Legislature(2021 - 2022)DAVIS 106
04/29/2021 08:00 AM House TRIBAL AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s): Compacting in Education | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON TRIBAL AFFAIRS
April 29, 2021
8:08 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky, Chair
Representative Zack Fields
Representative Geran Tarr
Representative Mike Cronk
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Dan Ortiz
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): COMPACTING IN EDUCATION
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
BARBARA BLAKE, Director
Alaska Native Policy Center
First Alaskans Institute
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided testimony during the presentation
on compacting in education.
TOM KLAAMEYER, President
National Education Association Alaska (NEA-Alaska)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided testimony during the presentation
on compacting in education.
LISA WADE, Director
Health, Education, and Social Services Division
Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC)
Secretary, Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC)
Chickaloon, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided testimony and PowerPoint slides
during the presentation on compacting in education.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:08:47 AM
CHAIR TIFFANY ZULKOSKY called the House Special Committee on
Tribal Affairs meeting to order at 8:08 a.m. Representatives
Tarr and Zulkosky were present at the call to order.
Representatives Cronk and Fields arrived as the meeting was in
progress.
^PRESENTATION(S): Compacting in Education
PRESENTATION(S): Compacting in Education
8:09:34 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY announced that the only order of business would
be presentations on compacting in education by representatives
from the First Alaskans Institute, the National Education
Association, and the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council.
CHAIR ZULKOSKY invited the first witness, Ms. Barbara Blake, to
provide her testimony on compacting in education.
8:09:59 AM
BARBARA BLAKE, Director, Alaska Native Policy Center, First
Alaskans Institute, began her testimony with a story about when
she and her son returned to Alaska after living in Washington,
DC. She said her son had entered kindergarten in a school that
had no reflection of Native people anywhere, and he went from a
bubbling little boy to somebody who was reserved and struggling
and didn't want to go to school. Upon moving to Juneau a few
years later, her son entered second grade in a school that
reflected Native culture, art, and language throughout the
building and classrooms and her son felt welcome, began to love
school, and flourished. Ms. Blake said her son's story shows
that it makes a difference when Native kids can see themselves
reflected in the world around them because when they don't, they
struggle. When Native kids cannot connect with everything that
they've known about who they are, they have a difficult time
accepting that this is an institution in which they are meant to
be, to flourish, and to succeed.
8:14:20 AM
MS. BLAKE stated that the current system isn't working for
Native kids, and compacting is a solid solution if done in the
correct way. She cautioned that there is a big difference
between compacting and contracting. She related that with a
compact, "I'm recognizing you as a sovereign, you and I are
going to enter into a formal agreement, and as a sovereign I'm
going to treat you as a sovereign, we have outcomes that we're
expecting but how you get there is dependent on how you know how
best to take care of the people within your care. That's a
compact. I'm not dictating to you every single step of the way
and micromanaging your ability to function in that system
because I recognize you as a sovereign." Through contracting,
she continued, "You and I are entering into a contract, I want
you to achieve certain outcomes, and I want you to achieve them
by following A, B, C, and D. This is how you're going to get
there. I'm going to dictate to you exactly how you're going to
get there, you're going to ask me permission for any changes or
waivers in that contract and there's a big difference between
how you can get someplace with the flexibility that is allotted
through a compact agreement than a contract agreement."
Contracting is what the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO)
Program currently runs under, she added.
8:17:05 AM
MS. BLAKE cited the Indian Health Service (IHS) as an example of
successful compacting. She told of the dental care she received
from the IHS as a child in Anchorage where Native children would
be seated at a plastic table with a toothbrush, toothpaste,
dental floss, mouthwash, and fluoride in front of them. The
dentist would sit at the head of the table and tell the children
to brush their teeth, then floss, then rinse, then apply the
fluoride. She asked whether committee members would consider
that acceptable teeth cleaning for their children. Today, she
continued, much has been accomplished under tribal authority and
tribal compacting with the IHS, which operates intricately
throughout Alaska. Amazing dentists are now taking care of
Native kids the way they should be with fancy cleaning tools
that prevent cavities. In addition, work was done with the
federal government to allow non-Natives living in the rural
Native communities to also participate in the IHS care.
