Education

The Juneau School District’s budget process is set.

The district’s budget committee will hold seven meetings between January 15th and February 26th before making recommendations to the Board of Education on March 5th.

The budget committee will include 17 voting members this year, up from seven last year. It will consist of one representative from each of the district’s twelve school site councils, three at-large community members, and one representative each from the Juneau Education Association and Juneau Education Support Staff.

All seven school board members also will serve on the committee in a non-voting capacity.

The board will appoint budget committee members at its regular meeting next week (December 11th). Board member Barbara Thurston and one of the public representatives will co-chair the committee.

At a recent school board meeting, Thurston said those appointed to the panel will have to look beyond their school to the district at large.

“We’re also telling members of the community that they’re not there to advocate for their school specifically. They’re there to look at the big picture for all Juneau students,” Thurston said. “Because what’s really going to have to happen in almost every circumstance is they’re going to need to do some votes that are not necessarily the best choice for your particular school.”

There will be two opportunities for public testimony during the process – one on January 22nd and again on February 19th.

All meetings will take place in the library at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, except for the last one, which will be held at the Juneau Douglas High School Library.

The school board crafts and approves the final budget, which is submitted to the Juneau Assembly.

JSD Budget Committee Meeting Schedule:

• 01/15/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Description of process; introductory training on budget
• 01/22/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Opportunity for public testimony; discussion of Strategic Plan and District programs; description of state funding; presentation of student count estimates for FY 14.
• 01/29/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Initial presentation of budget; questions from committee
• 02/06/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Budget committee discusses budget
• 02/12/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Budget committee discusses budget
• 02/19/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Opportunity for public testimony; Budget committee discusses budget
• 02/26/13 DHMS-Library, 6PM-8PM Committee finalizes recommendations and prepares report for presentation to the School Board
• 03/05/13 JDHS-Library, 6:15 PM Community members present recommendations to Board

About 1,000 ceramic bones were created at a recent UAS Art Open House, where roughly 300 visitors came to make a difference with their artwork.

For every bone made, $1 will be donated to help genocide victims in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and Somalia as part of the One Million Bones project. The bone collection is part of an international effort. The bones are to be installed in the spring on the Washington, D.C. National Mall.

Local artist MK McNaughton introduced UAS Art Professor Pedar Dalthorp to the idea.  Dalthorp uses ceramic for the bones because that medium holds up best for installation.

“Some bones in the past, like for some of the initial bone making attempts were, some of them used paper mache or some other materials that aren’t quite as weather proof as ceramics,” Dalthorp said.

Dalthorp organized the UAS event, converting studio spaces in the Soboleff building to accommodate the large crowds of people that for an evening became personally involved in UAS art projects.

Teacher Assistant Kate Laster helped set up. She said events like this can generate important dialogue in Juneau about genocide in other parts of the world.

[quote]“It’s a really great project because it’s a community based thing where we can discuss kind of these unseen people. You know, we’re talking about something that’s very, very much happening now,” said Laster.[/quote]

In addition to building bones, the department also had drawing demonstrations, screen printing, a large-scale deer sculpture, pottery making, and live music by Sammy Burrous.  He played a solo set on acoustic guitar in the oil painting studio that brought a vibrant dimension to the event. His music could be heard throughout the Soboleff building as he crooned his blues standards to the visitors.

Over in the ceramics studio, Keith Cox was blind-folded and had just a couple of minutes to shape a creation out of clay on a pottery wheel using his hands, water, and a sponge during the wheel throw competition. A faculty member judged the pieces on artistic merit.  Though Cox lost the competition, and the sponge, he didn’t walk away empty handed.

[quote]“It was stiff, it was a stiff competition. I went in with a high spirit and a lot of confidence that I was really going to successfully make a, like a vase or something, and I came out with something that my son can still eat cereal out of,” said Cox.[/quote]

Over at the Whitehead building, art student Doris Alcorn was sculpting an impressive life-size deer – out of 500 pounds of clay on a metal frame.  The sculpture will be hollowed out before it’s put into the gas kiln for firing.  Because the piece is so large, the deer is crouching so it fits into the kiln.

Ceramics aren’t the only thing popping out of ovens at the UAS Art Department. A wood-fired pizza kiln provided fresh pizzas throughout the evening. What comes out of that oven is always a student favorite.

“It’s built as a pizza oven and it’s wood-fired so it imparts a little bit of uh, a little extra flavor that you don’t normally get out of a conventional oven,” Dalthorp said.

To keep up with demand, Chef Josh Reder pumped out the pies as quickly as possible.

“These are homemade dough, homemade sauce, then fired over wood.  Not much new technology in the last two-thousand years,”  Reder said.

Laster said the event shows the public a lot of what goes on in the busy UAS Art Department.

[quote]“What I love about the open house is it’s basically bringing in people who don’t know we have a pizza oven, bringing in people who’ve not really come down to Soboleff to actually see the art department and what we do and how much fun we have,”  Laster said.[/quote]

Dalthorp hopes the open house will bring in more students and in turn help them realize their creative and professional potential.

