Good morning. I'm calling the House Education Committee meeting to order. It is Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 and the time is
8 or 4 a.m. Right on time. Sorry
Okay, members present are representative elum. So sorry
Do I need to repeat all that?
Okay great
Members present are Representative Elam, Representative Dibert,
Representative Schwonke,
Representative Ischeid,
Representative Underwood, co-chair Story,
and we're joined today by Representative Freer,
who is an alum and has a student currently at Mount Ojcom.
Thank you for joining us.
And I am here.
I'm co chair Rebecca Hymshoot.
We have a quorum to conduct business.
I would like to remind members and folks in the audience
to silence your cell phones.
Committee Room 106 in the State Capitol Building in June of Alaska.
The documents for today's meeting have been distributed to members,
are available on the table outside the door and are on basis.
We did have an updated slide that came in at 8.01.
It came this morning and so we've provided that to
members.
It's on a table, outside and has been or will be updated on
basis, okay, and it just had one small change to it.
I'd like to thank our recording secretary, Kayle Brown, and our moderator from the Juneau LIO, Doug Bridges.
And our committee aids Tammy Smith and Ella Lubin.
Grateful for all your help today.
Our agenda today is one item.
We're going to get a status update from Mount Edgecombe High School.
We will hear from Commissioner Dina Bishop, Deputy Commissioner Karen Morrison online.
and Director Don Hanish with the Department of Education
and Early Development, Manajkam High School Superintendent
David Langford, advisory board member Howard Amos,
and current students Caden Cross,
and I hope I say this right, Ilana Kalki.
There will be one slide deck,
you have copies of the slide and the one side
that was switched out.
I would also, before we begin, like to read some comments
that I wrote to kind of frame this meeting.
That I can't find right now. We have a little bit too much paper going on. Give me one moment
Okay, so I wanted to
Sort of set the tone for what we're doing here today
So I took some time and wrote some notes and I'll
be referring to my notes to kind of help members and folks in the audience see what we're trying
to get done today.
Since I've been in office over the past three years, we've heard repeatedly from schools
across the state.
We're hearing about buildings that are literally collapsing.
We are hearing water and sewer systems that're failing.
We hear about teacher turnover that's the highest in this state's history.
Schools across the state are struggling.
What sets EDGE come apart is that when the school struggles,
the systems of support, other schools enjoy,
are simply not present.
In other school districts across
the State when a tricky hiring decision is made
and the community loses faith,
a school board member hears about it.
When school meals are inadequate,
the local school Board addresses it,
when changes of any sort are made
is because decisions, sometimes difficult ones,
The governance structure of Mount Edgecombe High School does not provide a local school board, rather.
There is an advisory board that is appointed by the Commissioner of Education and approved by State Board of
Education, and the State board of education is as close to a
local board as Mount Edgcombe high school gets.
The state board is comprised of members from each judicial district in the state, as well as two at large members,
and a military advisor and student advisor, all appointed
by Governor and confirmed by legislature.
There is no guarantee anyone on this board has any interest in
Mount Edge come high school making this Board vastly different from a locally
elected school board. It also does not say that they don't care.
It just says that. They aren't from that community and they weren't elected by
the families of those students.
The other factor that raises the stakes in our conversation today
exponentially is that unlike other school districts,
the students at Mount Edge come do not go home to family caregivers at night.
The responsibility of acting as family for the
students of the school is weighty and cannot be overemphasized.
It is not typical that concerns within a school district come to the legislature
since we delegate the governance of schools to local boards made of folks
from the communities where the schools are located.
In the case of EDGECOM, however, we are directly responsible for the safety, quality of life,
and well-being of the students.
That is why we're here today.
Like all school districts across Alaska, Mount Edgecombe is experiencing rapid changes with impacts to student health, safety, and mental well-being.
We are not here today to point fingers or to condemn any one person or any decision.
Rather, we are here to bring facts, transparency and perspective to the situation.
Because Edgecomb is the only school in the state for which the State is directly responsible,
it is critical that the dialogue today is open, productive, & honest.
For the committee's awareness, we will view the slides without stopping for questions unless
the presenters prefer to have questions as we go. We'll check that and then we'll try to organize the conversation according to some topics.
The first topic I'd like to look at after the slide is the Governance and Organizational Chart
that we asked for, that I don't see in the Slides.
So I'm not sure how we have that conversation, but we do it.
Enrollment, past and present.
student quality of life, student safety, and communications.
I think much of what we're about to do today hinges on communication.
So with all of that said, grab some different papers here.
We're going to go ahead and get started with our presentation.
So I'd like to invite our first presenters, Commissioner Dina Bishop.
Deputy Commissioner Karen Morrison and Director of the Division of Administrative Services,
Don Hanish from the Department of Education and Early Development and Superintendent David
Langford.
We can add chairs or you can switch out, however you'd like to do it.
Thank you for making time.
We're glad you're here today.
Thank You, Madam Co. Chair.
For the record, my name is Dina Bishop and I serve as the Commissioner of education.
Thank you and you had mentioned quite a few names and when we met with you Monday we
have just prepared folks to be able to answer your questions so that people closest to the
ground we wanted to able answer some questions. Mr. Langford and I will be sharing the slides
and then as your question come up we'll have appropriate folks come and respond.
Would you like us to ask questions as we go or save them for the end? I guess since you're
switching people out maybe as you go. I thought that that would be great and that way
It meets your needs if that meets the needs of of the folks listening. Okay
So I'll try to pay attention you guys this time. I wanted to also mention then we have from Nana management services
online the manager of
residential care Debbie Littledog. Oh, I guess is in the room and
then
Online I think we had the students or are they also in their room students are also the rooms everybody's here in person. No
Madam co-chair no we have our students in the room and Debbie Littledog and the
advisory person are online. Okay advisoryperson advisory board person Howard
Amos yes ma'am is online and then Debbie little dog is
online but our student are actually here in
theroom yes Caden and Elana
Yes.
Okay.
So thank you.
Is that and I would like to announce that the State Board of Education does have a graduate
of Mount Edgecombe High School present, a board member Pam Dupois that serves, she serves
on the state board of education, is a former graduate of mount edgecombe high school.
So I wanted to share that with you that there is person that is personally experienced this
So, without further ado, I just wanted to share with the group that I will, the way
that we've organized the presentation is kind of to discuss from whence we have come into
actions that were taken and decisions made last year, and perhaps the impetus for the why,
and then allow Superintendent Langford to share this year and some changes that
were made, courses for kids have kids speak to you and
then really be able to address your questions. So we can move to the next slide.
So, as always, with the Department of Education, we like to keep our mission vision and purpose
before us and many of you participated in creating this mission, vision, and
purpose with a State Board of education.
My favorite is our vision because it's really what we believe we want for kids when they
leave public education, when
they leave us.
And so we always like
to
keep
our eye on that ball because until students are successful after their education we can't
done a job well. So for me, I love to know what our students able to
know and be able do and that creates our success. The
strategic priorities for Alaska's education challenge, we'd like to
keep these five priorities before us as well,
I believe they were about 18 months in the making but affirmed on 2018 and
for foreshadowing for in March. They did a review and they will show that with you at the joint meeting.
So, here's the agenda for Mount Edgecombe.
We're going to really give a little history for those that don't have that context.
Many of you do, talking about right-sizing the ship and why some changes were made.
There was a request for student enrollment and please know we have enrollment, student
enrollment from OASIS, which is the data that the department would have access to.
