Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re ACCEE Fund Board Update and Budget Overview

We do have an executive director for the ACE Fund. She is a municipal employee. Her job is to work with the board, to work with grantees, etc. Christina Holtquist. She unfortunately is out of state for family reasons.

She regrets that she can't be here, but had to deal with other issues. Just to note, if you have questions about the ACE Fund, the grants, and all of that, and you want to speak, I know when she's back in the office, she would be more than happy to speak. She just couldn't be here today. I just wanted to say that. And with that, I will turn it back to you all.

Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm very happy to be here, and thank you to Christina, who's not here, but I'm very happy she invited me, and I'm happy to share.

My name is Laura Rourke. I am the executive director of Anchorage Montessori School and also a Westside girl all the way.

Woo-hoo! I have spent more than 20 years in education as a teacher, a head of school, a trainer of teachers. I hold a Master's of Education, and today I want to speak to you not just as one school director, but as someone who works across the early childhood community. I serve as the American Montessori Society's Regional Action Commissioner for Alaska and Hawaii. I sit on the board of THREADD Alaska, and I started Alaska Center for Montessori Education, which is Alaska's first accredited Montessori teacher education program, because we just can't keep sending our people outside for training.

We need to grow our own right here. So what I'm sharing today is coming from the wider view and not only as my role as a single provider in the building today. But that said, I will tell you about Anchorage Montessori School. It's a nonprofit that served Anchorage families for 49 years. Today we care for 142 young children in our early childhood program.

48 Of those are toddlers starting at 19 months and 94 of those children are ages 3 through kindergarten. We also serve elementary students, but today I want to focus on our youngest children because that's where the ACE funding makes a difference. Our families are military members, teachers, UPS drivers, pilots, doctors, first responders, and small business owners. They're the people who keep our community going, and for them, reliable full-day care is what makes it possible to go to work. In fact, that's why we just recently moved from a 10-month program to a 12-month calendar, because that's what the working families with young children need.

Anchorage Montessori School is dually accredited by the American Montessori Society and Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, and we maintain a 15,000-square-foot building that was completed in 2003. It was specifically designed with young children in mind. In our teacher education program, we're growing the early childhood workforce right here, and our— of our first 5 in our first cohort of adult learners, 3 of them are already working in our classrooms.

So AMS, that's Anchorage Montessori School, has received support from all 3 of the ACE funding streams. That includes the early childhood child care subsidy for staff care, staff workers, the operational assistance and the capital improvement grants, and each one of those solves a different problem. The early educator subsidy helps our own staff afford childcare, and right now 11 children are staff children enrolled at AMS. Now we offer our teachers a tuition discount because we know they can't afford it on their own and we need them to come to work to help care for all the children. For those staff families, the subsidy makes a real difference in their monthly budgets, and that really matters in a field where recruiting and keeping good teachers is not easy.

Um, the operational assistance helps stabilize our day-to-day costs so we can pay staff fairly without pushing tuition beyond what young families can manage. But the capital funding is where I really want to spend a moment because I understand it's part of this 2027 budget decision. And this year AMS was one of the few programs that were funded out of many, many applicants. And you'll see on these pictures some of the before pictures of our flooring. The grant replaced the flooring in the classrooms.

This was done by some of our elementary students. Um, The floors were 23 years old and thousands of Anchorage children had played on them, learned on them, crawled on them. They were worn out. They were really pretty gross. And ACE funding made it possible to replace them with this beautiful new flooring that was really built to last.

Alongside that, we used State Child Care Assistance Grant and privately raised funding to install new lighting in the whole school and also do the flooring in the common areas. And that is what partnerships look like, using both our public and private dollars together. But without this ACE capital improvement funding, this could not have happened. We would still be waiting on new floors. So I want to talk to you a little bit about what our numbers look like.

Um, our operating budget is roughly $3 million. Of every dollar that we spend, 78 cents goes to salaries, payroll taxes, and benefits for the people who teach and care for children. Another 11 cents goes to our building utilities, insurance, cleaning, repairs, snow removal. Everything else from the classroom materials to the snacks to teacher training and administration comes out of what remains. Early childcare is a people business.

Licensing ratios for toddlers and preschoolers mean we cannot do more with fewer adults. No one should be getting rich from childcare, and no one at our school is, or for that matter, of anyone that I know that works in early childcare. But a well-run program should still be able to cover its costs, pay its staff fairly, and build reserves for the day the roof leaks. You'll hear more about that in a second. Right now, that is really hard to do.