MS. BLAKE stated that tribal transportation dollars are another
example of compacting done well. She said these dollars come in
through a compact, not a contract, that allows tribes to
function within their spaces. The tribal transportation program
takes care of tribal spaces as well as non-tribal spaces; it has
entered into successful agreements with city and municipal
governments to [build] new docks and [provide] road maintenance.
She said the aforementioned are examples of how municipal,
state, and federal governments can work with Native tribes in a
compact that recognizes a government-to-government relationship.
An opportunity is on the desks of committee members for serving
Native kids and ensuring that Native children are represented in
Alaska's schools, she continued. There is room for improvement
in the current compact, the current legislation before the
committee, which is a great start but additional trust building
needs to take place between the State of Alaska and Native
tribes before anything moves further. A better reflection is
needed of the government-to-government relationship that is had
between tribes and the State of Alaska. She concluded by
stating that the current bill needs to do more in recognizing
that government-to-government relationship and recognizing a
compact versus a contract.
CHAIR ZULKOSKY explained that this is an initial hearing on
concepts and dialogue around compacting in education. She said
Commissioner Johnson was unable to attend today but is
committed, and she wanted to start putting something on the
record since there has been a lot of dialogue around what
education compacting could be in Alaska.
8:22:58 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR concurred with Ms. Blake that it makes a
difference when kids see themselves and feel that they are in a
school environment where they are meant to be. She said HB 173,
School Climate & Connectedness, is about addressing that issue
as well as cultural competence in Alaska's school system. She
stated she fully supports compacting to improve the public
school system and looks forward to further conversations with
Ms. Blake about a path forward.
8:24:41 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY offered her understanding that the First Alaskans
Institute is highly engaged in facilitating dialogues with the
[Department of Education & Early Development (DEED)] on what
education compacting in Alaska could look like. She noted that
she and Representative Cronk are also members of the House
Education Standing Committee where much is heard about the
turnover of teachers and administrators in rural hub or village
communities across Alaska. That committee, she continued, also
hears about data regarding standardized test scores and how
students may not be prepared to perform academically in a school
environment. She requested Ms. Blake to talk about what she
envisions school compacting to look like and the types of models
the agreements could be modeled after to bring about education
improvements.
MS. BLAKE replied that a beautiful model is how the tribal
health system operates in Alaska. She explained that the tribal
health organizations come together to negotiate annually, but
how they deliver those programs is dependent on both the regions
and communities because the communities and regions are not the
same. Application of the education system cannot be monolithic,
she stressed, it must be able to flex to the community itself,
to demonstrate to the students, and to develop a level of care
for the teachers. A monolith operates from the top down, which
becomes very challenging to operate successfully when there are
over 300 rural communities to take care of. She said operating
through a compact takes an approach that allows a community to
engage in a space that it's familiar with and enables a
community to uplift the system that it can put forward because
these communities have each been in their same location for 450
generations and know best how to take care of the students and
people in their care.
MS. BLAKE added that [compacting] would increase retention and
the ability to care for teachers, as well as increase student
scores. She related the findings of a Native friend of hers who
attended American University and did his PhD dissertation on how
Native kids absorb information. He found that Native kids had
to make it relevant to their culture before they could absorb
the information. Her friend interviewed one Navajo student who
went so far as to translate all his information into Navajo
before he could understand it in the way that was being
presented to him. She advised that to get lesson plans across,
Native kids must stop being asked to colonize themselves to
absorb information.
8:29:34 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY pointed out that education in Alaska is a
constitutionally funded mandate, with systems in place where
school boards are locally elected, and school districts are
established. She inquired about the conversations Ms. Blake has
had over the years regarding tribal compacting coming into play
alongside state systems of government and management of local
schools and school districts.
MS. BLAKE answered that it ebbs and flows in terms of how folks
are feeling about it. She related that some folks are fearful
tribes are going to take over and fire everybody and only hire
Native people, which is not the case when one looks at how the
Indian Health Service compact comes into play. Tribes didn't
take over all the health care in Alaska of their people and fire
all the non-Native doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff.
Rather, almost every single person was retained and when hiring
occurs it is of both Native and non-Native professionals.
First, she stated, it wouldn't be good business for a tribe to
replace everybody in organizations with its own people because
many solid non-Natives are working in those organizations.
