By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Local schools will remain closed to in-person learning for the remainder of the year, but plans are afoot to reopen in January, school officials said at the School Board meeting Wednesday night. Baranof Elementary will stay open for in-person education.
The prospect of forming a budget for the next fiscal cycle was also brought up at the meeting, as was the idea of incorporating a Tlingit land acknowledgment into meetings, but the board postponed those discussions until the January meeting.
Superintendent John Holst told the board that the administration is in the planning process for reopening schools to in-person education early next year.
“Looking at January, that is when we are hoping we can look at reopenings, and – based on the decision making – it will be based on the changes and the updates of the Smart Start plan,” Holst said.
He reaffirmed this in an email to school families sent out hours before the board meeting.
“The rising numbers of COVID-19 cases this month are fighting against us,” Holst said. “For that reason, we are now working toward reopening schools following the holiday break and not trying to rush a decision during the last two weeks before the break. (Keet Gooshi Heen, Blatchley Middle School, Sitka High, and Pacific High) will remain virtual through January 11 and Baranof (Elementary) will be in person through December 18,” he wrote in his email.
Sitka schools switched to virtual learning on Wednesday, Nov. 11, after a steep rise in local coronavirus cases. While other Sitka schools remain online, Baranof returned to in-person instruction Nov. 16 at the request of teachers, parents, and staff.
Holst expressed regret at not being able to return to traditional education sooner.
“I know that this is heartbreaking news for many parents who are anxious to see your children back in school sooner rather than later. We are simply not able to make that happen at this time, but we will be considering that option after we return to the buildings in the new year,” he wrote.
He stressed to the board that when schools do reopen, the district will make the decision on guidelines received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that factor in more than just the virus case numbers.
“(There is) a new CDC indicators and thresholds page which basically lists a number of factors in addition to the total number of cases currently in the last 14 days. So much of our decision making was based on that. We’re using that along with other factors as well,” Holst said.
He expressed optimism that the new vaccines for the coronavirus may allow schools to open and operate more normally next year, in the fall of 2021.
“It’s starting to look like there is going to be enough immunizations that we may be able to look at starting the school year next year in a much more normal fashion, which is really, really good news,” he said.
Sitka High Principal Sondra Lundvick informed the board of the results from the reopening survey that she sent to school staff, parents, and students. A large majority at Sitka High would like to return to in-person learning, she said.
“We had 128 parent responses from Sitka High and 82% of our parents want our kids back in-person. And of the staff, I had 30 responses and we had a 76% response rate of being positive, and again as we see things start to trend down and we can return safely. And we surveyed the students and I had 77 responses… and 69% of students (wanted to return),” Lundvick told the board.
The principal noted that she hopes to return small groups of students to the high school as soon as possible.
“We are at this point at Sitka High trying to bring back a few in-person students,” Lundvick said. That project is aimed at assisting “about 12 students a day, on their cohort day, that are really struggling with logging in and staying engaged,” she said.
“We’re going to be so thankful when we’re back live and in-person and everything is going full speed,” she said.
Lundvick also thanked Sitka Tribe of Alaska for providing technological support during the pandemic.
Along with discussion on reopening schools, the board discussed the budget process and how it may impact Pupil-Teacher Ratios. The board tabled a motion that would have set the PTR of kindergarten classes at 20 to 1, first grade at 22 to 1, second and third grades at 23 to 1, fourth and fifth grades at 25 to 1, and sixth and eight grades to 22 to 1. The motion would set the PTR at Sitka High to 18 to 1.
Holst framed the motion as a foundation for the budget process.
“It’s a change from what has been done in the last ten years, the numbers are a little higher,” Holst said. “But I think we have an obligation to play fair with the Assembly and bring them a budget that is based on numbers that are defendable.” He predicted that money will be “a huge problem” in the coming fiscal year.
Speaking as a teacher, Rebecca Himschoot, who is a member of the Assembly, told the board that the numbers troubled her.
“It would benefit staff and teachers to have some research foundation to these numbers,” Himschoot said. “For example, 22 in middle school and 25 in elementary is confounding to me when we’re making a case for having a school open because the younger a kid is, the more attention, the more effort we need to put in.”
Board member Paul Rioux said that he would like to know more about how the numbers were derived.
“I would like to see a lot more process to this before I would be willing to vote,” Rioux said.
Holst noted that he and the administration arrived at these figures by speaking with principals. The figures had what Holst described as “begrudging principal support.”
The superintendent advocated for the higher PTRs as a way to avoid the budget crises of previous fiscal years.
“I was pushing (the administrators) as far, maybe a little further, than they wanted to go. These numbers came in discussions with these administrators. The 18:1 and 22:1 for the high school and middle school, we talked those through. We are not just pulling those out of thin air. What we’re trying to do is have some guidance in terms of building the budget. And just to say we’re simply going to have the same number of teachers that we did last year and build a budget that way, and you come to the end and you need to cut money… I watched this last spring. I was frankly appalled that you got into the position where you were talking about cutting the second grade, or whatever. I think that’s the wrong time to have that discussion. We will build a budget around these (PTR) numbers,” Holst said.
Board member Blossom Teal-Olsen concurred, noting that she hopes staff members won’t be cut.
“I don’t want to find myself in that predicament where we do have to cut positions,” Teal-Olsen said. She also expressed concern that pushing the decision on PTRs down the road could impact the time line for forming a budget plan.
School district business manager Cassee Olin said the board should start the PTR discussion soon.
“If this is delayed into January it’s going to delay our process of building this budget… It’s going to cause us to have a multitude of budget variations,” Olin said.
This is not a novel scenario to Olin, however. She told the board that two years ago, as districts across the state faced crumbling budgets and slashed funding, she formed dozens of possible budget variants.
The board also discussed and tabled a motion to add a Tlingit land acknowledgment to board meetings.
Board president Amy Morrison read the brief statement: “We acknowledge that we are guests on Tlingit aani.”
Teal-Olsen agreed. She described the acknowledgment as “ something that needs to be done, just like saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of every meeting. This land acknowledgment, I view it as a building block of where we are moving towards.”
All board members who spoke supported the spirit of the motion, but the board tabled it so that there could be consultations with Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
Board member Paul Rioux is the board’s liaison with the Tribe.
He said he plans on “reaching out to our partners at the Tribe. They have an entire cultural resources department to help us with this… I definitely agree with the spirit of this for sure.”
Morrison noted that she also agrees with the principal of the land acknowledgment, but she wanted to ensure that proper research was conducted first.
“My only concern is that I want to make sure we’re doing it correctly… I want to make sure we’re doing all of our research,” Morrison said.
Teal-Olsen concurred.
“I would support a committee to ask the Tribe on the preferred language… This is a step, tangible evidence, that we are open to acknowledging the land that we are living on,” Teal-Olsen said.
In addition, Morrison suggested that in January the board may vote on whether or not to rename Baranof Elementary School, which currently bears the name of the Russian who conducted military operations against Tlingit people and other Alaska Natives in the early 19th century. Morrison added that no replacement name has yet been selected.
In other business the board approved money for the superintendent search, and conducted first readings on health exams, dropout prevention, and college readiness.
The next scheduled board meeting is Jan. 6, 2021.