Every tuition increase lands on a young family that's already stretching. We budget carefully and we worked hard to keep a modest reserve at our facility. And even so, when the building needs something, there's really little room to absorb it. So I want to tell you what my September was like.

Everything I'm about to describe happened between September 1st and September 30th. Over the Memorial Day weekend, someone broke into our school and we had to replace door hardware, locks. A lot of it was failing, which is how they got in because it went through 23 Alaska winters. That cost more than $16,000. We had our fire inspection the next week, which we found out we had to replace all of our exit lights, which wasn't in that original budget.

That was nearly $5,000 and wasn't optional because we can't operate without passing fire inspection. And then on September 30th, the last day of the month, heavy rain revealed a leak in our roof and another at the door that we believed was already repaired. And water just can't come into our building. Those repairs can't wait. So that's more than $21,000 in a single month.

Before the leaks are even counted, because they will come repair that this weekend. And none of that was planned. So per, for perspective, our entire repairs and maintenance budget for the year is $15,000, and in September we already passed that.

Each of these, if left unaddressed, could threaten the program's license or force it to close. And this happened at a school with reserves and a strong board. For a smaller center or a home provider, one month like our September could be the end. When a building fails or a classroom closes, when a toddler classroom closes, parents miss work, everybody feels it. So this ACE funding is not just support for child care programs, it is investment in Anchorage's workforce and its youngest residents.

So I'm almost done here, I promise. I want to speak really plainly about how I feel the funds are used. I support Anchorage School District and I support public education, and I really value the work of Best Beginnings does— that they do for families. But I do not support directing funds toward them while so many licensed child care programs in Anchorage have real unmet needs. The many programs that applied for capital funding this year were turned away, and that's proof of the need that there is out there.

So I really ask and hope that these dollars stay focused on child care programs that the fund was created to sustain. So on behalf of our children, their families, and our staff, and with thanks to the voters who created this fund and to everybody in this room who has really thoughtfully been putting it to work, I really respectfully urge you to protect all three funding streams, and especially that capital funding. And thank you for listening to me ramble on for a long time. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Any, uh, Questions or anyone want to be in the queue for members?

Okay, and then just of course folks on the phone, just be sure to text me and if I miss it, feel free to speak up. I don't see any at the moment, so thank you so much for being here. Thanks for sharing and thanks for your work. And thank you, Laura. I'm just on behalf of the board, just really appreciate what you do.

And my other world is around the Children's Trust and just really appreciate, and early childhood is the place to start if we really want to make a change in our community. Community. So thank you.

Well, the ACE Fund— so going to talk about the budget, but also to talk about the budget, we just need to talk about childcare. Many of you know, but I think it's just important when I talk about childcare, we're not just talking about helping families out, we're actually talking about helping the community, we're talking about helping the economy, as well as the families. So when we think about child care, it's just not a singular impact, it's really well interwoven into everything. And it's a major crisis, not just here in our city, in our state, and across the nation. And I know that we're all faced with a variety of issues within our community, but this one sometimes is silent because we have people like Laura and them who just step up and they just make it happen, or neighbors.

Everybody is covering for each other. But if that was not, and that slowly but surely is falling apart, we're going to see a different type of crisis, very different from what we're dealing with tonight, for example, on homelessness.

So when we designed this budget, I just want to first go through how we did it. One, we want to look at past investments. We have been before the Assembly, some of you, some of you are new, but we had a specific plan for the next 3 years. We're just finishing year 2. What we're talking about is year 3.

History of funding around these dollars. And of course, when you invest in something, you don't get a return on day one. It sometimes takes time, especially when you're working within this field. So we're looking at past investments and what is that impact and weighing that as well as we went out, we had public testimony and a community survey. We wanted people like Laura and others to give us their feedback of how best to use these dollars, even though the board has people that work in the field.

As well as experts in the field. We want to make sure and always do try to be as transparent and as open with the community as possible, and this is how we do it. So just to let you know, looking at past investments. So what you're gonna see is 2025 numbers because '26 isn't done and we don't have those numbers yet because people are finishing up their projects and we'll be getting those. So there's always that delay.

And we will be then adding those, and at some point in '27, we'll come back. So in '25, you will see that we just gave out just shy of $10 million. You will come see in '27 budget, we are now down to $5.2 million. The reason is, is we had rollover dollars available in our first year because our first year we accumulated dollars, as well as in later years, we also just had some other rollovers. So you'll see where the funds went to.