Second, there isn't the capacity because of minimal staff and
minimal dollars, and it wouldn't be prudent and wouldn't
continue trust building. She further related that those who are
supportive of compacting see the benefit of a school facility
that reflects the Native kids and that stops asking Native kids
to act a certain way for them to have a successful track in
school. So, she added, it goes both ways and depends on who she
is talking to and even the region of the state.
CHAIR ZULKOSKY invited the second witness, Mr. Tom Klaameyer, to
provide his testimony on compacting in education.
8:33:34 AM
TOM KLAAMEYER, President, National Education Association
Alaska (NEA-Alaska), first noted that he is a 25-year teacher in
Alaska and that he is testifying from a place not called
Anchorage. He shared that NEA-Alaska has adopted the practice
of starting every meeting with the Native land acknowledgement
as part of its commitment to racial and social justice for
Alaska's students. He said NEA-Alaska values this practice
because it important to acknowledge and pay respect to the
Alaska Native ancestors upon whose land NEA-Alaska members live
and work. It is also an opportunity to educate NEA-Alaska
members on the history and the contributions of Alaska's first
peoples from which members benefit given that all too often this
rich history has been suppressed in the telling of the story of
America. He said that when discussing the future of public
education in Alaska, it seems especially important to be guided
by the needs of the communities today and to always be mindful
of the impact that this work has on future generations who will
become the next stewards of this place.
MR. KLAAMEYER related that he teaches social studies at Eagle
River High School in the Anchorage School District (ASD). He
said he came to Alaska with the US Air Force in 1989 and found
his calling to become an educator after he volunteered to teach
Sunday school at the church on his base. He stated he is before
the committee on behalf of NEA-Alaska's almost 12,000 educators
who are classroom teachers, specialist teacher aides,
custodians, and others with firsthand expertise in delivering
lessons and creating environments conducive to student learning.
Alaska's professional educators, he continued, are committed to
policies that promote educational equity, social justice, and
high-quality educational opportunities for Alaska's students no
matter where they live. Mr. Klaameyer noted that Alaska's
educators are grateful and honored to be included in the
conversations around tribal compacting for education, and
because there is much to learn he is here to listen.
8:37:49 AM
MR. KLAAMEYER said NEA-Alaska members believe that public
education is a fundamental civil right, a human right. While
the history of public education in Alaska is extremely tarnished
by racism, cultural oppression, and colonialism, he stated, NEA-
Alaska members are here to work to ensure that those atrocities
are a thing of the past. He added that NEA-Alaska members are
actively engaged in trying to dismantle all systems of
oppression that prevent children from accessing a great public
education and pledge to continue to address the legacy of
systemic racism. He related that NEA-Alaska has fought hard for
cultural responsiveness to be embedded in all curricula and has
fought against the overuse of culturally biased nationally norm
standardized tests. Further, NEA-Alaska is working to recruit
and retain more ethnically and culturally diverse educators so
that the faces in the front of the classrooms better reflect
those looking back from their seats. He said it needs to be
ensured that student and family voices are heard and that there
is focus on creating welcoming and affirming schools that do not
just acknowledge Alaska's Native cultures but work to protect
and preserve them by sustaining and restoring languages,
traditions, and culture.
MR. KLAAMEYER stated that educators want to be a partner in
exploring the policies that will lead to the best outcomes for
students, and that NEA-Alaska members have been engaged with
this tribal compacting policy conversation through the Alaska
Education Challenge. He said NEA-Alaska is supportive of the
broad outlines that have been heard, particularly as related to
tribal authority and local control. Local control in education
is critical; students are best served by schools that meet the
needs of the local community, which cannot be accomplished
without parental and community involvement. Tribal compacting,
he continued, could provide the authority and the voice needed
to create schools which truly reflect the cultures and values of
the community they serve.
8:40:15 AM
MR. KLAAMEYER related that as this discussion progresses, NEA-
Alaska hopes to address transitions and the impact on existing
public schools, and further hopes that partnerships and
sustainability will be considered. He said he was pleased to
read a statement on compacting in education that stated, "In
accordance with the Alaska state constitution the state tribal
education compact schools will be public schools that are open
to all students Native and non-Native alike." In addition, he
continued, Alaska has a strong tradition of protecting workers
and as such Alaska's educators recognize and value the
importance of collective bargaining rights. This means
educators manage and have agency in their employment contracts
and the ability to negotiate with their employers over wages,
hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.
