Good morning. I'd like to call the first meeting of the House Finance Education Subcommittee
to order. It is now 8-0.
2 AM February 4th, 2026, in the Betty Davis Capital Room 106.
Members present are, on my right I have Representative Eyshard.
Representative Underwood, co-chair of the Education Committee, representative Hymn Shoot.
Now on the left I had co chair of The Education committee,
representative Story, Representative Schwonke,
And we also have President with us, Representative Moore,
who joins us as the minority member from the Finance Committee.
Thank you for being here, all of you.
And myself, representative Galvin, Chair of the House Education Subcommittee.
Let the record reflect that we can proceed even without a quorum.
But today I'm so grateful we have all us present.
So please also take your time.
We have quite a few here in the room.
so that we can hear everyone, and I especially want to thank Jude Augustine.
I appreciate you being here from the Juno-LIO for moderating the committee today.
I see online, we also have several with us that I'm grateful to have.
Commissioner Dina Bishop is here, Deputy Commissioner Karen Morrison,
Administrative Services Director Don Hanish is just here as well.
from my office and before we get started I want to remind everyone the purpose of this
finance subcommittee is as the same as it is for all subcommittees in the whole building and that
is to take a close first look at the governor's budget department by department to better understand
On page 24 of the Governor's budget book, The Mission of The Department,
is to provide financial support to Alaska's public schools.
The subcommittee members have binders with, and it's a pretty thick one in this, in
this subcommittee, And in that, the binderers help us have information
specific to the Department of Education and Early Development budget.
These documents, along with today's presentation, can be found on basis.
As such, all committee members should find a key performance indicator document with additional detail and analysis under the missions measure section of their binders.
So today, I'm very grateful that we have from the Commissioner of the Department of Education and Early Development.
Dr. Dean of Bishop is present.
I think though coming to the dais, we will have Deputy Commissioner Kelly Manning and
Administrative Services Director Don Hanish, who will be presenting an overview of the fiscal
year 2027 budget requests and provide a status update on the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Deputy Commissioner Manning and
Hanish I see you're already here. Thank you for being here and like I mentioned commission of bishop is online and
We're going to
Take a brief at ease
Well, well all of us break at 9 a.m. After this presentation
And then we're going to hear, again, from Deputy
Connector of the Innovation and Education Excellence,
Kelly Manning, along with Division Director of Innovation
and Educational Excellence Monica Goyette, on an update
on the department's teacher recruitment and retention
initiatives.
Deputy Commissioner Manning and Director Hanish,
thank you for being here.
Please put yourself on their record
and begin your presentation.
Good morning. Thank you for the record. My name is Karen Morrison and I serve as the Deputy
Commissioner for The Department of Education. Good Morning.
My Name is Don Hanish and i am the Administrative Services Director for
The department of education and early development.
Fantastic and for the members present in order for us to expedite this meeting in a timely way
I'm asking for
Us to please write down our questions and tell around slide 16 when we'll break for questions
And then we will break again at the end of the presentation
Chair Galvin, I don't think our presentation is up on the on
The board. Thank you. We will have an brief at ease and we're fix that immediately
like we're set to go please begin your presentation.
Again for the record I'm Don Hanish administrative services director
for The Department of Education Early Development and I believe that we have commissioner Dina Bishop
online who will begin our presentation for us this morning.
Chair Galvin and members of the House Finance Education and Early Development Subcommittee.
It's wonderful to be able to, I see you online, and it's
wonderful be to speak with you from the room.
I regret not being able be in Juneau.
The department did have a reduction of 50% in travel, so we're just conserving it and
you are in good hands with the folks in the
room this week.
And if you need any follow-up, we'll be present in
Juneo next week
We're going to go ahead and start, but for the record again, Dean of Bishop, I have
the pleasure of serving as the Commissioner of Education for
the Department of education and early development.
On the first slide, you'll see the mission, vision, and purpose.
And we'd like to start with this, and I always like
to point out my favorite, which is the vision,
because what our schools do every day and our teachers
is really the visions of what students can
and will be when they leave us.
So we have a vision that they will
be effective and improve in character and quality
in the world about them.
On the next slide, just sharing the statutory
duty of the department, of course,
Statute 1403-10 is establishment of the school system,
but in chapter seven, you'll see the administration
of public schools really defines
the state board of education's role, staffing,
as well as the commissioner.
The duties of department are simple,
just exercising general supervision
over public school in the State,
except for, of course, the University of Alaska.
On the next slide, Alaska's education challenge.
highly familiar with Alaska's education challenge and in that we have five shared
strategic priorities that really was a statewide effort of input into what do we
want for our young people of Alaska when they leave our public schools.
And just recently, the board did reaffirm these as priorities and have charged the department
and will be working in their subcommittee to create smart goals for each of these for the next
two years. So more to come and we're going to be delighted to share the legislative report with you
on the updates thus far and the accomplishments and work yet to
Again, I'm going to turn it over when we hit the agenda here to our administrative services
director.
But I am here as we move through this and the committee has questions.
Chair Galvin, you mentioned the status of 2026.
I�m happy to share as well as looking forward.
There are capable folks in the room, so I will tackle it at 30,000 foot view and if
I will redirect it to those that have the detail of the program.
Once again, thank you for the opportunity to share the deed budget as we move forward.
So back to the room, please.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Again, for the record, my name is Dawn Hanish, Administrative Services Director for The Department
of Education and Early Development.
And on this slide here, we have our agenda.
So we're going to start our presentation today with a brief organizational overview, then
walk through the department's financial summary, division level funding, average daily membership
Here we have our acronyms, which I have hopefully not missed any that are in the presentation today
But if I do, please let me know
So the department is overseen by the Alaska State Board of Education and led by Commissioner Dina Bishop as you can see in our
Organizational chart there are five separate divisions four of which are overseen
By Deputy Commissioner Karen Morris Morris, excuse me
In addition, Deed provides administrative service and support to three independent commissions and boards.
Sorry, sorry, I hit the wrong button. My notes just kind of went crazy. Excuse me for a moment.
We'll take a brief eddies. No problem.
We're back on the record, and if you would please, again, announce who is speaking them.
Yes.
For the Record, my name is Dawn Hanish.
I'm the Administrative Services Director for the Department of Education and Early Development.
So this slide is a continuation of the Apartments Organization and is specific to the Commission
and Boards Program.
So actually, I am a slide ahead, so that one's good.
So you can see each of their components that falls under each the executive directors that
programs. If you want, we can go back to that other one maybe.
So this slide is a picture of how services and supports are organized within each division
within the Department of Education and Early Development.
The Governor's Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget for the department of education and
totals approximately $1.79 billion.
The proposal reflects a decrease
in unrestricted general funds
between fiscal year 2025 actuals
at a 3.1% reduction
and 1.8%
reduction from the fiscal
year 2026 management plan.
The proposed budget fully funds the K through 12 foundation program at approximately 1.27 billion dollars
consistent with statutory requirements in addition the pupil transportation program is
statutorily funded
At 72.8 million dollars the budget includes
$1000 in funding from dividend donations to the dividend raffle fund distributed to districts per the statutory formula formula.
It also adds $771,000 to support a new residential school program in the Lake and Peninsula School District.
Expanding access to statewide residential learning.
The department has 10 permanent.
As of December 2025, the department has 37 vacancies which puts the vacancy rate at 18.5.
The increase you see in permanent full-time positions is attributed to the three positions
This slide provides a visual overview of how funding is distributed within the department.
The expenditures pie chart on the left illustrates how a significant portion of funding
is distributioned through grants to support public education across Alaska.
The division pie charts shows how fund is allocated across the departments major divisions.
The K-12 portion represents average daily membership driven formula funding.
This next slide is the Executive Administration with Indeed, which includes the State Board of Education, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner,
the Office of Educational Advocacy, The Legislative Liaison, and other support staff.
The Executive Administrative Compoment of Deed receives funding from the UGF and IA,
which is Interagency Receipts.
of the commissioner's office provided department wide.
The governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 is $1,886,000
and includes eight permanent full-time positions.
I would like to now invite Division Director Heather Heineken
to come and present the next four slides.
Ms. Heineken, if you will, please put your name on the record and proceed.
Excuse me, good morning.
My name is Heather Heinemken and I'm the Director of Finance and Support Services for the Department of Education.
And as the Division Director for Finance Support services are
budget includes the funding for the foundation program for people transportation for
the main grants sent out to the K-12 education, which is about 88% of the overall budget for
this division. Next slide. And here we can see an increase, I'm sorry, the state aid
And one-time funding since 2006, you can see a small increase.
The red lines indicate the one time funding.
