AASB and Alaska Public Entities Insurance (APEI) teamed up to host the 8th annual Maintenance Employees Conference, January 12-13 at the Lakefront Anchorage. The two-day conference focused on school district maintenance issues and safety procedures.

Click the button below to access slideshows, handouts, and other resource materials.

In case you missed any of these informative January webinars hosted by AASB staff, we've got you covered! Click the links below to access slides and video recordings of the entire lunchtime presentation series.

Norm Wooten, AASB Advocacy Director

Slides | Video

The Association of Alaska School Boards is seeking a full-time staff person to fill the Community Dialogue/Family Coordinator (CFC) position.

This CFC is dedicated to supporting families, schools, and communities. A Juneau applicant is preferred, but applicants residing in other communities in Alaska will be considered. Please provide a cover letter explaining your interest and experience and a resume to lmiller@aasb.org.

For additional information please contact lgrassgreen@aasb.org. Applicants will be reviewed on a rotating basis, but applications should be submitted by January 6.

For the full description click here.

When A Free AND Ordered Space Is Protected by Ping-Pong Balls

John Ptacin, Member, Sedor, Wendlandt, Evans & Filippi, LLC

This strange time of COVID-19 is producing some strange situations. We hear reports of local government meetings lasting far into the night, in some cases taking as long as 7 hours. (See this article about San Jose California). Does this happen to you? Are your meetings too long? If yes, what can be done to bring meetings back to a human scale? Here are our suggestions.

Tisha Pike lives in Eagle River with her son, who’s in second grade. Before the pandemic, he got free lunches at his school, Birchwood ABC Elementary. Then, schools went online, and she had to spend more on groceries.

She got reimbursed for those groceries through a federal program called the Pandemic-Electronic Benefits Transfer Program, or P-EBT.

The leaders of the Alaska Legislature would like to see the state budget pass on time this session. And some of them want to see the Legislature pass a long-term plan for the state’s finances and permanent fund dividends. But they acknowledge there are significant obstacles in both the short and long term.

Higher oil prices, growth in the permanent fund and federal funding are some of the reasons the state has more money this year.

Citing concerns about election security, changes to Alaska’s voting structure and redistricting, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer have proposed an “election integrity” bill to put before the Alaska Legislature.

Among other things, the “Election Integrity Bill” would require people applying for an Alaska Permanent Fund dividend to request voter registration instead of being automatically registered; allows for ballot curing or correcting; and introduces a “more thorough” definition of crimes around election fraud.

As more school districts purchase electric school buses, some have questioned their ability to operate in extremely cold weather. A school district in Tok, Alaska put their new electric school bus to the test.

The Anchorage School District is searching for a new superintendent, and members of the public have been invited to weigh in. Superintendent Deena Bishop announced in November that she would retire at the end of this school year. She’s led the state’s largest school district since 2016. Now, the district is asking the community for its input on Bishop’s replacement, seeking comment through community surveys and virtual town halls.

Many kindergarteners, first-graders and second-graders in Anchorage are struggling to catch up on reading skills, according to data the Anchorage School Board shared at a recent meeting. About half of the Anchorage School District kindergarteners, first-graders and second-graders tested were below the benchmark at the start of the year. Of those students, 38% of kindergarteners and 30% of second-graders had “high growth” during the fall. That means while they started out behind, they’re now on target for their grade level. Just 11% of first-graders had high growth. Superintendent Deena Bishop said some teachers and principals think that so many first-graders have fallen behind because they missed out on important skills as kindergarteners. Some students spent the majority of the 2020-21 school year online.

The Anchorage School District will continue to require masks in its buildings as the omicron variant rages through the community. In a letter to ASD families, superintendent Deena Bishop wrote that she was extending the school district’s mask requirement, which was set to expire Friday. Given how high COVID-19 case counts are, the rule will stay in place with no end date set for now, according to a district spokeswoman.

