Juneau Schools

The Juneau School Board has selected a national search firm to find the school district’s next superintendent.

The board voted Tuesday to authorize board President Sally Saddler to contract Ray and Associates, which is based in Iowa with an office in Tacoma, Wash. The firm’s base fee is $16,000, which doesn’t include travel costs.

In its proposal, the firm outlines its five-stage process which includes seeking input from constituents and stakeholders.

Besides Ray and Associates, the board considered proposals from firms based in Illinois and Nebraska, as well as the Juneau-based Alaska Association of School Boards. Cost estimates from the firms ranged from $9,000 to $37,000.

Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich is leaving the district at the end of June for personal and private reasons. The board accepted Gelbrich’s resignation last week. Gelbrich joined the Juneau school district in 2009.

Juneau School District Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich is resigning effective June 30.

Gelbrich was unavailable for comment, but district spokeswoman Kristin Bartlett says he turned in his letter of resignation on Thursday.

“The Board spent a considerable amount of time trying to discourage him from leaving and they expressed their unanimous support for him to stay and continue the work,” Bartlett says in an email.

Gelbrich’s contract ends in 2016. It is not known yet if there will be repercussions for breaking it early. Gelbrich has headed up Juneau schools since 2009.

Bartlett says over the past couple of months the superintendent has discussed with school board leaders the likelihood that he would be leaving.

He finally announced his intention to the full board on Tuesday, March 4, during an executive session on his evaluation, which Bartlett says was positive.

He has said he wants to live closer to family in the Pacific Northwest. At least twice this year, he was a finalist for superintendent positions out of state. He was ultimately passed up for jobs in Idaho and Montana.

(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct when the school board held its executive session to evaluate Gelbrich. The evaluation occurred Tuesday, March 4, not Tuesday, March 11.)

The Juneau School District Budget Committee Tuesday night presented its final recommendations to the Board of Education on how to deal with a potential shortfall of more than $4 million next school year.

The school board now has until the end of the month to finalize the spending plan and submit it to the Juneau Assembly.

Highlights of the 17-member budget committee’s recommendations include:

• Lower student-teacher ratios across grade levels than those in the budget submitted by Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich.
• Adding 10 school nurse positions and eliminating health aides. The administration’s budget calls for five nurses and five health aides, the same as this year.
• Delaying new language arts and math courses, which the administration wants to implement next year.

“In the recommended additions, there were 11 that had strong support by the budget committee, and seven of those were directly related to teachers, more teachers in the classroom,” said budget committee co-chair Brian Holst.

Several school board members said teaching positions should be the first budget addition if state funding for education increases this year. Superintendent Gelbrich said he would recommend adding high school teachers, because next year is the first year students in the district will need to meet new, tougher graduation requirements.

“I think that’s the most urgent need in terms of timing that has real impact for kids right away,” Gelbrich said.

The school board will introduce its version of the budget next Tuesday. It’s expected to come up for a final vote on March 25th. Public comment will be taken at both meetings. The public can also comment via email at budgetinput@juneauschools.org.

School board adopts resolution supporting per student increase in state funding

The Board of Education adopted a resolution Tuesday supporting an increase in the Base Student Allocation. That’s the amount of money districts receive from the state for each enrolled student. It’s currently $5,680 and has not increased since 2011. School officials across Alaska blame flat funding for district budget woes.

School board member Lisa Worl was one of several Juneau residents who testified Tuesday on the state operating budget before the House Finance Committee.

“Due to flat funding in our operating budget, the Juneau School District has cut 10 percent of our budget in the past four years,” Worl said.

Without an increase in funding, she said, Juneau will face even more cuts.

“In this next school year we are looking to cut another $4.7 million or 7 percent. Together this represents 17 percent total cuts to our operating budget in five years’ time,” Worl said.

The Legislature is considering proposals to increase the Base Student Allocation. But the operating budget won’t be approved until April and districts need to wrap up their budgets this month. The school board’s resolution also calls for lawmakers to adopt a multi-year funding plan.

Juneau School District Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich has once again made the short list for the top job in another school district.

Gelbrich is one of two finalists for the superintendent’s job in the Nampa, Idaho school district. Gelbrich and David Peterson of Washington state will be interviewed Monday, according to Idaho Education News.

Peterson is superintendent of North Mason School District in Belfair, Wash.

Nampa has had an interim superintendent since May of last year, the result of an abrupt resignation. Since then the district has been in difficult contract negotiations and is trying to erase a $3.5 million shortfall.

Gelbrich faced similar issues this past year as the Juneau district negotiated an agreement with teachers.  Juneau is also dealing with a $4.3 million budget shortfall for the next school year.

In a Nampa School District news release, Gelbrich says he’s delighted to be considered for the job.

“The efforts underway in the school district and the livability of this vibrant community make it an ideal place to live and work,” Gelbrich stated. “I look forward to the opportunity to get to know the stakeholders in the community better as a part of this process.”

Nampa is a city of about 84,000 people in southwest Idaho.

In January, Gelbrich was a finalist but passed up for the superintendent’s job in Kalispell, Mont.

Gelbrich came to Juneau from Oregon in July 2009. His contract with the Juneau School District expires in June 2016.

