Legislature(2021 - 2022)BUTROVICH 205
02/10/2021 09:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
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| Presentation: School District Perspectives on Educating During the Covid-19 Pandemic | |
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 10, 2021
9:04 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Roger Holland, Chair
Senator Gary Stevens, Vice Chair
Senator Shelley Hughes
Senator Peter Micciche
Senator Tom Begich
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: SCHOOL DISTRICT PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATING DURING
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC BY SUPERINTENDENTS: DEENA BISHOP~
ANCHORAGE SCHOOL DISTRICT; KERRY BOYD~ YUKON-KOYUKUK SCHOOL
DISTRICT; BOBBY BOLEN~ BERING STRAIT SCHOOL DISTRICT; JASON
JOHNSON~ DILLINGHAM CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT; AND JOHN O'BRIEN~
KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
DEENA BISHOP, Ph.D., Superintendent
Anchorage School District
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave her district perspective on education
during the pandemic.
KERRY BOYD, Superintendent
Yukon-Koyukuk School District
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave her district perspective on education
during the pandemic.
BOBBY BOLEN, Ph.D., Superintendent
Bering Strait School District
Bering Strait
Unalakleet, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave his district perspective on education
during the pandemic.
JOHN O'BRIEN, Superintendent
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Soldotna, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave his district perspective on education
during the pandemic.
JASON JOHNSON, Superintendent
Dillingham City School District
Dillingham, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave his district perspective on education
during the pandemic.
ACTION NARRATIVE
9:04:06 AM
CHAIR ROGER HOLLAND called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 9:04 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Begich, Stevens, Micciche, Hughes, and Chair
Holland.
^Presentation: School District Perspectives on Educating During
the COVID-19 Pandemic
Presentation: School District Perspectives on Educating During
the COVID-19 Pandemic
9:04:38 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND announced the presentation School District
Perspectives on Educating during the COVID-19 Pandemic and that
the committee was planning to hear from five superintendents.
The committee did not have time to hear from all 54 school
districts, but he hoped that the conversations today and Friday
will provide an appreciation for the vast differences and unique
challenges the state faces. The hearing will be held as a panel
discussion to gain perspectives from those with boots on the
ground. These superintendents were invited to speak about their
experiences in navigating the pandemic. He asked them to first
focus on the impact of the pandemic on student learning. He
asked the superintendents to provide their insights into how
students have fared, positively and negatively, with the
transition to virtual learning or whether any schools avoided
any shutdowns and transition to virtual learning.
CHAIR HOLLAND began by calling on Superintendent Deena Bishop
and noted he thought the enrollment for Anchorage was around
48,000.
9:05:54 AM
DEENA BISHOP, Ph.D., Superintendent, Anchorage School District,
Anchorage, Alaska, said that the Anchorage School District (ASD)
now has about 43,000 students. ASD has had significant
outmigration to statewide home school as well as people leaving
the state. There were some silver linings with learning during
the pandemic. One of the biggest was the growth in teacher
competencies with technology, utilizing using machine learning
for assessments and building muscle around platforms that share
online and blended learning and an increase in creativity and
engagement needed in classrooms today with kids growing up
online. Being online and social media is not all good and
educators want to teach students to use social media skills and
technology learning in a positive way.
DR. BISHOP said the district found that certain student groups
thrived during this time. Those were in families with the
capacity to be at home with students. This were significant
impacts with students in pre-K to grade 2 when their parents had
to leave to go to work. Older students were at home with
siblings during learning. That was difficult. The district is
seeing a lag in certain student groups due to that. Children
don't do home school on their own. Families that did not have
that ability to engage with students suffered more than others.
DR. BISHOP shared that while fast speed Internet is available in
Anchorage, for many families it is not affordable. Many families
had poor standing with a lot of companies. The ASD board used
$1.5 million of CARES money to take care of the Internet for
some children's families. The ASD was the middle man for payment
because some families couldn't get the service. She always wants
to see the silver linings, but the district learned about
access, poverty, working families, and second languages. All
that impacted the outcome for children. If public education is
to be successful, it needs to give all kids the opportunity to
be successful.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on Superintendent Kerry Boyd and noted he
thought the enrollment for the Yukon-Koyukuk School District was
around 1,800 students.
