Education

School district staff should not expect salary or benefit increases next year.

That’s  an assumption outlined by district officials working on the fscal year 2014 budget,  just as they are about to re-enter negotiations with the teachers’ union – this time with an eye on a longer contract.

A special school board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday behind closed doors to talk about collective bargaining.

In August, the district and Juneau Education Association reached agreement on a one-year contract, which expires in June. Now the two sides must go back to the table.

School board president Sally Saddler says she hopes bargaining results in three-year contracts this time.

“Any time we can extend the duration of a contract it frees us up to spend more time focusing on the instruction and education of our students as opposed to going through the negotiation process,” Saddler says.  

The school district also will be bargaining with administrative staff, represented by the Juneau School Administrators Association. In addition, the Juneau Education Support Staff has wage re-openers in its new contract.

Juneau schools may have slightly lower enrollment next fall and no additional operating funds from the state.  Those are two of the assumptions school district officials are using in crafting next year’s budget.

The 17-member school budget committee Tuesday heard the bad and good news that makes up the district’s fiscal year 2014 spending plan.  They assume more than $1.25-million dollars in cuts will have to be made, unless the state legislature increases the base student allocation – that’s the amount schools get per student for operating expenses.  At $5,680 a pupil, it’s remained the same for two years and there is no expectation of change for next year.

The picture is not as bleak as last year, though, when more than $4-million had to be carved out of the school district spending plan.   And when school started, an unexpected spike in elementary school enrollment had administrators searching for more funds to hire additional teachers.

School Board budget committee chair Barbara Thurston said that won’t happen next fall. She’s asking the budget committee and board to come up with a better process “and possibly setting aside funds for those late teachers.  And that’s a non-trivial process, but I think that’s something this budget committee will be dealing with is how do we handle that.”

Billed as one of two public hearings during the two-month budget process, only a handful of people testified Tuesday night, including Mendenhall River Community School fifth grade teacher Adam Berkey. He said he could speak for all elementary schools that need more staff.

“Before you take away one more person out of elementary schools, please consider anything else.  We are stretched thin to the point that I go out at recesses to help out on the playground, because I want our kids to be safe; we don’t have enough people out there.  We need more people in elementary,” Berkey said.

Speaking for the Extended Learning Parent Advisory Committee, Brandon Smith asked the members to maintain current funding – and preferably increase – the Extended Learning program for high achievers.

He says the common perception that gifted kids will be fine regardless of how their needs are addressed is true only if their goals are simply graduating from high school.

“High achieving students have no problem doing this.  They will meet core standards; they’ll graduate from high school.  However, with proper instruction they’ll also attend very good colleges and be very productive in the world economy,” Smith said. “Conversely without this specialized instruction they will become discouraged by their education. They will not reach their fullest potential and they’ll either leave Juneau to get that education or they’ll stagnate in our schools.”  

The committee will hear the school district’s financial proposal next week. Before the process is complete, another public hearing will be held then the group will come up with recommendations for the final budget.

The committee represents each of the 12 Juneau schools, education unions, and includes community members with no current direct ties to the district.

More than 50 high school students taking an “Introduction to Mining Occupations” course through the University of Alaska Southeast had quite the guest speaker on the first day of class Tuesday.

Governor Sean Parnell urged the students to follow their passions, whether they end up working in the mining industry or not.

“This class is a path of opportunity for you, and you’re going to get out of it what you put into it,” Parnell said.

The governor was the first of many guest speakers the class will hear from this semester. Instructor Mike Bell worked at Hecla Greens Creek Mine before becoming director of the Center for Mine Training at UAS. He says he’s identified more than 140 mining-related careers, everything from cooks to truck drivers to waste water treatment engineers.

“I’m not going to instruct in all of these fields, because I don’t have that kind of expertise,” Bell said. “I’ve worked at Greens Creek Mine for five years and been a professor here for six or seven. But there are a lot of jobs that I don’t know about. So, what I do is I call up a Mine Engineer, maybe at Greens Creek or at Coeur [Kensington Gold Mine] and they come and talk to the students about how they got their job, the education required and how they might take a path to get there.”

This is the second year Bell has taught the class, which is designed for high school juniors and seniors. Last year, enrollment was limited to 20 students, all from Juneau. But this year, with the help of video conferencing equipment, there are 55 students statewide, from the Northwest Arctic Borough to remote parts of Southeast.

