Education

The Juneau school board has approved a new three-year contract with Superintendent Glen Gelbrich.

The contract begins July 1 and runs through June 30, 2016.  The education board evaluates the superintendent annually.  This is Gelbrich’s third contract with the district since being hired in 2009.

He is currently making $155,000 a year; the superintendent’s salary has not increased for the last three years.  School Board President Sally Saddler says Gelbrich asked the board not to offer him a raise.

The board is currently working to balance the district’s $90-million budget for the next fiscal year, and more than $1.7 million in cuts are expected, assuming the state legislature does not reduce the governor’s request for education funds.

Juneau is the fifth largest school district in the state, with more than 5-thousand students in pre-school through 12^th grade, and 632 employees.

 

 

 

“Yeah, it’s a beast,” said a PCL supervisor on Thursday about the tower crane that’s going up in downtown Juneau. The crane is being erected for SLAM, or the State Library, Archives, and Museum project that’s underway behind the current Alaska State Museum.

PCL employees say the crane will be as high as 160 feet with the cab at about 138 feet. The crane arm will be capable of lifting a maximum load of 30,000 pounds, or as much as 6,000 pounds at the end of its 230 foot reach. The tower crane will remain on site for two years during the construction of SLAM.

Once the tower crane is erected, then the big red mobile crane currently on the construction site will be dismantled and driven away.

When finished, the tower crane will not be the tallest structure in Juneau. For comparison, the antenna on top of the Juneau Federal Building reaches as high as 221.5 feet. Building managers say the top of the penthouse is at 196 feet. According to aviation sectional maps, the Douglas Island radio tower (accross Gastineau Channel from Harris and Aurora Harbors) is 278 feet tall and the Salmon Creek radio tower is 325 feet tall.

Previous stories on the project:

Formal groundbreaking for SLAM project
Another groundbreaking for SLAM
SLAM construction set to begin this summer
Shoveling for SLAM

It’s less than a week since the federal budget cuts known as sequestration took effect, and Southeast Alaska communities are starting figure out what the reductions might mean for their bottom lines.

In Juneau, the cuts will affect city and school district operations, as well as services at local nonprofits.

City Manager Kim Kiefer says some departments will see small reductions due to the sequester cuts. Capital City Fire and Rescue, Juneau Police and Capital Transit all get federal grants. But some are guaranteed through next fiscal year, while others supply only a small portion of each department’s budget.

A number of projects at the city-owned Juneau International Airport are funded largely by the Federal Aviation Administration. But rather than losing money, Kiefer says airport officials are worried that checks could be delayed because of federal layoffs.

“So we’re just watching – very aware of it – and figuring out, okay, are there some services that we have to be really careful about right now that we were counting on having federal funding and if that doesn’t come through, what do we do?” Kiefer said.

In recent years, the federal government’s largest contributions to city coffers have come from two subsidies – Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools – designed to mitigate local revenue losses due to declining timber production. While those programs are not part of sequestration, they’ve long been targeted for reduction, and Kiefer does not expect them to continue beyond this year.

The Juneau Assembly will hold Finance Committee meetings in April to make revisions to the fiscal year 2014 budget, which takes effect in July. At that point, Kiefer expects to have more details about sequestration and the loss of other federal funding.

“It just adds to the challenges that we face anyway,” she said. “There’s uncertainty as we’re looking at projections for our sales tax or property tax or interest income. So, it’s just one more piece of uncertainty.”

Most of the revenue for the Juneau School District’s $92 million budget comes from the State of Alaska and the city. But Superintendent Glen Gelbrich says the district receives federal grants for programs that target disadvantaged and special education students, as well as staff training.

Sequestration will cut about 5 percent from those programs, for a total of about $123,000 a year, according to Gelbrich. He says his goal will be to absorb the cuts without reducing staff.

“Wherever we have the opportunity to reduce some supplies, wherever we have the opportunity to reduce professional development, we will do that,” Gelbrich said. “When it comes to special education needs, we’ll have to tighten up pretty hard.”

Gelbrich says federal cuts won’t have a major effect on next year’s budget, which the school board is currently putting together.

While it’s tough to swallow reductions to programs for kids, Gelbrich says cuts to professional development for teachers shouldn’t be overlooked.

“It’s very important. Part of the foundation of our effort to have more kids succeed is building on the strengths that our staff already has,” Gelbrich said. “Just as we want kids to get better, we as adults, we want to get better at what we do so kids benefit from that.”

Local nonprofits are also preparing for sequestration. Catholic Community Services offers home health care and food programs for seniors and families throughout Southeast Alaska.

Executive Director Jean Strafford says cuts could total about $103-thousand dollars across all CCS programs.

“The main programs that we’ve been notified right now that will be affected are our senior centers,” Strafford said. “So, the senior meal program at the different locations around Southeast, and the home delivered meal programs, and senior transportation.”

Strafford worries some federal grants that are passed through state and municipal agencies could be reduced as well. She says she’ll try to avoid staffing cuts, and would not deny services to any clients. Rather she says the agency will have to reduce how often those services are provided.

