Juneau Schools

After three hours of testimony and discussion, the Juneau School Board on Tuesday night rejected a proposal to start a STEM charter elementary school in the district.

When the Summit STEM School was first proposed to the board in August, organizers said it would be located in four classrooms within an existing Mendenhall Valley elementary school, but didn’t specify which one. On Tuesday night, Superintendent Mark Miller said, if approved, it would be located at Riverbend Elementary School.

That school’s principal Michelle Byer says she was informed of this on Oct. 8 and was concerned about negative impacts to her school. Her testimony came amid other comments from Riverbend parents.

“You have heard the concerns from our community – the Riverbend community – fear of losing staff, having splits across all grades. Should this happen, parents who can have already told me that they would look for a different school,” Byer said. “These are some of the concerns, but the question is this: If this is good for some children, why not for all? We had a number of open positions this last year and would’ve embraced these great ideas. We would love to be a magnet school and serve an entire population.”

Retired principal of Juneau-Douglas High School Sasha Soboleff testified in favor of the Summit STEM School as a charter school.

“I’m here to support the effort of recognizing that there are children in our school district today who fail, not because you’re not good teachers, but they fail because you haven’t recognized their unique skill set of learning for which charter schools generally do very, very well in because they are very specifically driven to recognize that skill set,” Soboleff said.

During board discussion, Vice President Andi Story said she’d rather see STEM touch more students’ lives through a magnet school. She spoke against approving the charter proposal.

“When we’re going to have the 80 students go to another program, those students are not in our general operating fund anymore, and so we’re going to have to lose some services if we don’t plan for more money at some of the neighborhood schools,” Story said.

New school board member Josh Keaton supported the STEM school. He said he’d rather start with the current proposal than wait for the perfect proposal for a magnet school.

“I have high hopes and I firmly believe that by voting yes to this proposal we are beginning the implementation of STEM education throughout Juneau, not just the charter school. We are taking that stepping stone to start the process so we can implement it throughout the district,” Keaton said.

Keaton and fellow new board member Emil Mackey were the only yes votes in favor of the charter school. At a candidate debate in September, Mackey had said he did not support it.

The motion to approve the Summit STEM School failed 5-2.

The Juneau teachers’ union and the school district Wednesday night reached a tentative agreement on a one-year teachers’ contract. It includes a 2 percent pay increase, though the district won’t say what the budget impact would be.

Sara Hannan is a teacher at Juneau-Douglas High School and the bargaining representative for the Juneau Education Association. She said the 2 percent pay increase isn’t that much, but she hopes it’s something the union members will be happy to see.

“I’m pleased that the district recognizes that when you are in the business of educating people and your biggest cost is your professionals, you have to keep them moving forward even if it’s a little tiny bit because that negativity translates into people leaving and underperforming. So, it’s not a huge increase, but it still makes them feel like we’re moving forward,” Hannan said.

Of the 2 percent increase, 1 percent applies to the pay schedule and 1 percent is temporary for this fiscal year.

Hannan said the tentative agreement also includes a change in how years of experience are counted for certain specialists, like school psychologists and physical therapists–positions the district has trouble filling.

The district’s pay schedule for teachers is based on years of experience–the more experience, the more pay.

“But we only counted years of experience in a school setting. So if you worked at the hospital and been a speech pathologist, that didn’t count, and now it will. So we do think it’s going to make us a much more competitive district,” Hannan said.

Another change will affect teachers of students with Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs. These teachers have to attend many meetings, often outside of the work day. Now, they’ll receive some compensation for that time.

“For many, many years when we’ve discussed it with the district, the dialogue has surrounded, ‘This is your professional responsibility,’ and we’ve all acknowledged that, but what we’ve come to find is that it’s not an equal responsibility. There are some people who it’s not a once in a while kind of thing, it’s a very regular, perhaps weekly kind of obligation,” Hannan said.

Something the union wanted but did not get was more class prep time for elementary teachers. High school teachers get up to 75 minutes, middle school teachers get 90. Elementary teachers only get 30.

“No elementary teacher is only preparing 30 minutes a day. They’re preparing hours and hours each day. They’re only being compensated for 30 minutes of it and the rest of it is coming out of their sleep time. I go to the pool every morning between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and when I drive by Harborview Elementary School, there are classroom lights on,” Hannan said.

To negotiate, the district and the teachers’ union used a new process called interest-based bargaining, or IBB, which is more collaborative and discussion-based. Hannan said it’s too soon to say if it went well, since she doesn’t know yet if the teachers will be happy with the tentative agreement. Ted VanBronkhorst, human resources director for the Juneau School District, said he liked the process and hopes to continue it when bargaining starts again in the spring.

“It’s been a while since JEA and the school district have been able to come to an agreement without the assistance of an outside mediator. So I think the IBB process worked for us. We’re very pleased with how that was successfully implemented in this case and we’re hoping to build on it in the future,” said VanBronkhorst.