9:09:57 AM
KERRY BOYD, Superintendent, Yukon-Koyukuk School District,
Fairbanks, Alaska, said the Yukon-Koyukuk (Y-K) district has
about 4,400 students. The past year there has been exponential
growth in its home school programs. Typically Yukon-Koyukuk has
about 1,700 students in its home school program. Its special Ed
population went up 175 percent, which has created its own
challenges as far as providing a strong home school program to
students. Trying to find special education staff this year has
been one of the district's biggest challenges, along with
providing strong programs and supports for many families that
may or may not have home schooled before.
MS. BOYD noted that a positive for this year is what she has
seen across the nation, the state, and her district, which is a
great respect for teachers. Y-K has seen a decrease in student
discipline. When schools closed in March and students turned to
remote learning, it changed their perspective. Students want to
be in school. That has been nice for staff and parents. Y-K has
nine remote schools with 300 students. Y-K opened up its schools
right after Labor Day. When the district has had to close
schools, the district has used paper packets. The district does
not have the infrastructure in place for distance learning.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on Superintendent Bobby Bolen and noted he
thought the enrollment for the Bering Strait School District was
around 1,700 students.
9:12:28 AM
BOBBY BOLEN, Ph.D., Superintendent, Bering Strait School
District, Bering Strait, Unalakleet, Alaska, said that
enrollment was correct. The numbers stay consistent year after
year. The Bering Strait School District (BSSD) challenge is the
infrastructure of broadband and internet to reach students when
they are not receiving face-to-face instruction. BSSD has been
lucky because it has only had to close two schools for any
length of time. Now all schools are open except for one in a
modified setting due to a couple of cases. The BSSD biggest
challenge is working with each village. There is lot of
apprehension about the virus. Everyone is trying to keep the
virus out. People tend to go to the extreme with the one case.
The pandemic hasn't hurt attendance because there are no other
options. There is no home schooling except with packets, which
are not successful.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on Superintendent John O'Brien and noted he
thought the enrollment for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School
District was 9,000.
9:14:18 AM
JOHN O'BRIEN, Superintendent, Kenai Peninsula Borough School
District, Soldotna, Alaska, said it has been a journey for
districts nationwide during the COVID pandemic. The Kenai
Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) has been able to keep
most of its schools open for the majority of this school year.
The central peninsula area, around Soldotna, Kenai, and
Sterling, started with remote learning because of a summer spike
and went back to remote around Thanksgiving for most of the
entire second quarter. The first quarter was mostly in person.
KPBSD is a large district geographically and has been handling
things at a geographical level. Since January, the second
semester, KPBSD had had in-person learning. The KPBSD started
with pre-K through sixth grade students and then on January 11
went to 100 percent in-person learning for all students for
families that chose that option. Now that KPBSD has returned to
in-person learning, more and more families are returning
students to KPBSD schools, which is what the district had hoped
as the pandemic progresses and more is learned about the virus.
MR. O'BRIEN said that instructionally, he would echo what Dr.
Bishop said. Some families have thrived in a remote, online
environment, but that is not the case for most families,
especially those that did not choose that option and did not
have a parent at home. Even within families, some parents have
shared that one child is thriving and loves the remote
environment and the other child is feeling socially isolated and
depressed. KPBSD is not focusing just on instruction but also
the social-emotional wellbeing of students. The staff is
reaching out to families. That is easier now that most students
are back for in-person learning. It has been a journey getting
the community on board for mitigations like masking for
athletics to keep students in schools. The goal is to keep
students in school, full time for the rest of the schoolyear, so
the district is maintaining important mitigation measures. That
has ruffled some feathers in the community, but most people are
happy students are back in the school and want to keep them in
school.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on Superintendent Jason Johnson and noted
he thought the enrollment for the Dillingham City School
District was 500.
9:18:16 AM
JASON JOHNSON, Superintendent, Dillingham City School District,
Dillingham, Alaska, said that the Dillingham City School
District has 450 students in a typical year. This year it had a
significant decrease in student enrollment, which was to be
expected. In 1919 most of the population died because of the
Spanish flu. That historic knowledge did not go away. The
district honors that and made an extraordinary effort to respect
those feelings during this process. The district has been onsite
for about 70 percent of the instructional year so far, which has
been a blessing. Some of the positive was a chance to build
relationships in the community and with partners. The district
does extensive outreach with its tribal council, city
government, and health corporation. That has enabled the
district to provide a litany of supports that would otherwise
not have been possible.
MR. JOHNSON shared that the district has seen a tremendous
amount of innovation with its instructional teams. Teachers have
been put in a situation where they were forced to learn new
strategies that can be used in the future. The biggest negative
is the social-emotional impact. There is no way to replace the
bond between students and teachers. It cannot be done by video.
