Jamie Diep

The Juneau School Board held off on returning $1.05 million in funding earmarked for child care to the City and Borough of Juneau this week amid questions about the current privately-run program and the possibility of an additional operator in the future.

Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon said at a meeting Tuesday she still has questions around how things are going with Auke Lake Preschool, like the status of its state licensing. Auke Lake Preschool started running an after-school program at the beginning of this school year after the district stopped operating its own.

“I just think we’re not ready, especially in a final reading, to make this decision,” Siddon said. “We don’t have all the information about the programs and what options we have for kids at all of our sites.”

Siddon said there is also a possibility for YMCA Alaska to expand its child care program to Juneau, and that the city funding might be able to be used for that.

Nate Root is the CEO of YMCA Alaska. The organization currently runs after-school child care in Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough and Kodiak.

In an interview with KTOO, Root said YMCA is looking into how feasible it would be to expand its after-school program to Juneau. He toured three schools last year and said the organization is working on surveys to see how many families are interested in the program.

He said running a program depends on how financially sustainable it will be. And it will still take a while to get licensed by the state if they move forward with starting a program in Juneau.

“To be completely transparent, it would look like the soonest we would open a program would be the beginning of the 26-27 school year,” he said.

Derik Swanson is the co-owner of Auke Lake Preschool, which runs the current after-school child care program out of Harborview Elementary, Auke Bay Elementary and Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary.

He said in an interview Friday that the program is still currently unlicensed. Swanson said staffing issues have delayed the process, but with those now resolved, he plans to keep working on getting licensed.

“It’s been pretty successful overall,” Swanson said. “It was kind of a rush to get the program started and up and running, but now it seems to be running fairly smoothly.”

Swanson was unaware of the potential for YMCA to expand to Juneau, but said child care providers in the city generally work together to meet the high demand.

The school board unanimously agreed to discuss the state of the after-school child care program and the remaining city funding at its facilities committee meeting on Feb. 3.

The City and Borough of Juneau has largely wrapped up shoveling on Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx — Glacier Valley Elementary School and began work on Mendenhall River Community School on Friday. 

This comes after record snowfall caused the district to close schools multiple times this week, including all schools Friday.

Assistant City Manager Robert Barr said at a press conference Friday the rain from the current atmospheric river could increase the weight on roofs.

“We expect snow weights to increase because of the rain, until it is able to warm up sufficiently for that snow-ice melt to drain both through the roof drains, which we’re giving careful attention to, as well as off the roofs through through, you know, gutter and gutter style systems,” he said.

Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said shoveling on the roof of Mendenhall River Community School is expected to continue this weekend. He said CBJ engineering teams plan on inspecting schools through this weekend to make sure it’s safe to occupy them on Monday.

Hauser said schools will move to remote learning if there’s any need to be closed for snow removal next week. He said a wider number of factors will determine if another districtwide closure is needed.

“Though none of our schools are in the avalanche zones, it is something that, you know, could inhibit transportation,” Hauser said. “And so as we’re looking at that and looking at the road conditions, those are factors we take when we look at a more broad potential school closure.”

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and Harborview Elementary School sit just outside the Behrends Avenue slide path avalanche zone, which is included in the evacuation alert issued Friday.  

Hauser encouraged families to make sure their contact information with schools are up to date, and to download the district’s app to receive the latest alerts.

Update, Thursday 7 p.m.:

All Juneau schools are now closed Friday due to the storm.

The Juneau School District notified parents and staff of the closure Thursday night and said that no remote instruction will take place Friday.

Update, Thursday 5 p.m.:

As of Thursday afternoon, Juneau School District Chief of Staff Kristen Bartlett said the district hasn’t received information that more schools need to be closed for snow removal. She said the city’s engineering team is monitoring schools daily, and that decisions are made on a day-to-day basis.

“It’s a balancing act of making sure that we’re continuing to educate kids and making sure that everyone can be safe while that’s happening,” Bartlett said. 

Students successfully evacuated to Thunder Mountain Middle School where parents were able to pick them up Thursday afternoon. They have mixed feelings on how the district has handled the winter storm.

Michael Kohan is a parent of a preschooler at Mendenhall River Community School. She said she appreciates the way the district has handled its response to the storm.