Juneau childcare workers are getting paid more and staying in their jobs longer than they were just a few years ago. That’s according to an organization that runs a pilot program designed to improve access to childcare in the Capital City.
Deputy City Clerk Beth McEwen helps a group of kids from Discovery Preschool put Valentine’s Day cards in Juneau Assembly members’ mailboxes. The cards were handcrafted by preschoolers from across the city to thank the Assembly for funding the HEARTS initiative.

HEARTS stands for Hiring Educating and Retaining Teaching Staff. Joy Lyon is Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children, which runs the program.

“The HEARTS initiative offers incentives and encouragement for childcare providers to pursue their education so they can become better teachers,” Lyon said. “And it also encourages them to stay in their positions and be able to afford to work with the children that they love.”

When the Valley Youth Club closed in 2010 several groups came to the Assembly and urged members to address gaps in the city’s childcare services. The Assembly made the issue a top priority, and provided about $92,000 in funding for the HEARTS initiative in each of the past two years.

“We’re seeing some remarkable results,” said Lyon.

The program reimburses childcare professionals for university classes and other training in early childhood education. Workers can also qualify for wage incentives, up to $2.71 an hour for employees with a four-year degree.

Before HEARTS, Lyon says childcare centers in Juneau were struggling to stay open. Only one out of every seven workers met state standards, and turnover was close to 100 percent.

Today, Lyon says there’s one qualified staff for every four childcare workers, and the turnover rate is 67 percent.

“So they’re really staying,” she said. “Once they reach that level of education they have this awareness of how important they are to the lives of young children and families. And they see that there’s some incentive and some recognition from the city of how valuable they are.”

Assemblywoman Karen Crane chairs the Juneau Assembly Finance Committee, which will soon tackle the city’s biennial budget process. While she can’t guarantee funding for HEARTS in the next two-year budget, Crane says she’s encouraged by the apparent success of the program.

“The entire Assembly is aware of the fact that finding childcare in Juneau is hard,” said Crane. “There are not enough childcare providers. So seeing results from this is very gratifying.”

Back at Discovery Preschool, the kids are getting ready to head out into the snow. Teachers Assistant Christine Amor helps the little ones put on their jackets and hats.

Amor already has an associate’s degree in early childhood education, as well as a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies. After this month she’ll qualify for a wage incentive through HEARTS.

“Being an educator you’re always concerned about the fact that you put all this time and effort and love into your work, but you know, you don’t really get great money,” she said.

Of course, Amor says, she’s not in it for the money, but because of the relationships she has with the kids.

“But the incentive is very nice and I think it does encourage a lot of people to continue working in the field,” Amor said.

Lyon says the next step is getting more people to open childcare facilities in Juneau.

“Stabilizing the current programs is the first priority,” she said. “And then yes, we have some new family childcare providers that started their business because they heard of the HEARTS initiative.”

Lyon says Juneau’s 38 child care facilities have space for less than one in five children under the age of five in the Capital City.

Juneau teachers and the school district go back to the bargaining table on Monday (Nov. 18).

Teachers are working on a one-year contract that expired in June, but remains in effect until a new agreement is reached.

Teachers have come before the school board at every meeting this fall — with this message:

“Our district has not entered negotiations in good faith,” said Mendenhall River 5th grade teacher Adam Berkey.

Impasse, failed mediation, arbitration;  all mark the history of contract negotiations over the last couple of years between the Juneau School District and Juneau Education Association.

Now the two sides await an arbitrator’s opinion.  It’s only advisory.

They met with an arbitrator in mid-October.  There have been no negotiations since.

The school board allows public comments at the start of every meeting and that time has become the teachers’ platform this fall.

Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School teacher Kathleen Portfield was the first to address the board on Tuesday.

“Please direct the superintendent to come back to the table with no less than the current increase in the cost of living for 2013, currently 2.7 percent for the first six months.”

JEA vice president Dirk Miller has more than 24 years in the district as a parent and physical education teacher.  He said he doesn’t remember a time when there’s been “such a disconnect” between the district and its staff.

He explained why teachers quickly rejected the district’s last offer in early October.

“Almost a year (it) seems like we’ve been stonewalled. The district really didn’t offer us anything. Zero in salary increases; even some safety measures didn’t get addressed. So this year we come back to the table and the best you have to offer is cutting health insurance then rewarding a very few members with a one-time bonus.  That’s not going to heal this division,” Miller said.

The teachers have not minced words.  At each monthly board meeting they’ve described low morale, feeling devalued, even anger toward the administration.

Sixteen-year high school teacher Tonja Moser acknowledged that negotiations seldom go well, but said this year is the worst.

“You haven’t bargained in good faith.  Ten times to the table without a single penny, unless it was a divisive offer, is not a respectful thing to do to us,” she said.           

The district blames flat funding from the Legislature, a problem for schools across Alaska.

Juneau superintendent Glenn Gelbrich said he hopes Monday’s negotiating session will get JEA and the administration closer to a solution, but every dollar requires a tradeoff.

“Reality is that our resources are what our resources are.  And to every additional dollar we spend on the salary side, for whatever employee group, not just teachers, we have to balance that with the interests of the programs we offer to kids,” he said.     

In the meantime, briefs are due to the arbitrator next week. The advisory opinion is expected before the end of the year.