MR. KLAAMEYER expressed NEA-Alaska's belief that collective
bargaining gives educators a voice to advocate for themselves
and on behalf of their students. Through this process, he
explained, NEA-Alaska has worked to attract and retain the best
educators for students, push back on unnecessary testing to
increase instructional time, provide more nurses, health aides,
counselors, social workers, mental health professionals, and
insist on local control for schools, proper school funding, and
advocate for racial and social justice. Collective bargaining
for public educators offers an organized and transparent system
to improve student learning and the overall environment in
public schools. He related that Alaska's educators respectfully
recommend that any tribal compact for education or related
policy not inhibit in any way educators' ability to collectively
bargain because this process helps to ensure the best possible
education for all students in communities across Alaska.
MR. KLAAMEYER specified that foundational to Alaska's system of
education is the conviction that local communities are best
suited to address the educational needs of students.
Accordingly, he continued, NEA-Alaska believes that if tribes
have greater ownership and local control over education, student
outcomes in their communities will improve. The result, he
said, is that all Alaska students and their communities will
benefit from this self-determination and the new innovative
educational opportunities which may be provided by compacting.
8:42:57 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS asked whether NEA-Alaska represents the
teachers in the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD).
MR. KLAAMEYER offered his belief that it does and said he will
get back to the committee momentarily with a firm answer.
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS stated he supports tribal compacting and
protecting collective bargaining rights in the process, which is
one of several options to increase local staff in schools. He
noted LKSD's model teach program recruits local schoolteachers
who progress from teacher aides to fully certified teachers. He
said there are multiple models for success on a spectrum ranging
from the traditional to compacting, with the successful LKSD
model somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and of which NEA-
Alaska members have been a part.
MR. KLAAMEYER confirmed that LKSD employees are members of NEA-
Alaska.
8:44:24 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR offered her appreciation for NEA-Alaska's
willingness given that large organizations are sometimes slow to
change. There is so much work to do in the areas of racial and
social justice in terms of equity in education, she opined, and
how foundational education is to succeed in life. She offered
her appreciation for Mr. Klaameyer's acknowledgement of that.
8:45:12 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY requested Mr. Klaameyer's perspective on what the
dynamic of education compacting in Alaska might look like in a
community or region.
MR. KLAAMEYER responded that he cannot answer the question
because it is not for NEA-Alaska to determine given that NEA-
Alaska values local control. While NEA-Alaska has worked hard
to embed cultural responsiveness into its curriculum, he advised
that self-determination through compacting is the only way to
truly reflect, revitalize, preserve, and be the culture.
Compacting and the self-determination it would provide, he
continued, is probably the missing piece that will make the
difference for kids to be vested in their education because they
will see themselves and it will become embedded in what they do
in their community and in their identity. This will make it
more attractive for more people to stay in their local areas and
teach, work, and help the future generations. [Compacting], he
further advised, has the potential of creating a cyclical
improvement that becomes self-reinforcing. How that looks in
each community is for the community to say, he added, not him.
8:48:31 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY asked whether Mr. Klaameyer's understanding is
that there could be a spectrum of what compacting could look
like in a particular environment; for example, in some areas it
may be focused on a lighter scope of work or agreement and in
other areas it may be more sophisticated and have a higher level
of impact.
MR. KLAAMEYER answered that that speaks to the heart of
compacting each entity, each community, will create its own
compact and the state needs to be flexible in those agreements
to allow the best situation to exist in each local community,
and, yes, some of them will be more encompassing than others.
But, he added, that is for those local leaders to determine.
8:49:51 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS addressed Mr. Klaameyer's statement about
how testing can perpetuate socio-economic and racial inequities.