To get involved with the One Million Bones project here in Juneau, contact MK MacNaughton at mk@canvasarts.org. Or visit www.onemillionbones.org.

Governor Sean Parnell wants the State Board of Education to make student performance an important part of teacher evaluations. The board has been working for months on drafting a new rule that bases 20 percent of a teacher’s evaluation on student achievement. The Governor wrote a letter to the board this week, asking to boost that figure to 50 percent.

He says it’s important to reward effective teaching:

[quote]“About 20 other states have set the bar higher already and said that 30 percent to 50 percent of their teacher evaluations will be based on student learning,” he said. “And I felt it was really time for Alaskans to have a bar set higher and frankly to demonstrate what the good teachers can do.” [/quote]

The state needs to link part of teacher evaluations with student performance to receive a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act.

The teacher union NEA-Alaska has voiced concerns to the state and the Board of Education on the proposed regulation. The group’s president Ron Furher was surprised to hear the governor was weighing in so late in the months long process to draft the rule.

He says the organization is not opposed to linking some part of a teacher’s evaluation to student achievement. But he says the way the rule is currently written, it doesn’t give enough weight to other areas of teacher performance:

“How many students have special needs?” Furher asked. “How many students are English as a second language? How many students have learning disabilities? So to say we’re going to do one shot, one take and you’re going to be judged on that we believe is unfair.”

Furher says this is a hot topic in Alaska education right now. He says over 400 people have weighed in on the proposed regulation. The Department of Education and Early Development is taking comments on the plan until November 30th. The proposal would not link teacher pay to student performance.

The Juneau School District is now advertising the school board vacancy left by the resignation of Kim Poole.

As KTOO reported last month, Poole has moved to Oklahoma, where she is working in a family pharmacy. She was elected to the board in 2010 as a community member, who was personally unaffiliated with local schools.

At the time, she said her position could “help the community unite behind its educational system.”

While as a pastor and a pharmacist, she works with children and their parents, Poole never had children in the school district nor was she a former teacher or administrator, usually the type of candidates attracted to the education board.

Poole says she was able to look at the broader picture during her time on the board.

“I’d like to think that what I looked at was the whole situation, or the entirety of a situation without focusing in any one point,” Poole says. “And the job is not to placate everybody. The job is to remember that you have been elected to represent a type of leadership that comes from the community, not necessarily one that is going to favor everything the administration says, not one that is going to favor everything the educators say, not one that’s going to favor all the children and the parents (have to) say.”

Poole says everyone on the current board is a community member and works well together.  She says members have been able to put aside their own children’s experience to look at the bigger picture.

Applicants for the seat must be registered Juneau voters, cannot be employed by the Juneau School District, and cannot be a member of the Alaska Legislature.  They must be willing to take and sign the oath of office. They’ll have to fill out a questionnaire and appear before the board in an open question and answer session.

Applications are available at the school district website, or by calling the superintendent’s office at 523-1702.  Applications must be received by December 2^nd.

The person appointed by the board will fill out the remainder of Poole’s term, which ends October 2013.

 

Alaska School districts counted 4,451 students as homeless in the 2010-2011 school year. That represents 3.4 percent of the total number of children enrolled.

Statewide that year, more than 550 kids were in the direst of circumstances, with no adequate shelter.

School districts define homelessness according to federal law, which recognizes four categories: Living in a temporary shelter, staying with friends or relatives, living in motels or hotels, and no shelter at all.

Juneau had more than 200 homeless youth under the age of 18 in 2010-2011.

Northern Light United Church offers a shelter to house those transitioning into adulthood from unstable living situations. Hali Duran is a coordinator.

[quote]“They’re really nice, they’re very driven and inspired individuals, they just have some misfortunes that they’re trying to deal with,” she says.[/quote]

 

Duran says the kids who come there should not be stereotyped as hopeless.

Shelter capacity is 16, eight boys and eight girls. The girl’s dorm is shared with office space for coordinators, who work from a computer, but don’t have a phone yet.

A full kitchen and donated food, storage lockers, school supplies and sleeping pads make the space ideal for temporary student housing. The space was modified to function as a shelter thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority.

The project has two shelter coordinators and three high school site coordinators who work at Yaakoosge Dakaahidi, Thunder Mountain, and Juneau Douglas high schools. Thirty volunteers have signed up to be on call.

Duran says the shelter is designed to help young adults who are too newly independent to be considered what she calls “chronically homeless.”

“You don’t necessarily want a student between the ages of 18 and 25 around chronically homeless individuals,” she says.

The chronically homeless often suffer from alcoholism and substance abuse and require greater attention. The youth shelter is oriented toward goal achievement, but maintains a relaxed atmosphere.

Duran considers the people who stay at the shelter her peers. The focus is to relieve them from the stress of finding a place to sleep at night so they can do better in school.