And this was the first year that it was decided to bring over ASD preschool programs to cover. It does meet the requirements of how the program was set up. If you have any wanting knowledge of how the ACE Fund was set up, please talk to me because not only am I the chair, but as the president and CEO of the Alaska Children's Trust, we were the leader and designer of the fund and the campaign that got this to actually set up and address the issue in the community. So looking at each one, I'll go quickly. Operational, we had 2.4.

It was a broad impact. 90% Of people report funding help maintain or increase capacity. These funds— because we have a mixed delivery system here, which means it's not just one type, it's not like the public education system, it is down to people that have a license of just 4 in their home, to larger centers, like you heard from Laura, and everything in between. So what we wanna do, and there's different needs, sometimes people have a need for floors, sometimes people have a need for bonuses, some people have, and you get the idea. So rather than just trying to create a fund for every single thing or try to control that, we really saw that the childcare providers, they are not making money by any means, that we would give them the funds and they could determine how best to use them to sustain and hopefully prevent their doors from closing.

So again, empowering the sector and the owners. 48% Reported it supported staff retention. That's our big thing. That is the number one challenge most providers talk about is staff retention and the low wages. So again, but we couldn't just raise those because we can't always guarantee the money.

So they were finding ways creative that worked within their group to create that retention. And then you see the other impacts of the right. I am going to go quick because I know we have short time and you probably have seen these in your packet. For early educators, so this is a subsidy program. One of the ways to deal with the workforce was there's people that wanted to work in the field but they have their own kids.

They couldn't even get child care and/or worse yet couldn't afford the child care. It made no sense. So what we did was we provided a child care subsidy the same as what the state does in that sense People need to apply, so hopefully the state is covering part of it, and then we cover the other portion of that, up to right now 85% of the total cost. And/or if they make too much— and I do that in parentheses because there is a cliff, too much does not mean they have too much— we would cover the full 85%. This has a huge, huge impact, and Laurie even mentioned it in hers.

90% Of respondents reported reduced financial stress within the family. That's a huge impact, prevents homelessness, other issues. 98.5% Are more likely to remain in the field, which is really important. And we served 81 programs and 120 children received the care, meaning that individual, they have 120 kids. And then on top of that, they're serving more kids.

So just think, when we get somebody back in, if they have a child and that goes to that daycare, they can supervise— if they're working with 2 and older, if I believe— up to 10 kids. They're actually able to fill another 9 spots. So that's the way we're able to expand childcare, meeting that need. This is ASD's work. Title I Pre-K, $2 million.

8 Title I schools gained high-quality Pre-K classrooms.

20 Students receive special education services. They also do outreach. There's a whole program that goes out into the homeless shelters, libraries, families. They also, beyond the classroom, fund mental health consultants, things of that nature. So really well wrapped around.

This is just a quick snapshot of the great work that they're doing. And this is the program that was at least 2 years prior to the passing of the ACE Fund. Or prior to coming over. It actually might have been— is it 2 years, Jesse?

3 Years. Thank you. And I'm being remiss, there are board members here and just really appreciate them being here today, being so quick. Pilot projects. Pilots just test new models, future, as well as the capacity or grants just for capital projects.

So Again, we had a variety of things and there was different needs. Some people needed floors, some people actually submitted for to move a wall or to add a wall so they could add more space or create another classroom, things of that nature. Sometimes it was outdated playgrounds, things of that nature. So we've been looking at the different projects, but again, it was wide-ranging. Sometimes it's just expanded capacity, sometimes it just made space safer.

And/or just allow them to keep up their open— their doors open because fire otherwise would have closed them. So again, really important work.

So data. So we asked people what's most important, and this is really tough. We've heard like Laura's story and really appreciate that. All that got pulled in as well as looking at data and trying to figure out— and we as a board had to really figure out, all right, how do we fund all the need? With $5 million.

Sounds like a lot, but when you look at the need, it's just a nice pour, not the full bucket. So just quickly, we had 58 responses. 67% Of them are licensed centers and homes. 16% Were early childhood partners. They don't provide the direct service, but they're in the field.

Other respondents, because it is community-wide and was open for 21 days. And then you see kind of the breakdown of where everybody was, like Head Start or Early Child Partners, and just looking at that gives you an idea of who's responding.