He recounted that while growing up in Virginia his generation
was the first to be subjected to standardized tests, which was
both a fascinating and demoralizing experience. The tests did a
good job of testing whether he was a middle-class white guy
whose parents read to him; as well, the tests assessed his
socio-economic status and promoted him as a result. Kids from
challenged socio-economic backgrounds scored poorly, and then
the standardized tests served as a cudgel to beat up teachers
and schools for socio-economic problems that had nothing to do
with quality of the education system. Representative Fields
related that a question he has is about the extent to which
compacting would allow a focus on instruction, helping kids, and
getting away from the perverse paradigm of standardized testing,
which in his opinion serves to undermine schools rather than to
increase the quality of instruction. He said he doesn't
understand the nexus between standardized testing and compacting
and would like to get away from standardized testing as much as
possible, and perhaps compacting is a vehicle towards that end.
Of course, he continued, the goal is to ensure that kids have as
equal an opportunity as possible, whether they come from a
wealthier or poorer background.
8:51:46 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY noted that the House Education Standing Committee
is considering [HB 164], which is intended to improve reading
scores across the state. Part of the discussion, she explained,
is where elements of the bill would be creating a statewide
assessment tool for schools that may be struggling. She asked
Mr. Klaameyer's perspective on the opportunities for Alaska's
schools to sidestep perpetuating the challenges of standardized
assessments in these culturally diverse environments.
MR. KLAAMEYER replied that Representative Fields was spot-on.
He said [NEA-Alaska] has long worked hard against the high-
stakes over-reliance on nationally normed standardized tests as
there is no norm because students are diverse. Tests are not
inherently bad, he stated, where the kids are at needs to be
assessed. Teachers do that every day every class, some of it is
more formal and some less formal, but the more removed the tests
are from the classroom where the educator and the student
interact, the more out of whack they are. Mr. Klaameyer shared
a story about an elementary school student who took a nationally
normed standardized test in which the test question was a
picture of a boy holding an item and the question asked what the
item is. The boy responded that it was a king salmon, but it
was marked wrong because according to this nationally normed
standardized test the correct answer was fish. This student
with additional knowledge was told he was wrong and punished for
the local knowledge acquired through his life.
MR. KLAAMEYER pointed out that the difficulty at the heart of
Chair Zulkosky's question is that many of these testing
standards are federally required. There are some at the state
level that compacting could probably address more easily, he
advised, but if the compact were with the state government, the
federal assessment requirements would still apply and so the
problem will continue. If compacting is at the state level, he
continued, perhaps there is some room around testing for skills
and knowledge that are based on local learning, traditional
cultures, how much natural science exists in hunting and fishing
and identifying flora and fauna, how much art is there, how much
history is there. Not enough credit is given for knowing their
own history, own art, own science, own environment. The
discussion around testing will continue needing to be addressed,
he stated, and NEA-Alaska is happy to be in those conversations.
CHAIR ZULKOSKY invited the next witness, Ms. Lisa Wade, to begin
her presentation.
8:57:35 AM
LISA WADE, Director, Health, Education, and Social Services
Division, Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC),
Secretary, Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC), stated
that CVTC's tribal school, Ya Ne Dah Ah, is doing exceptionally
well and is a great example of what compacting could look like.
She drew attention to the PowerPoint presentation of the
school's yearbook, titled "Ya Ne Dah Ah School
Dats'ehwdeldiixden 2019-2020," and said the yearbook speaks to
what Mr. Klaameyer discussed regarding learning in a way that
combines traditional lifeways with western academics. She then
brought attention to the PowerPoint presentation depicting
renovation of the school, titled "Tsin'aen for Our New and
Improved Ya Ne Dah Ah School!"
MS. WADE next turned to the PowerPoint presentation regarding
her tribal government's mission, titled "Nay'dini'aa Na" Kayax
(Chickaloon Native Village), Ya Ne Dah Ah Dats'ehwdeldiixden
School of Ancient Legends." She displayed the second slide
depicting a map of the school's location eight miles north of
Palmer and stated that it is the first tribally operated school
in Alaska. She proceeded to the third slide and noted that the
tribal government's mission is to help its citizens to thrive.
She pointed out that while the tribe was federally recognized in
1982, the tribe's traditional governance and educational systems
go back to time immemorial.