“I’m glad that the school took the precautions that they did, to act out of an abundance of caution and move the kids to TM today and cancel school tomorrow to get snow removal taken care of,” she said.

Sarah Overton has multiple children at the school. She said she wishes the schools weren’t open at all this week.

“I’m glad that I was able to come get them and nothing happened, but I feel like they shouldn’t have had school in session at all if there was any sort of concern, and if they hadn’t shoveled the roof,” she said. 

The district expects snow removal at Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx — Glacier Valley Elementary to wrap up Friday as it begins work at Mendenhall River Community School.

Juneau School District Facilities Director Kristy Germain says the school will offer remote learning while closed. 

“That process of clearing the roof will continue through the weekend, is the plan,” Germain said. “And then our public announcement to families also includes that we will be communicating if it needs to continue with remote learning on Monday.”

Original story:

Students and staff at Mendenhall River Community School were evacuated from the elementary school Thursday morning due to growing concern about the snow load on the gym roof. 

In a news release, the Juneau School District said everyone inside the school is being relocated to Thunder Mountain Middle School “out of an abundance of caution” and that “all students and staff are safe.”

The district is instructing families to pick up students after 1 p.m. from the middle school. Parents and guardians should go to the Thunder Mountain gym entrance facing the Dimond Park Aquatics Center for pick up and must show ID. Any Mendenhall River students not picked up by 2:30 p.m. will be sent home on a school bus. 

Crews will start clearing snow from the roof of Mendenhall River school Friday. While the building is closed, the school will offer remote learning.

“Crews will be working through the weekend clearing MRCS. We are hopeful that MRCS will open on Monday, but remote learning may need to be extended into next week if shoveling is not complete,” the district said in the release. 

This comes after back-to-back snowstorms dumped more than four feet of snow on Juneau, leading to the city and tribal governments issuing a joint disaster declaration Tuesday. The district says it will continue to monitor all schools as an atmospheric river is forecast to hit Southeast Alaska late Thursday night. 

The district closed Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx — Glacier Valley Elementary Wednesday to clear snow off its roof and planned to keep it closed the rest of the week. This followed district-wide closures Monday and Tuesday. 

This story has been updated. 

The Juneau School District plans to close at least two schools to remove snow on the buildings’ roofs following recent record-breaking snowstorms. 

The district closed Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx – Glacier Valley Elementary first and reopened the rest of its schools Wednesday, following district-wide closures Monday and Tuesday.

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Juneau Assistant City Manager Robert Barr said a team of engineers determined the elementary school needs to be shoveled first. 

“We started there due to pre-existing damage that we knew about at that facility that made us more concerned for them,” he said.

Barr said the city contracted with a 25-person, out-of-state team to work on the school.

As of Wednesday, the district says no school is above its load capacity based on measurements taken. Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx – Glacier Valley will remain closed for the rest of this week.

Mendenhall River Community School is next in line for shoveling. 

Though most schools are open, Superintendent Frank Hauser said students will be excused if they can’t attend school due to unsafe weather conditions.

“Even when schools are open, you know the conditions in your immediate neighborhood and are the best judge of whether or not to send your child to school,” he said.

With parking limited at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, the district encourages high school students to take the school bus or public transit to school. Students also have the option to park at Thunder Mountain Middle School and take a school bus in. 

School buses will be running snow routes all week, the district says, and will not be going to trailer parks due to conditions. 

The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, or DEED, found that the Juneau School District did not provide occupational therapy services to some students that were supposed to receive them last school year.

According to a report from the department, the district lost an occupational therapist last year and did not follow the correct procedure to ensure students would continue to receive services. Some students with an individualized education program, or IEP, require a certain amount of occupational therapy during the school year.

Don Enoch is DEED’s special education administrator. He said when a school loses staff that provide a specific special education service, a replacement should be found as quickly as possible and a compensatory education plan must be offered to students in the meantime. 

“The IEP guarantees the parents will receive those services for their students, and when that’s not done, the district’s obligated to make that right,” he said.

The report states that the district must offer services to make up for lost time. JSD also has to send a spreadsheet to DEED that lists which students qualify for services, and whether families decided to go through with the services.

The initial complaint was filed in June, and DEED issued the final report in November. In an email to KTOO, Juneau School District Student Services Director Jason DeCamillis said the district was already addressing the issue before the complaint was filed, and had resolved the issue before November.

