item?

Member Wilson?

I think that was a yes. Member Bellamy? Yes. Member Blakesley? Yes.

Member McDonough? Yes. Member Higgins? Yes. President Jacobs?

Yes.

Our student hearing item is adopted by vote of 7 to 0. That brings for us to Item E2, ASD Resolution 2526 03. Is there a motion?

I don't have the actual wording in front of me, but I moved to approve ASDR 2526 03.

Is there a second?

I second. Motion made by member Bellamy. Seconded by member Blakesley. Is there discussion?

Member McDonough? Oh, is. Member Bellamy. You're. You're on unmuted.

Is that okay? Yeah. Thank you for raising this for the board's consideration. This is the ASD resolution directing the superintendent to what? What if the board passes this resolution, it would state basically the standard of inclusion at graduations to include students who have passed away during their high school experience here at asd.

And there's some stipulations in this resolution that we. That members who helped draft this and I made with care, for example, it will so specifically only allow the inclusion if the parents on their own come and request it, because there are some families that would definitely prefer privacy. So if they request it, this resolution would direct the superintendent that the district shall grant the request so long as it's inclusive and culturally responsive and most importantly, does not disturb the material processional of the graduation and also does not cause risk of emotional harm, like scientifically assessed risk to other students, because there can be traumatic episodes involved in deaths that we would still, I think, appreciate the district using the standard of care in the mental health and student supports division, but to be able to have discretion and say that there's gonna be a less disruptive or less emotionally harmful way of observing this student. So I appreciate. The superintendent and I met last week to talk about the way that the mental health and student supports department would be able to take this resolution and then over the summer and into the fall, draft administrative regulation that would then instruct all principals on how a graduation would be dealt with.

And this is a very similar process then to how this board about four years ago directed the former superintendent to do the same type of procedure for graduation regalia. And we're essentially setting the standard of what we consider to be inclusive with respect to students who have unfortunately passed away. And then the administration will be able to create those systems and work with the parents involved to make sure that the board's will is met. So I appreciate the discussion. And through comments, I would.

I would invite the superintendent to classify or invite staff to present the types of care and consideration that administration would be able to consider in granting these parent requests. Thank you, member McDonough. I'd love to invite up our Director of Student Support, Ms. Ellie Cecil, and our Director of High Schools, Mr. Eric Bachman. And while they come up, they're going to pull up a brief PowerPoint. But in summary, I really appreciate the collaboration with member McDonough to come together to find a way to institutionalize an administrative regulation that'll provide support to principals so that there's no guesswork when it comes to how to support students who have, who have become deceased during their high school careers.

But it's very important that when we create administrative regulations like this that they're grounded in, in the research and what the practitioners and clinicians tell us specifically in the realms of crisis response, bereavement and so forth. So what I hope to do this evening is to provide the board some confidence that we have excellent professionals that have been studying best practices across the state and also in other states or across this state and then nationwide to ensure that we have some integrity and honor in this process. So with that, I'll hand it off to our wonderful team members.

All right, great. Thanks for the opportunity, Dr. Bryant and school board. So I'm going to get things started. And one want to offer appreciation for the presentation by the Board of ASD Resolution 252603. We appreciate, appreciate the sentiment as we want to honor all families.

Tonight's presentation from Ally and I is really intended to put the resolution into a broader context. And we want to make the board. Aware of. The work that's been done on the better part of three years. First of all, building a really strong, robust crisis response management team that can support any school, school community when there has been a tragedy.

And my colleague Ali and others lead that work. I'm going to pause for a second.

I would ask for a recess, but we also seem to be lacking our president in the moment.

Is that something we can ask through?

No. Okay.

Baloney.

Right? We can go back one, just to the first slide.

Mr. Backman, I can ask for recess now. If you guys would wish me to. Start from the top. Start from the top as well. Would you like.

Would you like me to ask for a recess to get the glitches?

Sure. Give us just a couple minutes. Take a quick recess. We'll call it two minute recess.

I feel like it might be one minute.

Oh,.

It's like connection, but now it's moving. Maybe you should just join the presentation for my mental health.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Yes. We're ready when you are.

Okay. We're back from recess at 7:18pm Please begin. All right, thanks. So for a quick recap of the introduction, we appreciate the spirit of Resolution 25:2603. It's very important that we recognize and acknowledge all students in this case, especially those who have passed away.

The purpose of tonight's presentation is to put in a larger context where the resolution sits in relation to district wide crisis management, the creation of memorials for students who have died, and including graduation as one type of many memorials.

In this first slide, I intend just to create a broader context to appreciate the complexity of the issue and its sensitivity. And I guess I would like to begin really, on behalf of the district, acknowledging our heartfelt compassion and respect for all students and families who have passed will begin there. So the board is aware in the last three years, and that's when I took this position. Allie took hers. Dr. Das, who couldn't be with us, also took her position.

In that time, we've experienced in the district over two dozen deaths and the majority of those in the secondary division. So high schools, it's important to remind everyone that the grief process is not linear. It's highly complex and it's very unpredictable. People respond, families respond in very different ways. And of course, it's not just the families who are responding, it's peers who are responding, teachers who are responding, the broader community, including leadership.

Added layers of complexity include the cause of death, family values, religious beliefs, age, the social connections and networks of the students. Media, social media particularly, and many more. So when attending to memorials for students who have died, it's really important that we're potent, that we're highly intentional,. With. A mind on equity, as has been mentioned, and with a great degree of sensitivity.

I just want to share on behalf of the mental health and student support division that three years ago, Ashley and I did join the mental health and student support division, really in response to the acknowledgement that asd wanted to have more. More clear procedures and policies in place to be very responsive to all types of critical incidents. So I'm the director of student support and I know I've gotten to attend school board meetings, but for our new members, I was a school counselor for 10 years. I was a principal for eight, a curriculum principal for four, and then a middle school principal for four. And this is my third year, really from a student support lens of mental health, social, emotional, learning and crisis response.

One of my team members, Ashley Doss, who is unfortunately under the weather, She's a licensed clinical psychologist and she took the position of our critical response and wellness coordinator. Having been a school psychologist in ASD for multiple years. Our goal is really to collaborate across. The. District and schools to ensure that all of the parties and stakeholders are involved when we have a critical incident.

That includes our APD partners, Office of emergency management, of course, school leadership, communications, the superintendent office and much more, Especially depending on the student situation. And our keen focus is really using those best practices to support the mental health of all those impacted and the well being of Our school communities, as Eric and I mentioned, this really started three years ago with the specialty, experience and standardization of our practices. The first step was really getting a baseline for what practice, practices and procedures we already had. And it quickly became a priority to create a crisis response manual to really ensure some standardization at all of our levels and the documented practices and procedures. As you can imagine, in a crisis situation, you need to lean into those practices and procedures so that we can use those in highly emotional situations.