9:00:28 AM
MS. WADE moved to the fourth slide and said she would share the
Ya Ne Dah Ah School origin story, which began with her
grandmother Katherine Wade, pictured on the fifth slide. She
continued to the picture on the sixth slide showing the
correctional facility on a hill in the community and noted the
school is two miles from the facility. She related that because
the facility was disproportionately filled with Alaska Native
men, her grandmother and family members were invited in 1989 to
participate in cultural activities that included singing and
dancing, and relationships were developed with these men. When
the men came out of the correctional facility her grandmother
would invite them to stay at the family house where they would
cut wood and do cultural things, but inevitably many of them
would quickly end up back on the hill again. Ms. Wade explained
that this frustrated her grandmother who said these men were
lost and didn't who they were because it had been taken from
them. Her grandmother said that to be successful the tribe's
children needed to be taught who they are, so she began by
teaching Saturday lessons, which were wrapped around the Ya Ne
Dah Ah teachings, which means ancient legends. Her grandmother
started sharing stories with family members and parents were
driving from Anchorage to do this. They found it to be so
successful that they wanted to form an actual school.
MS. WADE continued to the seventh slide, titled "Ahtna Values,"
and said that from the beginning the school was founded in Ahtna
values, which are the cornerstone of the school. She explained
that every month these values and their meanings are shared with
the students, who live these values in their actions, words, and
language. The Ahtna language is considered endangered, she
stated, so a strong Ahtna language preservation component is
built into the school. She moved to the eighth slide, titled
"Education Department (1992)," and related that the group of
students in the photo started singing and dancing together as a
group in 1992. She pointed out that the young man on the right
holding the drum was one of the school's first students.
9:03:43 AM
MS. WADE directed attention to the nineth slide, titled
"Excellence in Tribal Governance," and stated that Harvard has
recognized Ya Ne Dah Ah as an innovative school in Alaska and in
the nation. Harvard, she added, has recognized that the school
is creating opportunities for [Ahtna] people to learn western
academics, sovereignty, and how to become future leaders in the
community.
MS. WADE proceeded to the tenth slide, titled "From an old
restaurant building?" and related that in 1999 her grandmother
decided to move the school out of the old drive-in restaurant
that she owned into a tiny schoolhouse built by the community
(left picture). When the school reached 12 students it was
decided to build a new schoolhouse for which the community took
out a loan to build (right photo).
MS. WADE turned to the picture on the eleventh slide, titled
"Education Department (Now)." She said the school is again
bursting at the seams because it is getting students from
outside the tribe, and she is now in the sad place where she
must turn away children; for this school year she probably
turned away 20 families. She shared the story of a mother
asking to move her children to Ya Ne Dah Ah because they were
being bullied and called dumb Indians. One of those children
began at the school with the goal of being expelled but through
love and trust became engaged in all the activities and
academics. Ms. Wade explained that she tells this story not to
disparage public schools, but rather that for some [Native] kids
this school is a safe and healing place. She pointed out that
the drummer in the picture is the same student who came up from
the school. She further pointed out that Ya Ne Dah Ah students
are becoming successful in careers - one has become a registered
nurse, and another has become a geographic information system
(GIS) technical expert.
9:09:24 AM
MS. WADE said the twelfth slide is a photo of the renovated
school. She then moved to the thirteenth slide, titled
"Education Department Operational Logistics," and stated that
everything is done as a community, such as building the school
through a visioning that was held with the community; as well,
there is a parent committee that guides the teaching of the
kids. She said Ya Ne Dah Ah is a homeschool that is partnered
with the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough School District.
She explained that partnered means it is a bi-directional
approach at learning, a benefit that compacting would offer.
For example, district teachers come in and help guide Ya Ne Dah
Ah teachers with curriculum selection and measuring successes.
She herself has partnered with the district to help bring in
cultural elements. She said the school currently has three
classrooms and 22 students, with a capacity of 30 students.
9:12:19 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS asked whether the 22 students are
technically homeschooled students with the Mat-Su Borough School
District.
MS. WADE confirmed that that is the current structure. She said
it has taken her since 2012, when she began administering Ya Ne
Dah Ah, to get the district to understand the value of the
school's cultural education and to incorporate that into the
learning plans. She stated that it has been a complicated
relationship through several principals and several teacher
advisors, which is the challenge that compacting could resolve.
She noted that she structures and helps write the compacts with
the Indian Health Service (IHS), and in May she will be
negotiating the compact to add a public health response to
COVID-19. She explained that it is basically her telling the
IHS that adding this extra component to the agreement is wanted;
the IHS reviews it and says it sounds good; and then [tribal]
funding dollars are allocated to that. So, she continued, it is
less of having to prove the worth of cultural education.
