Juneau Schools

The Juneau School District selected a new chief financial officer who will start in March. Nicole Herbert will be the district’s third chief financial officer in less than two years. 

Herbert currently serves as the director of accounting services for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. 

As CFO for the Juneau School District, she will be responsible for giving financial supervision to the school board and overseeing the district’s finance, payroll and food service departments. 

Herbert has multiple years of experience working for a public accounting firm. She holds a certified public accountant license and is on the board of directors of Alaska School Business Officials.

Under her leadership, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District was awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Association of School Business Officials International.

Herbert will take over for Lisa Pearce, who announced her resignation in October — just a few months after she officially started work. She said she will retire and spend more time with her family and new grandchild.

Pearce was hired on a temporary basis last December after the district’s director of administrative services abruptly resigned. She discovered the district was facing multimillion-dollar deficits soon after taking on the job. Some of the issues were due to accounting errors by previous staff.  

Pearce helped the school board navigate its financial crisis and consolidation process last winter. She then took on the job full-time in July. She will help train her replacement.

Ayla Keller and her classmates put on blue coveralls to go to their first class of the day. Then, the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé seniors jacked up a Honda SUV and placed an oil pan on the ground beneath it. 

They are the first students to take Diesel 101, an intro class that lets high school students learn the basics for a trades career. The course is a partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast School of Career Education. That means they get college credits for changing oil. 

In the class, students learn the basics of tool and engine identification, electrical work and heavy-duty diesel mechanics. The district debuted the course as young people are rethinking the value of traditional bachelor’s degrees.

“It’s just a really good intro to diesel because we’re learning the basics that we’ll need in any diesel mechanics field,” Keller said. “It’s just a great starting point for my career.”

Keller has already been accepted into a handful of colleges, but wants a career that’s hands-on – like her dad and grandfather, who are both mechanics. That’s why when she saw the Juneau School District offering the new class, she jumped at the opportunity. 

“By working my butt off, I’ve been able to have good grades in this class and be able to finish a bunch of projects,” she said. 

Alaska struggles to maintain a steady working-age population – there are simply more job openings than available workers. That has a lot to do with outmigration. Corey Ortiz is the Dean of the School of Career Education at UAS. He said the diesel mechanics industry is no exception. 

“There are a lot of very high-wage jobs out there in power tech and diesel,” Ortiz said. “We have a couple of big partners with the mines, and they have a hard time finding people locally to fill their jobs.”

Diesel 101 could open up industry opportunities for Juneau students. Alaska’s mineral mining industry flourished throughout the pandemic and is expected to continue to grow over the next decade. Hecla Greens Creek Mine is Juneau’s most prominent and profitable employer. And, it just got the green light for an expansion that could extend mine operations for up to another 18 years. 

Ortiz said he thinks a big part of the labor shortage in the field is because students might not know there are opportunities out there like this class. That’s why he wanted to collaborate with the high school to offer it. 

“I believe that we need to be exposing students to the technical education,” he said. “In classes as early as we can, and get them into the pathways early and get them really immersed in some direction that will lead them to a meaningful career.”

Parents were concerned that their students would miss out on opportunities when Juneau’s high schools and middle schools consolidated at the start of the school year. But Diesel 101 is a new opportunity – and it has been popular. 

The diesel class has 18 students and a waiting list. It was filled by word of mouth. Trevor Fritz is the instructor and an assistant professor of power technology at UAS. He said offering new and alternative learning opportunities like this one is crucial for high school students. 

That’s especially the case as the cost of a traditional four-year degree keeps rising and young people are looking for another path to a well-paying job. 

“There’s such a great need,” Fritz said. “There’s such a huge need for trades and for skilled professionals in all these fields.”

Carter Harralston is a senior in the class. While holding an oil pan in his hand, he said he isn’t sure what he wants to do after graduating. But he liked the class and said he might look into a job as a mechanic after taking it. 

“I learned a lot of stuff, like oil change for that,” Harralston said, pointing to a vehicle. “To just know where all the parts of an engine are, to look and fix my own engine and basic maintenance stuff that’s good to know.”

The district plans to continue to offer the class in the coming years and expand to offer more. For students like Harralston, classes like these can help them take their first steps into the trades — and the adult world — with a few new skills under their belt. 

Juneau School District’s chief financial officer is resigning just a few months after she officially began the role. 

On Friday, the district announced CFO Lisa Pearce would be leaving to spend more time with her family and new grandchild.

Juneau School Board President Deedie Sorensen said the announcement didn’t come as a surprise. 

“We knew that it wouldn’t be a really long-term thing for her, but she committed to getting us through a certain period of time,” Sorensen said. “So, her resignation is not unexpected.”

Pearce was temporarily hired last December to fill in after the district’s director of administrative services abruptly resigned. She accepted the full-time role back in May and officially started it in July.

Pearce played a critical role in navigating the district through its financial crisis and consolidation process last winter. She was the one who originally discovered the district was facing multimillion-dollar deficits, some of which was due to accounting errors.

