Founding Fathers’ documents display, review timelines, and school configuration measures discussed at last MSBSD school board meeting of 2024

During the last meeting of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) school board for 2024, several items were discussed and moved forward.

During the Superintendent update, Dr. Randy Trani said that in response to some school board members speaking about the MSB installing Founding Father documents at the government building, he did some research and had MSBSD legal counsel review the MSB ordinance that passed back in October, and that there could be an opportunity for the board to follow what the Borough Assembly had done if the board wanted and have it in a building, presumably in the MSBSD Administrative Offices in Palmer. “We’ve already communicated with the Borough staff and we could continue communicating with them if there’s an opportunity to engage further with them, maybe join the fundraising and duplicate exactly what they’re doing.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea for us to follow some protocol on the same type of issue,” said member Ole Larson. Member Thomas Bergey also said he supported the idea, and member Brooks Pitcher said he’d like to this in every building.

Members Ted Swanson and Andrew Shane said the item should be placed as an action item on an upcoming agenda.

“I’d like to see this as an action item so the public can have input on what we’re going to do,” Swanson said, while Shane said that he liked the idea of going along with what the MSB has already started.

Dr. Trani said that there will be an agenda item for the display in January.

Some motions the school board moved ahead on included a change to Board Policy 6141, Curriculum Development and Evaluation, specifically the change to the frequency with how often the curriculum would be reviewed. Previously, the district conducted reviews every six years, and the proposed change would move that timeline to more inline to match the state requirement, which that districts across Alaska to review curriculum at minimum every ten years.

The policy change would allow flexibility when there are interruptions to the cycle, such as another pandemic or waiting on the state to complete an update to standards.

MSBSD school board member Shane told the board that a review every six years seemed aggressive and instead asked to amend the change to every eight years, saying that circumstances could change and the board should be ready just in case. “We could get to the eight year mark and then something could happen…that gives us some leeway. But it also ensures that we have two years to make sure that we’re following in line with the state.”

Member Larson suggested that the school board and administration review the entire policy and amend it that way since there was no rush to update the policy. “Just take a look at everything that’s in it…review it, bring it in front of everybody and have it revised.” After some discussion, the board unanimously voted in favor of Shane’s amendment, then member Bergey made a motion to table the item until the Board Policy Committee could meet and review for additional updates before bringing it back to the school board with the amended timeline change.

Also on deck for the school board was a request for approval of to change the grade configuration at Sherrod Elementary School in Palmer, changing Sherrod Elementary school's grade configuration from serving grades 3-5 to Pre-K, 3-5.

The preschool program that is being recommended for Sherrod is currently hosted at Swanson Elementary, located next to the school. Due to increasing enrollment, Swanson no longer has the capacity for the full program and the administration is recommending the Early Childhood Special Education Preschool Program be split between the two locations.

The change will allow parents and students the opportunity to maintain access to the program as it will be located in proximity to where the program was previously housed.

“We have a room in Sherrod that we could host the program, but we didn’t tell the state at the beginning of the year that we were going to house Pre-K in that building, and that’s a requirement,” said Dr. Trani.

According to the State of Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), the Commissioner must receive a grade change request in writing prior to the beginning of the student count period for the fiscal year (September 29, 2025) for the school to be considered for funding for those students.

The board voted unanimously in favor of the configuration change.

The next MSBSD school board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15 at the MSBSD Administrative Building in Palmer.