“We want it to be a place you can walk in and hang out for a bit, wind down and then go to sleep,” Duran says. “Or, if need be, get their homework done.”

The shelter grew out of conversations between the Rev. Phil Campbell, of Northern Light United Church, and Glory Hole Director Mariya Lovishchuk. The Glory Hole houses chronically homeless individuals. Lovishchuk says the younger homeless need better attention as they step into adulthood.

“We have a big gap in Juneau in terms of providing services to people who are aging out of foster care and who are aging out of other services and who are technically adults, 18-24,” Lovishchuk says.

Homelessness is fairly common for young people who age out of foster care. Casey Family Programs is the largest operating foundation in the United States focused on foster care and improving the welfare system. In a 2005 report, hundreds of young people who aged out of foster care were interviewed. Twenty-two percent said they had spent at least some time homeless.

Since the Northern Light Shelter opened in late August, there have been fewer clients than expected. Doors are open from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and some nights nobody shows up. Pastor Campbell suspects an increase will occur this winter.

Campbell says the shelter does not discriminate based on race, religion, or sexual orientation. Students must be drug and alcohol free, and between the ages of 18 and 25.

“It’s a welcome opening environment and there aren’t requirements, there’s not judgment,” Campbell says. “What we want to do is provide a safe place.”

Many of the students referred to the shelter are from Yakoosge Daakahidi, Juneau’s alternative high school. More than 60 of the 148 students are reportedly homeless. About six have no shelter at all. Supervising Site Coordinator Kristi Smith says she makes sure eligible students know exactly where to go.

“The students who I get referred I will physically take them up to the church, introduce them to Phil,” Smith says.

Northern Light Shelter was senior Allen Pitts’ only option.

[quote]“Family kicked me out on the streets and my friends kicked me out on the streets. I had nowhere to go. But my teachers told me about it, about the Northern Lights,” he says.[/quote]

 

Now, he says, keeping his head above water is easier. He’s currently staying at the Juneau Youth Services Transitional Living Program. Pitts says TLP teaches him skills to stay out of homelessness.

“More stable. Definitely learning how to spend my money more efficiently instead of spending it on stuff I don’t need,” he says.

TLP requires that 30 percent of tenants’ income be used as rent, or, if they’re unemployed, they can make it up by doing chores. It has other requirements too, like the strict prohibition of illegal substances.

Pitts wasn’t accepted into the program at first. For Site Coordinator Kristi Smith, this is precisely where Northern Light Shelter fills a need. So it’s surprising to her that there aren’t more students attending the shelter.

“We were hoping we’d have a little bit more turn out. But I think it’s slowly is catching on,” Smith says.

Part of the problem might be that homeless youth are hesitant to admit they need help.

“It’s kind of like a kept in thing,” says senior Penn Lamb, a former tenant of the shelter. Lamb says she left home to escape an unstable living situation with substance-abusing family members.

[quote]“I remember when I was kicked out I came to school crying and had to hide in a room. I didn’t want anyone else knowing that I felt like I was going to have to live on the street,” she says.[/quote]

 

Lamb says she thinks of the shelter differently since she’s stayed there.

“Beforehand, I always thought that it was for like older, kind of hobo people,” she says.

Smith understands that.

“These kids, I understand why they don’t want to stay at the Glory Hole. And so we’re trying to definitely find that something that fits that gap of students who are right there in the middle,” she says.

Shelter for homeless students younger than 18 is hard to find. The Glory Hole has limited space for families and often refers them to St. Vincent De Paul’s Transitional Living Apartments that have a 15 family capacity. Minors with difficult home situations often can only turn to State of Alaska services like foster care.

 

 

Harborview and Glacier Valley Elementary schools will each get a new teacher this fall.

The Juneau School District Board of Education approved the new hires at a special meeting Wednesday.  The board last month voted against an additional teacher for Harborview, where kindergarten and first grade class sizes have swollen to 26 children.

School Board President Sally Saddler says the district is getting additional funds from the state foundation formula due to higher enrollment of students with intensive needs.

 “And at the end of the 20 day count, which occurred in October, we come to find that the projection in our estimate was very close to being realized,” Saddler says. “So what this means is we now know with certainty that we will have the funds to be able to commit to staff without having to dip into our already precarious reserve level.”

The additional teacher will bring Harborview class sizes down to about 22 students. Glacier Valley will be able to reduce class sizes in grades 3 through 5.

Saddler says the district is not diverting money from special needs students to fund the regular classroom students.

“Those students who are intensive needs that we know of have an IEP, and we are bound by law to provide the services that are outlined in their IEP.  So regardless of whether we have the money or not, those services need to be provided,” she says.

 IEP is Individualized Education Program.

Earlier this fall, the district approved an additional teacher at Riverbend Elementary, but when enrollment bulged at Harborview, the board said “no.”  It  would have required dipping into school district reserves, considered critically low at less than $400,000.

The Glacier Valley and Harborview teaching positions will be posted Thursday.