With her help, the district was able to resolve those deficits — but it didn’t come easy. Doing so meant closing some schools, consolidating grades and reducing staff. 

Sorensen said she is more concerned about the uncertainty of state education funding than finding a new CFO ahead of the upcoming budget-making process.

“Is the light at the end of the tunnel daylight, or is it an oncoming train? We just never know,” she said. 

In an email, the district’s Chief of Staff Kristin Bartlett said the district is “grateful for Ms. Pearce’s tireless work over the last year.”

The job is already listed on the district website and will be open for a couple of weeks. The district hopes to fill the position as soon as possible. 

In the meantime, Pearce will continue to work while the district searches for the new CFO and will help train her replacement.

When Juneau voters fill out this year’s municipal election ballot, they’re going to see two recall petitions – one asking whether to recall Board of Education President Deedie Sorensen, and another asking whether to recall board Vice President Emil Mackey. 

The recall questions made it on the ballot after a local group gathered enough signatures for them to qualify — nearly 2,400 signatures each. 

But qualifying for the ballot doesn’t mean what’s written in the petitions is accurate. 

The ballot states that Sorenson and Mackey demonstrated misconduct and incompetence by failing to understand accounting errors in the fiscal year 2024 budget, resulting in a $7.9 million deficit and a taxpayer loan from the city. 

According to Municipal Attorney Emily Wright, the City and Borough of Juneau’s Law Department determines if there are legal grounds, or a reason, for the recall – not if that reason is true or factual.

“We as the Department of Law do not have to know whether this is true or not,” she said. “We don’t look to see whether it’s fixed or not. We don’t make any of those judgment calls. We just say, ‘Okay, does it meet the threshold?’”

The recall group originally wanted to include everyone on the board who voted in favor of the consolidation of Juneau’s high schools and middle schools earlier this year. But Mackey and Sorensen are the only current members of the board who are eligible for recall due to the timing of their terms.

The group cited several allegations against the pair, but only one met the threshold to trigger a recall. And, because it qualified legally, the rest is up to the voters.

“It’s now the voter’s job to determine whether it’s true or not. It’s not my job to say this is true or not,” Wright said. 

In fact, what’s written on the ballot as the reason for the recall isn’t completely accurate.

What actually happened?

The ballot says that Sorensen and Mackey failed to do their duty as board members during the 2024 fiscal year budget process – when district administration discovered accounting errors and overestimated enrollment numbers. It resulted in a multimillion-dollar budget gap. The school board ultimately addressed that deficit and never actually took out a loan from the city, as the ballot states. 

But, for the 2025 fiscal year — which started this past July — the board also had to address another multimillion-dollar deficit. That is what led the district to close some schools, consolidate grades and reduce staff. 

Mackey said he thinks that’s the real reason people want him off the board.

“A lot of it is just angry Thunder Mountain parents,” he said. “And I get it, they should be angry. But the truth is, is that it had to be done.”

Part of the consolidation plan closed one of the two high schools in town – Thunder Mountain in the Mendenhall Valley. That means students from both high schools are now at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé downtown. And Thunder Mountain High School is now Thunder Mountain Middle School. 

“We had to shut down one high school or the other, or we were going to lay off another 30 to 60 teachers, depending on what we were looking at,” Mackey said. 

Sorensen agrees that the actual reason for the recall is the consolidation vote. 

“I believe that the impetus for and the hostility towards Dr. Mackey and I stems from the fact that we were part of the block of four votes that voted for consolidation, that consistently voted for consolidation. In particular, the closure of Thunder Mountain High School,” she said. 

But Jenny Thomas, one of the leaders of the recall effort, disagrees. 

“It’s not so much Thunder Mountain. I mean, you closed Floyd Dryden and you closed [Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School], and the narrative that’s being put out there is as angry TM parents — a large majority of my signers were middle school parents,” she said. 

The recall group is largely made up of parents, and Thomas is also running for school board this year.  

“I would hope that they would realize this is not coming from a place of anger because we didn’t get what we wanted, I know that’s being pushed out there,” she said. “It’s not just TM families, it’s everybody that was affected.”

What’s next?

Thomas knows that recalling the two school board members won’t undo the board’s decisions to close Thunder Mountain High School or the rest of the consolidation process. But she said it will fix some problems.

“I think it’s going to make the board listen to the public a little bit more. Because, I mean, you testify, right? Hours of testimony, you never hear back from them,” she said. “What’s the point of testifying? I mean, it makes you feel like your opinion and your voice doesn’t matter, and you don’t want anybody in the community to feel like that.”

Mackey said that recalling him and Sorensen will send a chilling message to future board members. 

“They’re going to look back at this if this succeeds, and they’re not going to make the hard choices, because they’re going to be scared they’re going to be recalled, they’re going to be drug in the mud, and they’re going to be held accountable for something that wasn’t their fault,” he said. “And that is scary — it’s terrifying.”

But Mackey said it won’t stop him from running again in the future. Sorensen and Mackey’s current terms end next year. Sorensen said she plans to retire after that.