VanBronkhorst did not say how this contract would affect the school district’s overall budget. He said that information could prejudice the union’s vote.

Members of the teachers’ union will see the tentative agreement next week and they have one week to look at it. If the union votes it through, it then goes to the school board for approval.

Editor’s note: A previous version of the story had inaccurately stated the tentative agreement was reached Tuesday night; it was actually reached Wednesday night. 

The Juneau teachers’ union and the school district did not reach an agreement Wednesday after a full-day meeting. The teachers’ last contract expired June 30, but its terms remain in effect.

The meeting was devoted to financial issues, such as salaries and health care, which are the final elements to be negotiated.

“We made progress, but we were disappointed that we didn’t finish,” said Ted VanBronkhorst, human resources director for the Juneau School District.

An overtime session is planned for Wednesday, Oct. 14.

“What we all agreed was let’s go back to our teams and come back together and see if a couple more hours can get us there, so we all view the possibility is there,” said Sara Hannan, a teacher at Juneau-Douglas High School and the bargaining representative for the Juneau Education Association.

If the teachers’ union and the school district reach a tentative agreement next week, a written version will go to the teachers. They have two weeks to review it before a vote to finalize it.

It then needs to be approved by the Juneau School Board. VanBronkhorst expects the contract will likely be on the November agenda.

The union, representing 365 school district employees, started the bargaining process with the school district in February.

The last bargaining process was contentious with teachers picketing and threatening to strike. This time around, the school district and the teachers’ union are using a new approach called interest-based bargaining, which is more collaborative.

Jason Hart and Jeff Redmond lost their bids for Juneau School Board to incumbent Andi Story, and newcomers Josh Keaton and Emil Mackey in Tuesday’s election.

Story, leading the school board race with 2,730 votes in unofficial results, will begin her 13th year on the board. She was at Election Central on Tuesday night watching the results come in with her husband and campaign manager.

“I want to say thank you and gunalchéesh to everyone out there because it takes a community. We have a lot of issues, a wide variety of needs with our children and we are a town that really stands by our schools,” Story said.

As the board works on issues like curriculum, the Summit STEM School and the teachers’ contract, Story said it also needs to work on trust.

“We have to build trust between not only families because we’re given their most precious person in school, but also that the staff feels that everyone is working towards the same direction,” Story said.

On Tuesday night, Keaton had almost 2,200 votes. He was at home putting his two kids to bed.

As a new school board member, Keaton said he wants to make the public feel more comfortable testifying. Keaton has gone before the board many times as a parent and was often met with silence.

“I want to change that wall of silence. I want to ask them questions and for more clarification and make them feel that their testimony is wanted and needed for us to make those decisions,” Keaton said.

Keaton also plans to focus on class sizes.

“As we move into the budget process, I’m definitely going to be focusing on trying to keep those k-2 class sizes as small as we can,” Keaton said.

Mackey got 2,006 votes in preliminary totals. He was at home following election results with a small group of friends. Mackey said he’s happy to be elected, but knows he has a big job in front of him.

“Because of both the known and the unknown – we know cuts are coming, we just don’t know big they’re going to be – I feel kind of like a bull rider. I’m on the back of the bull but who’s in charge – me or the bull? And we’re going to find out,” Mackey said.

Mackey’s said his number one job is learning the role of a board member, but he also wants to take a fresh look at middle school travel.

“We probably need to revisit this because regardless of the decision, I don’t think that, politically, it’s been accepted by a lot of people in the community and we have to put that to bed, because until we put it to bed, it’s just going to sit there and fester,” Mackey said.

The new school board meets for a regular meeting Oct. 20.

Shona Osterhout, director of education at Perseverance Theatre, has 20 eighth graders at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School enraptured.

Students playing Othello and Desdemona are in front of the rest of the class. The seeds of doubt have been planted in Othello’s head. Desdemona is trying to convince him she hasn’t been unfaithful.

“He doesn’t believe her,” Osterhout says, “because he’s had the proof, air quote ‘proof,’ and he goes to her and he strangles her.”

Most of the students react in shock. One student says, “I knew it.”

Othello, played by student Beni Lata, wraps his hands around his wife, Desdemona, played by another student. Desdemona is dying.

“You can take your hands off her,” Osterhout directs. “And enter Emilia. She’s heard a lot of commotion.”

Playing Emilia, eighth grader Chloe McAdams goes over to the dying Desdemona, “What has happened here?”

“Suicide. I’ve killed myself,” says Izzy Luna, playing Desdemona.

“And then she dies,” Osterhout announces to the class.

In shock at her own character’s death, Luna says, “Oh my gosh.” The rest of the class laughs.

Thanks to a national program called Any Given Child, every Juneau eighth grader got to see Perseverance Theatre’s “Othello” before it ended Sunday. To help prepare students, the theater’s education director went into the classrooms and had the students act it out.

Dana Tran, 13, said it was fun watching her classmates act out Othello, “and it was shocking ‘cause I didn’t think that he would kill his wife.”