He said fewer than 30 students were affected. Before the state’s report was completed, DeCamillis said the district hired new staff, provided make-up services or created a plan to provide services in the current school year.

“We do take these gaps very seriously and proactively address known issues as soon as possible, with as much communication as possible,” he wrote. 

In addition to a systemic complaint made about occupational therapy, an individual complaint was also filed to the state this year related to occupational therapy services. An investigation concluded that specific student is owed 330 minutes of compensatory occupational therapy services.

Enoch said many parents don’t realize the state is a resource to help students with IEPs. In addition to investigating complaints, DEED can also hold due process hearings and mediate meetings between parents and the school district about IEPs. 

He said DEED can also help explain an IEP to parents. He wants more parents to reach out to DEED if they are having issues.

“We don’t get very many calls from parents at all, and it’s kind of concerning sometimes, because we hear things that are going on out in the communities, and we have to go out and investigate,” Enoch said. “But one phone call from a parent could help clue us into problems that a district is having.”

The district has until the end of next year to complete all compensatory services as outlined by DEED. Parents with concerns about their children’s special education services can call DEED’s special education office at 907-465-8693.

Clarification: This story has been updated to better reflect the Juneau School District’s response timeline. 

Listen here:

After more than 16 years as a staple at Juneau’s State Office Building, a local musician has played his last theater organ concert. In a holiday-themed show on Friday, T.J. Duffy said goodbye to a packed audience filled with longtime listeners and soon-to-be regulars.

A crowd of people gathered in the State Office Building on a frigid afternoon. Sunshine streamed through windows as they listened, and some sang along with classic Christmas carols performed on a nearly century-old Kimball theater organ.

T.J. Duffy manned the keys of the massive organ, using his hands and feet to control pedals that play various pipes, wind instruments and drums behind a nearby glass display case. Duffy moved to Juneau in 2008, but heard about the rare organ even before arriving. He said he had to clear a couple of hoops before the state approved him to perform.

“I contacted the State Museum who owned it, and they had to interview me and vet me to make sure, you know, that I knew what I was doing, because it is a museum piece. And they said,’ Sure, go ahead,’” he said.

In 2009, Duffy started joining another organist, J. Allen MacKinnon, in performing on Fridays at noon. He kept it up for more than 16 years. 

He said some of the younger audience members are one of his favorite parts of performing.

“I used to have what I called my cult following of preschoolers,” he said. “They would come over here, they’d take their jackets and their boots off, they’d eat their peanut butter and jelly, and then they would get up and dance. So I would specifically save my danceable music for when they were ready to dance. And then they would rush the organ.”

After concerts, Duffy typically gave what he calls an “organ tour,” where he let children check out the instrument and play a few notes. Friday’s concert was no different. He said it’s a way to get them interested in music.

“The State Museum prefers I don’t, but I’m a big believer that if you want your kids to be musician[s], you have to put musical instruments in their hand and take them to musical events,” Duffy said. “Everybody says, ‘How can I get my kid interested in piano?’ Get him a piano. Let him play it, let him see people playing it.”

Runa Curry went to the concert with her mom. It was a first for both of them. 

“I like the sounds because, and then, you look in the case and there’s all, there’s like drums that go with it too,” Runa said. “There’s so many different, like, instruments that go with the organ.’

She said she’s sad that it’s Duffy’s last performance, but wants to come back for future concerts with other musicians.

Duffy said his last concert coincides with his retirement from the state’s law department. The years have also taken their toll.

“It’s affected my hearing and my abilities are decreasing, so no more public,” he said.

There are still two other performers who will continue the Friday concerts, but it’s unclear how much longer that will go on. The organ is near the end of its usable life, and it would cost $250,000 to ship it to Portland, Oregon for repairs. On top of that, Duffy said it’s difficult to get young people in Juneau to play the organ.

“There’s not that many organs in Juneau. Organists are a dying breed. AI starts manufacturing music now, you know?” he said. “So this organ may very well be in its final days. And I want everybody to know that.”

Now he hopes to leave the state and pursue his other interest: poker.

“I’m actually hoping to move to Las Vegas this summer and check out professional poker,” Duffy said. “I love playing poker. That’s my other passion, next to music.”