“I went down to Prince of Wales to talk to all the schools there, because there are two big mines that are starting up down there and they want a local workforce,” said Bell. “So, we’re trying to show the kids what happens at those mines.”

Isaac Rumfelt is a 17-year-old senior at Juneau’s Thunder Mountain High School, who’s interested in a career as a mechanic.

“I kind of got into diesel mechanics and figured out I could get into diesel mechanics at the mine,” said Rumfelt. “So, I thought it would be good to learn what goes on at the mine on a daily basis and basics of everything kind of.”

In his remarks Governor Parnell talked about the importance of keeping mining jobs in Alaska. He praised programs like the Center for Mine Training, and classes like “Intro to Mining Occupations” for teaching Alaska students the skills needed to perform those jobs.

The students pay $44 tuition and receive three college credits, according to Roxanne Mourant with the state Department of Education and Early Development.

The department is one of several partners that provided support to make the class possible. That includes mining companies like Hecla Greens Creek, which donated $300,000 to the University of Alaska Foundation in 2011 to help create the mine training program at UAS.

Juneau middle school students are learning to take photos, shoot arrows and babysit at a time when they would otherwise itch for something to do.

The new Juneau Afterschool Coalition has created an after school program at Floyd Dryden and Dzantik’i Heeni middle schools. The new program is called B.A.M – Body & Mind, Before/After Middle School.

Many middle school students had few alternatives to athletics between the end of their school day and their parents’ workday. A 2001 national YMCA study found youth delinquent activity triples during this time. The Juneau Boys and Girls Club once filled this gap, but that program ended in 2009.

The coalition plans to track how the new activities affect student success in school.

Eleven-year-old Capri Potter picks up her bow and takes aim.

Capri says without archery she’d probably read or watch TV at home.

“Mr. Haas was my old gym teacher and I’ve taken archery from him before and it was really really fun,” Potter says.

The archery students share the Dzantik’i Heeni gym with the wrestling team. Each archer shoots five arrows before heading home.

Six years ago, instructors Dick Fagnant and Dave Haas trained together in the National Archery in the Schools program. After they retired, they started teaching archery after school. Fagnant says, in December sixty-three students signed up for the class, which is capped at 40 people.

“So you have children who may not be successful in football or basketball but by golly their eye-hand coordination are really really keen,” Fagnant says. “So what happens is they find success here and so it’s an opportunity for them to expand their horizons in an activity that they’ll enjoy for perhaps the rest of their lives.”

The Juneau After school Coalition grew out of community concern after federal budget cuts closed the local Boys and Girls Club in 2009. In 2010, 17 organizations joined together to create after-school programs in Juneau middle schools. Elementary and high school students often have more after-school options. A coalition survey indicated only about half of Juneau middle-schoolers had adult supervision after school for up to two days a week.

Juneau Afterschool Coalition Coordinator Betsy Brenneman describes herself as the “go-between” for instructors and organizations. She organizes funding, helps new instructors as they start up a course and does all the publicity.

“And that’s what I’ve been doing for about a year, and we’ve really geared up this school year with the new activities. We had to put a lot of things in place, like an office,” Brenneman says.

The coalition polled students before offering activities to find what subjects would interest them. Brenneman was surprised to find many students wanted cooking classes. She’s looking for instructors to teach a cooking class at Floyd Dryden. Schools also offer babysitting training, photography classes, outdoor adventure games, learner’s permit preparation and junior police academy.

In a Dzantik’i Heeni classroom, Lieutenant Kris Sell uses stuffed animals to show students how police came to be a part of society.

14-year-old Catherine Johnson is participating in an after-school program for the first time. She says she would normally spend the time drawing or studying at home.

“I just wanted to keep myself busy and learn a couple new things. I was interested in what the police do and wanted to learn,” Johnson says.

Officer Sarah Hieb watched Sell’s presentation from the side of the classroom, occasionally piping in during the talk to suggest examples.

“We do a lot of hands-on activities because we know we don’t want to be sitting there like another classroom during school,” Hieb says.

Heib says the program helps students understand police work. She says students otherwise might only interact with police in stressful situations such as a car crash.

“It gets us into the schools and interacting with the students and letting them know that police officers are approachable, are normal people,” Hieb says.