And then we also have follow-up data, located at the school.
that way. We're talking about options, things that went away,
things came back in working towards education. Really we are going to talk to you about some
of the struggles we have and we address this year and that continue to remain in regard
to facility and major projects and then looking forward. So as one of
Mr. Langford to just give that little history to ground us in understanding.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank You, Co-Chair, Madam Co. Chair.
So, yeah, I just wanted to go over from the very beginning, you know,
we're out of all the starts, so obviously a lot of you
know that the school started in 1947.
I think the first graduating class was 1948, and there's still some people alive
that were part of that first graduated class.
If you travel anywhere in the state, you will find graduates of Mount Edgcom and you'll know people
to have very long history when I sit and have dinner with students in a cafeteria, I'll say,
why are you at EdGcom? My auntie went there, my grandmother went
there. My father went, it's a long heritage of people that come to Mount
So, I call that the first phase of Mount Edgecombe,
which ended basically in 1983 when the BIA shut down to school
and offered the campus to the state of Alaska
if it was reopened with health and education as a focus.
So in 1985, we were tasked to building
basically a brand new school.
Only two of the former teachers that were around in 1983 were actually transferred in.
And so basically we're just creating a school from scratch.
As the commissioner said, I was the first,
I believe the person hired beside the superintendent and we worked diligently to create everything
from the curriculum to what would happen in the dorms to get dorm contractors.
everything. So I have a lot of experience with the operation starting in 1985. I left in 1992
and went on to a 30-year career of consulting with businesses, K through 12 schools, universities
throughout the world, and always had a dream of coming back and helping Mount Edgecombe.
That dream sort of I call that whole phase starting in 1985 phase two of Mount
Edgecombe. This is really to me the third phase of Mt. Edgecomb starting this
year. And the reason I say that is because for the first time in decades
basically we now have new dorm supervision. We have a new cafeteria
contractor. We have myself as administration, but a lot of the staff retired last year,
and so this is a huge transition phase, and I see this as a great opportunity for the
future of Mount Edgecombe to say, now we can remake Mount Edgcombe and bring it back to
what it was.
Thank you.
Questions on that slide?
I have one question.
Anyone else?
Okay.
My question on that slide, and is it okay to jump in?
Okay, thanks.
When you talk about the third phase and the new dorm
and new cafeteria staff and turnover and teachers,
and it's a lot.
It's major change.
What precipitated the change in the dorm and cafeteria?
Well, the summation talked about that because she was there last year.
Madam coach, I'm actually, this is the next slide.
So it's fortuitous that right sizing the ship about the why.
that occurred and so to give a little bit of history for the record my name is
Dina Bishop and this is best for me to speak at this
part because Mr. Langford was not present last year he was
hired and started July 1st of 2025. So understanding Mount Edge come in what
has happened really you shared in the beginning of this meeting about
schools across Alaska. One of the big major things we've
I do want to share that during that time, quite a bit of revenue was poured into schools.
In fact, in the three years from 2021 to 2023, Mount Edgcom did receive $5 million,
a little over $ 5 million. And we will share, that in addition, we
will show that on Friday we have a detailed budget meeting.
And so we are doing high level now, but you can really drill down into those.
I was hired in 2023 August, and then really that first year that I
was here, I really had reports on Mountage come, understanding
Mountach come but Mountache come was not in the news and on, you
know, the tips of our tongues like it is today. Beginning in
August of 2024, which would be last school year. So not
last prior year, prior to Mr. Langford being here, we had our quarter projections and it was noted that
Mount Edgecome was $1.6 million over their budget. The moment that we ran the first payroll,
we were able to demonstrate at the First Quarter that the payroll and our bills needing to be paid
did not have the funds that were going out the door. So with that,
Initially when this happens, it's the business side of the house that goes, talks, where were we?
And we understood, COVID funds were carried over and utilized for quite a bit of staffing, so not,
and that happened at many different districts across the state during that time, but they were utilized
for staffing and those staffing positions rolled over.
problematic because the funding that funded those positions
wasn't present.
And so when COVID funds expired, we
needed to look at the operational cost and personnel
contracts.
And I wanted to share I have been a superintendent
in two largest school districts.
I've done budgets.
I'm a math teacher.
I really, I believe I had a handle on the formula.
I can share everything.
But what was different, and the first thing I asked
was, let's go look where the money's being spent.
I need to see the chart of accounts.
And because, as you mentioned, co-chair Hymshoot, this is a state school, the operations as
an arm of government operate differently.
So you operate on your management plans, similar to other districts.
The reporting that I could look back on, what didn't exist the way it does for other school
districts, and that's just the why the system was designed.
As you've mentioned it at the beginning of this, it's under government, not a local school
reporting system because the funds are appropriated at your level specifically
separately for the dormitory. They do gain their money through the ADM but it's
a very different structure of reporting. So when we looked at that we had to look
at okay where are the cost overdrive says the first thing you do is go back and
say well where the costs and we did notice an increase in the storm cost at
the ability to feed students, those three meals a day,
was up 102%.
Granted, inflation during this time was
up as well, 6% to 7% a year.
The earlier year is not in 2019,
but we know during those pandemic years.
But the money being spent going out was not
it didn't match up, we were spending more.
So we started to look at these contracts
and really determine where is the money going.
And being a, that's our jobs
as a prudent governmental service, servants.
We took a look and we actually that initial,
we sent our ASD, our acting ASD to go boots on the ground.
The same time during this, in the next bullet,
there were staff concerns.
They sent it to the state school board, so it was
a public document, a letter of no confidence in leadership at the school.
So what we did was went there and said listen to staff and we had meetings with staff.
And initially these were on Zoom. They were just listening sometimes to just
individual leadership teachers. But all of these things were happening at
the same time. So in December, I couldn't make it there that I was invited. I said,
the time that they had, I was not available. So I said, but I will get someone there. Our
employee went, she was acting ASC at the same time, and she said yes. She toured the facilities,
took a look, took some pictures, it's like, yeah, we need to support here. And again,
the way the structure goes and how you know about things is things are reported up that you
to support this.
a tour met staff met leadership talked about it and heard their concerns. Since that time
that first December we had five subsequent visits throughout and I personally went and
visited the school in January and talked to staff and had a staff meeting had been on advisory boards
invited and what had occurred during this time and the staff concerns were real when I talked
and they wanted to know what it would look like moving in
because we had shared your 1.6 million in the whole,
like things have to change.
We're spending COVID money that we no longer have.
That was January 25?
Correct, correct.
Well, January, my personal visit was Jan 25.
That's correct, but not January 26, not last month.
We were talking a year ago.
No, a years ago, so from whence we've come, it's sharing.
So when we found out that
On those on-site visits, we had on site visit by the state's engineer.
We had the deputy.
She met with staff individually that wanted to speak.
And so we really received some information and knew that how do you get
within our means and have a school system?
At the time, what alerted me was that there was a recommendation
to eliminate 14 teaching positions.
and other things, over my time that there's no way that you can have a comprehensive high
school with 14 less teachers, and we would not be able to do that.
So at that time there was rumors that it's going to shut down and the teachers really
feared that, so I was like, no, there is no talk about closing mounted to come down,
and it will work with the administration, the superintendent specifically, to get a budget.
