School board members critical of Borough Assembly on various issues

PALMER — Now that the Mat-Su Borough Assembly has indefinitely postponed a proposed boroughwide sales tax to help fund education, the borough school district is now focused on what direction both bodies will take. At the board’s Wednesday meeting, district superintendent Monica Goyette gave a brief update as to where things stand.

Goyette said the district’s school tax committee, along with herself and Assistant Superintendent Luke Fulp recently met with borough manager John Moosey and borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos. She said one of the takeaways from that session was that there has been a move from the way money is spent to the quality of education delivered. Goyette said the focus will be on explaining how the district spends money and how it is organized in comparison to other districts — in particular, the state’s comparable districts.

Goyette said one of the things discussed at the joint meeting was an external review of district operations, led by the borough with district input. Bullet points would include how the MSBSD administrative hierarchy compares to other Alaska districts, and what would be adequate borough funding compared with state counterparts. The superintendent said the review would be independent of both the assembly and the district.

Goyette said further discussion on a possible review is on the agenda for the joint school board-assembly meeting of Sept. 12. She said the district feels it is prudent with its finances and welcomes such a review. If things go as anticipated, Goyette said a complete and full report could be available in December and at that point, the joint committee could move forward.

Board member Ole Larson questioned on who will pay for the study. He said he approves of it but questioned why the assembly wanted it independent and separate even though the district is part of the borough government structure. Larson also took the opportunity to chastise the assembly at Tuesday evening’s public hearing on the proposed sales tax issue.

Larson said district employees are also borough employees and the fact that the assembly “…sat up there for 2.5 hours (of public comment) and allowed the public to beat up on our school staff without any defense…was pretty deplorable. It was shameful.”

Later in the meeting, fellow board member Ray Michaelson also expressed his concerns with the assembly.

“What will it take?” Michaelson asked, adding that if borough roads were full of potholes, the assembly would approve funding to fix them. He said members wouldn’t do a study to compare the costs between Alaska and California. “I’m very interested in what it is they are looking at that we haven’t given them over the years…I look forward to moving ahead and being a positive participant in the process.”

Goyette said she feels that the district has been quite clear with its needs, adding she felt there are some assembly members still sharing misinformation on the district’s need for additional revenues. Despite dealing with cuts made to balance the new school year’s budget, the superintendent said the district is in great shape and, in general, is celebrating a great start.

Reese Everett, assistant superintendent for education and instruction, started out the meeting with a board-requested district harassment and bullying policy review. Most noteworthy was the district’s use of Gaggle, a component of Google. He explained all students access school-related materials through a school-provided Gmail email account.

Gaggle uses algorithms and 24/7 staff to monitor those emails regardless of when, and from where, they are sent. Everett said the program improves student safety by having a trained team review student content round-the-clock; detects issues early and alerts district officials at any hour of a threat is imminent; allows administrators and law enforcement to review communications considered threatening; contacts local law enforcement district contacts are unreachable; registers child pornography incidents and sexually explicit messages to potential children exploitation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Everett said all email communication transmitted through district-issued accounts is monitored. Goyette added that topic is something the district grappled with five or six years ago. She said a lot of harassment occurs through social media, adding the district does not want get involved in policing students outside of school. She said the Gaggle system is a key part of the district’s total response to harassment and bullying of students.

Everett also reviewed other preventative measures. At the elementary level, items include a positive action curriculum, class meetings, Capture Kids’ Hearts (CKH) program, and trauma-informed staff training. To date, Everett said 15 schools district-wide are trained with the latter. Middle school staff utilizes those tools at the elementary level and and health curriculum, and “positive action” training. High school incorporates all the previous, plus teen leadership classes for all freshmen.

Everett said although work on the topic is never done, the district seems to be on the right track. Over the past three school years, Everett said the number of reported bullying cases dropped from 450 to 284, a 37-percent drop over the timeframe.

“It is highly encouraging but obviously there is work to be done,” said Everett.

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com