MSBSD school board assigns committee members, discusses addition of school day

Now that all of the Matanuska Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) school board seats are filled and a new President and Vice-President have been selected, it was time for the board to decide committee assignments.

In accordance with Board Policy 9130, Board Committees, the school board may establish committees of the Board as deemed necessary. The Membership of these committees is limited to less than a majority of the whole Board, or three Members. The Board believes each Member has value to add to committees and encourages all Members to participate in at least one committee.

For the Joint Borough Assembly/District School Board Committee on school issues, members Ole Larson, board Vice-President Kathy McCollum, and the newest member, Pitcher. According to MSBSD documents, the committee meets at noon the first Monday of February, May, August, and November.

Members selected for the Borough Area School Site Selection committee were Tom Bergey and Ted Swanson, and for the Mat-Su School Central Academy Advisory committee, President Jubilee Underwood was tagged.

For the School Board Policy Committee, members Larson and McCollum retain their position and Brooks Pitcher, who was selected by the school board earlier in December to replace Jacob Butcher after he resigned in November, was selected to the committee, which, unlike the joint MSB assembly/school board meeting, which has posted their meetings, has come under scrutiny for lack of public notification for their meetings. There is currently no public calendar for their meetings.

For the last committee, the curriculum committee, McCollum was tapped to take on that assignment.

In accordance with BP 9130, committees may actively seek input and participation by parents/guardians, staff, community and students, and may consult with local public Boards and agencies. Committees shall act in an advisory capacity, making recommendations to the Board. No committee action shall be binding on the full Board. The Board as a whole shall have the final consideration in all matters.

Committee meetings are subject to the state open meetings act.

The school board also moved to revise the current 2023/2024 school calendar, which would add a school day to the end of school year and an additional work day for teachers. The additional school day would make up for a snow day that took place November 21, in which there was no remote learning day and students were not in session.

“We are needing and recommending to account for a makeup day to accommodate this. We are recommending that the school calendar be extended by one day for students. Previously, the last day of school was May 23, and we’re proposing that that day be moved to May 24. Teachers would have their end-of-year workday on May 28,” said Associate Superintendent Katie Gardner.

“In addition to accommodating the additional requirements of the Alaska Reads Act and the extensive conversations that need to happen for teachers and parents in regards to their individual reading plans, the administration is proposing that February 12 be converted from student contact day to a professional learning day.”

Gardner further explained why this is a needed move, saying:

“We are designating this as a professional learning day so that secondary schools who may not need the time for conferences, can instead support professional learning that will be planned for their school. And elementary schools who need to have communication with their families regarding the individual education plans and the progress on those plans will be able to do that.”

She also said they are proposing on March 19 to begin an hour later, later akin to the Professional Learning Community (PLC) Monday program already in place, allowing schools impacted by the upcoming Arctic Winter Games, and turned into villages to house the athletes, to have an hour in the morning for team time.

Several schools in the Mat-Su are set to be converted into ‘villages’ for the expected 2000 athletes coming to participate in the Arctic Winter Games, taking place while schools are on spring break, slated from March 7-19, 2024.

“This is to make sure that teachers are prepared, classes are set up and technology is working.”

Member Larson pointed out that it seemed odd to take away a professional learning day, yet add one to the students’ school calendar for a snow day. He also mentioned that previously, when adding the extra school day is added at the end of the school year, it has not gone well in the past.

“People are generally scattered to the wind, including students. I don’t know how many students you will actually have…in the past, we have asked for forgiveness for snow days, and I don’t think we have ever not been granted a snow day forgiveness.” He went on to press for the administration to ask for forgiveness of the snow day with the state Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), Gardner said it wasn’t the administration’s recommendation to ask, but would if the school board preferred to pursue that option, they would make the request.

“I don’t see it working at all, people coming in after a holiday at the end of the school year.”

He also suggested perhaps instead of adding a full day to the calendar, instead adding a half hour at the beginning or end of the day for teachers to make up the missed time.

Larson also asked for reports on what schools are doing on the professional learning days in February and April, as well as the workdays in March and encouraged the administrative staff to visit the work sites and observe what is happening on professional learning days.

“I have similar concerns about adding a workday after a holiday. I think that will not be very popular,” said member McCollum, who suggested instead swapping the professional learning day set aside in April, and making that a day for the students to make up the snow day.

“As I understand it, the Professional Learning Day in April is very important to elementary teachers to prepare for the coming school year. They are doing a lot of dialogues on that day, and I also believe that they are working heavily on their individual reading plans for those early primary grades,” said Gardner. She went on to say that it is not the ideal scenario and worked to avoid that from happening when originally planning the school calendar

“These kinds of extensions are a result of snow days that aren’t remote learning days. We had limited flexibility in those end-of-the-calendar days.”

Schools are required to have a minimum of 170 days of school, or 900 hours of session time, and according to Gardner’s numbers, she told the board that MSBSD is well above the 900-hour minimum. She went on to say that in the past, DEED has not always been willing to forgive snow days when the district has asked in the past, specifically during the windstorms in the past few years that left schools and residents without power.

“We’ve had to get creative in figuring out how to make up student time as well as staff time.”

Ultimately, the discussion was tabled until the January 17, 2024 school board meeting.