And then in 2026 with the BSA included in the statutory increase,
it is no longer identified outside separately.
the increase in the BSA you'll notice a small decline in 2027 and that's
due to a
Projected decline enrollment and on the next slide
you can see the ADM line associated with the
With the bsa and
It's I apologize the numbers are cut off a little bit
on the right there. So we have an overall decrease of about one percent, so a total
of 1500 students from FY26 to 27. And on that the next slide you'll see the break
and the correspondence schools, and there's been a continual increase in correspondence
and a small decline in the brick and mortar over the most recent years on average about
Between FY26 and 27, they are projecting for the first year
and several years a small decline in correspondence students.
So, but in the recent years, the increase has been on average
about 5% moving into the correspondence ADM, again,
with an overall decline with the total student projections.
Okay, thank you so much, and I will ask for a short break, if we may, from your presentation,
to allow us to ask questions up to this point.
So I would now ask four members who would like to asked questions regarding slides, one
through 16, If you would please signal, I'll make sure to reach out to you and keep a
cue.
Thank you, thank you for presentation here this morning. I was just wondering if you could expand on on the two things
I noticed a decline on slides
10 and 12 in
UGF it looks like in 10 it went down
25,000
Approximately and then I notice also kind of a steady decline in UGF dollars on Slides 12 as well
Do you have any?
Inside on that is that related to the decline and enrollment as?
Good morning. Again, for the record, my name is Dawn Hanish, administrative services director for
the Department of Education and through the chair to the representative. The decline that we see
in the UGF, I believe is your question. Yes. I don't have an exact answer for that,
but I'd be happy to gather some information from our budget team and get back to you with that.
follow-up please follow up please and then also
During the last couple of slides there. We were talking about some declines in enrollment of I think you said or she said
approximately 1500
Do we know where and why?
Commissioner Bishop would you like to address that question?
Thank you. This is Deena Bishop for the record,
Commissioner of Education.
And I believe the question, if I could restate it,
is the decline in enrollment.
Is that correct?
Yes, I was wondering where and why.
Sure. So we can provide that information to you,
it is interesting.
And we do have many of our larger cities.
seeing more of a decline and is actually happening statewide.
So many of our students are transitioning.
We get into either moving.
We still do have a slight growth in homes,
in some areas of state out of the larger cities.
But primarily, the trend has been into more flexible program,
such as correspondence.
So that that has been some of it over time just to share that and with that comes the
reduction in the funding as well, the general state aid because there's fewer dollars put
towards those students. However, we have a decline that we're seeing and we do know that in some
either private tribal schools and or other private schools.
So that's always in those larger urban areas.
Those opportunities many times do pull students away,
but primarily the overall ADM is generally a shift
from one program to another, demonstrating one in five
students now, their families.
are choosing the flexible models, primarily since the pandemic.
If I may, one more follow-up brief follow up. Yes, Representative Elon followup.
So are we looking at a total decline in ADM or a Total Decline in Headcount?
Through the chair to Representative Elam.
You know what, the ADM is given to, to provide it in regards to it could be part-time students
as well.
So we would have to go and define that for you.
But I would say that this does demonstrate a total head count giving that, this is the
first year that we do see a decline in both brick and mortar and in correspondence.
two schools, one in the Valley and one
in Anchorage, that did open up.
And I believe each has anywhere between 100 and 150 students.
So that can account for some of that actual loss
and headcount.
And the rest would be we would provide you
with average membership as opposed to that FTE as well.
Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate that and so we'll look forward to hearing with regard to both the
the reduction in UGF I think was at 3.1% and to
Have some analysis around that in addition to the Reduction and Indian and whatever information you can give us
For context that would be wonderful
representative him shoot
Thank you, Chair Galvin, and thank you to everyone in the department who's here and
Commissioner for being online.
I'll start on this slide.
We're on just as follow up to Rep.
Elam and we've lost 30,000 Alaskans across the state in
the last decade and that's going to show up in these numbers for sure.
But my question has to do with slide 12.
And so I think we have the right people at the table.
I just heard you mention the Office of Education Advocacy.
What is the investment in the Office of Education Advocacy?
How many folks work there?
And can you give us a sense of the volume of, I think it was
supposed to be like a call center to help the department be more
responsive to families with questions or something.
So what's that traffic been like?
Commissioner Bishop, would you like to take that question as well?
Thank you.
And for the records, once again, this is Dina Bishop, Commissioner of Education.
That's a great question.
And I wanted to share that the call volume across the department has been the same.
What we've done in the past, it would be basically directed through a telephone system
to a recording, and then someone would call back.
Office of Education Advocacy does is provide a one-stop call center.
We will be getting one technical support or admin support coming on.
job, just a clerical job to be able to support the phones, and then we have basically a coordinator
that actually is a principal, a former principal in the state of Alaska that supports, we've
received calls from school board members, We've received call from parents.
Teachers reach out and basically that person's job is to provide the service to drill down
where the need is so that we can resolve things as quickly as we
can.
So I would say that the volume is the same.
The response rate has increased so within 24 hours we make a touch to the person that
has inquired and begin resolving the issues according to, you know, this is your local
this is something that you can do.
We help them with their local policy,
redirect them to local policies,
and or if they're struggling understanding state law.
I would say about 20% continue to be
around special education services,
so we get them the experts in that category.
In so far as school board members calling, they really are asking and some of the problems
we've helped them resolve is what is the role of their board and what if the rules roll
at the state level in so for as curriculum or attendance and other issues.
Also, high volume, most likely, I would say over 20%,
if the last time I looked, was teacher certification,
where our teachers now have a certification process,
they can follow it online, but they double check and call,
especially whether it's idiosyncrasies with transfers
or universities, things like that.
So it is, two people, it had,
the funding was already presented in the department,
Deputy Director if you recall we did have to deputy or rather deputy commissioners
prior to
my tenure here and
What I did was really redirect an administrative person as the deputy commissioner to support this work in that function
And that's what's occurring now
Okay follow-up representative him shoot. Thank you commissioner through the chair
Very thorough response. I do have a couple more questions. One is when you say
approximately the same volume like I love the idea of improving
efficiency and effectiveness and being able to direct calls where they're most needed or being
able To answer a question kind of at a low level with the you know first touch, but
When you stay same, volume, I don't know how to quite measure that
It's not every call that comes to the department is handled by these two individuals, right? There's like a
Firewall's not the right word, but there's a frontline person answering and then redirecting.
So I'm just not sure you're going to be able to answer this,
but I am curious what the volume of calls is.
I mean, maybe it's quantified by number of call in a day.
I don't know if you have a way to answered that question.
For the record, this is Dina Bishop, and we can get you that quantifiable numbers.
I don't have it in front of me, but yes, we do track all calls and the type of calls
and a response time, so we will provide that in a follow-up if that's okay.
Yeah, follow up, co-chair Hymshoot.
Thank you, Chair Galvin.
Through the chair, my other question is still on this topic.
Do these folks redirect them to partner organizations like the Alaska Association of School Boards
and how, do they function somewhat as a clearing house as well if D doesn't have the answer,
are you utilizing partner organization to get answers to folks?
Yes, absolutely.
We want the people who are most engaged in the work to be able to support that.
Sometimes it's really requesting training.
That has been some of the calls from school board members as well, and we've redirected
them actually to AASB more specifically for that type of training, the department does
not do training on boards.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you chair Galvin through the the chair. I'm looking at slide 12 and
on executive administration
And I guess I am kind of curious about the history of the number of executive positions
I can just see you know essentially 2025 2026
I know there's been a call for school districts to reduce administration, I
know Anchorage school district has done that is taking some extensive strides
that way. So since I can't see the history here past 2025 has did done
anything similar where it's reduced its executive position and the context is
again the savings gone from get garnered from going from 9 to 8.
fairly significant for reducing one position.
So just a quick context on the history of
reducing administrative executive positions.
For the record, my name is Dawn Hanish,
Administrative Services Director for the Department
of Education and Early Development.
Through the chair, Representative Aishad.
Two positions have been removed
from the executive offices to support the tribal
native language program, so we were able to take those two positions, essentially, and move them
into a more appropriate role for those positions and also to support this program through the REITs Act.
Currently, the division has one executive secretary. We have our legislative liaison.
the special assistant to the commissioner those are really the support staff that are provided.
So I believe that the department has done a good job of really filing down in that division
to just the bare necessities.
Follow up. Follow-up. Just for a future reference I'd like to
I thought I heard the word removed, but then I hear the words moved.
So just if I could have a breakdown of that in the future, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank You Representative I should and I think if we could
have the department get back with us maybe for a look back 10 years,
five years and that would help us I appreciate.