Number one financial challenge everybody identified was staffing, wage, and benefits. That's a really hard one to deal with, with just $5 million. Just so you know, for history purposes, when we were looking at how to have an impact, we looked at going, can we just use the $5 million to actually up the salaries? Yes, we could have, but it would not have upped it enough to actually move the needle. It would have been ultimately a waste of money, wouldn't have changed a thing, and it set a precedent that we couldn't have changed.

So again, when we went back and then looked at, well, what can these dollars actually be used for to move the needle, to stabilize the industry? Some of you may have heard at least 200 in the past year childcare centers, I think it's statewide, is closed, and I forget how many it is here in Anchorage. But a good portion of them are here.

ASD Pre-K, again, ask for feedback. This is a tough one. We know what the school district gets. I personally connected to this because this is one of the things— just so you know, I was behind the alcohol tax as well. And this is something that I personally fought for in the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

And what people saw. People are thinking, well, 50% versus 100% or 75%, recognizing the importance, but again, what levers could we pull to maximize the dollars for greatest impact without harming our already established programs and actually losing our overall investment?

We also just asked about the different type of funding that we have. So you see operational, the pilots, the capital, early literacy with Best Beginnings. And we specifically say early literacy because one of the things we encourage when the Assembly looks at things, if they want something funded that maybe we're not talking about, let's make sure that we don't fund just a program but fund an initiative. And then we put it out because there's always more than one organization doing great work, so it's shared. Same with kind of with PK where how we do that.

This is what people are saying. The number one thing that's hitting people is operational grants. They saw those having the greatest impact and flexibility because you just don't know, one day you walk in and your place has been busted into and what money you need, that kind of flexibility, the subsidies and so forth. So you see what it was. Early literacy, Very important.

Again, it was just a challenge and this is where we're at. It's not about do we think early literacy is good or not. It was like we have funding, what's going to get us the greatest impact for the unstableness within the child care sector. So, you see what the feedback was. There was a pretty good number.

There wasn't high priority for this and I'm sad to see that, but also understand why.

So the budget. What I'm going to show you is two budgets. We were very upfront with the mayor, but the mayor has also been upfront with us, and we knew. We have been strong advocates of seeing like the pre-K ASD going back to the alcohol when it came over. We had some extra money.

It was a great way of using other funds. We were on the hope that it would go back. And it hasn't, and it's being recommended not, but we created a budget. What could we do if we actually had the $5 million that was intentionally created for this fund versus it having to cover an extra $2 million, so only make $3 million available to actually expand the care? And then also recognizing that the mayor and her team is in a tough spot.

Everybody is in need of dollars. We know what's going on in the muni level. And we wanted to make sure they were also equipped with what we and the community saw as an alternative budget. So I'll talk about both just so you can be aware of. So here is the recommended budget.

So you will see that Best Beginnings and ASD were zeroed out. What you don't see is in our recommendations is, like I mentioned, that these go back to the alcohol tax and/or another funding source where they originally were. That way we could still fund, uh, piloting capital, but again, we only have $5.2 million. The reason we have $5.2 million is one, some of the use of marijuana has gone down, which is a good thing, um, as well as we don't have as much rollover. So we're predicting, uh, $5.2 million.

With that, uh, we could do child care work subsidies. That was the number one. That's at a rate that we expect about 1.5, because every year it is expanding, people are using it. It has dropped a little bit, but in '26 we weren't using the full amount. And through 2 years now of funding, we expect that the 1.5 is that sweet spot.

Flexible operational grants, again, keeping at 2.4, because those are the number one things, no changes. Capital would have to drop because we only have 572. Then we add administration. We can do up to 10%. We actually took 9%.

And Treasury is a set amount, and that is the money that they get for the collection and monitoring of those taxes, cannot be changed. So that was what's recommended. The budget that's going to be— that I think was just released today, I saw in an email, this is our contingency budget recommended. I will tell you, the board really struggled. But one of the things we also decided was it wasn't a single— we tried to not make one single lever as the only cut.

One, it wouldn't have been enough, but also recognizing how do we share while still making sure that we didn't put any existing program at jeopardy. Seeing that we're having an impact, if you just stop it, any of that impact would be lost, and to then restart it later could actually be even harder than maintaining. So we really did this balancing and taking again the data into effect as well as the testimony in the survey. So Child Care Work Subsidies, we dropped it down and said, yep, the sweet spot, we're just not going to do as much, it's 1.4. And that is a program, if we stop that or really drop it, we're going to serve less individuals.