It is not successful in virtual school. The district is seeing
that in its community. The district is noting the ACES (Adverse
Childhood Experiences) that many students are having as a result
of time away from school. Typically the district is the
students' biggest advocate.
9:20:19 AM
SENATOR BEGICH shared that he was taken by comments made by
Superintendent Bishop. He asked her to expand on what she noted
on lower income and single parent households.
DR. BISHOP replied that the ASD is a diverse district; 62
percent of its student body are children of color and 38 percent
are White. The ASD is a high-diversity, multicultural community.
There are different experiences in homes. The two student groups
that were affected the most with almost a doubling of D's and
F's were Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students. In
addition, economically disadvantaged students also doubled their
rates of D's and F's. There was also the student learning data
in elementary school. Overall the percent of the increase in
negative outcomes, such as failing grades and dropping out, grew
6 to 10 percent, but in some groups, it was 30 percent in that
student group, so the experiences were quite different. Many
older siblings had to watch the younger ones and that impacted
their learning while they were at home, as well as their
siblings'. Learning had to happen at night with parents because
parents were essential workers and working during the day. There
were very large gaps with accessibility to internet because of
the affordability and the ability to get it in the home.
SENATOR BEGICH shared that in Austin, Texas, bus drivers were
required to set up remote internet stations on buses to give
access to low-income families. He asked if she had considered
that.
DR. BISHOP replied that the district had explored many ideas.
The district has MyFi and Wi-Fi access, but what would occur is
that families would use that data in two days because other
family members would use the data. The district learned last
spring that once it released the Wi-Fi, whole families were in
such need that it was gobbled up. The district had to go to a
steady hard line with a modem in the household. That is more
economical and feasible and steady for families. The buses for
Wi-Fi would go around, park, and then leave and sometimes were
not always there at the right time. The district needed a sturdy
structure to build equity around students so that the families'
poverty did not affect students.
9:25:37 AM
SENATOR STEVENS noted to Superintendent O'Brien that legislators
keep hearing about ghost students, students who disappear and
drop out. He asked if Superintendent O'Brien had any data on
that for his districts and whether the district has any plans
for summer programming.
MR. O'BRIEN replied that there have been such situations over
the last year since the pandemic, especially when the district
learning was 100 percent remote. Students disappeared despite
multiple attempts to reach out to families. Some families are
just extremely hard to reach, families that are typically in
transition and transient a lot. It is a struggle to have updated
contact information for those students. There have been some of
those cases. Now that the district is back to 100 percent in-
person learning those students have returned for the most part.
The big issue with ghost students was when the district was 100
percent remote for the entire fourth quarter of last year when
the governor closed all schools through emergency declaration.
MR. O'BRIEN said that KPBSD's plans for bridging the gap for
students who have missed out on instructional opportunities is a
robust summer school program and leveraging CARES funding for
additional interventionists during the school day, particularly
for literacy and math instruction, where students have
experienced gaps. KPBSD plans to bolster afterschool programs.
What is key for KPBSD students, because there are many families
in poverty and working parents often cannot transport students
after school or during the summer, is that transportation will
be part of summer school and afterschool remediation.
9:28:48 AM
SENATOR MICCICHE asked Superintendent O'Brien if he has
considered an exit poll with kids about what worked and what
didn't. One of his kids thrived in that remote environment. When
Superintendent O'Brien talks about catching up and summer
options, he wondered if Superintendent O'Brien would consider
what they learned from distance delivery so that options could
be delivered at a lower cost for a larger group of kids who may
or may not make it to the building. It would be nice to
understand what worked and what didn't from a student and parent
perspective and to expand distance options for kids who might
need some extra help.
CHAIR HOLLAND added that he would ask the other superintendents
the same question about an exit poll about what worked and what
didn't work.
MR. O'BRIEN answered that the district absolutely has been
reaching out to students. The assistant superintendent of
instruction worked hard to make sure that student voice is part
of the district process to learn and improve. The district does
plan to do an exit poll of at least the secondary students and
parents before the close of school year. Dr. Bishop talked of a
silver lining. KPBSD was on its way to hybrid instruction before
the pandemic, but this has provided every teacher in the
district an opportunity to learn to how to teach with a digital
parallel in a hybrid format. Hopefully the district will not be
dealing with the pandemic at the same level in the fall of 2021,
but there are many aspects of instruction that will not go back
to the way they were. The district will continue to have remote
opportunities for families at all levels if that has worked for
them. There may be at the elementary and middle school level,
like at the high school level, remote-only teachers who work
with families who want to be connected to the district and a
neighborhood school but through a remote option. The district is
planning a summer school online program for students who cannot
come in, not only for remediation but also acceleration with a
lot of elective offerings for the summer for middle school and
high school students.