I know that a lot of movement has happened and if you wouldn't.
wouldn't mind getting that to us that would be helpful I think for the whole
committee. Next in the queue I have representative Underwood.
Thank you Chair Galvin. Good morning. Thank
you for being here this morning I'm just kind of a clarifying question.
I did believe that I heard there was 37 vacancies in
the department. I was just wondering if you could clarify
what those positions are. How do you feel the
department is functioning without those
positions being filled right now? Do you foresee that possibly being
Yeah, for the record Don Hanish through the chair to the representative. We do have 37 vacancies
We are actively recruiting for a good majority of those positions
D to still providing services to school districts
We have no plans to eliminate any of these positions
It'll just really be dependent upon our budget for fiscal year 27
follow up and are you able to briefly let me know what types of positions those are and
what kind of difficulties you are for seeing filling those is it just budgetary you can't
fill them right now because the funds aren't there or just is that what the position entails
and requires just a little insight on that that'd be great thank you I believe that commissioner
Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Chair, to Representative Underwood. I would like to clarify that. So,
while we have 38 positions, we do not have funding for those positions. Those are positions
for which we had position control numbers, which in the state government says that you
have an employee you've been given approval.
However, the budget does not fund all of those positions.
I would say presently we have about 14 positions
that we are actively recruiting.
Many of these are a function of realignment
of the work that touches districts.
We have really worked through the Department of Innovation
Realign as positions have become open, the work that is, I guess if you will, not siloed
anymore, that really is collective among the supports of districts.
For instance, school accountability, education, ESSA, federal funding positions, as well as
the reading positions.
to the customer, which is that district level support
and school level supports.
So in our work to place those PCN's and positions
around the needs of districts,
we have taken time to do that.
And so we are actively right now have about 14 open positions.
The original number is the PCM which are not funded.
So, I hope that clarifies, but we will provide the detail of those data for you as well.
Thank you.
We're meeting needs of districts and at the goal is to actually increase that need in meeting districts by our organization.
Thank You, Commissioner.
And I think that we would appreciate understanding a bit about what the 14 actively that who you are actively recruiting for.
Particular FTEs will be doing.
And if there is no funding available in the budget, also to understand what that would take if you would help us.
Again, we're in our budget subcommittee and we want to help you to be successful.
There's nothing more important than helping you be to successful
This is our future. So please allow us to understand a little bit more about what you are doing and
And perhaps at the next meeting or the one there after we can have a
Little bit More insight for the whole committee to hear and I have
A few more here on in the queue we have representative Dibert and then we
Have representative Schwonke
Good morning. Thank you through the chair
I have a question back to the pie charts and my question is yes that one my
question
is the professional teaching practices commission it looks like it's very
teeny tiny amount of funding point zero two percent and can you as an
educator I think of this commission as
department, part of the department that helps us upkeep our training, our to maybe take
classes and credits for, you know, that go to our retaining our certificates. Can you
just tell me more about this slice of pie? Thank you.
Thank you. Through the chair to Representative Divers, that's a great question. The PTPC actually
serves the function for the Professional Teaching Practices Commission, which basically hears
the complaints and insofar as discipline, if you will, in regard to teacher certification
The actual training that you are speaking to really is carried through other functions
in the department.
The health and services provides the training needed for mandatory training.
The REEDS team through our organization of the virtual learning consortium also does
mandatory trainings and or courses that teachers can take for credit to be able to, you know,
gain those additional six years or six credits every five years.
So those functions are carried throughout the department in many different divisions.
As courses are available, the PTPC specifically is one funded position
with the PPPC board made up of Alaskans
that generally hear those complaints
and then basically make decisions
on certificated dismissals
and or removing certificates if you will
and, or other discipline items.
Thank you.
Good morning, Dr. Bishop.
Thank very much.
Next in the queue, we have Representative Schwanke.
Thank you chair Galvin through the chair commissioner bishop. I just have an initial
comment. I think it's something that everybody needs to be considering, especially when we look
at our enrollment declining is that there is a rise in virtual and cyber academies in other states
that are serving students nationwide. Just learned of a young man that I know actually that's attending
one of these schools. So it certainly is something we need to have on our radar. My question pertains
hiring freeze right now.
Can you help me understand what the process is
by which a commissioner goes through the hiring process
when there's a hiring-freeze?
Through the chair to Representative Flonke,
that's an excellent question.
We, as we present our positions that become fagant
from employees that we're doing to work,
we do make a request.
to the governor's office and articulate the need and the value of this program to continue
to work. And then we receive approval for that and then the physician can post. So insofar
as the freeze, basically what that entails is that each position is reviewed as a need
to carry out the functions of the department and or the, you know, priorities of a State
Board of Education.
Thank you, Chair Galvin.
I'm back on the slide we're on, number 11 with the pie charts.
My office has taken an interest in understanding how the state's doing and paying out grants on time.
funding goes out as grants. How is the department doing in getting those out? And I'm going to call
on time within 30 days. Is that is that a noable number? Through the chair to representative
Yes, within 30 days is our goal, and we have not had, we
have had a hiccup in the most recent CLSD grant, which is one
that we've heard from districts.
And that one really goes back to the first, it was the
first of its kind, a new grant under this new administration.
And at the time that that grant was provided with
right before an election. And then as the election took place, a lot of the changes that happened in the U.S.
that in transfer really slowed down the process from our guidance at that level.
And we were highly critical of making sure that as we provided these grants,
since it was written under one administration and given it another, that we
were going to receive the funds.
Just as a background, if you will, that IMLS,
if can remember, you know, through our libraries,
we were really worried about that.
And so it did take a little time for our staff.
to get that, you know, up and running and get
that technical assistance to know
that this grant is moving through
and we will really have success in paying that out.
We are, the goal is within 30 days.
We haven't had really complaints in so far
as any of our federal programs are COVID funds.
They were really specific to the CLSD,
but now that we are up
and run, there should not be any difficulties.
Again, it was really the timing of this moving into the next fiscal year.
Thank you.
Follow-up representative Hymshoot.
Thank You.
And thank you, Commissioner Bishop.
I really appreciate the context around your answer.
My other question has to do with just a procedural thing, because I just simply don't know.
Does the department, and this may be true for all departments, I don t know how these
things work.
Does the department wait until the funding is in hand to open the application period
or do you proactively, like if you're told, yes, you've received this award,
do open application periods even before the funds are in-hand?
I hope that's not too far out of left field for you.
Thank you, through the chair, to Representative Hibshit. No.
Once we, especially, that's a great question.
On the grants that are provided every year,
through an appropriation by the federal government,
such as ESEA title programs, those massive grants that we receive.
We absolutely, once we know what is funded, that is opened up because we have an assurance
of that fund.
But if you recall this particular competitive grant, during this time, the competitive grants
were really reviewed another time.
And so now that, we now, if we received information, basically every year, even on competitive
go back. They said we're getting 50 million particularly for this one. You
receive a continuation that you've met the mark for the first year you're going
to get a Continuation. Once we receive that approval for Continuation those funds
and we know we are guaranteed by the federal government those
funds will be provided. The difference would be for competitive grants.
and to ensure that the federal government isn't going
to pull anything back through any kind of grant processes.
We would hate for districts to expend money
or the state to spend money without that being backfilled
if there wasn't a plan B there.
But for entitlement grants, which are those major federal programs, absolutely, once the
confirmation is there from Congress, we begin to expend those.
Competitive grants do operate differently because we have to ensure that really we're
meeting the mark on those so they're not pulled back.
One more follow-up.
Representative Hymshoot.
Thank you, Chair Galvin.
Well, I forgot the one question, but I'll go ahead and ask the other one on the PTPC. I
Wanted to follow up on that one as well. That's
DGF right it's PT PC 100% funded by
Teaching certificates or is there some UGF that goes into that and maybe I think of my other question
Maybe maybe care more
Yeah, I'm happy to answer that Don Hanish for the record through the chair
Representative they have a combination of ugf and dgF in their funding and we do have
A slide just a little bit further down the line where I can go ahead and show you the exact numbers if that would be
Appropriate for you. Thank you, thank you did you have any other follow-up? I did but it went out of my head. So representative underwood, please
Oh, no
Great, so we will now please proceed
I apologize. I also have co-chair story in the queue and somehow I had checked her off when she had not had a turn, representative story.
Yes, thank you, Chair Galvin, and welcome to everyone with the department. We really appreciate your work with our students and families.