There haven’t been many recall questions on Juneau’s ballots over the years. Since 1970, voters have only been asked twice whether someone should be recalled, according to city clerk records. 

If Mackey and Sorensen are recalled, the remaining school board members will have up to 30 days to appoint two new members.

Illegal student parking is on the rise near Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé.

School went back into session last week. It’s the first time in more than a decade that all high school students in Juneau are under one roof, instead of splitting between two campuses. 

Since classes commenced, students, parents and nearby residents are complaining that there aren’t enough parking spaces available at the high school for the additional students. 

City Manager Katie Koester said the city is aware of the parking problems near the school and is working with the district to find solutions.

“The reality is that parking is tight,” she said. 

According to police, some students have been blocking bus lanes, driveways and taking up space in the faculty parking area. 

Before school started, the district tried to mitigate parking issues by implementing a “park and ride” service where students could park at Thunder Mountain Middle School and bus over to Juneau-Douglas. 

Superintendent Frank Hauser said that’s still a viable option for students to take advantage of. He said this isn’t the high school’s first time dealing with this many students on campus. 

“Juneau-Douglas High School once had about 1,900 students, and currently, that’s hundreds of students less, now, than it had at its peak enrollment,” he said. “So that’s something to consider as we look at the spaces that are down there.”

Hauser said the district isn’t considering the idea of building a parking garage or additional structures for parking. However, it is looking at ways to work with the city, state and University of Alaska Southeast to find open spots at the Marine Tech building and the nearby harbors.

Mayor Beth Weldon — who is up for reelection this October — is also concerned about the issue. She said she hopes spots open as soon as possible. 

“We are taking this very seriously,” she said. “But as you can imagine, it takes a little time trying to figure out who can give up what spots.”

A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said the state is also looking into the parking issue. 

The neighborhood surrounding Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé was packed Thursday morning. It was the first day of school for the Juneau School District.

Cars lined the streets, buses filled the roads and students shuffled down the sidewalks. 

Juniors Ximena Ramirez and Aurora Cole were headed to their first classes. Ramirez said she had a lot of emotions running through her head.

“I think it’s chill. I’m excited for it. I’m just, like, nervous,” she said. “I think everybody’s nervous to just be with everybody, find parking and stuff.”

This school year is the first time in 16 years that all high school students in Juneau are under one roof, instead of splitting between Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain High School in the Mendenhall Valley. That’s because that building is now Thunder Mountain Middle School. 

This past winter, the school board voted to consolidate Juneau’s high schools and middle schools — among other cost-cutting measures — in order to fix a multimillion-dollar budget crisis. 

Ramirez went to Juneau-Douglas last year, but this is Cole’s first year here from Thunder Mountain. She said it’s nice to have some friends like Ramirez to help guide her through the new building, but she’s still nervous. 

“It’s kind of exciting, just because of all the people, but it’s also scary because you know nothing,” she said. 

And, it’s not just students who are on edge. Brooke Rohweder is a parent of a junior starting his first year at Juneau-Douglas after spending his first two years at Thunder Mountain, which is closer to their home.

“There are just a lot of unknowns I guess,” she said. “I think we’re trying to go into it optimistically, but it’s a big, big, big shift for us.” 

Rohweder said she might be more nervous than her kid.

“He’s been positive the whole time, as well as all of his friends that I’ve talked to,” she said. “They’re just going into it more positively I think than I feel right now.”

Juneau School Board Member Britteny Cioni-Haywood was at the high school Thursday morning to check in on how things were going. She said she heard a few concerns like the lack of parking downtown, a few late buses and scheduling issues for some students. 

But overall, things were going better than she hoped. 

“At this point anyway, from the little that I’ve seen, feels like it’s going fairly smoothly,” she said. “I believe that there probably will be some rough spots as we kind of try and get those smoothed out — patience and grace.”

Across town at the newly combined middle school campus at Thunder Mountain, the parking lot was a lot more empty than in years before. 

As parents lined the drop-off lane and said goodbye to their kids, seventh-grade student Cianna Kahl stood in front of the sign outside of the school so that her dad, Neil Kahl, could take her photo. 

“I’m feeling pretty confident because I have some friends so I’m excited to see them here,” she said.  

One downside for Cianna and her dad is that they live right next to the former Floyd Dryden Middle School, which she would have attended had it not closed down this year under the consolidation plan. Floyd Dryden, along with the Marie Drake building, are now owned by the city.

But Neil said they’re staying positive.

“That was kind of a bummer,” he said. “But it’s a really nice facility here, so the middle schoolers are gonna have a good learning experience. And that’s the main thing.”

In an interview earlier this week, Superintendent Frank Hauser said he is confident that consolidating schools is a major milestone for getting the district back on track financially.

“I think the district is positioned to be more responsive, but at the same time being able to provide those opportunities for our students and really expanding out and not having to reduce more because of those costs,” he said. “The consolidation really made it possible to put us on firm financial footing.”

But, with state funding for education in unknown territory heading into the next legislative session, Hauser warned there still could be more bumps to come on the road ahead.