CHAIR HOLLAND asked Superintendent Johnson about plans for an
exit poll.
9:33:21 AM
MR. JOHNSON responded that his district would not do an exit
poll because the beauty of a small district is that it has daily
if not hourly communication with parents and can make immediate
changes to planning. For example, the district made 12-13
modifications to its smart start plan. The district works
closely with student government to let them voice their
concerns. A student government representative is on the school
board.
DR. BOLEN replied that his district also doesn't necessarily
have an exit poll planned. The district has been using advisory
education committees a lot more this year than in the past to
learn what is and what is not working in its 15 unique
communities. The district's distance delivery is paper-and-
pencil packets and knows that doesn't work. It is not the best
way to engage kids. The district is trying to incorporate other
offline technologies and platforms. The district's youth leaders
in student government represent their schools and let the school
district know what it can do to make things better for them.
Most of that has centered on hands-on projects.
MS. BOYD answered that YKSD does have an exit poll planned. The
district also has satisfaction polls to continuously find out
what can be done to improve services. The district just put
another poll out last week and has about 500 responses so far.
She tries to get 75 percent feedback. Two polls are going on now
to get a better idea of when students are leaving and where they
are going and what to do to improve services. The district gets
very enlightening information.
DR. BISHOP said the ASD had had a system to look at the 4,000
fewer students to see where they are; 230 students were
confirmed dropouts, 149 had no plan, 81 received a GED. The
district has 684 students it has not been able to contact. The
district continues to do outreach with local partners. The other
students did go to different places. The ASD programs were
designed with feedback from last year. The first thing was that
parents were unhappy that teachers were able to choose their own
platforms for online learning. The ASD had allowed innovators to
innovate, so it worked with unions to select one platform, which
is Canvas. Now ASD has set units that can be used across the
state. DEED makes it public to anyone. Number two was that
keeping the same school day did not work out. ASD moved the high
school start back by 30 minutes, so the first lesson on Zoom is
at 8. Those two items came from parent feedback after the spring
semester. The ASD had great success last year with summer school
to make sure they matriculated and graduated. The districts
heard from students that they needed the ability for teachers to
text them. That could be dangerous and so is discouraged by
school district policy. The district worked to come up with a
system that is safe and that can be searched and keeps record.
This lets students use smart phones and teachers have the
freedom to communicate with individual devices, but those
records are kept and can be accessed. The ASD is planning summer
school based on parent feedback and the need for face-to-face
instruction as well an asynchronous ability to enroll in
classes. ASD's new programs are based on what it learns from
feedback.
9:42:00 AM
SENATOR HUGHES pointed out that Anchorage is the largest school
district. Roughly $180 million of COVID funds was distributed to
school districts across the state. She asked how much did ASD
receive and how did it spend it. She asked what cost savings did
the district have from such things as turning down the heat and
turning off the lights and renegotiating bus contracts when
schools were closed.
CHAIR HOLLAND said that works for the format as the committee
will switch to funding issues. He called on Superintendent
Bishop.
DR. BISHOP replied that in the initial CARES Act funds
distributed last spring, the ASD received about $12 million. The
funds expended were board approved. That included 3.5 on health
teachers, $4.7 million on information technology and devices for
connectivity, $1.5 million for course development, $700,000 for
summer school, and $300,000 for PPE (personal protective
equipment). In conjunction with the $12 million, the district
used almost $9 million from its fund balance to add to those
PPE, $200,000 for equitable outcomes working with summer
schools, $600,000 for charter schools, and $400,000 for private
schools. Those were ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School
Emergency Relief Fund) I funds from the first CARES Act.
DR. BISHIP said the district hasn't received ESSER II yet. It
will be moved into next year. The district has built 80 percent
of these funds into its budget next year and summer school this
year to double down on what it needs to do for kids. There is
quite a learning gap. Kids have experienced the
disproportionality of outcomes and suffered in the social-
emotional area from depression to suicide. It is more than
academics. The district is implementing those funds not only
into starting the school year well but having a robust summer
school to work on credit recovery and skill building.
DR. BISHOP said that ASD immediately implemented a hiring delay
once it knew it was shutting down. It took a two-tier look into
every personnel hiring from aides to teachers to executives,
knowing that student enrollment was being affected. The district
had great savings in substitute use. All sort of things shut
down last spring so there were immense savings with substitutes.