And they're not gonna be able to go, and it's a mixed bag. If they can't go to work, you're gonna see more of a closure. So we kept that 1.4. Flexible operationals, dropped that down, and that was a change of about just shy of 43%. Pilot, there's just no money to do pilot and capital.

I absolutely agree with Laura, there are, there was needs.

We just don't have the dollars. And what would 200 or 300 really do? And how would we put those out? And again, there's also just the administrative nightmare when you're doing just 100 or 2,000, how that goes out. Again, trying to play with all those pieces.

ASD, people were saying no more than 50%. We were looking at, well, what could it be? And dropped it down to $75 million. Please note, though, ASD runs September through June. When they get the budget in January, they got that $2 million.

They also started a new year. So what you see in January, June is the leftover dollars. So they have just shy of $1 million because they just spent over $1 million from year 1, which was September through December. So those are the leftover dollars. Then starting in July, they would see a reduction down to 75%.

So that's $750,000, and that drops down, and they will make the decision which classrooms, things of that nature. Best Beginnings just had to be zeroed out. Administration kept at 9%. This can't be reduced. This is covering the staff that requires to do this, leaves very little room, and then treasury is set.

This is what's being presented. I'm going to do a pause. I could say a lot more, but I want to see if there are questions, and then I'll share some thoughts with you. Thank you. Um, questions from members?

Folks are digesting as well, and I'll just note I don't see any on the phone at this moment, but I'll keep an eye on that.

Okay, I think people are still kind of formulating, so all right, continue. So things that could be looked at and thought about. So one, again, looking at that alcohol tax, I haven't had the opportunity. Again, I will be a little prejudiced and just share that the goal of those dollars was really upstream primary prevention. And when that election and ballot went forward, homeless was a piece of it, but wasn't the primary, primary.

And I recognize I'm enjoying my parks better now. I'm enjoying my trails better now. I think this administration and the many, many community partners have been doing a great job. But I will also just put that if you only feed the line, you'll never shorten it. That little baby that you just heard is, is the future.

They make up 25% of our population, but their kids make up 100% of our future. If we don't invest in early childhood, we're going to see greater risk to these kids of adding to our homelessness, to the SNAP programs, to all the other challenges we have in our state. And it is a tricky balance. I look at what's going in for the alcohol dollars. Very little is going to truly upstream primary prevention.

I encourage you to look and do the same balance. Where could there— what could an extra million dollars— so let's say part of ASD was covered by alcohol, maybe not the full $2 million, maybe half of what we're proposing. That would then give us dollars for piloting capital that we just don't have, a million dollars. Again, if you go back, the original, even if you did $2 million, and $2 million, when you look at that $10 to $11 million that's being generated from the alcohol tax, That's a small percentage of that true upstream. And that is part of our investment in community.

It's not just looking at which houses are on fire, but if you don't also do the prevention on the house next to it to make sure it doesn't go up in flames, it will go up in the flames. It's not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. And that is part of what the ACE Fund is working on and doing is that upstream work and really setting up, as well as think about economy. People can't get to their jobs, you're gonna have that. And we're already seeing how outmigration, which is about kids— outmigration is not seniors, it's young families.

Again, this is about a future investment that we need while still addressing the homeless issue which has been plaguing us. For decades. As the person who created the Anchorage Coalition on Homelessness and did that for 10 to 14 years, I recognize the importance of it, but we weren't doing the prevention side of it, hence why I'm now doing this work and trying to mirror it. So I always talk about building a tunnel, you don't just do it from one end, you do it from both ends. This is one of the ends of addressing the homeless issue, especially with our families.

So, questions, thoughts, pushback? Bring it on. Thank you. I'll say two things to start. I think one is similar to what I've said in our prior work session on a different topic.

We know that the budget has published as of today, and so I know that that'll be a new document for all of us. And so Certainly we'll be looking closely at that. We'll have our discussions in the work session. We'll get our briefing from the mayor's office and hear their rationale for the choices. And so, so, so I think in the meantime, this is part of that process is hearing from the ACE board, right?

And so, so that's— so I'm just noting that conversation is happening here. It will continue to happen. So I appreciate flagging those things. And then second, I will say just personally, having also been someone who was involved in the alcohol tax both from getting it on the ballot and getting it implemented from a different job at that point. I do very much remember the conversations about prevention, the advocacy around that, and I know that has been a back-and-forth conversation really spanning multiple administrations at this point.