Students and staff with the Anchorage School District who test positive for COVID-19 are now required to stay home for just five days — with some exceptions.

The previous isolation requirement was 10 days after a positive test result or symptom onset, whichever came first. The shortened timeline was announced this week by superintendent Deena Bishop in an email, and is meant to reflect the latest guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a district spokeswoman.

Schools in Craig are open for in-person learning — for now. “We are close to the edge at this point,” Craig’s Superintendent Chris Reitan said in a phone interview. He says the district is struggling with a wave of new infections. “We have about 20% of our students who are out either confirmed positive or out with symptoms. We have about 20% of our staff — and that’s including all staff, not just teachers — but 20% of staff who are out either confirmed positive or with symptoms,” Reitan said.

Covid-19 is spreading fast in public schools with classrooms, sports teams and at least one school mandating face masks, according to the virus dashboard of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District....

Two pipes — one in the commons area where kids eat meals, another in the nurse’s office — burst during a cold snap and flooded most of the school. The weekend weather was bad, and no one was in the school when the pipes burst, so they don’t know for how long it was filling with water. On the day Riverbend was supposed to open to students, the school custodian showed up early to shovel snow and found the mess.

The Joint Assembly School Board Facility Planning Committee met virtually to take up the status of bond-funded roof projects, review the deferred maintenance list, and discuss major maintenance and renovation projects needed at Marie Drake School and Mendenhall River Elementary School.

Camille Botello, Peninsula Clarion

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education gave initial approval Monday to a policy change aimed at prioritizing student comments during its monthly board meetings. Under the change, within the first hour of the meeting students would have up to five minutes each to address the board about any issue. Currently, students are able to offer public comments during the board’s designated time for public comments, when people testifying are limited to three minutes each for an aggregate of 20 minutes. The new policy would designate a section on the board’s meeting agenda for comments from district students.

One day last November, a group of Nikiski students found themselves standing in a circle around a nearly thousand-pound moose their teacher had just shot. Soon, the class was butchering the massive animal. The scene was part of an effort to instill knowledge in the kids about how to hunt, as well as respect for where their food comes from.

The school’s outdoor exploration class is not unique in Alaska, just as hunting for food is a normal way of life here. But to many readers of the New York Times, which recently published a story about the class’s successful hunt, it was a surprising and unfamiliar topic.

Ketchikan’s school district has put out an appeal for more people to work as substitute teachers. That’s as a shortage of substitutes is pulling other school employees away from their usual tasks and into understaffed classrooms, says Superintendent Melissa Johnson. “We’ve been running on fumes trying to keep schools going,” Johnson said in a phone interview Tuesday. “So if we can get some substitutes, then it will relieve some stress (on) administrators and school staff.” The district reported on Sunday that more than 70 people with ties to Ketchikan’s schools had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week. Nearly 30 had spent time in schools while infectious.

KMXT Kodiak

The Kodiak Island Borough School District is determined to return to in-person learning, but it isn’t proving as easy as was hoped. The school district initially planned to return to having all classes in person, but staff shortfalls have delayed the elementary school’s reopening until next week. The middle school and high school will be returning to in person learning as planned, but superintendent Larry LeDoux acknowledges that the situation is constantly changing.

Napakiak is at the top of the state’s list for a new school building. Napakiak was fourth on that list a year ago, but its existing school is within 64 feet of an eroding riverbank. Napakiak made the jump largely thanks to the state legislature, according to Tim Mearig, facilities manager for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. He said that when the legislature approved $3.1 million in September 2021 to demolish the existing K-12 school in Napakiak, that helped bump Napakiak’s replacement school project to the top of the list. That’s because once the state makes an initial investment on a school construction project, that project receives higher priority for future funding.

The largest surge in COVID-19 cases the Y-K Delta has ever experienced is hitting school staff and students. Bethel school principals reported that they almost shut down their schools at points in January 2022. But so far, the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) has been able to keep classes in session despite staff shortages. At the LKSD board meeting on Jan. 17, two Bethel principals informed the board of near school closures because of a high number of COVID-19 cases in their schools.