Now that the ASD is back in school that account is being used
this year. The district did renegotiate the transportation
contract because of reduced utilization. Regarding utility
costs, 53 schools were operating with programs. The district
partnered with Boys and Girls Club and with their own programs,
and so did have some teachers and students in schools. The
district increased the air exchange with HVACS four times, so
the air exchange units are turned on four times as much. Some of
the mitigation took energy. The district had to dig down to
figure out why there were not utility savings because that was a
district expectation.
DR. BISHOP emphasized that the district had a big success with
last year's summer school and this year there is a planning
committee with project management to design this year's summer
school to make sure it meets the needs of district families.
CHAIR HOLLAND asked Superintendent Boyd about CARES Act funding
for his district and whether there were any cost savings.
9:48:15 AM
MS. BOYD answered this her district received $196,000 in ESSER
funding and $148,000 other funding. The district will receive
$737,000 in ESSER II funding and will allocate that at the next
board meeting. The district spent a large majority of it on
planning, professional development, internet access for schools,
and PPE gear for students. The district has spent $150,000 and
$35,000 is left for this year. That will be looked at for
ongoing sanitation when schools are closed. The biggest cost
savings have been no travel. Some savings were from substitutes
and support staff due to ongoing quarantining in the
communities.
DR. BOLEN said that Bering Strait received about $550,000 in
ESSER funds. The district spent most of it trying to increase
possibilities for student learning. The district bought
Chromebooks for students and computers for teachers. The
district bought PPE, hand sanitizer, plastic dividers, and a
machine to make its own cleaning solutions. Since the cost of
shipping hazardous materials to the bush is so high, it made
sense to buy the chemicals and create it onsite. There were cost
savings with travel, although the district is starting to be
able to get maintenance and itinerant teachers to schools. The
district has spent about $420,000 of its ESSER funds on teaching
supplies and equipment. The district also spent $300,000 on
maintenance, supplies and equipment, and about $65,000 on
alternate ways to provide daily meals even when students were
not in school. Those numbers are more than what the district was
reimbursed, so it did shift funding around. The district also
incurred costs for professional development for teachers. The
district is trying to do things with this money that are long
lasting for the district. That is the plan for the upcoming
funds, to make investments in HVAC and systems like that. The
schools are older and that is important for their safety.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on Superintendent Johnson with the
Dillingham School District.
MR. JOHNSON shared that his district received $138,000 from
ESSER I and GEER I (Governor's Emergency Education Relief). The
district used that for connectivity and acquiring devices needed
for the instructional year and to ensure that homebased students
and staff had internet in their homes. The district expects
$430,000 in the second round of funding. The district is going
to build a robust summer school. It will not just include
remedial education but also enrichment, so a two-pronged
approach for the funding. The district is looking at a large
literacy push as a result of the funding. Since most of the
district's students identify as indigenous or Alaska Native, the
district's push for literacy needs to be strong. The district
has partnered with its local tribal council and the Alaska
Community Foundation. The district has spent around $1 to $1.2
million on digital technology to ensure all students have
internet in their homes that the district pays for. Equity is a
large issue in rural Alaska. The district has not incurred any
savings as a result of COVID. With these other grants and
partnerships, the district has expended an exceptional amount of
money.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on Superintendent O'Brien with the Kenai
Peninsula Borough School District.
9:55:43 AM
MR. O'BRIEN said that some of the cost increases were because
teachers needed a lot more professional development to make the
shift to remote learning at a moment's notice. The district
spent a lot of time and resources with its professional
development team and bought programs and software. That was a
significant cost increase. There have not been many cost savings
this year other than travel. Only online remote professional
development has been approved, and the district has been
providing in-house professional development in a remote
environment. Last year for the fourth quarter the district did
renegotiate bus contract for reduced utilization, but the
district rolled out a huge program through the school nutrition
services department to continue to feed students throughout the
district and had several dropout points, and so used bus routes
for food delivery and delivery of computers and laptops and MyFi
wireless devices. All spring sports were cancelled so there some
athletic savings such as with coaching stipends. The district
didn't need substitutes when instruction was 100 percent remote.
Overall, there were not huge savings and there were some
increases because of COVID.