9:14:04 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY requested Ms. Wade to talk about how standardized
testing is layered into the environment of Ya Ne Dah Ah School.
MS. WADE responded that she has a daughter with special needs,
and during one assessment some shiny pencils were set off to the
side of her daughter while the test was given in which her
daughter was to focus on the alphabet. She related that she had
to explain her daughter has fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and
distractions cannot be laid out along with the expectation that
her daughter is going to do well on the test. She said she was
able to show the test administrators what her daughter knew so
they could see progress in her daughter's learning. Ms. Wade
stated that the different testing options like Measures of
Academic Progress (MAP) and Performance Evaluation for Alaska's
Schools (PEAKS) are an ongoing challenge because they are not
normed on Alaska Native kids, and it is especially problematic
in special education and Individualized Educational Plan (IEP)
development. She said the students at Ya Ne Dah Ah take the
tests but [staff] recognizes that those tests are only a small
part of it and work to show through examples the ways that the
students are learning, which is the best approach because it is
individualized per student. She added that many Native kids
don't care about taking those tests because they don't see the
value in being assessed like that; in addition, it is not a good
indicator of what children know.
9:16:56 AM
MS. WADE proceeded to the fourteenth slide, titled "Education
Department Staffing:" and resumed her presentation. She stated
that Ya Ne Dah Ah School is not exclusive to tribal citizens but
is open to everyone because what is good for tribal kids is good
for all kids; growing together without segregation is the best
way. She noted the school has three teachers the pre-school
to first grade teacher is non-Native, the second to eighth grade
teacher is Alaska Native, and the high school teacher is
Vietnamese. She said other staff include a COVID-19 compliance
manager who is also the cook, an administrative assistant, and a
"477" [project manager] that benefits the "NYO" Program, plus
many volunteers.
9:19:33 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS inquired about the Native teacher's type
of certification.
MS. WADE answered that this teacher previously taught for the
Mat-Su Borough School District and has a teaching certificate.
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS noted there is the Type I and Type M and
asked how the school has navigated that certification process.
MS. WADE replied that that is one of the topics she has on her
challenges.
9:20:13 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY inquired whether there is an opportunity under a
compact dynamic for collective bargaining to continue.
MS. WADE responded she could envision that happening. She
qualified she is not an expert in that area and that the school
hasn't entertained it yet, but she said it is something the
school would entertain.
9:21:16 AM
MS. WADE returned to her presentation and addressed the
fifteenth slide, titled "What we are doing is working!" She
shared that Chickaloon Native Village is a finalist for the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize.
Consideration for this prize, she related, involved three days
of interviews about how the village connects health to its
school and community.
MS. WADE continued to the sixteenth slide, titled "Challenges."
She stated that the sovereignty waiver issue presents all sorts
of challenges to the Chickaloon tribal government in partnering.
The tribal government is eager to partner on projects and has
partnered on road and other projects, she related, but it always
must go through third parties to formalize those agreements.
She said, "The state is really missing opportunities for
collaboration, and it's all tied to this beast because in our
constitution we have no way of giving up sovereignty in any form
because it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to our children in
the future." The second challenge, she said, is that [the
school] is not eligible for Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)
funding, so instead all sorts of funds must be pieced together.
Compacting, she advised, could offer a centralized mechanism for
doing this work and bringing funding into schools that would
then give more opportunity for tribal governments or communities
to spend less time doing this type of work. She said the BIE
funding issue has been one of the greatest challenges and every
year she spends a tremendous amount of time writing grants to
fund the school. Ms. Wade related that another challenge is the
shortage of Alaska Native teachers and CVTC's solution has been
to grow its own. For example, she pointed out, the young
[drummer] pictured earlier is now one of the school's teachers,
and a parent whose children went through the school is now the
school's Ahtna language teacher. While they are not licensed
teachers, she continued, they possess knowledge that cannot be
learned in a western educational system because they are Ahtna
language and cultural experts.
9:25:50 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS noted that Representative Kreiss-Tomkins
has introduced a Native language licensing bill which would
potentially expand the supply of Native language instructors.
He said this bill could make a real difference in this area.