“Because of the numbers of staff that have been impacted by COVID, we have had to consider whether or not we could handle school safely,” said Ayaprun Elitnaurvik Principal Joshua Gill. “Last week, I had 50 students on quarantine. At least one day last week, I had to make sure I had enough in attendance for the day to count,” said Bethel Regional High School Principal Alicia Miner.

The Lower Kuskokwim School District is starting to see the effects of the omicron variant of COVID-19. As LKSD staff returned to the region from their holiday break, a significant number faced travel delays and canceled flights. LKSD Superintendent Kimberly Hankins said about 25 staff had yet to return to the Y-K Delta because their flights were canceled or delayed. She said that several schools in the district are impacted by canceled flights, but only Ayaprun Elitnaurvik elementary in Bethel delayed their start.

A student brought a handgun to Barrow High School on Thursday morning, sending the school into lockdown, according to officials. No one was hurt, and North Slope Borough police apprehended the student. "To the best of our knowledge, no student or staff member was threatened," Barrow High School Principal Mark Jenkins said in a statement.

Kivalina school lost heat and reported an oil spill earlier this month. The discharge could have caused as much as 1,900 gallons of oil to seep into the ground, but no harm to human health or wildlife has been reported, officials said. School employees noticed that the building was out of heat, and the fuel tank, which was filled the day before, was empty. The leaking was along the pipe at a duplex teacher housing, and the teacher living there was relocated. The broken valve was fixed and the heat was restored to the school by the next day.

Petersburg School District buildings sustained damage from the heavy snowfall in December and January.

Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter says most of the damage happened at the middle and high schools. She said it stemmed from ice chunks building up on top of the roofs.

The Petersburg School Board, medical staff, and others spent nearly three hours talking about the school district’s COVID mitigation plan. Under consideration is part-time masking at the elementary school, masking breaks for staff, having a threshold for masking at the secondary schools, and having quarantines start with a confirmed positive test result or known exposure, not just when students say their symptoms started. Dr. Mark Tuccillo told the group the omicron variant is one third as deadly as delta but its three or four times more contagious. He said you might think that’s a “wash” but the pandemic is actually the worst it’s been.

The Unalaska school board decided not to change the district’s mandatory mask rules on Thursday, following nearly three hours of contentious public testimony.

Dozens of community members — including parents, students, teachers and local health officials — crammed into the Unalaska High School Library for the meeting. Some said there is no need for masks in schools. Others argued that with COVID-19 cases soaring, masking is more important than ever.

A group of Wrangell elementary and middle school students – some accompanied by their parents – walked out of class Friday morning to protest the public school district’s requirement that they wear masks indoors.

February 17-19, 2022 Bettye Davis East High School in Anchorage. Hosted by ASAA, UAA & Anchorage School District

State Championship policies and procedures, deadlines, required forms, resources and more.

DDF Coaches Information | More Information

February 26, 2022 at Dimond High School, Anchorage. Hosted by ASAA & Anchorage School District

State Championship policies and procedures, deadlines, required forms, resources and more.

Teacher Information | More Information

February 24-26, 2022 at Birch Hill Trails, Fairbanks

Hosted By ASAA and Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks

State Championship policies and procedures, deadlines, required forms, resources and more.

Nordic Ski Coaches Information | More Information

Juneau’s high school basketball and hockey players no longer have to wear masks while playing the game. Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss granted the exception, saying those athletes can instead participate in increased testing. She said the alternative will be available as long as the district also has enough supplies to maintain its test-to-stay policy.

The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) board voted to request that the Bethel City Council exempt the school from the citywide mask mandate. During a special meeting the Bethel City Council is slated to vote on the issue. If the proposal passes, it would temporarily allow varsity basketball players to remove their masks for games.