A couple of my questions were answered about the vacancy rates and
Commissioner, I thought you had pretty detailed
explanation to rep elum about our population decline in our schools and
options and I think I know when I went to southeast conference one of the
biggest things they their number one priority is to keep our younger people
here and we have had an out migration it's been happening and i think it is
really important to note that
It's part of the explanation for why we're seeing down. We've had quite a few families move out of Alaska
My question had to do with
the position
That we exchanged last year and it was part
of rep
Aisheid's question
Last year the Department of Commerce and Community and Economic Development transferred the Council of Alaskan native languages
over to the Department of Education.
It was like a half a position.
And I really am hoping we're gonna get an update
and how that went.
That was part of the bill that I carried last year.
And so, thank you for.
Dr. thank you for rep eyeshide for reminding me that I had meant to ask about that and you
don't need to you know answer it right now but I'm sure that's part of the answer to
the question rep I shite asked you really curious about how that is going.
Thank you.
Thank You co-chair story and so at this point I would ask us to please proceed with slide
For the record, Don Hanish, our next slide features the Division of Administrative Services.
This division provides critical internal services to the department, including grant administration, procurement,
IT, human resources, and fiscal services.
The division has managed the Department's leases and facilities as well.
The governor's proposed budget provides $6,204,000 in funding for this division.
The decrease is in IA, which is the authority to collect,
which was at $1.5 million.
We requested to have that lowered because it was unused.
We didn't need that much authority any longer.
The increase in permanent full-time positions is again related to the three positions that Deed will receive from shared services of Alaska.
Slide 18, the fiscal year 24 governor's budget puts IE at 207,000,
sorry, $711, 000 in funding, reflecting increased funding in UGF.
DGF and federal funding. Currently the division has 74 permanent full-time positions and again
is recruiting. To strengthen tribal engagement and implementation of the Alaska Reads Act,
two positions were transferred to the student and school achievement component aligning policy
The student and school achievement component also includes nine federally funded non-permanent positions supporting the five year CLSD grant.
Mental health trust funding continues to support deeds, positive behavior interventions and supports, which is the PBIS initiative prioritizing rule and remote districts.
Division, Deputy Director, Kelly Manning, to come and speak about the teacher retention
and recruitment.
Good morning for the record.
Kelly Manning, deputy director for The Division of Innovation and Education Excellence.
For FY26, we did have a decrement of $1,010,000 for teacher retention and recruitment.
We did focus in looking at how to address that decrements on district-directed resources.
federal funding to support our teacher and principal registered apprenticeship
work. And we also have targeted some funds towards working with the Institute
of Social and Economic Research to conduct the teacher exit and stay
survey and that opened this week. So we are conducting that survey, and we'll be
collecting that information which will help districts in
making informed decisions around teacher retention and recruitment.
So that's how we've targeted our resources to continue moving forward with projects where we could.
We did have to eliminate some contracts and redirect some funds that we're going towards other projects in order to
continue carrying forward our teacher, retention, recruitment activities.
Slide 20, thank you so much, Ms. Manning.
If you would please put yourself on the record again and proceed. Thank you. Yes.
Thank You chair. It pardon me. I have one question before we do that from co-chair story
Thank you, Chair Galvin. I was just trying to clarify where we're supposed to ask the questions at the time
Because I did have some questions on teacher retention recruitment or did you want to go through this whole section?
And then pause again
I forgot to have yeah
Thank You so much for asking and I'm hoping that we can
Because we have about six minutes.
I would like to proceed through
this presentation and then
We can pause for questions. At that point or wait for the next section, which is
on recruitment and retention, primarily.
So it's up to you, but there may be a few minutes
before the next section as well.
Thank you Coach Estori.
For the record, Don Hanish,
Administrative Services Director
for the Department of Education and Early Development.
So this slide here reflects an overview
of the Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums.
This proposed budget will see a reduction in the division's IA, which is actually just a
reduction and spending authority, much like the Division of Administrative Services.
That was no longer needed.
The division currently has 48 full-time positions and one non-permanent position.
For the slide that we have before you on Mount Edgecombe High School, I will turn this
Actually, this is Commissioner Bishop for the record and John can go over the financials
and if there were any questions in regard to Mount Edgka, I wanted to share that we
will be before you next Wednesday, but I could also answer questions
in that manner.
Absolutely for the record, Don Hanish.
Bounded comes budget is proposed to be $16,891,000
with slight increases to UGF and federal funding.
They are slated to have the same amount of positions,
so they'll have 10 permanent part-time positions
and then 44 permanent full- time positions
non-permanent positions.
Thank you, priest Poshseid.
Slide 22.
The Alaska State Council on the Arts. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry.
I skipped over PTPC.
So again, here we can see the division between the designated general funds and
prior and again as the commissioner stated this division has one full-time staff member.
The Alaska State Council on the Arts receives updated general fund authority based on license
which is projected to be at $80,000 and increased federal funding for the Arts Health and Wellbeing Program.
This portion of the Governor's proposed budget, reauthorized existing receipt authority for license plate revenues,
aligns the authority with updated revenue projections, and ensures the Alaska State Council on the arts can expend revenue that is collected.
The proposed budget would see a slight increase in the council's UGF and federal funding.
That federal fund is reflected in a national endowment.
This section has five permanent full time positions and one non-permanent position.
a $3.29 million increment from the Higher Education Investment Fund to support Alaska's
Performance Scholarship and APS Step-Up Awards for the 27-28 academic year. This reflects
record increases in eligibility and usage following the enactment of House Bill 148 in 2024.
In accordance with AS14.43.915C,
a corresponding $1.6 million increment
for the Alaska Education Grant is also funded
to maintain the statutory two-thirds APS
and one-third AEG funding structure.
Both increments utilize the full 7% of the funding cap.
Although the governor's budget proposed an increase in DGF of just over $5 million,
the commission has permanent positions which would remain at 49 and two non-permanent positions.
So here we have a high level of the budget changes for fiscal year 27.
K-12 funding formulas are fully funded based on statutory calculations, new residential
school program for Bristol Bay Regional Career and Technical Education Consortium, trauma
engaged schools positive behavior interventions and support coaching, increased federal authority
increase for the Alaska Performance Scholarship Award and Alaska Education Grant through strategic
investments and thoughtful alignment of resources. The fiscal year 2027 governor's budget reinforces
Alaska's enduring commitment to students, families, and educators by fully funding foundation
access to residential and tribal education and supporting mental health literacy and broadband
equity.
This budget ensures that every student regardless of geography or background has the opportunity
to thrive.
These investments reflect our shared belief in that education is the cornerstone of a strong
future for Alaska.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the presentation and I do have a couple of questions before we take a break and
Move on to the next presentation
Firstly, we have co-chair him shoot and next in the line. We have
representative Schwonke
Thank You chair Galvin to try to make this go fast.
I'm just gonna put everything out there and maybe we can
to simply answer all my questions.
So the first thing I wanted to comment on was on slide 23,
ACSA, I just recently learned we are in the 60th year
of the Council on the Arts,
and I want to celebrate that commitment to the arts
in this state to me speaks volumes to who we
are as Alaskans.
On slide 22, my question is,
how often is PTPC meeting in person?
I served on PT PC, our meetings were all in-person,
things have changed.
And it may work just fine to be online.
I just don't know.
And so I'm curious if meetings are now held in person online,
hybrid, how that's going, just a quick update on that.
And then on slide 21, there's a slight increase
to Mount Edgcombe.
Is that due to changes in a collective bargaining agreement
somewhere or what's making that change?
On slide 18, I don t remember what s on 18.
I did hear with the State Board of Education and fully support the idea of a state led blue ribbon program.
My question is, is that in the works from the department?
Is there support needed through legislation?
Maybe that's an offline conversation, but I hate to see that program go away because it celebrates the things that we're doing best.
And then my final question, an overall question.
From all accounts, did an excellent job of responding to ex-Tifun Halong and the emergency
of trying to relocate extremely traumatized children into new and different schools.
I'm so grateful to the department for what they did.
I don't know where this might fit or how we might bring this up.
Maybe it's through budget, maybe it is another hearing.
My question is, what worked for you?
How can we make sure that we're prepared
for that kind of thing again?
And is my understanding correct that it went smoothly
because you guys seem to really just handle it
on top of everything else you have going on?
So I welcome a conversation around that
and maybe that comes from our side to figure out
a specific time if you think there's enough material there
for us to go a little deeper.
So, I don't know if any part of that
is something you want to respond to right now.
Think we had about six questions in there and so if you wanted to touch it, it's okay
There there may be an easy ones they can check off
Right now
Go ahead, please.
Through Chair Galvin, to Representative Hymnchute
for the record, this is Karen Morrison.
To address a few of the questions
that I can actually address,
PTPC is currently meeting virtually this year.