We've had high schools very interested in this topic, and we did partner with one of our high school's professional learning communities, which really leaned into all aspects of grief, including school level responses and the best practices in following specifically a student or a staff member loss.

And the response to the loss of a student or a staff member is complex.

And all of those complexities require really intentional focus.

So leaning into the best practices. Ours are really rooted in research and are really focused on having consistent practices that also can take contextual elements into play. And Mr. Backman mentioned some of those. Age, the cause of death, and the other factors that go into play. The mental health supports that we are able to deliver through our district crisis team are by qualified individuals to respond in the appropriate level of care, not to under respond or over respond, as both can be definitely detrimental and cause harm.

And certainly, although this resolution or memorandum brought forward focuses on graduation and some other activities to recognize students, a broader, more appropriate policy also considers how we honor the deceased in different activities from the moment of loss throughout their educational career.

So Speaking to that, Dr. Dass, especially with her expertise and given her abilities for research, networking and otherwise, really kicked off this process about two years ago when we really saw the level of responses that were occurring at elementary, middle and high, because as Mr. Backman said, in our roles to really facilitate and collaborate on those responses, to have over two dozen student losses really kind of hits that point of having the best practices in place and using that research. So that research started with looking into state level guidance. The guidance really then leaned into that states were shifting to schools with decision making or school districts, but highlighted that best practices should be used. We looked at different district level board policies and a lot of the board policies that are in place, and I should mention a lot of boards don't have policies and some do that they focused on that there is a continent continuum of support needed in response and some tailoring for the context. And they really recommended leaning into the district crisis response team's expertise in making those decisions at that level.

Additionally, Nasp the National association of School Psychologists has a recommended board policy document that reviews different types of policies and procedures and things that are should be heavily considered when coming up with a board policy. It includes some items listed here. What are some acceptable and unacceptable definitions and actions when it comes to memorials and commemorative events? Different supports involving crisis response, how we recognize students and staff who have passed away. Really measuring and trying to predict the impact that those have.

And as this resolution also states, it's really important to be working with families.

So we, we do have a draft board policy and administrative regulations that we've really been working on specifically since our work with the high school PLC so that we can have something comprehensive that takes into consideration all types of losses that impact our school communities, students and staff. And it is something that we would be very interested in. Really looking forward to the opportunity to have a collaborative process to review. As I mentioned, the draft has been an ongoing work for the last couple of years and it has been developed using the policies and research that I mentioned as well as the expertise of team members and some of the practices that our current schools have been utilizing to truly recognize grief and loss and that really important factor as part of the school experience. We also want to recognize that memorials and commemorative events are just one part of a response to a loss.

And again that that starts from, you know, the first day that we're responding throughout many years potentially. And then just finally that that special consideration really was given to develop a policy that's equitable and supports the continuum of experiences connected to the death of a student and staff member.

Yeah. So we wanted to conclude with a proposed series of next steps which have already been alluded to a few times. But our hope is to continue the work on our administrative regulation draft. I think it's almost ready for preview by the board. Our hope would be to bring it to the school board governance in the fall for further consultation, collaboration and revision.

And then we work toward adopt so that we can implement prior to if the focus is on graduation, our next graduations for the class of 2027.

And as we've said, along with any practices related to graduation, they would come along with other memorials embedded in this larger practice of crisis response management. And with that we're happy to open it up for questions. Are there questions for administration Member Bellamy. Thank you guys for this. I mean this last three years with our wellness and student support priority.

I think. I mean we're. It's amazing the support we give to our schools and to our families. I don't think we need. I mean, I think we.

I don't think we need a resolution. I think we just direct the superintendent to do things. But the resolution, I don't care how we get there. I just want to. Want you to continue to work.

I am a little questionable as to why it's only students and not students and staff, or are we going to do two separate things? So I'd be interested in your thoughts on that. Yeah. Our board draft does include staff. Okay.

Yes, it's staff. And yes, I know we only discussed how many deaths we've had, but yes, the comprehensiveness of the policy and administrative regulations are about deaths of. Of ASD members. All right, I appreciate that because that's the piece that's missing for me in the resolution. I think it needs to be broader.

But thank you for your work on this. I appreciate. Thank you. Member McDonough. Sorry I'm getting frog throat, but thank you for this presentation.

And I am.

It's incredible how, like, the parallel streams here are working where you seem to have read my mind on things that I wanted, and then you're already halfway through implementation. As a, you know, Director Sassel and I were former colleagues at Chuquiak High School, and we both suffered the loss of several students as staff at the school.

These memorial practices are very important, very healing, and I'm pleased and very grateful to see that the work is moving quickly in the direction of really doing a lot of action thoughtfully and carefully. So thank you both for. For bringing this and, you know, thank you to the superintendent again for advising the way that the. The resolution from last meeting's agenda should be basically giving you the. The ability to steer the administration, which is basically the principals in your crisis teams as you need to see fit, and not that the board is over managing your team.

So I do think that a resolution to the board in support of this motion is an appropriate way and in fact, really the only way that this whole body can direct the superintendent with clear articulation of what we would like. This way, the superintendent doesn't have to guess the intent of the body, but we get to state it clearly, and it also shows the community that we're listening. There was a Change.org petition with more than 3,000 signatures in two days of a deceased graduate of one of our high schools. And it caused a lot of shock and a lot of echoes of concern throughout the community. And I got reached out to by several of those people, either the family reached out to me and then other people who knew that I was taking on a board seat saying why is ASD not answering these questions?

And frankly half the reason is it's very slow for a board to respond because we have to agenda stuff and get it on the consent. And it's also very hard for administration to go outside of your implementation timeline. So my sense was we were listening, we were unable to respond. And I think this is then a a mouthpiece each of us can hold where if the board passes this resolution, it tells the community we're listening. It also gives the superintendent's team clear direction to refine its AR drafts going forward.

And then the administration is showing the community that they're listening by advising board policy in the fall. So thank you both and I will definitely support this resolution tonight.

Seeing no other discussion. Can we have a voice vote on adoption of ASD Resolution 2526 03?

Member Higgins.

Yes. Member Blakesley Yes. Member Bellamy? Yes. Member Wilson Yes.

Member McDonough? Yes. President Jacobs? Yes.

SDR 252603 is adopted by a vote of 6 to 0. That brings us to our last action item E3 letter to SOA in support of timely revenue projection reporting. I'll brief the board. Remind everyone whether you were at the a finance committee meeting or not. A majority of the committee felt it would be helpful and sound advocacy to communicate to the state government, specifically the executive branch to publicly confirm the status of the revenue projections that would need to be met in actuals to facilitate the distribution of one time education funding that was included in the state of Alaska general government operating budget.

We then identified a proposed path forward to agendize an item tonight to direct the superintendent and myself to draft a communication to the Department of Revenue including the leadership of both legislative bodies and then potentially as well include opportunities for further dissemination like the through a op ed in the Anchorage Daily News a letter explaining the importance of why these figures, if they are met, should be reported as soon as possible to expedite the receipt of funding that would be beneficial to have sooner than later for our operating budget and planning purposes and educator recruitment and retention.

