AASB is proud to announce that the Youth Advocacy Institute is taking place along with the Virtual Leadership & Legislative Academy on February 6-7, 2021. 

Students will connect with each other and their School Boards online and practice using their skills to advocate during this year’s Alaska State Legislature.

Save up to 50% when you register your district as a team. If budget constraints have limited the number of attendees from your school district in previous years, take advantage of bringing your entire board, superintendent, business official, and other members of your team for the cost of one person attending an in-person meeting.

In addition to significant savings, get relevant, valuable content for you and every member of your team at the NSBA 2021 Online Experience on April 8-10. Other benefits include:

We recognize Alaska youth, ages 12-19, statewide. Nominations can be submitted for an individual or a group.

Nominations can come from anyone who wishes to recognize a hard-working Alaska teenager. Nominations can be made in one of 8 categories.

Dancing with the Spirit connects youth and elders through school music programs and camps–promoting spiritual, physical, and mental wellness with the joy, love, and hope of music. Our goal is to prevent suicide, drug, alcohol, and domestic abuse by building self-esteem, preserving musical traditions, and encouraging strong healthy communities.

The organization offers a school music curriculum and virtual student music workshops and summer camps.

This weekend Dancing with the Spirit is promoting (and participating in) a series of free Streaming Concerts, numerous Music Workshops and a Virtual Open Mic that are all part of the virtual Anchorage Folk Festival this weekend, January 29-31.

Part five of the series, Ripp'd from the Headlines

At a recent workshop, a director from a school board split by pandemic-related decisions asked me what board members can do in the face of intense public pressure. These are tough times for local non-partisan government bodies, for sure. Here are some thoughts about what can be done.

While browsing a flea market back in 2008, Dutch creative director Jennifer Skupin stumbled across two boxes of slides. They were color photos, mostly portraits of people, intermixed with some landscapes and street scenes.

Written on the back of some of the slides were years and locations, they seemed to mostly date to the 1950s and 1960s. There were photos of individuals, from a group of nuns to a cluster of school children. Many of the people in the photos are Alaskan Natives.

Skupin is hoping she might be able to track down the photographer or subjects.

How do you get students engaged when you can’t get them together in person? How do you stay on top of schoolwork when your schedule has been turned upside-down? What can you do to build community in a classroom that only exists online?

Many high school music students in Southeast Alaska cannot practice or perform together this year due to COVID protocols. Some music classes, which are normally large in size, have been canceled altogether. But that hasn’t stopped the annual Southeast Honor Music Festival from taking some shape. Instead of meeting in person, virtual band and choir performances were created for the first time.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed a bill to Alaska’s legislature that would extend the state’s COVID-19 public health disaster declaration through September.

Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, said Senate Bill 39 is intended to strengthen the security of Alaska’s election system in a nonpartisan way, but several legislative observers began circulating alarmed emails, with Native Peoples Action asserting that Section 22 of the bill “may ban municipalities from having vote-by-mail elections.”

A program that teaches teachers how to incorporate culture into their classrooms has moved into several communities in Southeast Alaska.

The program “Thru the Cultural Lens” is run by Sealaska Heritage Institute. It’s been in some of Juneau’s secondary schools for about seven years but this year it’s expanding to five K-12 school districts in smaller communities in the region.

Sitka illustrator Michaela Goade was awarded one of the highest honors in children’s literature this week for her work on “We are Water Protectors.” Goade, who is Tlingit, is the first Indigenous person to win the Caldecott Medal.

An illustration of Alaska Native civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich illustrated by Native artist Michaela Goade was featured in a recent Google Doodle — an altered Google logo seen daily by more than three billion people.

Etheldra Davis moved to Anchorage from Los Angeles in 1959 after visiting two older brothers who had previously moved to the brand new state for work.

“She loved it,” said Davis’ daughter, Andrea Antoine. “She liked the fact that it was smaller, less crime, not as much going on, not the hustle bustle of the city where she had grown up at. And so she decided to move and transfer her teaching credentials to Alaska for the opportunity.”

As the first Black teacher hired on-contract by the Anchorage School District, Antoine said her mother broke barriers. But it wasn’t easy.

A teacher in Klawock won $34,500 in a state education raffle on Wednesday.

Abraham Horpestad was announced as the first place winner of Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend Education Raffle, which is in its second year.

In Memoriam: David Lougee

It is with sadness we learned of the passing of Kashunamiut Superintendent David Lougee. Mr. Lougee has served the students of Chevak since the 2018 – 2019 school year. He is survived by Ketchikan Gateway School District Superintendent Elizabeth (Beth) Lougee. Our thoughts and prayers are extended to Mr. Lougee’s family and the Kashunamiut School District.  

The Anchorage School District on Monday announced a plan to return third through sixth grade elementary school students to in-person school early next month. Some will return on Feb. 1, the district said in a message emailed to parents and staff, but most third through sixth graders will go back to school buildings beginning Monday, Feb. 8.

Delta Greely School District schools returned to in classroom learning for all schools beginning Tuesday, Jan. 12. Schools will be opened at the medium risk level. Superintendent Shaun Streyle announced the plan for returning in a letter to parent.

Dillingham City School district will open to full in-person learning for the spring semester on Monday (1/18). The school will operate at the low risk level. That means it will operate at full capacity and function as it did before it switched to distance learning in November.