And, and it— and what Mr. Sorensen says is real. The tension between emergency response, essential crisis response, and prevention is, is a real one. And so I know that that will continue to be a discussion. With that, I'll see if other members have comments. Ms. Baldwin-Day.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I—. Last year, I, I think in one of the budget work sessions, I asked a fairly pointed question about what the intention was, uh, with respect to the, the $2 million for ASD Pre-K programs. And, um, what was communicated was that it was the intention of the mayor's administration to move that funding back into the alcohol tax, uh, after fiscal year '26. And so I'm, I'm interested to see whether or not that— I have not looked at the final budget yet, so I don't know what that looks like.

But that was the anticipation, I will say, that was communicated. And I think that that is really wise. $5 Million is a drop in the bucket relative to what I think we really need to stabilize the child care sector in Anchorage. And I wholeheartedly agree with you that this isn't about, you know, helping families. This is about funding an economic driver and allowing people the potential to to participate in the workforce, or, you know, to— this isn't a— to me, this isn't a question of luxury, it's a question of necessity.

So I also think there's a parallel issue that arises with ASD pre-K, and I want to be very, very clear that I am a huge proponent of pre-K. I think it's extremely important. But we also need to recognize that there's a very— there's a significant impact on home providers, home providers of care. With the addition of pre-K programming at the school district level. And I think it's important that we have a conversation.

And I think this would require a convening of multiple parties. I think it would need to include the mayor's office, it would need to include the school district, certainly, perhaps, you know, folks on the ACE Board. I don't know what the right mix of people is, but, you know, as free pre-K becomes available, if families have an option to move from a home provider to a school-based pre-K, they will do that. They will take that free option versus the paid option. And then home providers are left to sort of sort out, okay, how do I backfill these positions, these slots now that I have?

And I think that that attrition is something we haven't really discussed in an open way. And I'd like to understand how we could do all of those things well, like how can how can we make sure that we have Title I Pre-K available and also do it without harming the operations of home-based providers who, you know, in many ways are filling in some massive gaps in our system overall. So that's just something I want us all to be aware of. Do you have a response to that? Well, yes, I absolutely agree with you, and thank you.

So one of the things we have been really also struggling with is, unlike a school district, there's no centralized data system around child care. So one of the things that we are looking at, and part of the administration dollars will be going to, is actually doing a whole roadmap. We need to do actually what is the actual need in our community, what are the different services at what level, and what if, and actually answering those questions that you're asking so we can actually design a roadmap of where we need to be. And then we can backtrack and go, okay, how do these dollars and any other dollars, whether there be state dollars, federal dollars or local philanthropic dollars, get us to that point where we not just have stabilization, but we have the growth to meet the needs of our community. So, and that's something we've been struggling with way before the ACE Fund, but we had to get the fund up and do things, and now we're at the stage, especially with Christina on board full-time, we're able to move that forward.

So more yet to come on that.

I—. That is such a great point, and it's something that the— as the older children go into a free option, and I've seen this happen with my other action commissioners from around the United States, is— and as a person who makes the budget, I know those 94 3- and 4- and 5-year-olds in my school, and most of them are 3 and 4. Most of the 5-year-olds do go out to the public options. If we lose the 3- and 4-year-olds, I can no longer run the toddler program because they are subsidizing that. The ratios are 1 to 6 compared to 1 to 10.

So it really makes a big difference. Yeah, thank you. I think that's, that's another important point, which I think there's a separate legislative project to think about. You know, is it time for us to start licensing group homes in Anchorage? I won't make us run down that road right now.

That's not what we're here to talk about. And I think I think it would be really interesting, and maybe this is the year to do it, particularly if there's a smaller capital fund pool. I would love to see separate adjudication for in-home care and centers when it comes to evaluating capital proposals. And I will leave it to you, the experts, to sort out how that could happen. But I think there are very small investments, like $10,000 or less, that could be transformative for an in-home provider, maybe even smaller than that, you know, that would really allow home-based operations to thrive.

Whereas, you know, investment in a center might be significantly more. And I would love for those proposals to not necessarily be evaluated head-to-head, but for like to be evaluated with like. And I don't know what the distribution of the fund itself or the capital funding itself would need to be in order to accommodate that. But I just want to put that forward as something I personally would love to see. And then I think I just have a question about our administrative processes.