Brenneman says she will survey students each May to find out what activities they’d like that might help them become more interested in school.

If it can be something that engages them, that they might find a career even, a mentor, somebody in the community, an adult who they connect with,” Brenneman says. “That may spark an interest that gets them more engaged even in school.”

Brenneman will track that engagement to an extent she calls “cutting-edge.” She plans to use a student records database to see whether students improve after attending the activities. If there isn’t an improvement, she says “okay, we won’t do it anymore.”

“We’re pretty sure it will, but we’d like to have somebody – us – figuring that out,” Brenneman says.

Students don’t have to pay to participate. The coalition relies on community groups and individuals for funding. Coalition member Kevin Ritchie says the program needs strong involvement from the school board and assembly. The coalition has raised about $110,000 to date.

Public comments will be taken Tuesday on the Juneau School District’s budget for next year.

This is the first of two public hearings during the budget committee’s months-long process of developing a spending plan for fiscal year 2014.

The 17-member committee includes a representative from each of Juneau’s 12 schools and three education unions as well as community members.  School board members also attend the budget meetings, but cannot vote.

The district has used a community committee process in the past, but this year the group will actually present a budget.  Sally Saddler is School Board President.

“We anticipate receiving two budgets, one that would be presented by the administration and then one that would be recommended by the community members,” Saddler says, “and hopefully in that respect the board would have an opportunity as we deliberate in March to take the best of the thinking of the administration and the community members and see how that melds with our vision and our strategic plan for the district.”

The district anticipates about $1.25 million in reductions next year.

Saddler says it’s important to hear from the public before the administration presents its proposed spending plan.

“One of the reasons we’re taking public comment before we have an actual budget from the administration is to give people an opportunity to let us know what they value; what’s important from a community perspective without reacting to specific numbers on a piece of paper,” she says.

District Superintendent Glen Gelbrich will present the administration’s proposed spending plan at the next meeting of the budget committee.

Tonight’s public hearing is from 6 to 8 p.m. at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School Commons.  Comments also can be emailed to budgetsuggestions@juneauschools.org.

Dirt has been turned for the new State Libraries, Archives and Museum in the capital city. The project to hold Alaska’s treasures in one building is already underway, as contractor PCL Construction prepares the ground behind the current Alaska State Museum.

Wednesday’s cold rain in Juneau moved the groundbreaking inside. The museum was packed with state and local officials, including legislators and Juneau Assembly members, some who had their pictures taken with the special shovel in a trough of dirt near the museum’s landmark eagle tree.

Linda Thibodeau is director of the SLAM project.

“I wish we could have had a beautiful sunny day and we could have gone outside and dug in the back lot, but we don’t.  It’s winter time in Juneau and we have a lovely pile of, as our commissioner said, fertile earth here, ready to go.  This is a day we’ve been waiting for, for a long, long time,”  Thibodeau said.

So far, the Alaska Legislature has approved about $81 million toward the $131 million project.  Gov. Sean Parnell has included $20-million in his proposed state capital budget.

As Juneau Mayor Merrill Sanford thanked the many people who have worked on the project, he reminded lawmakers in the audience that another $50 million is needed to complete construction.

“And in fact your work is not done yet.  We’re going to be banging on your door – I see a chairman of a finance committee here  – for a little bit more money to get this new facility completed all together,” Sanford said.

At 118,000 square feet, SLAM will have twice the space currently allocated to the state libraries, archives and museum in Juneau, according to Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Mike Hanley.

“The new SLAM building will double the exhibit size and triple our storage space above what we have here.  When we look at the operating costs it will do it for the same operating costs that we have now, because of a focus on energy and because of the work we’ve done with our architects.  It’s tremendous.  A huge building that will be able to be operated for the same cost that we’re operating this one now,” Hanley said.

He also said that structures used in construction called “unified curtain walls”  can be built in Alaska.

“At one point we thought our only option was to have these constructed overseas and brought back. We recently found out that we have been able to move that contract to Bucher Glass in Fairbanks, into a new factory that will employ an additional 16 to 20 individuals.  And it’s been said that this project, the SLAM project, was the spark that allowed them to get their feet under them and get that project rolling,” Hanley said. 

The SLAM project is to be complete in 2016.  Education officials say it will allow the state to improve its technical and program support for archives, libraries and museums statewide.