And so we worked back and frankly that work was done by Deputy Morrison who was a school finance officer in a district and she worked them through because we wanted to know what is spent on teaching what's spent
on administration what spent in another area and as you know and you've probably heard from other people who run boarding schools for facilities that really funding is lacking and so that has been knowledge it's been looked at in bills it
a group coming. So boarding schools, excuse me, have a very specific issue, you know, with
the housing site as well. Excuse me. If anybody has any water, I'd love it.
So with that in the planning for this year, this present year what occurred after all
was the best service, that's what we wanted to know.
Oh, thank you, sir.
Oh and thank, you thank.
So, I thank so much.
If the dorm, so we did take the Dormatory and look.
What we noticed was that some positions that were originally the dorms during the pandemic
time when we had money were moved over to the state side.
And so we wanted, but in the contract-
You need to understand state-side.
I've heard this said before with Edgcomb.
When you say dorm and then state's side, yes, ma'am, what's the distinction?
So that's a great question.
that we have last year, it was one vendor,
this year it's another vendor.
And they have employees and their employees
partner with the state employees,
which is Mount Edge come teachers,
Mount edge come boarding school staff.
So we do have staff in the dorms,
but a majority of the kitchen supports
and other dorm supports as well,
partner, with a vendor and that's been the history.
So.
We went out to bid last year for the services and created a contract where we added in just some of the specifics like laundry services,
remove the two of three positions back into the contract because we felt that they were needed,
and other reductions we made for this year was not 14 teachers, it was four teachers.
There is a true reduction in teachers at the school.
one administrator and then two administrative support staff and so
That's how we balanced a budget like every other district did is look at
Where can we make the changes while keeping students services in mind keeping? Students moving forward?
To mind on FY 2025 the goal when we had to right size it in the middle of the year when were flying the ship the request was
We need to start saving as we move through this year,
but try to keep this as far away from students as possible.
Like we don't want to affect students.
It wasn't their fault that this error was made,
so let's just keep going.
June and July, just to share, to get up to date,
changes in leadership.
The former superintendent did resign.
She wanted a different part.
She was wonderful and loved the culture of the school
and really moved that, but, you know,
she decided, this isn't what I really want to do.
I'm gonna choose something else to to.
And at that time, David was hired as a superintendent later.
in organizing around Mount Edge come in its needs.
The dorm principal after the school year started,
and the dorm principle is an employee,
was an employer of the state.
He resigned, and I believe he retired,
and then two other critical dorm positions followed him.
Like leadership happens, his team left as well.
And at this same time, we did transition to a new contractor for dorm and the kitchen,
and then like deep cleaning and upgraded some needs that we found when we were at the school
during this transition.
So it wasn't the best of planning with transition, there was no expectation that or understanding
that the dorm principal would leave, but that person chose to leave and that dominoes happened.
quite a few people so if you think about some of the challenges this year that
they've gone through is hiring people number one that late in the season and
then also learning new processes learning, new procedures and it was
actually the students who helped like get that back to this is what we were
used to and this was what would like to do so
This was a lot, I tried to sum up those changes the best way,
but I know there's probably more questions,
and I'm happy to answer any before we move on.
Right, we'll probably have to move a little faster going forward,
but this was very dense slide, representative story,
co-chair story.
Thank you, co chair Hymn Shoot,
and welcome commissioner and superintendent Langford.
I had a question about the changes in leadership,
and um, um I have been reading a few articles,
And, as a school board, we always are able to go through a hiring process for our superintendent.
And I know you haven't, I believe you have an advisory schoolboard, or I'm not sure
with the name, the technical name.
And one of the comments was that this didn't go though a typical superintendent hire where
me the advisory board. I don't know how those were done in the past, but if you
could give me some context about that process this year, that would help me.
Thank you, Madam Co-Chair. Yes, absolutely. So when we did receive the
resignation, it was not in early on. It was the latter part of the spring and
dorm as well. The advisory board was not involved. We didn't have a full-scale hiring
because of the timing of it. School needed to start. And when we looked at what was at
the school and the condition of school at the time, we needed leadership to come. When
I talked to some people, some came and shared, hey, I heard about Mount Edgecome. I'm interested.
during this time and found reason of my selection for David was the interest from
the staff and people at the school that I had talked to as well as the advisory
board was that we want Mount Edgecombe to be brought back where it was. There was
turmoil last year so it didn't just start this year it really began last
year with that you know vote of no confidence and so we need a strong
I knew that Mr. Langford was available and could work, understanding the
The basically, it's a little bit different.
He is working in Mount Edgecombe,
but also supporting another school district.
That was a way to, through finances,
the board came to me actually and had,
at another School District,
and David could probably talk to you about that,
and shared this offer about, what if we did this?
So this idea was brought to my desk.
So let's talk about what, if, we do this.
to school districts. No other superintendent in the state is doing that.
How often are you able to get to your other school sites or to
your school district? How's it working out? Yes, Madam Coach, I'd be glad to
address that so yeah last year in February I interviewed for the Chatham
School District and was hired immediately and happy to go to the
Chatter and have a career there and really liked the whole situation. As
I was contacted by former students, former teachers,
former parents, or current parents even, from Mount
Edgecombe.
And they said, wow, you're coming back
to the state of Alaska.
Mount Edgecombe needs you and there are a lot of things happening and they need your expertise and background, etc.
So as spring progressed, I started having more conversations.
Thanks to Senator Shower, got introduced to the commissioner and I simply started throwing the idea out that I could help in whatever capacity to begin with.
And then I'll emerge the ideas of could you do both?
I said, I think I can do both very well.
But really, it's going to be up to the board in Chatham
because they hired me first.
And so my allegiance there is first,
so I met with the Board in chatham several times
and explained the entire situation
and what it would mean for Chatum and Mount Etchcombe
and their advantages and disadvantages with.
doing that and basically left it up to the board and chat. I'm finally in June to meet
and decide and they voted unanimously that yes, they wanted to proceed and allow me to
to run both districts. So while I am not physically president and
chat them as I would be as a superintendent, I�m there whenever they need me and I talk
every week, practically, and what everybody agrees, 90% of the superintendent work now is online.
You even have online meetings with people that are in the building at the time.
And so it's the same with a chattel that's a very, very small district,
only 174 students who have been four schools.
They all know they can contact me anytime, day or night.
And in fact, this morning, I had two conversations
with principals this evening.
So I wanted to make sure that Chatham
was going to be OK with this, knowing
that the state was requiring me to live in Sitka
and not live an ongoing.
And, in order to help them understand,
instead of having once a year superintendent evaluation,
let's do it quarterly.
So every three months, I beat with the board, and we go over in detail what's working,
what is not working and make adjustments.
And so every time they've said unanimously that this is working well for all of us.
So.
Chatham being one of the most, by any measure, one
of our most at-risk districts in the state, so they would require,
I would think, quite a bit of attention, how much time are you on the ground?
Madam co-chair, not as much as if I was full-time superintendent there, that's absolutely correct.
But at critical times, like I had all four schools, beginning the school year, I
was doing staff training, staff development, working directly with them,
getting to know the communities and understanding that.
I basically leave it up to the principals in the four
schools telling me when I need to be there.
I was just in Tennessee not too long ago, so at first the idea was about, you know, maybe
I should try to go once a month or something, but they are the ones that told me that that's
really not necessary to actually be on the ground that much time.
In my house district and I know that there's no direct ferry between them and there is no
direct flight between so it's a lot of travel.
Can you tell me who's doing your job at EDGE come when you're not there?