And as a result this item is on the agenda in front of us tonight. There is a proposed motion that's in board docs for members to consider. However, the floor is open at this point for any motion to be made. We'll go first to member Bellamy, the member Blakesley. Thank you.

I'd like to move to that. We direct the superintendent and the board president to draft a letter addressed to the Alaska Department of Revenue in support of timely reporting of projected revenue targets which may trigger additional one time education funding.

Is there a second.

Ocean made by member Bellany, seconded by member Higgins. Is there discussion? Oh, I think it was Wilson. Oh, apologize, Member Wilson, if I misspoke.

Member Bellamy, do you have additional discussion as the maker of the motion? I do not. I just didn't turn my mic off. Sorry. Okay, I see Member Blake's leading the queue.

Is this a point at which I can make an amendment if I want, or do we have to discuss this? I can make an amendment now. You can absolutely make an amendment. Great. Okay.

I'm reading Robert's rules on how to do this. I move to amend the action item titled Letter to the state of Alaska in support of timely revenue projection reporting by revising the language to read move to direct the superintendent and board president to draft and transmit a letter to the Alaska Department of Revenue, the Alaska State Legislature's Legislative Finance Division and members of the Alaska State Legislature in support of the timely reporting of projected state revenue targets that may trigger additional one time education. Education funding for Alaska's public schools and to inform the broader Anchorage School District community of this advocacy effort and its potential implications for school funding. Second member Blakely, sounds like you have that written down. Could you communicate that to Ms. Sullivan?

Yes, and I. Yes, I have it written. Email it. Yeah, yeah, I can email it. Yeah.

I'm going to take a brief pause while we get that updated in our system. It just reflects what he said.

Did you get it? Okay,.

We're going to call ourselves back to order. At 7:41pm the motion amendment is in front of us. There was a second by member Higgins. Member Blakesley, would you like to speak to the amendment? Yeah, sure.

So this amendment essentially reflects everything you already discussed that we discussed in finance. But the purpose of. Of this, this communications I think is. Is has multiple layers to it and the current. The title of the.

Of the action item says Letter to the State of Alaska in support of timely revenue projection reporting. So I made additions about who to address it to and I'll tell you why, and then to inform the broader public as well. So I included in the amendment to also address the. The communications. This letter to the Alaska State Legislature and my rationale there is that it's important to inform not just the Department of Revenue, but our entire legislature about how this particular bill, the appropriations here, the language in it is problematic for school districts across this state, including asd.

I think it's also really important. You know, we've seen a lot of news Articles that have come out in celebration of one time funding that was passed by the state legislature. And that in, in my mind, it's either that the fine print is either being intentionally sort of not highlighted to the public about, you know, that have serious implications for how we can or cannot use any potential one time funding that comes through the door, or it's an unintentional omission in that maybe many members of our legislature don't know about the fine print about how that that final version of the bill is actually passed. And so regardless of what, which version is true, it's important to make sure that we are really informing the legislature and then the responsibility lies on them to do their own advocacy internally. I added the Legislative Finance Division into this memo as well, because while HB263, the appropriations, the, the bill that gives the one time funding for school districts, potentially while it says that the commissioner, the Department of Revenue is going to make this determination, it is also true that the Legislative Finance Division will likely also have those projections themselves.

And so while it has been communicated to me that the commissioner may choose to not disclose information that they will have prior to August 31, they will likely know whether or not we have met or exceeded this revenue target before the Aug. 31 deadline written in the bill and so, but may choose to not disclose that for the pure purpose of not having districts bank on potential one time funding, which is very problematic. And so Legislative Finance Division will likely also have those numbers. And so I think it's really important that if there are other mechanisms by which we can get that data, because it is, it is based on data and it's based off of a full year's average. So they will have that information on hand, just as the commissioner will the Department of Revenue. So I think it's important to communicate to Legislative Finance as well.

And I think the third portion about adding in informing the broader public is for a transparency purpose so that we are, we are helping the public understand and ensuring that we're being transparent in our own advocacy efforts and so that the public really understands the nuance that that isn't conveyed through all of those sensational sort of news articles that we see about how one time funding was passed. And there is a very big difference between a bill being passed and a bill being signed into law. And there's a lot of stuff that can now happen in between those two steps. And so it's important that our public, you know, our broader community that we're working on behalf of understands sort of the rock and a hard place that our district and all districts are sort of put into. And what is required in order for us to have any sort of Hail Mary right of, of potential obligation of funds for.

For FY27 if any come to pass. So those are sort of the main motivations to my amendment, which I think reflect what President Jacobs was referring to. Anyway, just sort of encapsulate that. Encapsulates that in the actual motion itself. Thank you, Member Blake Slee.

Member McDonald. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a quick question to the administration first, which is, is there an update as to whether this House bill has been signed by the governor yet?

I do not believe so. Mr. Ratliff, do you have an update? Yeah, I checked on it earlier. This bill has not yet been transmitted to the governor. That was HB263.

I did check on the other funding. Had money, had a little bit of money in HB28 and it was transmitted yesterday. Okay.

Yeah. And that's. Thank you for the answer. I think that was what I thought too, and was. Was hoping for better news from Juno.

But, you know, we, we listen to the governor and his, his signatures. So I, I'm in favor of this letter and I, you know, with the exercise we had at trying to set an agenda of directing people to write something on behalf of a collective voice, I think this is an exercise in sausage making that deserves some of my faith. So I would just like to express the thing that most people, and I think this board itself wishes to spend money on is teachers in classrooms. The way that this SB 263 is written almost entirely prohibits us from being able to spend on teachers in classrooms, which would also include the ability to restore the positions necessary to open schools back if that was the will of the board. So this, even if the governor had signed it today, I want the public to be able to see that our intention can't be met.

Our number one priority of getting teachers in classrooms is going to be very difficult to achieve. And I think we'll have some creative solutions with holdback that we could begin to implement into next semester if that's how long it takes for the funding to come in. But I would like the letter to explicitly state it's our priority that we would get teachers in classrooms, but the practicable ways for us to do that can't be achieved after we've reached a certain point. And I would, I think it would be good that the board determine what that date is. And so I might defer a recommendation over to the administration through the superintendent.

Is there a date where adjusting the PTR with any revenue would become a much more problematic exercise than going towards holdback positions?

Member McDonough that's a great question. I think that's more of an art to a particular science. But I'll ask our chief of HR if there's a particular best practice day. Essentially we are too late already is the answer. But I would love for him to add more color to that.

That was essentially going to be my answer. That as we talked about in the. Finance committee, the ideal hiring window for school districts because teachers and principals operate on annual contracts is really kind of. That February March time frame. When we get into April May, we.