MR. O'BRIEN said that the KPBSD received $2,295,953 in the first
round of CARES funding. The district used funds for professional
development, PPE supplies, and Zoom licenses and bolstered
efforts to help families with connectivity. The district rolled
out a large scale programs of MyFis for economically
disadvantaged families. To address social-emotional learning and
the mental health needs of students, the district hired
elementary counselors, which it never has had before. The
district saw firsthand the impact of needing counselors during
the pandemic. The district is having a difficult time recruiting
and retaining school nurses. That was a nonstarter in the middle
of a global pandemic. The district needed an adequate cadre of
school nurses, so the district increased nursing pay by $5 an
hour. That is still far behind what nurses can make in private
doctor offices or in hospitals. There has been an increased need
for substitutes this year. The district used some CARES money to
increase pay for substitutes. The district has purchased
electrostatic sprayers and lots of disinfectant and upgraded
school HVAC systems. Schools have something called bipolar
ionization, which helps create a safer internal environment in
schools. It supposedly works with killing coronavirus after half
an hour. The nurses have bought many supplies to monitor
temperatures and scanners to have touchless points. School
nutrition services spent CARES money on hygienic packaging. The
home school did digital advertising to compete with statewide
programs. Wireless access points in schools have been bolstered.
The district purchased more computers for students learning
remotely.
CHAIR HOLLAND observed that some of the answers are wide
ranging. He asked that with districts have seen a reduction in
enrollment, whether superintendents expect students to come back
next year. He noted that Dr. Bishop had said that Anchorage was
down about 5,000 students.
10:03:43 AM
DR. BISHOP clarified that Anchorage is down 4,500 students from
last year. The district expects 75 percent to come back to
Anchorage as it opens and ASD is following up in its budget
process with a survey with all parents and families who have
left to see if they are coming back. The ASD will have a budget
adjustment before the New Year. The budget is built on that 75
percent, but the district is following that up with a survey in
April.
CHAIR HOLLAND noted that Superintendent Boyd had said enrollment
was up because of COVID.
MS. BOYD answered that enrollment went up 2,400 students. The
district expects a 35 percent decline, maybe even more, as the
district expects many students to go back to their respective
schools. The district is surveying parents now about their
plans. About 33 percent are still uncertain and 45 percent who
answered said they are returning, but the district is being
cautious and mindful that many families will return as schools
reopen.
CHAIR HOLLAND commented that Dr. Bolen had said that Bering
Strait enrollment was flat.
DR. BOLEN replied that enrollment has stayed flat. There was an
increase of about 13 students who returned from communities that
were not doing face-to-face instruction and the district doesn't
anticipate that they will stay.
MR. JOHNSON said that Dillingham doesn't know but not for lack
of communication. The region was severely impacted by the
Spanish flu. That trauma is still relevant and real. Until there
is clarity with COVID he does not know if the district will get
these families back. The district maintains communication and
wants to honor how they feel.
MR. O'BRIEN said the KPBSD had an interesting phenomenon. Its
home school program, Connections Home School, normally has an
enrollment of 750 students. There was a dramatic increase. At
its peak, before the district went back to 100 percent in-person
learning, the enrollment was almost 1,800. Unfortunately some
families chose a statewide home school program. That was a
double hit in revenue. If a student is in KPBSD home school, the
district gets at least 90 percent of the revenue for those
students. If they choose a statewide program, the funds go to
districts where the families don't live. Trying to project
enrollment for FY 22 was more difficult for him than any other
year. The district took a conservative approach because it did
not want to overextend the number of contracts to offer
teachers. The district is still considering that many families
will be in its home school program. In April the district will
do a second recast of its enrollment. It will ask families to
enroll in April for the fall so the district can make staffing
adjustments in the spring. The district hopes that with vaccines
and the state getting COVID in control, more families will be
comfortable with bringing students to school in the fall for in-
person learning.
10:10:13 AM
SENATOR MICCICHE noted that Anchorage and Dillingham are above
the 10 percent fund balance. When money for other programs is
distributed most districts will be above the 10 percent. He
asked how critical it is for the legislature to act to allow a
fund balance to be above 10 percent for the next few years for
the temporary, excess funding.
MR. O'BRIEN answered that 27 school districts carried over 10
percent this past year and Kenai was not one of those. The
borough reduced its local contribution by $2.7 million.
Authorizing those school districts that need it to carryover the
funding will be an important funding mechanism for them.
MR. JOHNSON said that Dillingham had about $75,000 to carryover.
It is not an astronomical amount, but it is invaluable and
prudent to have legislation that allows this. With so many
unknowns and the needs of students, it is impossible to
prudently spend money for the unknown. With flexibility the
district can do diagnostic testing to find out and target
student needs. The district could be surgical in its spending.