Number of people, the number one person I work with is Dr. Miranda Baca who is the academic
She's really the one that you'll be able to hear from her later and ask her questions if you'd like,
but she's the ones that I depend on for the transition because she is the only one
that was there the last six years and can tell me exactly what happened to COVID years,
what happens to the process, the budget reductions, staffing, etc. And so shes number one,
Dr. Bock is here and I'm here, and so the dormitory principle is the state person in charge while we're gone, so
And Representative Freer
Thank you through co-chair Hymshoot to
Commissioner Bishop and superintendent linkford. It's good to see you today. Thank You for allowing me to join you here in education
So I'm just I have a couple of questions, and I'll just say I will ask them all then if we can go circle back to them
Maybe first for superintendent Langford you had talked about
The the board talking about some of the advantages and disadvantages of you
Serving as both the superintendent for Chatham as well as my najacam. I'm curious what some?
of those are and then I
Suppose this is a question for commissioner Bishop
So it's my understanding one individual can't serve as a principal at two different schools
What are the?
How does this work? What? Are the mechanics?
this type of relationship to exist between Chatham School District and the D so.
Well, I'll address the first question. What are the advantages? Okay.
Sitting right here today, this is an advantage.
As just the superintendent at Chaddam,
I would not have access to everybody in the
D department that I have accessed today.
And so, any time I have a question or an issue with anything happening in Chatham
from special education to any kind of services or grants,
I've direct lines now to everybody in the Department of Education,
whereas Chancesar is just the superintendent of Chattam,
I would not have had these kinds of contacts.
And I think that's a huge advantage for the district.
We had a board meeting just last night and circled out as to use their board
meeting and I'm constantly checking with them is everything okay is there anything
that I need to be doing et cetera and they were all very happy about what's
happening and the way it's happening so and thank you um through the co-chair to
Would you like me to answer the question or the second part through the through
the co-chair first so you talked about the advantages what were the disadvantages
that they spoke about I think you already identified it you know not being
physically present every single day inside the district I
think is long-term could is a disadvantage and so
you we're working through that but I
think the board also recognizes that
The advantages have already paid off 10-fold over last year,
what they had in terms of being able to be in contact directly
with the Department of Education.
For the second part of the question, through co-chair
him shoot to Representative Freer.
Did I pronounce that correctly?
Okay, thank you.
of your new name. I can share that actually many schools in Alaska do share
principles so leadership is shared and a lot of this has come from the desire to
keep the money closest to the classrooms. You've heard time and time again you've
asked to share information about administration that before we reduce and
make changes at the classroom level of the people who serve the students the
Let's look at administration.
And so this is a pilot, it is an experiment to look
at that insofar as being located outside of your district.
Many of our rural districts have hubs.
Some of those hubs are in large rural hubs, say like Bethel.
You know, Bethels, that school district has schools all
is located in one of them and travels at different times.
Some of the school districts that are all rural have their hubs,
either in Anchorage or in Fairbanks.
So this is really a...
When I asked some of the superintendents
that have moved to local districts as well as boards,
many of their reasons are for efficiencies
and saving on funds.
Because keeping, I believe that closest to the students
is best, but when you have to plan on not so many resources,
the people that you choose to have closest
to students are those that are in the school.
provide information about.
But there are several districts in our state now
that operate with district offices
that are not located within the boroughs
for which the school district is.
So Commissioner, in the past, you have said freedom
to try but not freedom to fail.
You knew that Edgecombe was already in a fragile state.
You also know that Chatham district
is not a high-performing district on any measure.
And I'm not saying anything bad about Chatham.
They just need more help.
And yet, it seemed like a good idea to hire one person
for two districts that were struggling.
I need to understand that better.
Sure, thank you, co-chair him shoot.
The experiences of superintendents
and leadership matters.
At the time, I could have found a brand new person.
And, and I don't think that would have met.
the need that we see at Mount Edgecombe specifically.
There was a need from all over the state and parents
and I ran into people saying,
what's, you know, we need help at Mt. Edgecomb.
And it was an interest in having experienced leadership,
someone who knew the history and the...
the knowledge and the experiences of Alaska and Alaska's people to come back to Mount
Edgecombe and having that history.
It was also the first time I, when we went through this, I did not feel as though,
I said, no,
I don't think so.
So just so you know, it was a good bargain and a long discussion.
And it
And the Chatham Board wanting to try this because such a small district having a superintendent,
it's difficult to get a Superintendent.
We all know the salaries of superintendents, they're very hard jobs.
You know, you get called in front of here even.
And so, really, I think at the Chatham,
it was a willingness to feel like they could make it done.
The services that they needed from their superintendent,
they wanted at their administrative level.
Where they want it to put their resources was in the schools.
They didn't want to cut from the school
to have a full-time superintendent.
I was looking for a superintendent with experience who knew what trouble we were in and given at
the time that we would have two people on the ground in Mount Edgcombe that could move us forward.
Number one the principal of the school was not changing and at the
time of The Hire of Mr. Langford the principle of
the dorm was still there. So we had the continuity of leadership
and that we could work together.
Additionally, for me, it was academics, academic success.
I wanted to see Mount Edgecome and their outcomes grow
from whence they've come, and they weren't at a place
that people were happy,
and so moving that forward as well.
So those things did come into my decision-making.
Having a new person at Mount edgecome
who had no superintendent experience even full-time
may not have had the experiences
you need in working with staffs, working
with conflict, work with new vendors.
Specifically speaking, when we have new folks
in such a complex organization that
who didn't understand finances and understanding
the business side of the house, which
is the experience of superintendents,
that's a large part of our jobs.
And we ran into financial problems.
So my experience from working with this and looking at it was that we needed someone with
a strong business background as well that had run and understand those finances.
You know, when you're asking me about us really specifically and directly, those are some of the thoughts I had, but it wasn't made overnight.
In fact, I think those folks in the meetings can share.
I said, no, there are high needs, and when it was brought back about,
no because my thing was like, you would have to live here.
This is where you live.
This where every day you can travel if you need to.
And so we worked out some those issues,
feed on the ground in their own local places and their schools,
as much as, really, the Mount Edgecombe Superintendent can,
because he lives about a couple blocks away from the school.
And before I give the next question over to my colleague
here, well, I have a lot of questions about that.
So was the advisory board consulted prior to hiring?
Is that typical?
Madam co-chair, I believe that this state board of education,
I spoke to the state Board of Education at this time,
and I was working with the advisory board in settling the budget
and other issues, and then time.
time passed and I needed someone on the ground by July 1 and so the the final
decisions were really made in that that June month that we could move forward
and hiring in our state was difficult. I did have we did open the job but the
applications that I had were not long-standing experienced people great
people but knowing that there were issues at the school already and knowing
of planning and management, that I needed that strong background, which comes from an
experienced person.
And I hope you can understand the concern that we have for a decision to basically consolidate
two districts, at least the administration.
So it's something we need to really understand, Representative or Co-Chair's story.
Thank you, Co. Chair Hymshoot, through the chair.
When I think about the principles, I thing about them as our instructional leaders, and
when we look at research besides teachers, it is the principals who can really help with
achievement because they can help teachers network together, look at, as you know,
look several different things that really improve instruction.
And of course, Cluck One and Gustavus are part of Chatham District and in talking to
board members, I know one of their main things was saving money.
And that was one advantage to the Chathom School District, why they did this.