Know we're already facing diminishing pools of applicants. When we move into the summer months, those pools are very quickly depleted. So in terms of a specific date,.

I'm not sure the situation improves at all going forward. And so the sooner the better. If we're going to set a particular. Date and time, well then I think that's fair enough. And then we never mind.

I would remove my recommendation that the letter includes a date then if but I do think I'm putting my myself in the eyes of any community member reading this who is looking at next year as a very painful year where maybe it's an immersion program that had to cut a teacher and their kid can't continue their journey through immersion or band or they're in a class with 36 other kids and any number of painful things that would be addressed with teacher hiring when they see us budget whatever we get under this House bill and we don't have as many teachers as we actually need, I think we need to be able to show that the reasoning for that has a lot to do with the slowness and intentional or unintentional but the beleaguered way that this House bill reads in terms of securing revenue because even if the governor signs it today, we won't get revenue until a couple of other conditions are met. This is the first bill I've ever seen like it in public education. And I think we need to inform the public as to how difficult it is to hire our most valuable resource, teachers with money that has these strings attached. Thank you. Member Blakesley yes, echo all of that.

And then I would also say just on the note of it's already too late, which it is, I think what we discussed in the Finance well, in terms of hiring by teachers, I mean on the ideal timeline, it's it's Way later than the ideal timeline that's passed many months ago. But we did discuss in the Finance committee meeting that if the conditions are met such that we were able to obligate any funds we could in, you know, it would be a communication of positions open, not necessarily a promise that those positions are going to be filled. And so I think that's really an important distinction as well to make for the public just to know positions open doesn't mean that they'll be filled. But we also discussed in the Finance committee meeting about help. Help, you know, implementing mechanisms to help make that more transparent to the public by perhaps having quarterly reports about what those unfilled position numbers are versus just communicating them at the end of the year so that the public can understand sort of how that translates classrooms and in terms of the budget.

But anyway, it doesn't mean that we couldn't try. It just it's not a promise that they wouldn't be filled. And then my other. I have a question. Now that I've made this amendment.

Don't kill me.

Just in terms of the communications effectiveness to each individual member of the legislature, could it be possible to include in that communication. I don't necessarily have to word this into the amendment, but maybe like an encouragement for Dr. Bryant and President Jacobs in drafting this communication to potentially include an attachment of the average class sizes for the schools themselves as they're projected to be. So that way each legislature, each representative can actually see the direct impact to the schools in their own districts. Would that be possible to include member Blakesley? Would the attachment that we previewed with the board and finance committee suffice?

Where it was just elementary schools, but it showed class sizes for those buildings. Yeah. And that was an average class size table that I calculated. So I would definitely. I would say that Andy should fact check me on my own math, but yes, like that.

Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Ratliff. Would it be feasible to produce that in a timely manner? Yeah, that would be simple enough.

Average class sizes for budget. Yeah. Was what we produced. Yeah. Just.

Just in the sense that. And if. If that communication rate is going to both the legislature and it's going to the public, then the public can also see sort of what this does for their specific districts. Because it's one thing to talk about ptr, and I think it's really hard for people to conceptualize. PTR plus 4 does not mean 4 more kids in every single classroom.

In many cases, it means a doubling in size for some classes. There are the class sizes next year are devastating. They're irreparable damage to our children. And so if we put that number versus just the ptr, I think it helps just really underscore the failure of our legislature. Yeah,.

Thank you. Member Blakesley. I'll speak to the amendment. I support the refined language and agree it was broadly the intent and describes the I think the potential action plan and path forward. So I don't oppose.

I don't see any other comments. And so we'll have a voice vote on amendment one to this motion.

Member Higgins?

Yes. Member McD? Yes. Member Blakesley? Yes.

Member Wilson? Yes. Member Bellamy? Yes. President Jacobs?

Yes. The amendment passes by vote of 6 to 0. We're now at the underlying emotion as amended. Member McDonough? Yeah, I just want now that the, the main motion is here, just a quick sentiment that I think captures it well.

And I just have to take the opportunity to quote my grandfather, Paul McDonough the first. And he said pretty simply don't spend money you don't have. Which is something I appreciate Juno trying to do with the House bill That would give ASD around $35 million, give or take. Don't spend money you don't have. But the problem that we've been left with is the sentiment in that with the compliance checks involved means we can't spend the money on practically anything that we really need in our resource tree.

So even when we have the money, if the Revenue Department takes too long to issue this report or doesn't, I think it needs to be known through the letter that the consequences that we can't even spend money that they have given us. So we, we're urging them to be thinking of the children in our classrooms as they choose to usher these reports forward expeditiously.

Seeing no further comments, we'll have a voice vote on this motion as Amy.

Member Wilson? Yes. Member Bellamy? Yes. Member Higgins?

Yes. Member Blakesley? Yes. Member McDonough? Yes.

President Jacobs? Yes. Motion is adopted by a vote of 6 to 0. That completes our action item calendar. We'll move to non action items.

There are two items that are calendar for a future board meeting. Does a board member wish to discuss either of these items at this time?

Member McDonough? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. So with the committee update earlier today and the, the, the way that we were trying to resolve the and by my direct statement, an inaccurate board policy that does not capture the the committee. I really invite members over the next two weeks to rewatch the YouTube video.

We discussed this policy for 11 minutes and had some significant specific direction to administration. And I actually shared the YouTube video with a friend of mine who also works in public policy. And the first thing that the friend responded to me in advising the way to correct the policy is they said they were surprised at how often board members during discussion were interrupted by staff. And that's not something that they normally see in public meetings with staff of the public district. So this, this tension here is something I'm not quite sure of.

And I do believe the committee gave pretty clear instruction about honoring the scientific evidence produced in the Picus Auden study that's on the school board's webpage that states the class sites bands are more effectively categorized in kindergarten through 3rd and then 4th through 12th and more importantly that the kindergarten through 3rd band should be 15 students, not 23 and that the 4th through 12th grade band should be 25 students, not 30. So I will invite the board to revisit the governance committee's full discussion. And my friend said ask them to count the number of interruptions and see if this policy really captures the will of the board or if there's something else happening here. And then I will hopefully be able to work with the board to submit a revised or you know, frankly I don't actually know the process, but I will encourage a new reading of this board policy that would get the Picus Auden scientific evidence based class sizes as the standard of this district and not some arbitrary number that lawmakers in Juneau decided to put into policy.

Member Blakely,.

If we want to make amendments to this memo, are we suggesting the specific amendments in this particular discussion or are those amendments that can be made after the fact brought to the board retreat with just more time to actually, you know, think through a well written amendment. Yeah, so you're correct. Member Blasey, amendments are not due today. This is an opportunity to discuss this item before it reaches action status. Some members have chosen to utilize this time to discuss amendments or ideas for amendments or things they'll be working on and then identify individuals they wish to collaborate with.

