The Ketchikan Gateway School Board accepted former School Board President Michelle O’Brien’s March 13 resignation and began the process to fill a vacancy at its regular Wednesday night meeting.
As laid out in board bylaw 9223, the School Board is to advertise the vacancy, accept applications, publicize applicant names before interviewing and appointing someone to the seat during a future public meeting. The School Board also re-elected officers.
Katherine Tatsuda was elected School Board president; Jordan Tabb was re-elected to vice president and Tom Heutte was elected to be School Board clerk/treasurer.
The board also voted unanimously to appoint someone at its April 23 meeting following a timeline recommendation from the School District.
Tatsuda said that the seat vacated by Keenan Sanderson, who resigned over the weekend, is also scheduled to be filled at the April 23 meeting.
Applications for the two School Board vacancies are available by calling or emailing the School Board Clerk Chloe Hall.
The School Board also unanimously approved a contract with the Association of Alaska School Board for help finding a new Superintendent.
According to Superintendent Michael Robbins’ March 17 letter of resignation, his last day will be June 30.
The contract costs at least $14,970 and covers a four-step process, that an AASB representative told the School Board includes determining desired skills, attributes and characteristics in a superintendent candidate, a recruiting process on a special hiring platform and database as well as any additional channels requested by the School Board, interview support in which additional costs for fly outs could be incurred and an initial and facilitated meeting between School Board members and the selected superintendent candidate.
The School Board has previously contracted with AASB to find eligible superintendent candidates in 2021 for at least $12,500, according to an archived agenda and recording of May and December 2021 meetings.
Tabb said that he served on the School Board for the last superintendent search and that he found AASB “very, very helpful.”
“So I felt very confident going through that process that we had the best information, the best process, and as well as when we got to the final stage of bringing in finalists to do site visits, they coordinated with our team to run a local meeting,” Tabb said. “We had great community input; we had great input from all levels of staff. I felt this was very well run. And I will point out, as people look at the cost and say, ‘Oh, $15,000 like, that's a chunk of money,’ I would suggest that it would probably cost us 10 times more to negotiate an exit one way or another with a candidate that we hired and then did not wish to retain.”
School Board Member Ali Ginter said that she said “ouch” when she first saw the price tag but after speaking with a former School Board member that she supported contracting with AASB.
The School Board also unanimously approved a preparatory “Reduction in Force” plan that could lay off non-tenured teachers lacking a Professional Alaska Teaching Certificate and additional tenured and non-tenured positions based on program needs, should it face a $5.8 million deficit.
According to the agenda item, the administration recommended that the School Board adopt the proposed RIF so that the “necessary framework and authority to implement reductions if required” is in place.
Robbins said that the reason for a RIF plan is “to make sure that we have something to cover us,” should the School Board decide to make different or further budgetary cuts later in the budgeting process beyond specialization or if Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoes an additional one-time school funding increase.
As of Wednesday night, Robbins said that he doesn’t believe the RIF will be necessary at this time.
Ginter asked about specific numbers of cuts and Robbins said that some of those decisions could be within the purview of the School Board to decide once the School District has more information, like anticipated health care costs. The School Board does not have the authority to hire and fire specific teachers.
The School Board also unanimously approved a lease agreement for student Chromebook and staff laptop software called VMware, a digital cloud security service.
The agenda item says that the contract is for a “three-year spending program,” specifically “additional spending authorization of annual $55,000 to the original overall not-to-exceed three-year lease agreement price of $165,000.”
Robbins explained that the software is essential and that the contract is necessary to mitigate increased pricing after the original software provider company was bought out.
Board members also discussed creating a health care task force, an alternate school structure plan for the upcoming school year, media outreach and communication practices and “Indian policies and procedures” outlined in board policy 6174.10.
The health care task force is part of negotiating an agreement with represented staff every three years and would be tasked with examining future plan costs and benefits.
The School Board anticipates assembling a task force in May or June to begin the process.
Robbins also updated the School Board on numbers associated with multi-age or split-grade classrooms and said that the district estimated it could save about $650,000 and that classes could consist of 20 to 26 students.
Including the cutting of one library, one physical education, and a few secondary-level teacher positions, the district estimated that this plan could cut a total of around $1.3 million but that there are other variables to consider like potential health care costs and health care debt owed to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.
Ginter requested to see hard numbers on paper and to have a deeper discussion about it with more details.
Robbins said he would speak with the School District business manager about pulling numbers and additional details together.
The School Board also discussed collaborating with local radio stations, performing more social media outreach, and giving reports to Native education organizations in an attempt to improve the body’s communication with the community.
Board members also agreed to let the body’s Native Education Committee examine and suggest policy changes to the potentially outdated board policy 6174.10 regarding “Indian policies and procedures.”
The School Board passed in first reading six policy updates.
According to the revised policies found on the agenda, students and their families could still be expected to pay back the cost associated with replacing materials should an item be severely damaged and the School District asks, but there would be no administrative hold on their records for failure to pay.
Other modified policies attached to the agenda item could require background checks for all volunteers selected to work with students for four or more hours as well as modernizing language within bus and student wellness policies.
Board members also discussed setting two extra meetings in April with dates to be confirmed later.