With the change in the school bond debt reimbursement, the
anticipated increases in local contribution have not occurred.
The district expects the local contribution to stay flat because
of that.
DR. BOLEN said it would be helpful to have some type of
flexibility because of the uncertainty in rural Alaska about
what will come next. It could become an issue with other revenue
streams. The district wants to use those before district funds.
The flexibility would be vital to school districts so the funds
could be available at a future date.
10:14:21 AM
MS. BOYD said that she wanted to speak about enrollment and
projections in uncertain times. The department has a nice
process in place for districts to send in projections.
Superintendents meet on a regular basis and talk about
projections. It is so difficult right now to identify what it
will look like with so many unknowns, but districts have given
it their best shot. Seven districts are looking for some type of
floor through hold harmless. They are suffering and will be
looking for support from the department and maybe the
legislature. As far as the 10 percent carryover, she can speak
for many superintendents as the president of the Alaska
Superintendents Association and say that passing that
declaration is critical so that districts can be good stewards
of the funding and have ample time for planning. This will be
the first time in her district that it will exceed the 10
percent. Many superintendents would appreciate extending the 10
percent carryover.
DR. BISHOP said that with the Anchorage economy of scale, these
look like big numbers. The Anchorage carryover is a little over
10 percent, which is about $64 million. As a large school
district, there is a city ordinance that doesn't allow the
district to spend. Six percent of the district reserve needs to
be kept in savings for its triple AAA bond ratings. That is by
city ordinance, so it is not spendable. That is about $26
million of the $64 million. There is $30 million that is
unassigned, which is about five percent. Anchorage has that much
money for its savings account emergency; $8 million of the $64
million is built into the budget for FY 21 to create a balanced
budget. Senators Begich and Holland as local legislators
understand the impact of the city vs. district policy and how
they work in conjunction to bring taxpayers the best deal
possible for bonds. The emergency order is not just essential
for the fund balance. The school district just completed 11,000
vaccines for people 65 and older. Commissioner Crum as well as
the local hospitals have donated those. The ability to scale
that emergency order has given the ASD the ability to give back
to the community.
SENATOR HUGHES observed that all alluded to some learning loss
by some students who struggled with remote learning. She asked
if they will be able to catch those students up and how long
will it take.
10:19:28 AM
DR. BISHOP responded that she appreciated the focus on student
learning and achievement. Absolutely there is a gap. As a
certificated teacher she sometimes substitutes at schools. In
speaking to teachers and looking at data for curriculum-based
measures, pre-K-2 students are significantly behind in reading.
The amount of vocabulary and learning in a classroom of early
fundamentals has fallen significantly. This will be generational
when it impacts pre-K-2. Alaska was already suffering in this
area. All of them have been dissatisfied with reading
achievement. Children learn to read to read to learn. That is
why she says that it is generational. Going back to normal is
not good enough for Alaska and its young readers. She supports
the reading bill and getting kids in as soon as possible. The
ASD used $1.2 million in its reserves of the $8 million just to
boost pre-K learning because of the learning loss last spring.
ASD plans on building capacity for learners. Evidence
demonstrates that it pays off to get learners in earlier.
Nationally, some predict a 15 percent decrease in reading
outcomes across the board. Compared to their peers in previous
generations, there will be 15 percent impact nationwide. Fifteen
million young people have been out of school, not learning to
read. It is a crisis. The district intends to build capacity. It
has afterschool reading programs now and will continue those
through the summer for many years, for as long as it takes.
MS. BOYD shared that it has been a big challenge for her
district. The district monitors students at least quarterly and
progress monitors. The district saw dramatic decreases in
assessment results in rural schools from March and from when
students were back in school in September, but not in the home
school families. They were already receiving virtual
instruction. She is encouraged by what she is seeing now. They
are catching up, but there was a significant drop. The district
is planning a robust summer school program. The district is
putting in infrastructure in villages. When GCI and DRS were
generously donating internet and MyFi, it did not help because
there was no connectivity equipment in place. The district and
school board have used some of the funding to building that
equity in learning so students can have university and Zoom
courses and have access to all those resources they have not had
before. Some of the things the district is doing now to help
students catch up are sending literacy buckets on a regular
basis to all families and hiring reading and math specialists.