There was a question on process as to how to best move forward in amending this item. And once it reaches action status, I would say a single member or up to three members can collaborate to draft a substitute or a specific amendment to the underlying document at which point it could be brought forward and then discussed once the item reaches action status. Okay, thank you. And then can I have a follow up question? Okay.

So I also think maybe if. Well first I'll just echo the sentiment about the the revisions desired for this particular policy. I do think it's really important to ensure that we're communicating that these are not ideal class size targets. That they're, you know, class size targets would in theory be much lower if we had all the resources in the world. So making sure that these.

It's clear that these are our one set of targets because we are sort of required to do this in statute is different than what is an academic best practice for student outcomes. But also, I wonder, could we just have a quick explanation for the benefit of the public as to what the statute is that we're trying to comply with by a specific timeline so that it's just really clear how this came about and. And what the. Yeah.

Mr. Ratliff, you happen to recall the bill in the deadline from the bill. Yeah, it was HB 57 was the bill that, that it was in. And pulling it up now.

I know briefly read the. And find it here. But it's really to enact a board policy to have a target class size that does not exceed the amounts that are currently listed in the, in the resolution or memo. And it's to be enacted prior to 71 26. So it's really to say school districts have this policy in place by July 1, 2026, to set minimum or maximum target class sizes.

Thank you. Member Blakesley. Member Higgins? Yeah. Yeah.

My reservation, it's over 12, 13 years ago that when pike is old and we first had the first study and we established what adequate funding is. And I just don't want to say anything that appears to be in conflict with that. I don't. I understand that we may have to come out with some numbers, but we're asking for. And we got your lawsuits out there asking the.

The court to define what adequate is too. And I don't want to have. And a policy is not just for today. A policy is longer term. So if there's an issue that we need to define that we can't get picus.

Hold on. We can't do that. I just don't want to do anything that says adequate is less than the 1 to 15 or 25 and above. And I don't know if the superintendent has any concerns about that, but I just, I don't want to be out there establishing a policy that indicates we're at odds with that study. I think that's being used in a majority of the states in Lower 48 has been used in the court systems.

That's the reason why we went with Picus Odom and so anything that we've got going on there in that regards, I really want that reflected in the policy because the policy is not just for this year. The policy is a long term issue. And if we have to define that because of that inadequate funding, we're doing something different. But I just don't want it to be anything less than the Picus Odom recommendations because we've taken that position in the past, Boyd. We have got the studies that we've even updated with it that's used in the state using the law 48 and the court system.

And it's very clear what adequate is. And I just don't want to walk away from that at all. So my concern about what was being proposed is that it's at odds with what we've. What we've spent money and resources trying to develop what is adequate. And I think we got the court case going on right now.

If we're involved with it at some point, because the court could go look at different things, I don't want them to see anything inconsistent with what we've done in the past. With Picus Odom.

Seeing no other discussion, we'll move on to the Superintendent. Update, item H1. Dr. Bryant. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be brief.

This is our last regular scheduled meeting for the month of June and for the school year. So this is my last opportunity to just publicly recognize and thank Mr. Spangustafsson, our outgoing Deputy Superintendent. He has served ASD for decades. I truly can't imagine an Anchorage school district without him. And, you know, just for some background, I haven't had a whole lot of turnover on my senior leadership team.

And he was literally one of the first people who I hired as superintendent. And I'm just so thankful that one of the most experienced and just very well respected principals would sign up to be on a team that was forming. I will always be thankful for that. And Sven, like, I've learned so much from you, and we're a better organization because of the team that you've built over the past several years, and that'll pay dividends to come. We have our challenges as an anchored school district, but I will say that after four years under Sven's academic leadership and because of the leadership of many people in this room, we've been able to have our graduation rates rebound.

We got to see an increase in math proficiency. We've seen three years in a row progress on our benchmarks for our literacy screeners, and we have so much room to go. But when I Think about all the structural deficits that we've navigated together as a community. My first year was 64 million. It's ballooned up to 94 million.

We've truly shown what's possible, that you can't use a structural deficit as an excuse to not deliver a quality education for children. And because of people like Sven and others, we've been able to do that. And there's even more that we can do in the next iteration of this team. So I'm thankful to Sven. I'm thankful for our entire leadership team.

This is not solo work. Governing is not just superintendent work. It's not just board member work. It's really a collaborative effort. And if we don't work in tandem, it's really the children who lose.

So I'm thankful that we've created a team and a framework for governing that has really worked for kids. And I would encourage us, as we go into a retreat, to think about ways that we can continue to strengthen that partnership and just take movements forward. We have to do it in service of our kids. So with that said, thank you, Sven. And we have a number of things that we'll be working on this summer.

So as we move into our summer months, we need to do a lot of reflection and a lot of refocusing. We've had a lot of achievements as a team, but we still still need to get more students reading on benchmark and performing at math proficiency. We need more students college, career and life ready. And we're going to get there. So in the coming months, the board and community will be learning more about our academic strategic plan that Svens team has put a lot of work into.

And I'm very excited to welcome our new Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Madeline Aguilard, who will help me get that to the finish line. And I think that our district is going to be even stronger as a result of it. So you might notice that many members of my team have been longtime ASD members. And that was a really special thing for me as an outsider coming into the district to really understand ASD what makes us strong and where we want to go. And we're about to enter a new chapter.

And I'm really excited to bring in new perspectives as well. And Dr. Aguilart has been been superintendent of Cuspic School District in Antioch, Alaska for four years and has been in that community for nearly eight years in various roles, having worked her way up from a special education educator all the way to superintendent of her district. And I'm very excited to welcome her into our district as the deputy superintendent, where she'll oversee our academics team, our school leadership team, and will also just be a great partner to me and the board to get us to where we want to go. So we have a lot of great stuff coming. And then, as I've shared multiple times, you're going to see more of that reflection and refocus.

Now that we've gotten our AK survey data from Ivan Moore, that's phase zero. And now is the time to do more engagement, to hear from our communities about what are we wondering about asd, how are major decisions made and where do we want to go as an organization. So we have a $40 million deficit on the other end of next school year, and it's not going to be easy to get there. And we're going to engage deeply and in ways that we haven't seen in a long time. And that doesn't mean that the difficult decisions will be easier, but it means that we're going to be rowing in the same direction.

And I really look forward to trying new things. Some things may work and some things may not work, but that's what progress looks like and I'm committed to making the changes needed to take us to where we need to be. So with that said, before we conclude our last meeting of the school year, I do want to address a couple of things that have come up tonight with regards to the legislature, because, like member Blakesley, I'm deeply concerned that there's quite a bit of misunderstanding in the community, and there's a number of reasons why. But essentially a number of people in our community think that because a bill was passed that school funding has been approved and now school districts are flush with cash to spend on things like teachers and things that we know move the district forward. I have to tell you from this seat, that is not the case.