I think I understand that we are still using BidExpress to, to receive grant applications from grantees. Is that correct? So this past round, so through this, the municipality, only grants that go through that was pilot and capital. And thank you to Bill, because I was like, Bill, do we have to use this? He goes, no.

And I went, okay. So if we don't have pilot capital, we're definitely not using it. But if we do, actually, I've talked to Christina. So I looked at her and said, listen, the for you to have time to figure out what system and do what we need to do on the muni level, you're going to have to use that BizXpress again, which has just been really difficult for folks. That the Children's Trust will give you full access to our online system to do the grant making, uh, as a temporary, at, at no cost, so we can make this easier and quicker for folks because it's a very easy system to use.

Found it. So, and then it gives her time to actually do an assessment of what and meet any requirements that the municipality may have, because I'm going to suspect that she doesn't just get to do anything she wants, as much as I would like that. But that's what's being worked on. Bill, was there any— am I speaking out of turn on anything? Okay.

Yeah, great. That's, that's wonderful to hear. It's fine if you're procuring concrete, not so great if you're trying to give money to—. It's awful. Yes, thank you.

And that's my professional opinion. I would agree with that. Okay. Awesome, just figured it out. It sounds like some good feedback on that.

Next I have Mr. Gerker. Do you want to be in the queue? Oh, okay, sorry. I'm frustrated. Okay, sorry.

Okay, other questions, comments from members?

I guess one question I have is— oh, bless you— in terms of the— because I understand, you know, what you're saying in terms of budget recommendations, whether to do pilot or capital or not. I guess, are there commitments that we've already made through— like, I don't know if any of these are multi-year, or just kind of seeing, are there things that we need to keep in mind about commitments that have already been made depending on, you know, what choices are made here? The only commitment we have made is to ASD. We could not not give them the $9 $740-some thousand because they have programs going on. So we could not just go ASD, we're just closing Pre-K, I'm not recommending that.

That is the only commitment, otherwise everything else is, well, of course, treasury, but everything else is open. And admin, well, we would have to get rid of positions and so forth. Sure, okay, yeah, I wasn't sure if any of these are structured as multi-year. OK, and then I guess the one other— I guess so I remember your slide about early literacy and, you know, where is that as a priority? I will note Best Beginnings.

That actually is another item that has been in the alcohol tax in past years. It is a direct grant. So the organization is named in the grant, unlike some of these other lines. And, and really, I think it might even predate the creation of the ACE Fund in terms of when it was funded. It's been around for a little while too, but just wondering if you could speak a little bit more to that recommendation.

And I will also preface by saying, I think, I think this would, we would all agree this is not commentary on the organization or the program. It's really a discussion about funding priorities. So I just want to also say for anyone listening, we all love Best Beginnings, but we have to talk, we have to make tough choices in our budgets, right? So I'm a great supporter of Best Beginnings, and this wasn't easy. It's $125,000.

On one end, it is just $125,000. Why can't we just fund it out of this? Well, it would actually lower, like, already flexible and operational grants when trying to figure out, okay, what is the amount? Because yeah, you could give a provider $10,000. Okay, I love personally $10,000, but $10,000 won't do anything for them.

So we really tried to work, and part of the survey was asking our sizes and going, all right, when does it become obsolete that so what, you get this money? Because again, what we don't want to do is give money to somebody who's then the next month going to close their doors. That's a waste of dollars. So we're really thinking thoughtful. Yeah, let's put out the fire, but let's not just put out a fire that then creates another fire, that concept.

So when looking at this, so We're like, oh, can we pull $125,000? No. And when we looked at the public going, all right, what is that priority? We just said no. One of the things, again, what we tried to do in our recommendation was we just listed best beginnings here because that's what you know is if you do decide, if you want something, great example is like Piling Capital.

You've got somebody coming in going, hey, I need $100,000 because I'm going to open this. Great. Rather than just saying you get this, and which you get to do as board members— I should say, my apologies, assembly members, you control that budget— is what we ask you to do is do know that we have been working on this, and that experts in the field at different levels— and what I mean by that, some working on the ground, some working in academia and everything in between— and work really hard on this. If that's what you want, fund capital projects and then we put it out. Because I guarantee you, just because one group was savvy enough, had the time and the skill set to basically lobby you for that $100,000, there's other people that need that $100,000 as well.