But as I think about this, and this is kind of the tragedy
about saving money because we do want to focus
on student achievement,
and I don't like shortcuts that way,
especially when I thing of needs.
And so it's 100, you said it was 174 students,
but they're from four unique communities
that communities really impact the schools too.
So my concern is you talked about Chatham School District
superintendent evaluation you know three times or more frequently and so I'm hoping
that's true with the advisory council or whoever at Mount Edge come as
tenant evaluations and I am concerned because I just heard the state board
was responsible for picking the superintendent and I it would be nice to because before I thought
it was the advisory council at Mount Edgecombe who did that so it'd be
nice for me to know the board to no one regulation who is responsible
for typically doing a superintendent search for Mount
Is the plan to do frequent evaluations with the state board or with advisory council or both as you go forward
Sure, yeah, thank you through
co-chair hymn shoot to co chair story. That's a great question and the advisory board and
Information in the way it's set up is really to advise the State School Board
So they do when new members come up they give names
when
For curriculum other activities that they'd like to see in this school. So it is an advisory
board to provide information to the state school board, but the
state's schoolboard is responsible for the approval similar to
local school boards and approving hiring. And so that that is
how that
Occurs and I'm not sure your second question and really in regard to principal ship. You're absolutely right
Research demonstrates that the leadership in the building is the second most important after the teacher
So I am not if that question was directed about your two small schools in your area
Did you have a question for mr. Langford? I just follow up to her story. Oh, yes. Thank you through the chair
My question, was about how frequently are you doing super evaluation of your role at my
edge come since I know you're doing it more frequently with the school districts
in Chatham and my point on the principle is I'm concerned that while we have
strong principles at all those places that they're not getting as much time to
focus on student instruction because their superintendent is not
So there was two questions, how frequently are you doing the evaluation and then how are
you giving support to those principles so they can do their instructional work and not
be involved in superintendent duties?
The situation I inherited in Chatham was a mess, and primarily financially.
So while they weren't 1.6 million in the whole, as Mount Edgecombe was, they had a deficit
about 300,000.
So the immediate need was to get them financially corrected again.
than anything in Chatham, where people were not focusing on finances, etc.
We were lucky enough to find a very good person in the CERC system.
That is now our financial manager for Chatom, and she's just been fantastic,
and fantastic partner with me, getting the organization back on his feet.
I can tell you how bad it was the first three months we were holding checks.
Because we just didn't have the money. We didn t have
the income to pay things. And so, of course, vendors
didn' t like that. Of course we paid all the employees
on time. Now we are to the point where we're paying
things on-time. When I inherited the district, I
was getting bills that were two years old. Vendors
wanting to stop payment or would stop using services.
And, so any time you take over a school district you're not
You don't get to play with you donít get
to work with the team you want, or the situation you
want.
You get work to the situations you inherit.
Just follow up.
And I know we want to move on.
Thereís a question.
Thank you.
But Iím still my question about how frequently are
you doing the superintendent valuations for Mount
Edgecombe?
I am a state employee and I answer directly to
the commissioner and am part of the state
employee evaluation process, SPIRE, and weíve already
Gone through one cycle and we'll go through another one. So yeah, thank you through
co-chair, him shoot to co chair story. So the formal evaluation does occur once a year and
specifically in the state structure because it is different. We call him a superintendent, but he's
actually a director. I do those evaluations, all directors for hire or approve by the State Board
of Education in our policy and bylaws. But I would say that I am in direct contact, probably speak
concerns when they're shared are communicated and expectations for resolution.
So formal evaluation similar to the state, the way that the State System operates for
all its employees and then of course touches every week to understand even given the concerns
of students and staff in the community to move the school forward.
Accountability is the most important thing in our schools, and so we're hearing a lot about historical situations
We also need to hear what's happening going forward. How are we fixing it? How we think it's getting better? Madam chair
We would love to move forward we have this in a representation representative schwankie
Madame chair, I'll try to be quick commissioner superintendent Langford. I I want to
I just want to point out, I think it's really important that we recognize the difference between small districts and large districts.
I'm well aware of small district and superintendents that are in charge of
small enrollment numbers, sometimes less than 200.
We need to be cognizant of the fact that some of these large districts,
the superintendent might be in charge of several thousand students.
And so delegation of authority is absolutely part of
the job and I think that that goes for small schools too.
So Representative Stewart kind of already asked somewhat of my question,
but as far as the savings and you somewhat answered it,
obviously there was a budget shortfall in Chatham that-
partially got filled with this so I was kind of curious how do you you said you
have four schools are there four principles or are their shared principal
duties and lead teachers because in several of my districts we have shared
principles and we had lead teacher in the smallest schools and as long as they
are a strong leader it works. Thank you representative that's also
exactly why I thought this could work because in Chatham they do have at the
two largest schools they have full-time principals and they're very experienced
people that have been there a very long time and when I interviewed them and
they interviewed me I put it to them about how this would work and we worked
and worked together and so far that's been working fantastic those are the
Cluquon has always been in a precarious situation because there's a number of students is just
so small. Right now they only have about 16 students but there was a situation where they were able
to get a head teacher that acts as the principal and is also a teacher there and so I've been working
directly with him you know almost on a daily basis to do whatever we need to
in Tennessee. Their school enrollment dropped below the state limit to actually have a school.
And so when I came on board, the idea was, should we sell the school? Should we move on? Why should
we do? I got behind it and started working with a director that was there before. And we established
to that they're up to 43 students and they've saved the school and we have a
halftime director right now but we're hoping as that correspondence system
grows we can we keep the School operating until we do get
more babies born in Tennessee and can get to the point where we can have a full-time teacher
there.
So the situation is looking really good and I was really thankful that the district had
faith that they could save the school because when I came on board it looked like they were
going to close it down completely.
And when went to visit, Tennessee it was one of the places that amazing small school built
purposely for that community.
And it's really sad that they don't have enough kids
to have a full-time teacher, but this is the best option.
So.
Thank you.
Elam?
Thank You.
Appreciate you coming out and sharing
with the presentation here.
I guess I'm just kind of looking to see
if maybe you can help me understand the difference
between the role of superintendent and principal
at Mount Edgecombe.
My school district is one of the larger ones, KPBSD.
And so we've got just over 40 schools.
And, so, we have structurally, you know, a superintendent,
assistant superintendent's principals over a variety of schools,
how do you, how you.
delineate the path between being a superintendent
and then the role of a principal.
It seems to me like, you know, in many of the places
we have people wear a lot of hats
in some of these that I need to go to some
of my schools and staff members kind of have
a hat rack or hat of hat.
And so I, how does that separate out
between principal and superintendent?
Yes.
Thank you.
Through the chair, yes.
At Mount Edgecombe specifically, because of the uniqueness of what it is,
there is an academic principle primarily responsible for the academic building.
Then there's a dormitory principle, primarily, responsible, for everything that's happening at the dorm.
the co-chair mentioned earlier, you know, what about what is state staff? So it's very unique
and that we have a contractor that actually runs the dorm, the Ana corporation actually
has 49 employees, 24 hours a day, that run the door. But we also have state
staff there that are responsible for wellness, a lot of student activities,
recreation, all those kinds of things. And so we we
So we meet as administrative team, myself,
the dormitory principal, the academic principal
and make decisions on the whole for the school.
And when one of us is gone,
the other one's in charge.
So.
Okay, follow up.
Quick follow-up.