So what has happened is that the legislature did approve a number of bills that would result in education funding. But we have to remember there's a few extra steps, some that we're familiar with and others that were not. So step number one, the governor has to sign the bill. And unfortunately, this governor does have a history of vetoing funding for public education. That's not to say what will happen in the future.

And I will credit him that he's not spoken on the matter one way or the other. So there is a chance that a veto won't happen. But history tells us that there is a possibility that it could happen. And in the state of Alaska, the governor has the power to veto the entire bill. He could veto a portion of the fund, or he could choose to veto none of the funds.

That uncertainty is what makes the next couple of months very precarious, very delicate for us to navigate. And then, of course, as we know, the legislature always has the option to override a veto. So that certainly happened last summer. But I do want to ground the community and the historical perspective that in the entire history of Alaska governance, I believe we've only over overridden a sitting governor four times in Alaska history, and three of those were last year related to school funding. So there is precedent.

But you have to understand that we have 60 legislators, and you need 45 of them to agree that we need to override a veto. That's no tall order. In fact, that's one of the highest bars in the entire country for what it takes to override a governor's veto. So we have a uphill battle to climb, or up. We have a steep hill to climb, rather.

And we're used to this. We are. We're used to that process. But with that said, as we alluded to, there's a new variable. It's the whole reason why we just had a conversation about this letter that we're going to transmit to the legislature, to the revenue commissioner and others, and I want you to hear it from me as well.

So that bill, House Bill 263, which was passed by the legislature, it could mean up to $37 million for ASD. That's the good news. But the bad news is that it's conditional on the revenue commissioner assessing whether Alaska has generated enough revenue. And he has a deadline of August 31st. And as member Blakely shared, that's far too late because that's literally after the school year has started.

So we do not have that money in the bank. We do not know how much money that will be. And even if it were to come, it will come weeks after school has started. I was here 12 months ago when the legislature was able to override a veto, and that didn't happen until just a few weeks before school started. So when we had a few weeks Runway, we were able to recruit a couple dozen teachers, and we did so with our full hearts and passion.

But to start that process after the school year has already begun adds a whole other level of uncertainty, and it adds to the delicate nature that we haven't seen before. So that part is new. And I just want you to hear from me that that's a problem. And that's why there's immense urgency for President Jacobs and I to write and deliver this letter as widely as possible because we're going to need your help as community members. We need you to help the legislators and everyone in Juneau to know what the stakes are, which is that if the governor doesn't sign this bill and if we're not able to override and if the revenue commissioner does not give us the notice that we need, school funding may not be disseminated as quickly as we need it.

And as member McDonough shared and I echo it, the number one most urgent thing that we need in the Anchorage School District right now would be educator positions. If we could wave a magic wand and have new dollars come into the district, that would essentially be the only thing that I would advocate for to do immediately. Because more teacher positions mean that we can lower class sizes. It means that important elective programs can be restored. It means that important specialized programs for our kids could also be restored.

Teachers, educators are truly the engine that makes our system function. And for school funding to not come in until after the school year starts is somewhat of a slap in the face that we have to grapple with not just as a governance team, but as an entire community. The stakes are incredibly high, and over the coming days, President Jacobs and I will develop a letter that we will disseminate broadly. But we need you to amplify our voices and to make sure that our legislators know the stakes and that we expect some prompt action to ensure that these funds are dispersed as quickly as reasonably possible. So this is deeply complicated, but I say all of this because I want you to know that the board and I see and hear you, who are writing in about how many things urgently need to be reversed as a result of our structural shrink shortfall.

But as member Blakesley and others have shared tonight, our hands are essentially tied until this red tape is eliminated or somehow resolved sooner rather than later. So with that said, we faced a number of challenges last summer. We had our own series of unique issues, be it multiple funding veto overrides, whether it was a federal funding freeze, whether it was discussions with the complex commissioner around caps to municipal local funding. We've dealt with the impossible before and we've prevailed. And I think that there's a chance that we can make our voices heard and to try to get this information about our revenue picture sooner rather than later.

And at very minimum, should that funding be vetoed by the governor, I would hope that as a community, we can let our legislators know the stakes of an action we truly need to work on this issue together. So what comes next? You can continue to let your legislators know about the importance of stabilizing our schools short and long term. The thing is, is that this funding is one time, so it's just going to essentially be a band aid on a much larger issue. The sooner that we can start to have that conversation around diversifying our revenue streams in the state of Alaska, financial sustainability at the state level, the more quickly that we can have conversations around what a permanent base student allocation could look like.

Because it's only then that districts can have the assurance to plan in partnership with their boards and their community to spend those dollars as proactively as possible. But as you can see, because of these timelines, we're not in a proactive posture. We are in a reactive posture. And something has to be done at the state level to make movement on that. So my commitment is to keep our community as up to date as we can.

Over the summer months, we'll attempt to update our websites and send emails and what have you, depending on what that update is. If there's an update of immense magnitude, you better believe you're going to be hearing from us in multiple channels. But we're going to be continuing to monitor the situation and communicate appropriately. We have a jam packed summer ahead. But the bottom line is that regardless of what happens with regards to funding, what I am thankful for is that we do have thousands of incredible educators, support staff, bus drivers, teachers, principals, the whole gamut who are excited to welcome your children back to school in the fall.

And to that I very much look forward to it. So see you next fall. But I don't think this will be the last you'll hear from us over the summer months. We have quite a bit on our plates. So thank you everyone.

That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Bryant. We'll transition to school board comments. We'll start at my right member Higgins.

It's a difficult night. I'm going to start off by agreeing with the superintendent. There you go.

Many years ago, I think it was 2014, something like that, they had great Alaska schools. They got up here and they flooded the legislatures with emails and contacts. And it made a difference on the bsa. It made a difference on their involvement. This year is an election year.

So I think that the involvement of the, of the right now, the public expressing that to the legislators, getting it engaged, some can make a difference. And we are in a ridiculously complex situation. We don't have the funding from the state. We still have a Pending legal action that we don't know the resolution to it yet. We.

It just doesn't give us anything to be able to make the appropriate plans and implement things that are critical for our kids. So that makes this a rotten situation. It means we'll probably have another board meeting when we finally get the funds to approve changes and do everything else. Some quick budget changes. But it just makes it very difficult for us to be able to treat kids right and parents, you can make a difference and kids can get out there and it's good, good time to practice on that.

Sending the messages. You know, we're kind of closing out this year and we've got a lot of issues. I like the idea of a committee being engaged in. Right. Sizing or changes to other things that we're looking at.

But it's critical from my standpoint what that committee, how that committee is composed because it needs to be independent so that it's not because you can control the selection, you can control the outcome. I really want it to be much more than that. And the scope of that is going to be something the committee needs to be engaged in that is well. And they need to have access to a lot of information. When we go forward from this year to next, and this is a difficult time, we still carry a lot of baggage.