“So, some communities that have five days of Meals on Wheels service may have to go down to four,” she said.

The biggest effect of sequestration throughout Alaska is the potential loss of federal jobs. But nobody is saying exactly how many are threatened. Local federal offices contacted for this story referred all questions to spokespeople in Washington, D.C., who offered generic information about cuts nationwide.

Alaska continues to rank near the top of the nation in terms of federal funding per capita.

A subcommittee in the legislature is looking to shave money from early education programs.

The group tasked with looking at the Department of Education and Early Development in the House rolled out their recommendations on Thursday, and their cuts to pre-school programs amount to $1 million.

The reductions make up almost a fifth of the early education funding included in the governor’s budget.

The pre-kindergarten program saw the biggest cut, with its funding reduced by $480,000. The education subcommittee also made the program’s $2 million allocation a one-time amount, with the intention to reconsider program funding next year. The program was created in 2009 as a pilot, and it serves 13 schools across the state.

“That’s a pretty significant hit to pre-K programs,” says Michael Hanley, commissioner of Education and Early Development.

Hanley says that the cuts could shrink the program by 135 children and that at least one district’s pre-school program could close as a result.

Funding for Best Beginnings — a childhood literacy program — was brought down by $137,500. The Parents as Teachers program, which trains families to do pre-school activities at home, was reduced by $242,500. The subcommittee recommends both be funded at $800,000. If accepted, the subcommittee’s recommendations would cut almost a fifth of the early education funding that had been included in the governor’s budget.

Rep. Tammie Wilson, a Fairbanks Republican, chairs the subcommittee. She says part of the reason she made the cuts was because she doesn’t want the state to commit to paying for new programs with the state’s revenue projected to decline.

“As our oil keeps reducing, we’re getting to a point that we need to make some serious looks at everything in the budget. So, we took a close look at teaching and learning, which is the biggest portion of education, which has anything to do with Pre-K kindergarten programs,” says Wilson. “We didn’t go across the board for them, but there was quite a bit of new programs that the department asked for.”

Wilson has targeted the early education programs for cuts in past years, and attempted to cut the pre-K pilot program’s $2 million budget entirely in 2011. She has previously expressed concern that some of the state’s early education programs could be duplicative — especially with the federal Head Start program — and she cited redundancy as a reason for shrinking the pre-school budget.

But those programs have different objectives, says Education Commissioner Michael Hanley.

“That would sure be erroneous on our part if we actually were providing two services to one child, but I don’t know how you enroll a child in two pre-school programs at the same time,” says Hanley.

Another one of Wilson’s issues with the governor’s departmental budget was that the expansion of public pre-school could hurt private sector daycare programs.

“Should we also be competing with the ones that are completely private by starting new daycares and new pre-schools using state funding while other parents are having to pay for it,” says Wilson.

“That’s where the discussion needs to be.”

Rep. Harriet Drummond, an Anchorage Democrat, opposes the cuts, and she introduced multiple amendments to keep the funding during the subcommittee’s closeout. She questions the idea that these early education programs are competing with the private sector.

“How’s that going to happen? You’re talking about some pretty remote places here, that don’t have cash economies, don’t have a tax base to ask their taxpayers for more money to fund these programs,” says Drummond. “I don’t know where this funding is supposed to come from.”

Drummond also argues that the funding early education programs saves the state money in the long run in remedial education and public safety costs.

Hanley says that Alaska’s pre-school program has performed particularly well. Of the students who were enrolled in the program in 2011 and 2012, 80 percent of them “exceeded the expectations” for vocabulary growth and showed anywhere from one month to two year’s extra growth from the time they were first assessed. The department’s three-year report on the program also showed substantial improvement in motor skills and concept development.

“Our pre-K programs have some of the highest results in the country,” says Hanley. “But when it comes to access, we have some of the lowest access rates in the country. Fewer kids have access to pre-K than almost every other state. So, that’s a challenge we have, and we exacerbate that especially when we see cuts.”

The subcommittee recommendations will now be reviewed by House finance. Hanley says that the Department of Education and Early Development will push for the funding to be restored.

In total, the House education and early development trimmed the governor’s departmental budget by 1.6 percent, or $5.7 million.

 

It was almost exactly a hundred years ago when Alaska first began to exercise a form of self-government. The Second Organic Act of 1912 allowed the creation of the Territorial Legislature.

Eight senators and sixteen representatives from around the state met on March 3rd, 1913 in the Elks Hall in downtown Juneau, the first Alaska legislative hall, for the first Alaska legislative session that lasted sixty days.

The Territorial Legislature almost immediately gave women the right to vote, and eventually passed the Bone Dry law, a precursor to national prohibition, and the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945 which preceded the national civil rights movement by almost twenty years.

But the Organic Act hamstrung the Territorial Legislature. The federal government still retained control over Alaska’s resources and the right to legislate on some issues like divorce or the sale of liquor, and still had overall authority on the Territory’s fiscal issues.