MS. WADE offered her appreciation for the bill, then returned to
her discussion of challenges. She stated that a charter school
approach was evaluated but it was determined that it wouldn't
work because there is a minimum standard for school size and
other constraints.
MS. WADE proceeded to the seventeenth slide, titled
"Recommendations:" and recommended that the issue of waiver of
sovereign immunity be dealt with. She next recommended that
there be engagement with the Alaska Congressional Delegation to
amend the barrier to tribes receiving BIE funding and to
increase the funding allocation. She further recommended that
flexibility be provided so Commissioner Johnson could truly
negotiate with tribes given it is a government-to-government
consultation. Lastly, she said she recommends compacts because
they work and are an excellent mechanism for fostering
collaboration.
9:25:54 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY requested Ms. Wade to speak from the tribe's
perspective as to the specific flexibilities that would be
needed for the DEED commissioner to engage in compacting, such
as whether the barriers have been administrative or statutory.
MS. WADE answered that it is probably a little of both, but much
is administrative setting up the agreements. She stated that
the communities need to be allowed to bring to the commissioner
their plans on what they want to do, and it's not so much an
approval process as it is an evaluated question-answer process,
a give and take that is supposed to be collaborative in nature.
The problem, she explained, is that the authority must rest
there so that if a good idea comes up that is outside of the box
the commissioner can act on that great idea. The flexibility
must be built into it from the start; negotiations must be able
to go back and forth to figure out the best way forward. It is
something the legislature will have to take up. A true
government-to-government consultation, she stressed, is working
together to create the best thing for the communities, it is not
the state saying what can and cannot be done, which is kind of
what is happening now.
9:28:18 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY noted Commissioner Johnson is a big proponent of
education compacting. She inquired about the progress of
discussions with DEED in working out the granular details of
what education compacting could look like.
MS. WADE replied that she was involved in the very early stages
of discussion around what education compacting looks, but since
then she hasn't been able to meet due to being the COVID person
for her tribe. She said other groups have been involved and
they would be the ones to ask.
9:33:00 AM
MS. WADE returned to her presentation and showed the eighteenth
slide, titled "Trust Us! We are good stewards of resources."
She said CVTC's accounting department/administration has had 17
years of certified clean audits, and no one who works for the
tribal government ever wants to be the one who breaks that
streak. She stressed that CVTC is transparent and takes its
responsibility of stewardship of funding very seriously.
MS. WADE pointed out that the photograph on the nineteenth slide
is of the Life House Community Health Center in Sutton that CVTC
helped build. She said it is an example of how once a school is
built in a community, then health care and other things become
wanted within the community. The infrastructure that is built
translates into care for the entire community. This community
health center, she continued, is federally qualified and serves
the entire community on a sliding fee scale. Importantly, the
health center is connected to the school the school kids
planted apple trees for the building and during non-COVID times
the children go there to work out in the gymnasium, and [health
center] staff goes to the school to give lessons on dental and
health care. It is a bi-directional support system built into
the community, she added.
MS. WADE addressed the twentieth slide, titled "Transportation,"
and with a photograph of the Chickaloon Public Transit bus. She
said CVTC operates the only transportation system for the whole
community from Chickaloon to Palmer. This transportation system
supports the school by bringing the children to the school, plus
staff uses the system to get to work. Multiple tools are being
brought to the community to support CVTC's educational efforts.
MS. WADE concluded by saying she hopes a pathway forward can be
found because it would benefit Alaska as a whole. She said
CVTC's goal at the school is to teach the children to be
inquisitive, to challenge them and for the children to learn to
challenge themselves, to develop a love of learning, and to grow
good future community leaders.
CHAIR ZULKOSKY pointed out that today's presentations were the
initial conversations on the opportunities related to compacting
in education. She said the committee looks forward to working
with DEED and other folks on this issue.
9:37:31 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Tribal Affairs meeting was adjourned at
9:37 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Ya Ne Dah Ah School.pdf |
HTRB 4/29/2021 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Handbook.pdf |
HTRB 4/29/2021 8:00:00 AM |
|
| 2019-2020 Yearbook.pdf |
HTRB 4/29/2021 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Ya Ne Dah Ah School Construction.pdf |
HTRB 4/29/2021 8:00:00 AM |