We've got a lot of unresolved what took place this year in the way that schools were closed, meetings were held and to move forward. The first thing you want to do is kind of clear the air. And I'm hoping that we still will get that because we need the board president to the superintendent, everyone engaged to be up front on how did we go from one area to close schools as quickly as we did. We we add a STEM high school and we close the STEM elementary. It just none of that makes sense to me.

We went from a let's protect the low income, you know, school, the title one school with a 6:1 vote against it, it becomes 4, 3 in favor of it following a very accelerated process that is damaging to us. It's not going to go away. It's going to be what type of support we'll get for bonds in the future. So we'll be looking at this next year as well. And we need to clear the air on it.

And I don't see us doing that. We've got a school now with 99% capacity, I believe with Tudor and I think that's prior to unknown funding that would increase class sizes. So it's going to be a really challenging situation in regards to all of these changes. Okay. And I think there are some hidden expenses associated with it.

So we need still clarification of what has happened this year so we can put it behind us and we can commit to doing things differently. Or we only setting ourselves up for two years from now to close a cluster of schools because we're going to skip next year and then jump into it again and follow the same process. There needs to be some acknowledgment here of what we did, how we've lost the public, our commitment to getting the public to accept what we're doing, that we will listen to the public in the future and not just to a committee when they come in and talk to us. This has been the most depressing year I've had on the school board, and this is my 15th. This is now in my 15th year.

This is really hard to believe how depressing this is. Not just for the money standpoint, but for the conduct of the board and the conduct of legislature. We damaged, you know, relationship with assembly, with the public, and we've got to reestablish that. But we're not going to reestablish it unless we commit to changes within it. So be active out there.

You've got election coming up. Your voice really will be heard by people running for office hoping to win again, or candidates who oppose. Be a voice out there. You're going to be the decider on what the future is going to be like. In our funding from the state, from the legislature and the governor, it would be there.

And if you're a voice, you can make a difference and that helps kids. Thank you, member McDonough. Thank you, Mr. President. Just to start, you can tell it's June In Alaska when Dr. Bryant gets up very high on the soapbox about getting the state level public policy around education to fix. So I really appreciate the statements from the superintendent.

It seems we're in this dance with this governor year after year after year after year. And these speeches, they're really making an impact and people are really rallying to. I think we do understand who's pulling the wool over our eyes and who we have to bring our advocacy towards, which is the governor and his commissioners in this case. And through member Blakesey's recommendation, the legislature has their own independent staff that are getting the same data, so we can have them basically be eyes and ears for the people. If not force the commissioner to write a report.

At least the people will know when the legislature informs us, when we've met These targets. I was also very pleased earlier that the president did announce the ad hoc committee for the general purpose of organizing how we can better serve all students. When we look at school closures, I'm looking at a lot of audience members from Campbell stem, and I've spoke earlier this week to a parent from Fire Lake who was affected, and a teacher from Lake Otis who was affected by what I have often criticized as a process this year that lacked reason and the ad hoc committee. I would hope that the members that join it and that the advisory that it does to this board is focused on providing reasons to change the zones of families, the dreams of their lives from the home they bought, planning their kid who was three years old when they bought it, to live there until they were 18, and to go to those schools. I mean, there's so many stories about the impact of being connected to your neighborhood school.

And frankly, in the Anchorage school district, our neighborhood schools are getting hit the hardest by the under enrollment. And it's something that I think the board will have to respond to. But I'm urging for reasons and I'm urging for the board, just like we did with the resolution that passed earlier today on student memorials, which will hopefully spin off to staff memorials as well, and community broader. I think the board has the duty to set a standard and then when we ask the superintendent to do something such as to pick more schools to close, that we clearly communicate with. This is the standard that we would consider a school to be viable versus unviable and that's ours to own.

We're the public facing body. We are elected by the people to speak for the people. And we should be the ones saying clearly why is a school not considered a viable school anymore? And I need to be able to have that reason built by us. So I really appreciate this right sizing committee approach.

It does seem to be a way that we can deliberate with the community at large. What are the reasons that a good school is a good school and what are the things we need to do to organize so that all schools have those supports and those resources? And frankly, I think In Anchorage there's 15 or 20 schools that are lacking those essential services and it's our duty to to address that. So when a board in the future does say closing schools is necessary and we need the superintendent to pick a couple more schools, we must give the reason a standard and then we shouldn't be picking schools. That should be up to the administration who has all of the technical data and all of the licensures Science, evidence.

I mean, they're the experts. They know everything about our schools. But we need to be able to say, this is the rubric, and bring us the schools at the top of the list, which, frankly, in my opinion, Campbell, STEM was nowhere near the top of this year's rubric, and it was picked for arbitrary reasons, in my opinion. And this will be a way that we can honor, really, the. The chaotic and unjust decision for one of our schools so that no other schools in the future will ever have to have that.

That same turmoil. So thank you to the president for bringing this committee forward. Member Wilson, do you have closing comments?

Yes, Sorry, I couldn't unmute.

I just want to thank our teachers and our staff for all of the incredible work that they continue to do. I know this. This is. Has been a difficult school year for many reasons, as it really has for. For over a decade for our staff, with continued cuts, continued challenges, financial challenges, just so many challenges that they consistently have, but they continue to face those challenges and overcome them with their hard work and dedication.

And the results are for our kids. They make progress. They improve their test scores in reading and math. And that's. That is a huge testament to our educators, to all of our staff that works with our students and works with our educators.

And I just want to share that appreciation because I know from our end we hear a lot of doom and gloom. I'm hearing it in the members who are sharing their comments. And I just want to remind folks that despite all of the challenges, we have people doing amazing work. We have students making progress. We have.

I mean, you look at the students that have sat on our school board for the past. Since I've. The past five years I've been a board member, and they are incredible. So the results are incredible. And I know the challenges are difficult, but I just want to truly share my appreciation for our educators, for all of our staff, for our totem members, for everybody who works with our students because they do incredible work despite incredible challenges.

And we've got staff working summer school right now, working with our students. So just. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. And for those that.

That can share or they can enjoy a little bit of their summer, I really hope that they have the opportunity to refresh and recoup and. Because I know they'll come back working just as hard next year to make progress for their students. So thank you. Thank you, Member Bellamy. Yeah, thank you.

So I also want to thank and share some highlights for Mr. Gustafson. We do thank you for Your service. You have been around a long time. Not as long as me, but you were. I think I kind of helped raise you there a little bit.

But. And so I hope in your next chapter that you do continue to stay connected to education, find whatever path that is and continue to do good things for kids. I just got to remind, I just have to say it's my why has to do with the kids. How do we do whatever we do to benefit kids? I do not do that arbitrarily.

I do not take it for granted. I am very aware of outcomes and I'm also very aware of what this community expects from. For education.