And is it just about who has access to you, or is it about the industry? The same as if you want Best Beginnings, what we ask you to do is fund early literacy, and then we'll put out an RFP. Because it's not just them who are doing great work, there are others. And then people from the community and/or the board review that and determine how best to use those dollars. But also think about when you give out just $125,000, it's like, okay, that's a lot of administration work as well.

I will tell you, it was a lot of administration work to get that $125,000 out to Best Beginnings. Is there value in that? And that's sometimes also the challenge when working in a larger, robust system like government and the municipality. So just things to consider, which I do realize that I'm preaching to the choir and you know this, but it's also my job because my board members would go, Trevor, you should have said— so I'm trying to cover all the boxes. Thank you.

And also have Mr. Voland in the queue. Go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, great discussion. Really appreciate— actually, can everybody turn their mics off? I'm getting an echo.

Really appreciate the work of this board and the recommendations you're bringing forward.

I do want to, you know, I have been sort of one of the champions, I think the primary champion in recent years on funding, getting some funding for Best Beginnings, and I have moved amendments both from the alcohol tax and from the marijuana tax. Um, I think it's really valuable, um, and why I have supported the creation of the ACE Fund Board, to have those industry experts, um, weigh in with recommendations and also be able to raise community awareness and solicit ideas and input from from the public. Um, at the same time, um, you know, philosophically, I, I want to kind of plant the flag that it is ultimately the assembly, the, the duly elected officials who are charged with passing the budget and amending it as they see fit. We are the appropriators, we are the policymakers. And I can— I, I hear from Mr. Storrs, I think, um Some of my colleagues on the Assembly have said similarly to that effect, you know, that we should be putting out something competitive, that we maybe shouldn't be putting forward these directed grants.

I don't see it that way. I think we can actually do both. I think that there are a time and place for to put something out in the community to, to allow people to compete for something, but it is within the purview of Assembly members. I just want to, I guess, exhort my colleagues in this way, that if you have an organization that you want to support, you are able to bring forward a budget amendment to that effect. And I think, I guess, I don't want it to be discounted that assembly members are in touch with the community and are in touch with the priorities of our districts and the needs of our districts and the people that we represent, just like any other board member might be.

Ultimately, these are recommendations, and Mr. Storrs, that's the language that he's used multiple times. These are the recommendations. This board is advisory to the assembly. We do not have to take wholesale these recommendations. We can take some of them or all of them.

So I just want to put that out to my colleagues that at the end of the day, it's a policy decision for you, for you all. But please do not feel like you don't have the right to bring forward a budget amendment, even if that budget amendment is a directed grant. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, thanks. And I know that's certainly an ongoing conversation as well.

And I know, good reminder, of course, that the ACE Fund Board in terms of budget recommendations is advisory. So we certainly value input in all of the work that has gone into this. And then of course, we are not at the very beginning, but toward the beginning of our budget process. So we know that'll be an ongoing conversation. Other comments from members, questions?

Anything else? Checking on one more time, don't see any online. So I guess I'll turn back to our presenters and see if there's any other closing comments you'd like to make. Or— and also I want to just acknowledge again, if I'm guessing, the other board members in the audience are not jumping up and down to come up here, but I just want to also say, you know, to those in the back as well, and the parent who is diligently dealing with the child, shock, thank you so much for your service on this board as well. So I'll turn it back to Trevor and Laura if you'd like to add any comments.

I just want to say thank you, and please, everything I've said, recognizing what the role of the assembly is and so forth, just sharing our perspective as not just board but as community members. And the struggle. They spent hours. The board meets every month for 2 hours and goes through not just budgets but programs and everything to make sure that this is as impactful as possible in stabilizing. And so hopefully these recommendations and the information we share helps you make the best decision for our community.

And we're always available if you have questions or want better understanding or some data. Things of that nature, because we want you to make informed decisions. That's why we come before you and not just give you paper. Please don't hesitate to reach out. We are a resource to you and to this community.

So thank you very much. Thank you. And Ms. Park, I think, wanted to be in the queue, and Ms. Bolden-Day. Ms. Park, go ahead.

Is there an event this evening where we could learn more about these things?

Not for this. Okay. If you're talking about the Children's Trust, there is, but I won't speak to that.

Okay, I think that is everybody in the queue for now. So I'll say thank you again so much for being here. Thanks for your work. Certainly a lot to chew on for our budget process. This is the last work session for today, so folks are released, and it looks like the weather is cooperating, at least for now.

So, so happy Friday, everyone. Thanks again, and we will be adjourned.