And because as you see from the slide,
it's a very small budget.
I do believe it is going well,
but I will follow up with feedback on that.
Your question about Mount Edge come,
there was a new negotiated agreement
last year so it's effective for fiscal 26 but also Mount Edgecome is doing a
really great job with leveraging their federal funds. They were one of the
awardees for the CLSD grant and also we're just trying to look at every
funding opportunity for Mount edgecome.
State led Blue Ribbon program and that was discussed at the last state board meeting
and I do believe that there is movement forward to support that program by the
state Board and with the Department.
Dean typhoon along the response was very well received by districts we were very
proactive I
call out both Commissioner Bishop and Director Heinegan,
who were on the phone with districts right away and really trying to provide the support.
We've also received a lot of support from other departments within the state.
So it's really been a collective collaboration of
support for the students and the families.
And just as a quick follow-up comment, I think.
Representative Hymn-Chu.
It's really important for the state to recognize that this was a statewide emergency.
And so I'm grateful to the department for all that you did.
And we'll see if we need to talk more about it.
Thank you.
Thank-you and I, given that I have the.
The pleasure of the chair, I also wanted to comment that I'm very grateful for all of
the intake that Anchorage was able to do.
I really want to call out the Anchorage school district, which took in an enormous amount
of students in a day and tried to arrange for every sibling to stay in the same grouping.
All the languages to staying the the say grouping, there I was so fortunate to be able
incredible, very fast response so that these children were not
Left during the day without an opportunity for learning and being together and I just I do I'm so grateful that you called this out
It is a statewide issue and in the case of this particular one
I am grateful
That the large school district was able to open its arms and fully embrace the families
Who were able join the school dish and there's some many are still there so and and they are it's a pleasure
to go and see all of these students who are so engaged
and actually I think they're teaching Anchorage a few things.
That's pretty exciting to see.
We still have three in the queue presently,
so I want to make sure to get to Representative Schwanke.
Then we have Co-chair Story and Representative Dibert,
and then we are going to break.
Representative Schwonke, please.
Thank you through the chair.
I want to come back to residential school funding a little bit, we just covered the importance of
Mountage Come and the increases that went into trying to maintain functions in that school.
Also in the governor's budget there's a fairly large increment for residential
school reimbursement like a pen. What's not in
the Governor's Budget this year is any
One time funding, again, for our other residential schools.
So I'd like to highlight very quickly that the per pupil stipend for
residential school is operated around the state has not increased since FY 15.
And unfortunately, we all know what's happened with inflation since, since
FY15 and these two schools in particular are operating.
They're funded about 20% below their actual operating costs for these residential schools.
And without any additional funding in that either statutory mechanism or
one time these Residential Schools are seriously considering closing their doors within the next year.
So I would like to know from the department, how are you working with these districts to understand how this issue is affecting them?
Thank you chair to wrap
Please proceed commissioner
Thank You chair Galvin
Through the chair representative swankey that is a great point. I have spoken with those superintendents and they are
Worried prior to this time and actually going in that sunset last year was a
would also be, there was also a like increase
to the residential schools, that went away.
And so they actually are the only programs
in the entire state that was backwards this last year.
So your math is correct.
We are working with them in discussions
and I believe that there is a collective group
of residential superintendents that
Would like you know some this addressed in the law. It was something that was there the temporary measure, but did sunset
We could bring back more information on that for you
Thank You commissioner. Thank you representative swanke and next week February 13th. We will have a
deeper dive into not only Mount Edgecombe,
but also residential schools.
So I hope that you will,
we can carry that conversation further on the 13th.
I know that Jim Mariner also has a coalition
of residential school and we look forward
to tapping into his brain as well
because this is an important discussion.
Thank you.
Co-chair story.
Yes, thank you, Chair Galvin.
This is more of a comment, and there's a lot of other questions.
You know, this was a high-level overview of the budget right now,
and I just wanted to point out what on page 24,
when we talked about the Alaska Performance Scholarships,
and...
How you had said there was a record increase in students accepting those and that again is something that we really worked on
past the modernization of the Alaska Performance Scholarship because that is our way to keep our youth.
continuing on in post-secondary careers here because we know those who go out only 40 percent
come back to us when they go for post secondary and so I'm so pleased and I know there's a
couple of increments we'll talk about later about this but that is a success and that's
something that we want to be highlighting too because it's policy move that made the legislature.
and we're seeing the successes of that so I would look forward to hearing more about that.
I also on page 18 we needed to talk about the point F, the half funding of Stu of
Preschool students, if districts adopted the standards,
the Alaska Read Standards for Early Learning programs,
and I believe we're gonna have a deeper dive on that
at some point, but I've heard some concerns.
One of my districts is not getting funding,
even though they were approved for that program.
So I'd like to learn more about that.
On the library, on the museums and libraries one,
I really am concerned about sled.
this are funding and that is our electronic interlibrary loan.
I'm not even sure what Sled stands for right now.
I can't remember that acronym,
but I don't believe it's in our budget anymore.
But it is, you know, the one thing
from our little teeny tiny remote places
and whether we have libraries to do that inter library loan,
so I am concerned about that.
And then SISA, I not sure where the special education
special let's see education services agency I'm not sure where that is in the
budget and I know that they a couple well one of my first things I did well
One of the first bills I was involved with had to do with Senator Stephen's bill and the Senate side read with reauthorizes CISA for another 10 years and we had an increment increase at that time and I carried the bill on the House side.
I'm never knowing that within that 10 year we're going to see record inflation and then the increases that we have seen in special education like an autism diagnosis.
And I know they have also, besides residential schools, their funding has not kept up.
And I'd like to learn more about that at some point.
So thank you for those additions.
Thank you very much, co-chair story.
And let's make sure that we do check off all of those boxes
so that you get your questions answered.
Over the next few meetings, I think that's very critical.
Thank You.
Representative Hymn shoot.
I'm pardon me.
Representative Dahibert.
You knew it was you.
Sorry about That.
Good morning through the chair and just follow up.
Sled completely helped me through my schooling, so hopefully we can keep that funded.
My question goes to the PTPC slide, and this might be a further discussion along with representative
ensure that members of the teaching profession
and Alaska are qualified and ethical educators.
And so when I have discussions with teachers
around the state, they're experiencing higher class sizes.
The, there's younger teachers are not younger,
but younger in the field.
I don't know how to say it,
but you know with less experience.
And I know as a third grade teacher,
you know I had 28 students at one point and that but luckily I
had about 10 years of experience but you
know those numbers create stress and I
luckily had a lot of support through
Alaska through a statewide mentorship program
so I guess my question is is this one position
enough to help where we are in education
you know what teachers are experiencing now. Thank you, Chair.
Thank You Representative Dibert and I don't want one of you would like to
I hear the commissioner ready.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Please help us understand what's happening with regard
to supporting teachers.
Thank, thank you, Chair Galvin, and to Representative Diver.
That is great because really the supports that we need
closest to the classroom matter the most,
and that's teachers and their support.
Deputy Director Manning will share some of that TRR work
for that retention and what we're doing.
and that was part of the refocus two districts directly with those supports.
The statewide mentorship program and others still do exist. There's also
you know, other programs in the department, such as Rooted Ed, and it's really for this
high school outreach to support teachers and kids and getting kids. So the actual mentoring,
so we have formalized mentering projects that are partners, but we also have other
programs that can support teacher, whether that is with, you
know if it is CLSD, if the reading, or if other functions and engagements that the districts have,
call in, so you know if you want to call them support groups if
you will with training, a lot of that is done you
know electronically now or through conferences but that daily
touch is absolutely paramount to support the people in the
positions and really part of the TRR work was that was the
focus of it is that retention piece.
and I believe you mentioned this representative last year, it is the experiences that teachers
have in the schools. So their workplace does matter, and particularly that was specifically
speaking to their work conditions, so those weren't necessarily physical conditions of like.
you know, teacher housing, it was really in those schools and their leaderships and having
that ability to grow in their position. So we'll be happy through the TRR to share some of those
items that we're doing, but I believe it has to occur at all levels of the organization,
at the local level, the board level as well as the state level. But we can really report on some
of these different areas to this construct because it is one of most important. Excellent
Thank you. I believe we do have one follow-up, please. Thank You through the chair.
Thank for that. Your words.
I know educators listening, you know, really respect that and so I'm hearing that this one position, the caseload is doable to handle ethics and qualified educators.
Commissioner, would you like to comment?
Yeah.
Sure.
Sure, through the chair to Representative Dibert, the sole responsibility of ethics doesn't
reside with the PTBC.
The PTPC is the organization that certainly does the reporting yearly out as, you know,
is required by law.
but the actual support of educators is far beyond the PTPC.