The district has a team of administrators and teachers to look
at targeted areas where students may have challenges. The
district has a systemic reading program that will only be
strengthened if the legislature passes the reading bill. If
students go below a certain level, parents are notified and a
plan is developed for a tiered learning program. The district is
trying to partner with Head Start so it can take part in the
district's professional development. The district has offered
free rent to Head Start to encourage little kids to get ready
for school. The district is seeing what it can do to help Head
Start and the Parents as Teachers program. The district has had
90-95 percent teacher retention this year, which is unusual.
That has been a priority of the board and administrators. Some
administrators and teachers are tutoring one-on-one after
school.
10:27:44 AM
DR. BOLEN shared that his district is also trying to look at MAP
(Measures of Academic Progress) data and other checkpoints. The
district has struggled getting additional data. If students are
not coming into the school as much, it is more difficult. The
district curriculum team created lessons to specific standards.
All teachers can access that and use that for learning,
especially for distance learning. The district purchased
FastForWord, which slows down speech and allows students who
have difficulty with hearing and speech to more engaged and
learn sounds and phonetics. The district is using DEED 21st
Century Community Learning Centers grants for K-5 ingenuity
classes. These are supplemental to the instruction in the
classroom, but it is tied to MAP scores. That is helpful to
catch students up who may have deficits. The district does have
afterschool tutoring for student with low-risk designations. The
district plans to have a summer school, but the challenge is
keeping teachers in rural communities once their contract ends.
That limits the numbers the school district can address. The
Alaska Staff Development Network has done a great job providing
online professional development. The district has provided
stipends for curriculum instruction facilitators for optional
Saturday professional development. The district is trying to
address the gaps in multiple ways.
10:31:13 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND passed on a suggestion from Senator Begich that
any superintendents who are listening in can provide their
thoughts in writing to the committee.
MR. JOHNSON said he wishes that he could be there in person to
answer this specific question so that the committee could see
his fire and passion. The district will absolutely catch
students up. That is why every superintendent is there today to
speak to the committee. In Dillingham the district has an
extensive network of afterschool tutors who can work one-on-one
with students. The district runs multiple risk assessments daily
so that staff can reach out to students falling slightly off
pace. The district makes immediate contact with any student who
is falling below a C and the student's parents. The district
does not wait weeks or months. It is that day. The district is
able to do that in a small community. The district did find a
group of seniors struggling to get English credits and found a
teacher to teach an additional class after school so that cohort
will graduate on time. To ensure kids are on track will be a
three-to-five-year process in Dillingham. The district will
focus on a strong K-2 literacy program. A big portion of kids'
development at that age is socialization. That cannot be
replicated online or in a virtual format. The districts wants to
bring kids in the summer or after school, if it can, for that
play-based learning. The district has a robust RTI (Response to
Intervention) program. The district has already hired multiple
interventionists to work with the students. The district will
implement the same strategic approach to support students'
social-emotional needs. The district has counselors onsite who
are partially funded with a grant. The district has lots of
tools and supports in place to elevate kids who are facing these
difficult situations.
10:34:27 AM
MR. O'BRIEN commented that that is the question of the day. He
hopes that educators can catch students up in three years. That
is an ambitious goal. Dr. Bishop was spot on when she alluded to
this being a generational issue that the nation will be facing.
A lot can be learned from studies from Hurricane Katrina and the
impact on those students in New Orleans. Some students were out
of school for over a year. The global pandemic is a Hurricane
Katrina on a national and global scale. Kenai will be using a
lot of the strategies his colleagues have described.
Superintendents meet regularly and are working hard as a united
group on this question of how they can address the generational
impacts this will have on students. Kenai will leverage CARES
Act funding of about $9 million over the next year. Kenai is
pleased to be able to use that over two years. Its plan is to
spend the majority of the funding addressing this question of
how to catch students up and provide them with opportunities
that have been lost during this global pandemic. The district
will hire additional interventionists to address literacy and
math skills. Those are the building blocks that need to be
immediately address that. He applauds Superintendent Johnson's
focus on the social-emotional. No one can forget that there is
not only instructional impacts that have occurred because of the
global pandemic. Many families are in crisis as a result of the
pandemic. Students are experiencing that trauma as well. The
district will continue funding elementary counselors and perhaps
provide more mental health support for middle school and high
school students. The district will offer extensive summer school
and afterschool programming. For Kenai transportation is
critical for families who cannot get their students to these
programs. The district will provide students the opportunity to
get there and return home and also be fed and meet their basic
physiological needs while they are learning.
CHAIR HOLLAND thanked the five superintendents for their
detailed and candid answers. The committee learned a lot today.
10:38:53 AM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Chair Holland adjourned the Senate Education Standing Committee
at 10:38 a.m.
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