So how much of your time has spent
at Edge Combing a superintendent versus wearing
those other hats?
Or do you have that all allocated out?
Actually, well the first semester was all spent in just riding the ship with
edge come from cleanliness to food service to all kinds of things. Just this
semester I've starting to do a lot more staff development myself and now
started every Monday I meet with the academic staff starting on the school
improvement process and bringing 30 years of consulting with schools and
trained, etc. And the same thing at the dormitory, we're starting dormatory training with their
staff and improvement, et cetera. How much of my time, really, the academic principals
is in charge of that building, and they are the authority in that buildings. So I work with Dr.
Miranda Baca to make decisions about the building etc., but I defer to her that, you know, this
you're in charge of the school and she's a very capable person for that.
Thank you. Okay, thanks and Representative Eisheid.
Thank You co-chair to the co chair to Superintendent Langford. Thank
you for being here. I just want to understand something about accountability. It's something
we we hear a lot in this building about the accountability so my work with
Superintendents and school boards is you know I see the superintendent is kind of the the general of
the school district, but the School Board the elected school board
hires that superintendent and so there's layers of accountability there and I as a voter in a school
district can hold school Board members accountable with my vote besides public testimony so on so
In your scenario where you are with Mount Edgcombe, where's the accountability?
Given the current model of a elected school board and a
essentially appointed
Superintendent well
Through the co-chair yes, we have advisory board meetings. I
Think it's every other month. We have a advisory Board meeting and
And I do come to them for advice and everything for how
many credits I managed to have to things that are happening
in the dorm and what is their advice.
Ultimately, our board is the state board of education.
So to me, that's the accountability factor that if there's
something not going well, et cetera, it's
the State Board's responsibility to let us know what
changes need to be made.
So follow up.
very low power over who serves on the state board of education.
So I'm still a little perplexed about the accountability and you know it is
talked about in this building and I just don't see it here.
So with all due respect advisory boards our advisory thank you.
I think I have a follow-up question to both representative
Ayeshite's question and then I had a separate question.
So thank you through the chair.
In local school districts the board approves the budget.
So if you're setting the
budget or it's a superintendent's responsibility to balance out the numbers,
who has that oversight?
I'll pause there, but I do have another question at Mountage come. Yeah, okay to the court chair
Yes, I worked directly with deed and all of the resources that they have to help set the budget etc
I had no input over the Budget that I inherited July 1
My job is this is your budget and you're to stay within it and that's that what the superintendents are tasked with and moving forward
Commissioner can speak more about that co-chair him chute to
Representative Freer
During this time last year of working through this again the issue that came before us was the teacher's primary
Concern was that they wanted to see the budget
In reviewing what had been done in the past for the last three years
There was never a budget presented to the advisory board.
The former superintendent had had one and so we worked with that advisory
board sharing information regarding you know the budget.
What we discovered and the manner in which
money is appointed at the state level and then operate it just literally operates
differently on a separate system than at a school district level. One of the
things and so the accountability that you see and many of
the changes were made due to that is that when we did investigate at
the school level many
of I guess business practices that are expected through the accounting
practices.
we're not being followed. So we additionally shored those up in so much as, which is really
great when you have money. Here's an example, you know, for purchase orders, there were 13
different books going out to get purchase order without a management of an inventory. And so,
you really didn't know who was in charge at the time of purchasing and it was
really kind of local. This is what I need and this is
what i always had. So we in any school system that you know
that is successful and as representative Aishai talks about accountability.
At the school level, when we looked at the management of resources,
we found that it needs more accountability, that we needed to have an oversight.
And so that's when
we began planning with the superintendent about a budget.
And then the local level really, additionally,
the principals and had some leeway and recommended,
this is what we'd like to keep, this
is, what, we have. Of course, you take your major expenses off of that,
your
you know, energy, electricity, things like that.
So when you talk about that, I absolutely agree
with what this board is sharing
about the accountability that was needed.
And hence,
I want to go back and share.
The reason that it was changed was practices,
business practices management practices managing projects,
things that we just needed to support the school
a little more in that area
and hopefully have that more transparent
who work in the building so that they know where their funds are going as well as parents
and students.
to Commissioner Bishop, I suppose, you know, we talk about the changes in leadership and the need for
an experienced superintendent. Mr. Langford spoke about,
you the different phases and how he was a part of the original when the state took over in 1985,
and I appreciate that experience. He was there for seven years, it sounds like, 85 to 92.
That was 34 years ago.
So that's a 34-year period where I was a student at the time,
so I'm familiar with what the phase is where it back then
or what it looked like, you know, 20 years ago, 17 years
ago and Ms. Erlingford also spoke about
being a consultant, maybe out of state for 30 years,
I understand there was maybe a lapse in certification
within the state of Alaska for a period of time,
but Commissioner Bishop, you spoke about
experienced superintendent, and so I'm curious,
Mr. Linkford, I do,
I, understand you have a type B,
do you has superintendent experience out-of-state,
outside of consulting, or do have your superintendent
endorsement?
Yes,
I have to hear the co-chair.
Yes, I have a super tune in endorsement for the state of Alaska and yes I was a superintendent
in California for three years and I ran a district in Los Angeles and learned a ton
consulted and worked with almost every community in Alaska
in the last 30 years.
I've been from Cozzibut, all kinds of places
throughout Alaska trying to help schools improve.
So I never lost touch with the state of Alaska
and what's happening here.
So when this opportunity emerged,
this is really my third career.
And I only put my hand up because I thought I could help.
And, I think that's that happening.
I'm sure that everybody is here to help.
We need to take a quick at ease.
One of the documents we had asked for has arrived,
and so we need take quick eddies to distribute that.
So we're eddies.
All right, we are back on record.
We're going to take one more quick question from Representative Underwood, and then we're
going try to expedite a little bit.
Lots of people took the time and effort to get here, so we want to make sure we hear
from them.
Representative underwood.
Thank you, co-chair.
Pardon my voice.
It's trying to come back.
But thank you for being here today.
I just wanted to touch on the fact I know we were talking about accountability and we
were trying about state boards.
And it sounds like the structure of this is not how Edgecome has an elected regular
districts do you guys have the state board but with all due respect to my
colleague from Anchorage I know when it comes to accountability for state
board we as a legislature actually vote on and approve who's on that state
board every year so we do have a say on who is on the State Board so I just
wanted to clarify that thank you and I think we will move forward we did receive
the org chart the organizational chart that we'd asked for and one really quick
question is
In a school district, you're gonna normally see a
school board somewhere on your org chart.
So how does that work on this org-chart?
Where is the advisory board?
Where's the state board on the chart?
And I'm not sure the charts has been uploaded yet to basis.
We just received it during the presentation.
So it will be uploaded shortly after we finish here
this morning.
Can you explain where the
advisory and state boards would fall?
Sure, thank you, Madam Co-chair.
And now.
be very quickly. So the org chart that we had is the state's org
chart for each departmental unit.
So this is that organization for the department mental unit, the
state school board,
the State School Board, they are not employees of the States, so
they serve to govern.
So, The State school Board governs basically is my boss.
They select and they select the commissioner and I answered the
state board.
Similar to local board selects a superintendent, so you could say that I'm the commissioner
I am under that state board at that level and then one of the divisions of
deed is Mount Edgcombe back in 1985. It was placed this way
The state Board does request
Just so, you know updates from all divisions in the department,
So that's the accountability there Mount Edgecombe as a division would have to report up the Alaska
Council on Post-Secondary Education, ACPE, is a division.