You know, I think the ad hoc committee. I already thank the president for doing that. I think it won't be the first time we've used that process and I'm sure it won't be the last. But I think we've used similar processes in the past and I think the outcome. Well, we'll see.

We'll see how it goes. But it is collaborative, it is very community focused and I'm really excited about the plans for that committee. I think when it comes to. I think we got an email today and the request was can we shut down all the choice programs to save money? You know, the issue is really not our choice programs.

For me the issue has to do with our enrollment. I mean, how do we.

We can't. I mean it is not just education who is losing. Kids don't move themselves out of our state. Their parents do and their parents do for several reasons. Education may be one of them.

I doubt it. I don't know that I would have moved my family just for education, but I would have moved for a new job or a new opportunity or to care for a loved one that is that needs me. So when we're talking about, you know, so I don't, I don't know the answer to that. I don't know how much we would save or how much it would cost. I know charter schools have statutory.

I mean we. And we are not above the law. So we have to find a way to comply and create opportunities for all kids and try to do it in a way that is not harmful. I'd like to just remind the board that we each. I sometimes refer to us as a seven headed monster because we all have our own ideas, we have our own values, but we put that value in the arena for kids.

And when a vote doesn't go your way, it's not the end of the world. We just going to keep. I keep moving forward because I can't win every single vote. I don't agree with every single, single thing, but I do believe in the process by which I can get the outcome that I believe is good for kids. Not for Margo, but good for kids.

And finally, I just want to say a very quick congratulations to our newest board members who both held very successful committee meetings. Even though there is. We got some things, you know, there is some amendments to be made. I thought those. I thought they both did amazingly well.

So congratulations, member Blakesley. And congratulations, Member McDonough. And so with that, I thank the superintendent for his comments and we're gonna, you know, we gotta move forward for the kids. And. And I do believe that that is possible.

Thank you. Thank you, member Blasey.

Okay, I do not prepare these comments prior to attending these meetings because I. I really try to reflect on what we talked about in the meeting. So the first thing I just want to say, I think it's. I think it was Ayla, right? Yeah. Okay.

I told her this out in the. In the auditorium earlier. But I just want to say that I am so inspired by you because I certainly know that when I was your age, I wouldn't have even had the courage to come up and sit there, no less try to prepare something, to speak in front of a whole body of a grown up situation who seem to have a lot of power over decisions that impact your life. And you're so young to be engaging in civic engagement, which is incredible and a testament to the education that you've had at your amazing school and a testament to clearly the wonderful upbringing and parents that you have and a testament. To who you are.

And I have two little girls and I see them in you. And I. I'm gonna have them watch you up here because even though your dad read your speech, I know they were your words. And every time you guys have come up here and testified, what you have the unique ability of doing is sort of telling a story, not just facts, but you come up here and you tell these stories about how, how. How the consequences and of the good and the bad impact your life. And I think that those, those stories are much more meaningful.

At least they are to me. So even though I can't, I'm not allowed, we're not allowed to respond during public comment. Please know that I am always accessible to all of you in this room, no matter what. And into the summer months and beyond. Please email me, please call me.

I will give you my. My contact information. If you don't have It But I just want you all to know and Isla, I want you to know that I see you and I heard you and I, I'm really grateful for your words and your testimony today on that note about advocacy and civic engagement when it comes to the legislature. I will also just make the commitment that I am also doing my own advocacy and will be reaching out to all of our representatives, which I, I do often, but I will do that in this position because it is a position of privilege to be up here and it's a responsibility for us to do our own individual advocacy work as well. So I will continue to advocate.

And I also just in thinking about that, as is just like a, the minutia of what's included in the draft or the communications you're going to draft, I think including the average class sizes of elementary schools is very impactful. But I, after that, I'd just be remiss if I also didn't maybe, you know, encourage you to include some of the largest class sizes that we know are going to be in effect in our secondary schools. I've heard from some high schools. For example, the high school near my home is projected to have a class size of, I think, 54 next year to teach English literature. And teachers who are going to have class sizes that are so large that, you know, they won't be able to give feedback on math assessments going forward or math tests that they'll just do multiple choice tests.

So when a student writes out a math problem, they won't be able to provide individualized feedback about where that student, you know, went wrong in getting to the solution. And without that, just the quality of education that we're talking about that Member Wilson was referring to, good things are still happening, are really sucking out the opportunity, the ability of even our best educators to do the thing that they are good at. So if you are able to also include some of those, you know, the largest class sizes of each high school or the secondary schools, maybe that could be a really compelling data point for our legislators just to really understand the consequences in their own districts and to give that as a tool to the public to be able to also utilize in their own advocacy efforts, to be able to show their own representatives, hey, look, look what's going on in the schools in my community.

And, and on that note also, there's a lot of just sort of, I think, a consensus here that there are decisions that are made that not every one of us agree with. I think I've certainly been vocal, at least when we were Campaigning and. And probably apparent here that there are decisions that I very much disagree with as well. But I do think that it is important going forward that we have the humility as a board to work on ways as imperfect as they might be to better listen to the public and to our educators, because while they're doing incredible things, their morale is so low. And if we don't find better ways to show them that we are listening and take their.

Their solutions to heart, then we're gonna. We're gonna hemorrhage more of our educators. So I think there's just a continuous exercise that we have to continuously engage in and really improving the systems by which we're listening. And I'll end on also congratulating Sven. I did not get to overlap with you very long, but I did get to go to the McLaughlin graduation with you.

And one thing that stood out to me was just how you know, you know everybody and, and clearly you have really strong relationships with a lot of people, both staff and. And otherwise, a lot of people in the community who regard you very highly. And that was apparent to me when we attended that graduation together. And, and, and I can see how much you care about those kids. So I, I wish you well as well and appreciate all the work that you've.

You've invested in the district as well. That's it. Thank you. I'll close this out. My only comment is for Mr. Gustafson.

I want to thank you for your service to our district. I'll take this opportunity to share that my favorite stories, story interacting with you was before we knew each other well, when you were West High principal and I attended the West High graduation that year as we had the youth graduating, there were a superfluous number of air horns which you did not appreciate and made very clear. And during a particularly rowdy portion of the ceremony, there were a number of air horns going off at once. And you pulled, paused, and looked in the general direction of those air horns and they instantly went silent and child and adult alike complied based on purely a look. And so I hope that skill set is useful for you in your next chapter.

I. I'm not sure how, but it is something that I've tried to do ever since to no avail. With that said, appreciate navigating this year with the board, this being our last meeting of the year, I will say I think we are due for a bit of a break, minus any retreats and special meetings that might be required and looking forward to reconvening in August. With that said, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

I move to adjourn.

Made by member Bellamy. Is there a second? We could also stay here until midnight. Second. Seconded by member Wilson.

Singles position. We are adjourned at 8. 43. I have opposition. We cannot adjourn until we have all.

All applauded Mr. Gustafson for his service.

And now we are adjourned at 8.43pm thank you, everyone.