Senator Gary Stevens from Kodiak is chair of the Alaska Legislative Centennial Commission which has put together a series of events starting this weekend marking the very first session.

Stevens credits staffer Tim Lamkin for organizing much of that program that runs March 3rd through the 5th.

Sunday, March 3rd

At 10:00 a.m. downstairs at Rockwell in the Elks Hall, a breakfast program called ‘Waffles with Wickersham: Delegate James Wickersham’s campaign for the 1912 Second Organic Act’ will feature John H. Venables.

During a lunch program at noon, former lawmakers Willie Hensley, Georgianna Lincoln, and Emil Notti will talk about ‘Equal Rights, One Man One Vote, and Alaska Native Leaders in our Legislative History.’

Then at 4:00 p.m. in the upstairs of Rockwell, Governor Sean Parnell and former lawmakers Clem Tillion and Terry Gardiner are expected to participate in the opening reception that will also feature unveiling of the 100-Years website.

Monday, March 4th

At 8:00 a.m., also downstairs at Rockwell in the Elks Hall, a ‘History of the Capitol Building’ that will feature a presentation by architect Wayne Jensen.

A noon lunch discussion on ‘Leading Women in Alaska’s Political History’ will feature Arliss Sturgulewski, Drue Pearce, Katy Hurley, Bettye Davis, and Gail Phillips.

A reception starting upstairs at 5:00 p.m. will include a presentation by Dr. Beverly Beeton on ‘Members and accomplishments of the first Alaska Territorial Legislature, including Women’s Suffrage – 1913.’

A dinner program upstairs at 7:00 p.m. will include a reenactment of the convening of the First Alaska Territorial Legislature and Passage of Women’s Suffrage that will feature Juneau actors and legislative staff.

Tuesday, March 5th

A breakfast program at 8:00 a.m. will feature Clark Gruening and Mike Miller on ‘A History of Politics and Changes’ at Rockwell in the Elks Hall downstairs.

The noon lunch program on ‘Perspectives on Accomplishments and Failures in Alaska’s Legislative History’ will feature Sam Cotten and Randy Phillips as moderators.

Happy Hour begins at 4:30 p.m. with a reception program on ‘Prohibition in Territorial Alaska’ with Dr. Terrence Cole and Rick Halford.

For more information, you can go to 100years.akleg.gov

Gavel Alaska and 360North television and AlaskaLegisture.tv will provide coverage of most Centennial events either live or on a tape-delayed basis.

Sixty historical world figures recently visited Auke Bay Elementary School to tell their stories. From Cleopatra to Barack Obama, they were brought to life by fifth grade students, in what’s called the Auke Bay Wax Museum. The favorite activity has been going for about a decade.

Press an imaginary button on a shoulder and a motionless figure comes to life.

“Hi, I’m Jackie Robinson, I was the first black major league baseball player…”

Auke Bay fifth grade students spend nearly a month researching the person of their choice who has made a positive impact on the world. They read books, surf the Internet, put together a bibliography, and write a script about their character. They must come up with a costume and other props, and deliver their story during the annual living museum.

Teacher JoAnn Jones says her students get passionate about their characters.

“They learn how to research, the writing aspect is huge and they really get to know somebody” beyond their accomplishments, Jones says.

Take Neil Armstrong, for example; the first person on the moon.

“I played the Baritone horn. I went to Gates Elementary School, but even before that I became interested in planes at the age of two,” says 11-year Ryan Marx, who plays Armstrong.

The famous astronaut is credited for the phrase: “… one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But from his research, Ryan especially liked this line:

“After I landed on the moon, it suddenly struck me that the tiny pea, tiny and blue, was the earth. I stuck out my thumb and closed one eye and my thumb blotted out the earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”

Some of the students had a personal relationship with their character. Ten-year-old Emma Douglas played Susanna Hutchinson, who in 1643 survived an Indian attack in the area that is now the New York Bronx. Hutchinson was taken captive, raised by the Indians, then traded to the English.

“She’s my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma,” Douglas says.

Most of the students have memorized their story and though there may be a few stumbles, they learn to keep their cool. Teacher Jones says the activity is accessible to all students.

“For some kids that have struggled in school, they do this,” Jones says. “I had a student once that didn’t have a lot of language and her speech therapist recorded her word by word and put it on a tape and it just brought tears to your eyes. It does me thinking right now about her. And you just go,‘Oh my gosh, look what she’s able to do.’”

Kamron Falls was Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. In a top hat and black beard, he easily delivered Lincoln’s story. His dad, John Falls, said Kamron worked on the project for at least three weeks. He was especially proud of his son’s memorization. Falls calls the wax museum activity “outstanding. I think it’s a good thing for kids. They learn an awful lot and they take time.”

Kamron says he chose President Lincoln because “He freed the slaves.” He recalls one of Lincoln’s most famous quotes:

“America will never be destroyed from the outside, but if we falter and lose or freedom it will be because we have destroyed ourselves.”

Once a year, the Auke Bay Elementary School hallways become a living museum worth visiting. As teacher Jones puts it:

“You just can’t believe they are only fifth graders that have done this.”