So understanding that LAM is division,
so those all are fed up and reported to the State Board,
but insofar as management, that's under the commissioner.
The advisory board serves as an additional board
to The State board of Education to provide guidance.
And there is member of the state board
of education on the Mount Edgcombe advisory Board.
Stockhausen, and she is the representative. She's now the president of the State School Board,
but she was also, for a few years, the school board person that was assigned to the advisory board.
So she participates in both boards and keeps that communication. Okay. Very quick question,
trying to understand a little bit about why
EDGECOM is different than other REA districts,
why does it go to the state directly
instead of being an REI district?
Sure, I'm going to respond to these, Commissioner.
Through the co-chair,
Hymn Shute to Representative Elam.
Back in 1985, and as you know,
Mount EDCHCOM serves students from around Alaska.
And so it was not from the time,
it as a BIA school originally.
So it is run by the federal government.
and it shut down because of overrun of costs and things like that.
If you were here and read the research, they shut it down at the federal government.
And there was this outcry to bring it back and the actual, the action was made at
the legislative level to do it in this manner.
It is funded, if you will, as an REAA in so much as the AADM or the ADM,
our funding mechanism for average daily membership is calculated the same way as
local Sitka government and homeowners do not support
through taxes, Mount Dodge come and all.
So it is, while it's located within that Sitkeboro,
it operates as an REAA, and this was the structure
that in 1985, they could move through the legislative process
to be able to assign it.
And so all of those assigning of where this school would be
was done at the Legislative Level back in the 80s,
and they placed it under the Department of Education
under the state school board.
Thank you.
Okay, to be really clear, the advisory board would be a board,
if we were to map that out,
the State Board would here at the top,
and the Advisory Board
would under state board giving advice to the
State board?
Yes, ma'am.
Portia their side.
They're not their bosses, but they, yes ma'm.
OK, we need to move on.
We're not going to make it through all the slides.
Very, very quickly.
And Madam Co-Chair, may we will run through,
and then we can answer questions at the end.
So I wanted to just share some of the continued questions
that were asked of us about different things.
We did have a couple of grants that we
competed for last spring and did get.
One, Nana, did themselves.
And the other one was the comprehensive literacy
state development grant, CLSD.
Mount Edgecombe did qualify for that.
And then critical positions that we had to fill,
we wanted to share these with you
because there were changes in these positions
and some folks left the employment of the state
as I shared the longstanding principle did.
He shared with the advisor board that he retired and then lots of people who were on
his team then decided to take additional jobs too.
So this occurred in July when school was to open in a month and so many of these, but
these are all critical positions that were worked to fill very early on.
This is student enrollment madam co-chair, and I know this isn't the detail that you would like as of Monday
You provided more information for us, so we do have school level data
Just like I shared the school-level data just like districts do they have different data than the department does in the oasis count
Which is the single identifier how we fund schools how?
We understand who's in them. This Is from 2017. We wanted to go back that far
pandemic levels we don't have the last day enrollment for this year but the blue
is the October 1st so those would be the students that began during the count
period we do have as you know it hasn't been a secret about 100 students have
chosen to leave and we have a detail of that from the principal and Mr. Langford
I'm gonna turn it over to you if we could stop for one second there I need to go
and specifically on February 3rd we did ask to see the October enrollments and
then we wanted it month by month for a few certain years specifically to show
before COVID since COVID. What I do want to know on page 8 right now is what was
your enrollment when school started superintendent?
402.
102.
What is your
enrollment today?
311.
So your enrollment today is lower than your end of your
enrollment and we have months to go in any previous year.
I think that's part of why we're here today.
We need to figure out what's going on.
We needed to figured it out and make it better.
So okay, really quick question from Representative Dibert.
Thank you through the chair.
Just on to either one, maybe Superintendent Linkford.
Is there a slide, you know, my aunt went to Mount Etchcombe
and she was from a small community
on the Yukon River, Tannana, Alaska?
Do you have like a capture of where students are from?
with that number of 311 just so we can have an idea of like how far students are traveling
to go to Mount Etchcombe and I know my colleague from District 40 has a student there from
Utpjavik that's a long ways and a along way from home and just that part of the story is
missing as well. Thank you. Do you want that answer right now in general terms or actual data later?
You announced our superintendent.
Represented through the co-chair.
Yes.
This year, the count is our students
are coming from 110 different communities
throughout the state.
So as far as the way as to privilege off islands,
as for North as we can, every community in the State
has students that.
may not be there this year, but have been there in the past.
So yes, we have open enrollment for anybody in this state,
and primarily the number one place that students come from
is places that don't have high schools.
So there are many communities in
the state that all of their students
come to Mount Edgecombe because they just don t, they can't.
Don't have enough to have a high school or don't operate high schools
So superintendent if you could also give us a little information of the hundred kids who've left are they mostly seniors?
Freshmen, do you have the data broken down that way?
I'm madam co-chair
I do know that Principal Dr. Baca does have that because I reviewed it, I saw it this morning she
shared it with me. Would you like her to come up or finish this and then have those questions answered?
I think we're going to stop on slide nine. So let's have slide 9 and
then we'll have Dr Baka come-up and answer that question and
then, we'd like to go to the students since they're here. Does that work?
Yes, I just wanted to talk about, you know, where we headed and how are you writing the
ship and what's happening.
So the first tax, as a superintendent, is to get to write people on the bus and we showed
you all the positions that resigned after July 1.
Many of those people, they didn't even have a chance to even meet and they resigned.
My job, number one, was filling all those positions as fast as possible, and because we're part of the State Department,
there's a lot of red tape to go through hiring positions,
and I saw that as my number-one task is to get those people in those physicians,
and today we are still hiring one of those position to build.
So this year, you know, we've added the NUPI Act language.
We now, I have a class called Brave Leadership
that I has six students in every day, and that's been fantastic
teaching them problem-solving processes and how to improve,
and you're going to hear from two of them today. We've
added shop classes.
We have many dual enrollment classes with University of Alaska.
and textile classes and 3D art, our welding program is state of the art because it's a dual enrollment
through UAS and they have the most amazing facility. Probably the biggest problem is we don't have
enough space, we fill every seat that they give us through that CTE program. We've also started
pretty extensive career services.
I did want to show you just a little bit of the situation
that we encountered in.
It's okay, we're not going to be going backward.
We're going be trying to go forward right now.
So, I'm a bit too distant.
I am a concern on the org chart.
I see a vacant security position.
I won't go into that right right
now, but I have kind of curious, so.
But I've got to stop myself.
So we want hear from Dr. Baca on.
The question that we had for her and then we'll go to the students since they made the effort to get here.
So if we could have Dr. Bakker come up.
Dr.. Bakkker, can you put your name on record and and give us your thoughts? Sure for the record. My name is Miranda Baca
I am the academic principal at Mountain Edge come high school
And your question was regarding the withdrawals, is that correct?
Which grade level was it?
Yeah.
Seniors?
Is it freshmen?
Yeah, there is a lot of misinformation out there, so I would like to, I love data,
so, um,
I have looked that up.
The majority of the students that have left, of
the 100, are female.
34 were freshmen, 29 were sophomores, 30 juniors.
So that was pretty much the same.
And then 10 seniors.
Of the 10 senior, a few were dismissed.