That's really embedded in everything the department does because we, of course,
don't support kids individually. We're not the teachers of children.
teachers are. And so through the support to districts and others, is there ever enough,
I would say no, because we just love to have that. But again, as you know,
as a teacher, sometimes it has to be at the right time, at
the rights time to learn. So a lot of this has been partnership with the local
districts as they move teachers along. The mentorship that has occurred with
the apprentices, the mentorship that's occurred
The functions of PTPC are person and busy, she's wonderful, but her primary focus is
working with the board and the materials, getting the material out and getting that
PTBC message out about the high standards that we have for our teachers ethically.
as well as, you know, operating those meetings to really look at the requests or reports
to the PTPC by the public or districts.
So those functions are different.
A teacher support doesn't begin or ends with PTBC, I believe it really is at all different
levels.
But those are great questions.
Thank you, Dr. Bishop.
And so now we're going to take a one or two-minute break
to transition and move into the neck.
We want to make sure we have it queued up
before you begin the next presentation.
Thank you again.
We'll take an ad-ease.
We are now back on record here in our Education Subcommittee, Finance Subcommittee and we are
now on the second portion of this morning's presentations.
We will have Deputy Director Manning with us and online we have Division Director Monica
So, thank you for putting yourself forward already, and I'll ask you if you will please
put yourself on record.
I believe we have the presentation queued up.
Thank you.
And so, please begin your presentation.
Thank-you.
Good morning.
For the record, I'm Kelly Manning, the Deputy Director for the Division of Innovation and
Education Excellence, Dr. Goyette, our Director of the division of innovation and education
for questions as well. Thank you for having me here to speak about our teacher retention
recruitment efforts in the state.
We will go through and present on the Alaska Education Challenge and the and
the work that has led to many of our Teacher Retention recruitment.
efforts, including an overview of our playbook, and then we'll highlight some of the efforts
that we have been able to implement in recent years.
And then, we will have some teacher retention recruitment data updates that
we can share as well.
We went through our mission and vision and purpose in our last presentation, but I'll
Our teacher retention and recruitment efforts are very much grounded in our purpose of providing
information, resources, and leadership to support an excellent education for every student every day.
As we look at teacher-retention recruitment, it really is an outflow of Alaska's education
challenge, priority number four, preparing, attracting,
And that, as we go into this timeline, really is what launches a lot of the work and efforts
around identifying what the areas of need are, identifying strategies, and then the outflow
of those projects.
With that identification of a priority around attracting and retaining education professionals,
we then went into the work around the teacher retention and recruitment working groups,
big stakeholder engagement opportunities, and that was led by Dr. Barbara Adams of Adams Analytics.
She really worked to work across a number of stake holder groups brought together many,
strategies and that's the TRR teacher retention recruitment action plan and
from that then developed the teacher retention recruitment playbook and the
playbook really identifies strategies across stakeholder groups that can be
employed to impact and improve outcomes for teacher
retention and recruitment. One of the things that is really important to note
identify as strategies that range of stakeholders can employ.
So there's district strategies, there is policy strategies.
There's department strategies and partner organization strategies
and so it really demonstrates how moving the needle on teacher retention and recruitment is really
many strategies will need to be employed to impact outcomes.
I identify as what the six essential areas and recommendations are, and you can see these
are across a range of strategy areas.
So streamlining certification, strengthening working conditions, enhancing recruitment
efforts, restructuring retirement options, creating paraprofessional pathways, developing
leadership.
These are the overarching buckets of work with then strategies identified within each area.
We're gonna walk up right after this
Thank you, Ms. Manning, would you please continue and after the next slide, I think there's a natural break.
Unfortunately, it's not paginated, and I apologize for that.
But when we get to, after next slides, we will then break where it says seven.
I do see it that now and there.
After seven, We will break for questions and
I already have one of the co-chairs in the queue.
Thank You.
Great. Yeah. Our presentation is actually going to walk through in more detail each of these areas,
but these are some highlights here of some of the...
implementation strategies we've been able to employ for teacher retention and
recruitment. One that I will start with is the with the teacher
retention recruitment initiative that really grounded a lot of the work that
we have been doing since then but alongside that work we were also working
on the certification modernization so implementing our
our TEACH-A-K system, our online teacher certification system.
That has been a big undertaking
and really has required a lot of effort
that continues now that we've gotten the system up
and running, we continue to work on how can we streamline that,
how we make that more efficient for users.
I will note, because you may have heard from constituents,
we did have some turnover in the team
and then the snowstorm that hit here in June
much of that work happens still in person,
the actual processing applications.
So you may have heard that we had a little bit
of a delay in processing.
We're now back on track in our processing timelines,
roughly four to six weeks depending
on the type of certification.
And so I just really wanna highlight
that the team at the,
our certification team has worked through that process,
has put a lot of time and effort into
making that a modernized, effective online system
and continue to work on enhancing.
to ensure that we're making that as efficient as possible for educators.
Additionally, since 2017, the State Board of Ed has worked through
many regulatory changes to make the certification opportunities,
some of the district-sponsored opportunities around career and technical education
and native language certifications.
Many of those things have occurred in the past eight years,
to support making more opportunities for certification
and broadening that scope.
We're gonna talk a lot more
about the grow your own pathways and educator rising,
but if you'd like, we can stop for questions.
Yes, I would. Thank you very much. We have co-chair story and then co chair. Him shoot
coach our story. Oh, yes, thank you, Chair Galvin. Through the chair on page and it doesn't
have a page number, but it's the T. Are our action plans 60? Oh right in front of us.
I'm curious about where the asterisks are,
where it says restructure Alaska teacher
and personnel, formerly Alaska Teacher Placement.
Can you give me a little bit of history about that
and about the change, please?
Yeah, through the chair to representative story.
So it was one of the recommendations
to look at the Alaska Teachers and Personnel Program
as a recommendation of The Playbook.
Really looking at what are the ways
that individuals are recruited currently?
How do we modernize that prior to?
the playbook rollout, you know, it was really the in-person,
you, know there was a lot of in person, job fair,
and looking at how to move that to a more modern program.
And so with that restructuring, there has been a move in recent years to
move to the Alaska Council of School Administrators,
and to structure that with more online opportunities.
program that existed within the university, and so that is not something that has been
under the Department of Education.
So when that moved to ACSA, they would be able to speak to, you know, how they've modernized
that program better than me.
Follow-up?
Follow up?
So is there a reason, because, yeah, that's my memory that the University of Alaska no
Switch to ARK, why is that not listed here?
Oh, and I remember that that was vetoed last year,
those funds by the governor, but it was under a contract for
So, there was a contract with the ARC, and thank you for correcting me, I've said ACSA,
but it is under the ARK program.
And we did have a contact with them under teacher retention recruitment, but that was
for playbook implementation and support for international hiring.
The Alaska teachers and personnel was not a part of that contract.
That was funding that had been through the university.
as I recall and somebody else I think can speak to this better than me but I
believe that that was put into the budget under Department of Labor and that's
where it was vetoed from not from the Department
of Education. Thank you follow-up
a follow up representative story yeah I just wanted to say I know we're going
to be talking about this later on in the in
the program but i'm just wondering um and you might want to change your
recruitment efforts slide there or to
Thank you, Ms. Manning, co-chair of Hymn Shoe, please.
Thank You, Chair Galvin.
I have a number of questions also on slide six.
And I want to start just by with the streamlining certification.
I went through the process of reinstating my certificate.
I had lost it at my birthday last year because I didn't have time
to finish the recency credit.
So I finished those, but that meant I
had to go through fingerprinting and everything else.
And the streamline system worked great.
Not everything was for, I'm not tech savvy,
so it took me a little while to figure it out.
But I applied for my reinstatement on the 16th of December
and I have a glitch with one part of it, got an email,
reinstated by the 16th of January so with that glitch over the holidays and with the snowstorm I still got it within a
Month which I feel
Faster than that's even better, but considering everything that went into getting me back reinstated
I was really pleased to see the whole thing working. So thank you for that
I'm
Curious I guess this might be a little bit of a back-and-forth, But what is the
the
Average time from initial application. If everything goes smoothly, how quickly is a person getting their initial certificate right now?
It's Manny
Through the chair representative him shoot the average time is about a month
Okay, and and that includes you know the review of the application making sure it includes the you
know fingerprinting if that has to
You know if thats
for an initial, you know, all of those steps and processes.
So it's not just reviewing the application, there's more that goes into, it is, not
just checking the boxes, but, yeah, about a month for that process.
Follow-up representative.
Thank you.
Chair Galvin.