A school worker is suing the school district and the Board of Education with hopes a judge will close schools until new daily COVID-19 case rates drop into the single digits.

Local public education leaders agreed to crack open labor agreements to go over safety provisions as plans continue for opening schools to in-person learning starting next week, according to Superintendent Karen Gaborik.

“At many schools, student use of outside equipment is a topmost priority, but not before establishing safe routines throughout the classrooms, hallways and other areas,” said Yumi McCulloch, FNSBSD director of public relations. “Students will still have access to outdoor activities. Playground equipment use may be limited depending on each schools’ plans.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study that said reopening schools is safe if it’s done right. But in Juneau, teachers are still divided over whether reopening schools earlier this month was the right choice.

Juneau’s school board is considering starting all of its meetings with an acknowledgment of local Alaska Native claims to their lands. If approved, the board would make time to recognize Tlingit people as the land’s original inhabitants before opening its meetings. Board member Martin Stepetin, who is Unangax, says he feels good about the idea.

District Chief of Staff Kristin Bartlett said the board's top priority is the early, adequate, equitable, predictable funding of public education. Six other priorities were identified, according to Bartlett.  Those include maintaining the hold harmless provisions that will help school districts adjust to the loss of enrollment related to the pandemic this school year and next school year.

Students in the Kupreanof Island village of Kake will resume in-person learning for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The Kake City School Board announced this week that the district will adopt a mixture of in-person and remote learning starting February 8, barring any new active cases in the community. Students who want to remain fully remote still have the option.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s new superintendent is a familiar face. The board of education chose Clayton Holland to lead the district next year. Holland is the district’s assistant superintendent of Instruction, and was the only one of the three finalists with deep roots in the district.

Four schools on the eastern peninsula will open to all students five days a week. Kenai Peninsula Borough School District classrooms reopened Jan. 11 after three months of distance learning. While coronavirus case counts were still relatively high, seventh- through 12th-graders returned on alternating schedules twice a week.

Homer High School had its first positive case of COVID-19 about two weeks after in-person education resumed at Kenai Peninsula Borough School District schools. The case caused little interruption to the school’s schedule, however.

The number of Kodiak High School graduates from the past five years who are now full-time college students is half the number that it was at this time last year, perhaps reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their post-high-school lives.

Students in Kotzebue have been mostly unable to return to their classrooms since the COVID-19 pandemic began last year. However now, students could begin in-person learning next week — as long as there aren’t any new cases in the community.

China Kantner with the Northwest Arctic Borough School District says whether a school in the region reopens or not largely depends on the number of cases of the virus in the community.

The Lower Kuskokwim School District had hoped to start the 2020-2021 school year in the with their intranet fully functional. The intranet, which functions like a limited internet, was going to make remote learning better. But as the spring semester starts, many students are still not using the system.

The LKSD school board met for the first time this semester. An online petition requesting that LKSD immediately return to in-person classes in Bethel for two days of the week is circulating on Facebook. Over 120 people have signed the petition.

Alaska’s Nome Public Schools (NPS) today announced a new partnership with Discovery Education supporting the continued academic growth and development of students districtwide. Through this new collaboration, NPS educators and students in all grades and all district locations are receiving access to dynamic K-12 digital resources that keep students connected to their natural curiosity at home, in school, or wherever learning is taking place.

Petersburg School Board approved budget revisions at its meeting Jan.12 for this fiscal year. The pandemic has presented unforeseen challenges but by shuffling staff, transferring funds, and the State being more lenient with its rules, the school district has made ends meet.

The Sitka School District is considering an early retirement incentive for teachers, as a way of helping make ends meet next year. At its last meeting earlier this month (1-6-21), the Sitka School Board authorized the interim superintendent to open negotiations with the local teachers union.

Sitka’s Baranof Elementary School appears likely to have its name changed — but no one is quite sure what that new name will be yet. The Sitka School Board recently decided to send the question of the name change to the Sitka Tribe, in hopes of identifying a “significant local cultural educator.”

As Unalaskans are once again being asked to stay at home as much as possible after the city raised its coronavirus risk level to "high" on Thursday, students are left in limbo — awaiting transition to distance education.

As the city contends with potential widespread exposure to the coronavirus, Unalaska's schools have begun to determine if and how they will provide in-person learning opportunities to students.

Wrangell Public Schools will begin its search for a new superintendent by the end of this week. And to sweeten the deal, the school board is increasing the position’s starting salary to remain competitive. The Association of Alaska School Boards is under contract to help.

Due to improved health status, the Juneau School District is now operating winter sports. That's the word from Juneau School District Superintendent Dr. Bridget Weiss.

Kenai Peninsula high school basketball and hockey teams are being allowed to start practice by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

In their weekend of hockey in a shortened season, the Homer Mariners split two games, winning against the Kenai Kardinals before falling to the Soldotna Stars in overtime.

Kodiak begins the 2021 basketball season

The thumping sound of basketballs hitting the hardwood floor echoed through the Kodiak High School gymnasium on Monday afternoon. Prep basketball was back in session.

Studies at both a local and national level show clearly that students involved in after school activities, including sports, are more successful in school. So as the district began to develop its plan for the second half of the school year, administrators looked at ways they might not only bring students back to the classroom but also to the basketball court.