Student Lindzy Nguyen said Osterhout’s teaching style got her to pay attention: “From her shouting — not in a bad way — the shouting and her expression, it made me listen.”

That was Osterhout’s goal — to make Shakespeare’s play accessible to the middle schoolers.

“Shakespeare just writes about human truths. He writes about racism. He writes about jealousy. He writes about love. He writes these amazing relationships. That to me just goes through every age group,” Osterhout said.

Osterhout visited every eighth grade class at Floyd Dryden Middle School and most at Dzantik’i Heeni. Perseverance also planned post-play discussions of Othello at Montessori Borealis and Juneau Community Charter School.

Osterhout said getting the students to move around and act the parts instills the plot, and that makes it easier to watch the play.

“When they see what’s going on and they hear what’s going on and the words are a little different and hard to understand, they’ll know exactly because they’ve done it themselves or they’ve watched their friends do it, which is always way more important. I can sit there and talk to them for hours and hours, but if their friends do it, we’re in like Flynn,” Osterhout said.

A character like Iago, she said, is easy to get into.

“Iago is an archetypal villain. He’s the villain’s villain. When he’s onstage, kids in classrooms over at Floyd Dryden were booing him every time he went to do something. For me, that’s perfect. That’s what Shakespeare would’ve wanted anyway. He wanted audiences to feel what’s happening,” Osterhout said.

Eighth grade teacher Amy Lloyd said she enjoyed watching the students gasp and cheer during the class.

“They were all engaged. Everybody was paying attention. Nobody was squirming around. I didn’t have one bathroom pass. That’s a good sign,” Lloyd said.

The goal of Any Given Child is to provide an equitable arts experience for all students. With the program’s launch in Juneau, every eighth grader, regardless of what teacher they have or what socioeconomic level they come from, saw Othello for free. A student ticket would’ve cost $8.

“Theater isn’t as accessible to everybody unless you get that push,” Lloyd said. “I’m hoping this really makes them feel like, ‘If I went again on my own, I’d feel more comfortable. It would be somewhere I’ve been before and I understand how it works.’”

In total, more than 500 Juneau eighth graders saw Othello at Perseverance Theatre. It’s good preparation for the spring, when they’ll be reading Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

State budget pessimists warn that fewer barrels and a growing budget deficit could turn the state into an economic wasteland. But as some Juneau residents have learned, things could still turn around.

In a packed a ballroom at Centennial Hall Wednesday evening, a panel of two oil and gas consultants and two economists debated Alaska’s fiscal future.

Some of the more dire predictions inspire comparisons to Mad Max, a late 70s apocalyptic thriller in which oil reserves have been depleted, financial chaos and famine have set in, and roving biker gangs are the only law.

A warning from the movie’s trailer: “In the future, cities will become deserts, roads will become battlefields, and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4TdPxOXuYw

In Alaska, fewer barrels of oil are being produced and the price has dropped to under $50 a barrel — about half of what it used to be. The state is expecting a deficit of $3 billion next year.

And with deeper cuts comes a loss of jobs and school funding.

“It’s not going to take 10 or 15 years. I think two or three years, you’ll see a noticeable drop in Alaska’s population,” Larry Persily said. He, along with a panel of three, spoke at Juneau’s Forum on Alaska’s Fiscal Future.

Persily worked for the Obama Administration on Alaska’s natural gas pipeline and now works for the Kenai Peninsula Borough. He said the proposed LNG pipeline offered a glimmer of hope that could add $1.2 billion a year into the budget.

“But in and of itself, it is not going to solve our problem,” Persily said.

A big topic of conversation at the forum was the possibility of a state income or sales tax. But some of the panelists agreed a sales tax could be regressive and hurt struggling people.

Brad Keithley, a consultant firm that focuses on oil, gas and policy matters, said that’s what adding state taxes would do.

“Think about this for a second. If we’re going into a recession, the last thing you want to do is reduce personal incomes,” Keithley said. “The last thing you want to do is take money out of the private economy. Take money out of people’s hands. That’s what taxes do. ”

Persily sees it differently.

“You look at taxes as taking money out of individuals’ hands. I look at taxes as a way of paying for community services, “Persily said. “That’s how it works. That’s how communities work.”

Persily said some people could also afford a reduced PFD check or forgoing it altogether. I asked Josh Warren an attendant at the forum, what he thought of that.

“I love my PFD. I’ve gotten it every year since I was born here. But if that’s what the state needs to educate children, then I think that’s OK,” Warren said.

Juneau has a 5% city sales tax. Places like Anchorage and Fairbanks don’t.

To help with the fiscal crisis, panelists advised municipalities to come up with solutions on their own. Brad Keithley said that meant “thinking local.”

“Because the state’s not going to be riding over the hill to build the next school, to build the next AstroTurf football field, to build the next UAF athletic arena, to build the next crime lab. They’re not going to ride over the hill to do that,” Keithley said.

There’s nothing apocalyptic about that.