Also on slide six on strengthening working conditions.
There had been an exit letter or some kind of a letter developed last year that was not
employed, and I think I heard you or someone else say that started.
Yesterday or something. Can you talk a little more about that? What is it? How does it work?
What's the goal? Yeah, through the chair to Representative Hymn Shoot. So we have worked with the
Institute for Economic and Social and Economic Research, ISER, to to build a exit and stay
survey of educators. And the intent is to survey as many educators as possible,
any that have left, so we are pulling from certification contact so any person
that has their certification is surveyed so that we can
collect information about why people have left, but we also incorporated questions around why
people are staying because we want to know what are the conditions that are working. Where are
people happy? Where our things functioning well and what what're those components? So really looking
across both why are people leaving, why're people staying? And then that will run that opened
with ISER to do data cleanup.
They're going to data analysis for us
and we'll have a report next fall
that will give us a current landscape
of what are the conditions that are impacting teachers
and leaving and also those that
are choosing to stay in the profession.
Yes, co-chair, him, shoot.
Okay, so I want to continue on that same line
of questioning there.
Thank you for the background.
Now I wanna understand the funding.
So for example, on this slide six,
you have developing leadership,
I'm not aware that the department is doing that.
I think it's done through a partner.
The exit letters are done
through our partner, how are these things funded?
I don't know if I need to know the dollar amount,
but where is the funding coming from
to do that kind of work?
And I'd love to learn more about who the partners are.
Also with the ATP, if that's with ACSA now,
how is that being funded, is university paying
for them to it or is it through deed?
So just a little bit finer grain size on.
It's great work. How's it getting funded?
through the chair to representative Hymshoot.
So as a reminder, the essential areas
are across stakeholder groups.
So this isn't necessarily all things
that are through department.
These are the areas of if we move the needle
in these areas that we could impact,
teacher retention recruitment outcomes.
So some things are funded through
the department, some are thru district,
some thru partner organizations.
And so when we look at some of the
items you know as I go through we'll be talking about some of the things that
the department is able to you focus our resources toward right now and then as
far as to the other areas I'll speak to a little bit more here we are
targeting some use of some federal contracts that came or grants that
came back on here this fall to work on supporting districts and partner
organizations on water strategies that they could employ and part of that will
be looking at what resources are available to support initiatives that are
not currently funded through the department. I have one quick follow-up and
then I had a question of myself and then it's Rep. Renlum and
25 more slides to go.
Okay, I'm sorry.
I will make this really fast.
I remembered my question that I
forgot earlier, but I think it still
applies.
We had an email from Karen McCarthy
and Senator Murkowski's office, and it
looks like title programs are mostly
flat or increased from that email.
And so I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief.
I don't know how school leadership across the state
gets that kind of information, but I just
want to say right now, here for the public,
I am breathing little easier about some of the title funding
that's coming through.
And then one last comment or question on slide 7
on the Grow Your Own Pathways or Certification Modernization.
I've not sure where this goes.
confirm. I think we have some sort of a green-to-teach priority. If someone comes out of the military,
they have an expedited pathway for their certificate. Is that? I
think I saw that on the when I was trying to get reinstated that there was a box to check if you were
a career crossover from military or something like that. Could you just give me a little snapshot
Yeah, through the chair to Representative Hymshoot, the green to teach is a program that we're working to pilot with the Anchorage school district.
And it includes some opportunity to do coursework.
For those that are transitioning out of the military many times already possessing a bachelor's degree,
so it's sort of a post-back opportunity, there is an opportunity sort
of aligned with our apprenticeship for those who maybe haven't got their bachelor degree.
But it comes with mentor support, course instruction, and it is about a year.
And it also a very cost-effective program.
And so we're excited to be working through with Anchorage School District to develop a pilot for that.
program. One more follow-up, co-chair him shoot. I'd like to talk offline because
I know of somebody working to get certified outside of Anchorage who
could use some support, so I'll reach out. Thank you.
Great, love these connections.
We have one more question, and just for the committee's
understanding, what it looks like I may be doing is we're
going to go as far as we can until 10.
And then what we will do is, we have already a meeting
scheduled February 6.
And if you're able to come Deputy Director on that Friday,
I believe there will be a few minutes that we
can add in the rest.
I don't want you to rush too much because this is such
content and so I just want to make sure that we're all okay with that as a committee so that
will be our pathway forward. Representative Elon please. Thank you and I'll keep my questions
concise and you don't have to get into super detail we can probably take some of this offline.
In the process of what you're doing here there was a few things that you were saying that kind of
Got me to thinking do you have the tools that you need to be successful from a technology perspective from
The portfolio of what we have I've seen a lot of paperwork in this building and around the other buildings here in the state
And so I just want to make sure that we're leveraging, you know the right tools and the resources
for the departments and really for deed in general, but
Again, we can kind of take some of that offline,
because we are running out of time, but thank you.
Thank you, and so I will ask if I may interject here,
Deputy Director, as you can go through the rest of these slides,
if you would keep your eye and your mind on tools
that are necessary.
He has an eye on efficiency tools related I think mostly to technology which you know if you would please
allow us to understand that and your needs and what you already have. In addition to that I'm going to add
if would you please help us appreciate what light items that you're discussing are covered by this budget.
This subcommittees work because I know that the governor did veto what you would ask for previously.
What we had already in the budget was vetoed for related to teacher recruitment retention services.
So I think it was in order of about a million dollars.
And so to me, it's important to hear from you about what is necessary to keep you successful.
and get grants and things like that for the future.
But for here and now, we know that here
and we have crisis situation with regards
to our teacher retention and recruitment.
So I would appreciate understanding what the context is
within this budget as well, if you would please.
I'm also addressing Representative Elum's question.
I think as I go through, I can speak to kind of some of the resources that are targeted
to each of different activities.
Thank you so much.
Please proceed.
Okay.
All right.
I am going to be speaking broadly about our grow your own efforts.
This encompasses some work that we have around the apprenticeship, including some more that
we are doing with students and teacher pathways.
This is exciting work because it's really grounded in the district. It's not new,
but we're looking at leveraging different resources that weren't of, you know,
weren't previously available to make pathways, um,
more accessible. So this is exciting work I think as we talk about the
apprenticeship it's one of my favorite projects that I get to work on.
So the teacher registered apprenticeships program, the first teacher
registered Apprenticeship program was approved in 2021 and I
think that's really you know just good to keep in mind because we've moved
really quickly in the end the
country around really recognizing how apprenticeship can be leveraged to support
grow your own efforts for educators and really ground that development of educators in their
local community. So the the Department of Education in Alaska was approved as a sponsor
uh... apprentices last january so this is still relatively new we're still
getting our feet under us
One of the things I think to highlight, and we have another slide here that really touches on this,
but this has been a collaborative effort. It's not something that lives specifically in the Department of Education,
it's been close collaboration with our university partners, with districts,
and with other sponsors around the state,
and those are listed on the next slide, to really look at how can we make apprenticeship work for Alaska,
from other states where they're also implementing apprenticeship.
It's very grounded in an earn and learn model.
So as the individual apprentices are going through the program,
they are getting mentor support in their district.
So they were working closely on making those connections
between their learning and the work that they
are doing in classrooms and in the schools.
The mentor component of apprenticeship is something the department has really highlighted, and so to speak to the resources here, we did receive a state apprenticeships expansion formula sub grant through the Department of Labor.
currently the tuition to support our apprentices as well as support for mentorship and so the Alaska State Mentor Project
has worked with us to
take their program and and
Make adjustments to make it work for apprenticeship because that is really for new early career teachers. So they've made adjustments
What does that look like for an emerging educator and how do you adjust that mentor support?
So, they're working with, us, to implement that mentor support
for the district personnel
and then also working in our most rural remote districts
to actually provide mentor support.
We have the UPI at school district is modeling
a really fantastic approach to that,
where they have some fantastic support educators
in their districts, but that don't meet the requirements
of a mentor for apprenticeship,
so they are partnering with the Alaska State Mentor Project
mentors that come in and provide that strong
Uh
pedagogical mentoring with then a local mentor that works together with them to make sure
that it's grounded in their local context and that local schools.
So we have really exciting work happening around that in the state, and I just want
to call out you because their model is really excited, but looking at ways that we can make
sure that were getting that mentor support in creative ways for those most rural remote
districts and then supporting that through our state apprenticeship expansion formula
grant funds.
2A funds to support the mentor, we're supporting mentor stipends, and travel for districts so
that they can send those mentors for training and bringing them together as a cohort.
As I shared, this is really a.
a strong partnership project across all sponsors.
There are 71 apprentices at deed.
We are enrolling 13 this spring and at under our deed
sponsorship we have 30 and then those 13 that are that
are coming on there are 20 school districts currently
participating in the teacher registered apprenticeship
program and I'm not going to list all of them.
But you can see there's a number of sponsors here that
are supporting apprenticeships.
Some of the them are doing early childhood so you
and the Southeast Childhood Collective.
They're doing early childhood apprenticeship
and then there are several that are doing the K-12 programs.
Our Alaska universities have been fantastic at coming to the table and thinking creatively.
As far as resources, the universities are providing course instruction remotely and have
made adjustments to ensure that they can provide coursework after working hours for
educators that are in the classroom working full-time as an apprentice so that then they
can get course work after hours.
And so there's been a lot of efforts to make adjustments in delivery models and approaches
We're very excited to be we were approved this fall and we are one of the first four
States in the country to be approved for a principal registered apprenticeship program and we were approved this fall
we're very excited about this program
and
and one of the things that I really want to highlight here is to
member Diberts question earlier around supporting
Educators with our principal register to apprenticeships. One of things
That we've really are targeting and were working closely around the development of this Program
is to target the registered apprenticeship model
to support retention strategies.
So that exists already in our educator preparation programs,
but we're working with them to highlight that as an area,
and then through the mentorship development,
are working on creating models of support
that will really highlight how do we grow these leaders
in the state to be grounded in retention
strategies, understand the playbook,
understand what they can do,
can come to the work so that they're not burning out
themselves as a leader, recognizing where they can
use the resources available to them as well.
So really thinking about this, not just as how do we target
potential leaders that maybe weren't accessing
traditional pathways, but also how can we build
this program?
recognizing our current needs around leadership development and retention needs.
So that's one of the things that we're really excited about with the principal
registered apprenticeship pathway and also, you know, having that opportunity to
ground the learning in the work that they're doing day-to-day in their
schools.
Pardon, I'm going to have one break here. We do have a burning question by
Thank you
Deputy Director Manning am I getting that right okay, thank you through the chair I I
Have always understood leadership development to be through ACSA
So how much of what you're talking about here?
Principal development is being done by AC SA and is there support for ACS a to do that work from the department?
And, for context, there's a lot of research out there that principles are the bottleneck
on quality.
If your principle is too stretched between the, like, magnitude of duties that they have
to take care of, then it's difficult for them to focus on educator quality, so this is incredibly
important.
And I just, I know that ACSA has always done it, So what is the relationship between
through the chair to representative Hymshoot.
The principal registered apprenticeship
is that preparation program,
and ACSA has done the mentoring for early career principles.
So that program is still in place,
and this would, this is really supporting
that the university program
and then grounding that mentor support in the district.
So it really is
that preperation program that leads into leadership,
and those programs currently that ACSAs offering
are for those early-career support.
that that work still exists. We're still very early, we're going to be piloting with one principle this
spring, so we still have very much in development of this pathway, and we are hoping to get more
to pilot with us on the principal pathway. But we currently have one and another that is
possibly enrolling, but that would be, I think, the distinction right now of where this program
as we've been designing the models, it's been very much around kind of the adding additional
opportunities. So it is not replacing anything that exists and I would say that's the same for
the teacher pathway as well. ASMP still provides that early career mentor support. The ACSA will
still provide that earlier career principal support, those programs still are very
Thank you, and I have two more in the queue, please, Representative Stronke and then Representative Alum.
Thank You through the chair.
And this is Director Boyat, if I could add in when it's time, I'd like to speak to the developing leadership responsibilities.
Thank, you.
We have a few in a queue and if you'd to answer, there's a question that's related to that, feel free to.
chime in and we will thank you for raising your voice so that we can be
sure to acknowledge you miss go yet and that's important and now we're going to
move to represent a strong key. Thank you through the chair I just want to
highlight you know the apprenticeship program and just I really appreciate
the efforts that that you've gone through entire department and I want
to kind of highlight something that I felt like was missing on that key
So
When I was in graduate school at UAF,
my graduate professor actually came from industry.
He worked in industry for,
actually for the government, federal government.
But he worked it in the field for over 20 years.
And my experience in
graduate schools was very different
because of that leadership and mentorship on that front.
So my question is,
I know we've seen in rural Alaskan
off a lot of individuals coming through
the Type M cert process.
So they're coming to the districts
all sorts of different walks of life,
and it's so incredibly helpful to have people
like that step in and fill roles quickly.
And so my question is, are you reaching out at all
to industry because I feel like
that sponsor list could be five times as large.
We have so many industry professionals that
Would improve the quality of our our educational models just leaps and bounds if you know
We were able to bring some of those
Actual field professionals into our education systems
Through the chair to representative Schwanki
So the the sponsor list is a technical designation with the u.s. Department of Labor
So it's not a comprehensive list I would say of
everyone supporting apprenticeship, it's a designation with the U.S. Department of Labor
as a sponsor that can enroll apprentices and you play sort of an administrative function
in the apprenticeships.
But to your point, I think that as we're looking forward to like how do we expand opportunities,
I thing that that's, you know, a great point to note that there's lot of ways that we can
with The Apprenticeship Pathway now attract different professionals that might be interested
And so I think as we get to some of our future slides, that's something that we can touch on avenues that
We could mine for that representative. Thank you.
Thank You very much representative divert and then we have representative Vlum and
Then we will be closing this committee meeting. Okay
Thank, you through the chair. Thanks you
Deputy Commissioner Manning and it's great to read
and look at this page on principle,
registered apprenticeships.
I know that I'm lucky in my career as an educator.
I had solid principles that were there for a long time.
They knew the community, they knew their families,
and through that they're further trickled down
to care for us as educators,
so it's very important to have these strong leaders.
My question is on, I am very excited about the surveys.
One came out, and one's going to come out in the spring.
When I talk to educators around the state,
I haven't really talked to principals,
but I'm also curious when it comes to a stress in our careers.
nutrition comes up, nutrition of our children, when teachers have to use their
own funds, chase down dollars, or further yet a principal who has to worry about
that added to their plates. If that ever comes
up in those surveys, I'm really curious to have further discussions on that for
teacher retention and recruitment. Thank you.
Thank you for the presentation. I really like the program and everything
From a present
There's a lot of KPIs in here that are really great
But I see a lotta them showing activity
And so something that would be really helpful for me would also to be able to see some KP I's or maybe some slides that show impact
Because I think that you know you guys are doing a great program here and to to share some of the the impact would
Be really helpful. Thank You
Thank you very much representative elam, and I will follow up that with a comment that
You are warmly welcome to include not just
Key performance indicators, but also your plans for growth. I did hear you speak about it. What sounds like an amazing
Apprenticeship program for principles currently we have I guess one enlisted in that
fabulous and how are we handling our imagination for growing that will it take resources since
this is the subcommittee for finance. I do want us to be mindful of that in our next presentation
meetings for all of you to go through and for this if we can focus on numbers as much as we
can. I would be grateful because it will guide us to the next body of work that has to be done.
We will be informing finance what that bill should look like, that budget bill which is the
big responsibility bill. So as you can help us again include with your work, here's how many
and here's who is paying for it and if there is a need for if you were to grow
if that's in your plan who
How can the state be a part of that if that's appropriate?
We know we are in fiscally difficult tight times, and we want to be careful, of course,
but top on our list is education with regard to our constitutional duty.
That in mind, I want thank all of you for being here today.
It has been a very full meeting,
and you all have added something important to it with your excellent questions.
Not sure that I have my appropriate, I know I
have notes here that i'm supposed to say the exact words of one we're meeting next.
So I will look for that real briefly here.
In the meantime, yes, Representative Story has a comment.
Yeah, through the chair, thank you, everybody.
I appreciate our everyone's work.
I was kind of struck in the beginning
when we looked at our five key components
that the board is working, the state board
is looking on about the achievement gaps.
And we haven't heard a lot about how you're focusing
on the Achievement gaps,
the students who need some special supports.
And I know all these students benefit
by all of these things that you are doing,
but I would really appreciate where are we putting
work inputs into those students.
So I would find that helpful.
Thank you.
And if that wasn't, we can expand upon that as well
on offline if you'd like.
I do appreciate your thoughts, Coacher Story,
because that is really, the essence of what we're doing
is how are we making sure we are getting to those results
and what investments are you looking for
to make sure that we do that accordingly.
And now for wrap up.
The next House Finance Education Subcommittee will be held this Friday, February 6th from 8 to 9 a.m.
There will a short add-is to transition to the Education Committee following that, and that will held from 9 until 10.
The time is now 10-02 a-m and the House finance education subcommittee is adjourned.
Thank you.