Three could not graduate because they
had failed too many classes.
And then I did look at the reasons.
So I do interview students when they come to me,
there's a form to fill out that they're withdrawing.
And when I get that information before they get on a plane,
then, I meet with them.
So we do ask, we due track that, and I will be honest,
there was not one consistent theme.
There were various reasons,
and including three wanted to play a basketball
with their hometowns or villages.
The majority were homesick.
I have some more numbers, I could get them for you, but anyway, there wasn't a consistent
theme is what I want to say.
conflicts with roommates. It is an adjustment for freshmen, especially if
you're living in a dorm with six people. I know as a teenager I would have had a
tough time with that. So that is a theme that comes up with freshmen.
So freshmen it will usually be adjusting to dorm life and homesickness. And then
if you attend we're dismissed I can tell you that for sure.
And Dr. Baccas, one further quick question before we bring the students up. Is that
So this sort of all over the map, withdrawal.
Oh, for the reasons?
Yeah.
The numbers higher, but the reason are usually all
over.
There isn't usually one.
But with freshmen, it usually is more home sickness.
And we're hearing something about students feeling overly
disciplined.
Has that come up?
That they feel there are too many rules?
I have not heard that when I speak with them.
The one thing that I've heard is they'll say that they feel there's a lack of communication
between the new contractors and new dorm admin and kind of how it was in the past
because they're all new, right?
There isn't anyone there that was there last year.
they are expecting it to be the same and maybe it's not so they feel like a
communication if that could improve then that would be better okay thank you for
that and I'd like to bring the students up to the student's have slides or are
they okay come on up and we'll put your names on record and
If you could put your name on record and do you have a presentation or do
you just want to we can just speak okay great if you can put
your Name on Record and tell us what you're thinking. For the record my name is
Ilana Kalki.
For The Record my Name is Kating Cross. Welcome we're glad you are here.
So like I said my
name's Ilanna Kaki and I'm a third year junior at Manage Kim High School and
I'm here to share my perspective.
So one of the biggest things that might actually come
as some of you are aware is the facilities
are very out of date.
And I think this affects student life as like,
there's leaky pipes, washers that don't work,
malfunctioning showers.
There's examples, like there is a leaking girl's main,
especially the main dorms.
And this isn't just the dorm's
but also the academic building.
There is like leaks in classrooms in the library.
But something that I've seen with the staff communication is
like the disconnect between the NANNA staff and the state staff.
They, it seems like they have a trouble communicating which impacts this leads
like inconsistent application of rules.
Sorry. I did a deep breath where you're, we're not in a hurry
and we are really happy to hear from you.
It's something where we can check out a lounge and that wasn't across all dorms.
There's been trouble communicating, getting rides, and just like a collaboration which
and we value your three years of experience at the school,
so it's helping us to see what's changed, so thank you.
Yeah, this just wasn't something that I noticed in previous years,
like the disconnect between the communication between
the contract and the state staff.
But I still do feel that Edgecombe is a place where we can get a higher education.
That's why I came to
my Edgecomb was to get that higher
education and I feel
that my Azurecombe students feel more like-
They feel happier when they're involved in the sports that we have.
I know I participate in many sports, and I feel happy when I have these sports.
And there's things that it for me to do.
And, there is a lot of positive things like I'm in that dual enrollment class for
ed 111, the teaching for Alaska's futures,
and there are the dance groups that volunteer in communities.
And I think when people go to edg come, people can build friendships and
That will last them for their entire lives and connect them out to the state, and so I was wondering like if edge come is
Can't
Continue to like
To withhold the standard to
Produce the future leaders of the State like what can we do to improve that?
Thank you. Thank You for your time and Lana you did great. Sorry. Okay, And I'm Caden if you could put your name on record and then
For the record, my name is Gaining Cross.
I kind of have a sort of speech, I would say.
We're ready for you.
All right.
My name's Ganging Cross,
I'm from Koyek and I am sophomore at Monashkum High School
here on behalf of MHS.
Coming from a small village school,
stepping into MHs felt like stepping
into a place where everyone moves fast
and works hard.
You can't hide at Mhs.
figuratively. You rise to the level of the people around you. It challenges you,
it values you and it inspires you the same way our school motto says. I didn't expect to be
in front of you today. i didn t expect me representing my school here in the capitol but
MEHS is the reason i walk into places like this with purpose. In just a few months i ve grown
more than i thought possible and i watched my classmates grow too. Soon from all over the state
experiences and struggles they had before they arrived.
MHS doesn't create those problems, it gives us a place to face them and to build something
better for ourselves. That's why support for MHs matters, not just for us but for the whole state.
Alaska is facing declining enrollment, rising needs, and a future that depends on our next
generation being ready.
MHS is already producing future educators, leaders, and contributors to Alaska's communities,
but we can't do that without stable funding for staff, updated facilities,
student activities and real maintenance, especially maintenance which is stretching
very thin right now. I'm not here with data charts.
I am here as one student who moved from a small village to a school that changed my trajectory
I'm one of hundreds from MHS.
MES isn't just a school, it's a place that grows people
who go back to their communities
and strengthen their community.
So I am asking you to keep supporting MHS,
not because of numbers, but because
of what it does for students like me,
for native youth, for all Braves,
and for Alaska's future.
Thank you for your time.
Thank You, Kayden.
If you guys could stick around for a second,
do we have questions?
Representative Schwonke.
Thank you through the chair thank you to both of you for being here and it is difficult to
sit there as a teenager in front of a house committee so you guys did great. I have a question
boarding schools in my district eastern interior and some of the variable term
boarding opportunities and that is we have a increasing substance abuse problem with teenagers
and we had schools now that are taking on students that
are coming to them with really severe addictions
and it seems like it has really grown in the last couple decades
get a hold of substances. We know more about substances via online opportunities, pharmaceuticals.
Can you describe a little bit about your experience just adjusting with people that are coming from
a rural community maybe with an addiction and is is it something that staff is able to deal with?
Ms. I'm going to call you Ms Alana.
I have friends who, like you say, have addictions and they've came from those villages where it's like,
and there is a nicotine cessation group at Edgecombe run by the state staff, and I just something to deal with that.
And I believe there's rules like if you turn yourself in, then you won't get in trouble.
So there are things that they're doing to help kids with those additions.
Caden?
Cadon, did you want to add Mr. Cadone?
Oh, could you restate the question?
Yeah, through the chair, it's just a kind of a simple I'm looking for your observations as to with when kids do come to Ed come with addiction issues and problems is this something that the staff is able to assist with and help and it sounds great that you have you know support groups and just kind
of curious your perspective on it and has it gotten worse.
I do have, I did have a few friends and do
have friends that struggle with addiction
and they do like programs and groups
that can help with their addiction.
They, but if you don't turn yourself in
and you're caught, there's a lot more
disciplinary action involved.
And personally,
I think the
the decision has gone down.
Personally seeing in boys men.
Thank you. So a really important question I have I'm not seeing others from the committee
But I want to know more about student mental health. Mm-hmm. What kind of supports are there for you?
You don't go home to your family at night, so
how are you helped at the school and that could be anything from opportunities to be with other
kids and to do activities to actual mental health counseling. Can you talk about that?
Yes. There are two wellness counselors at their school, and I find them very helpful to talk to
RA's. If you form relationships with them, they can also, you can talk
to them. It's not their job, but like even relationships to teachers, just having that community.
I've built really great friendships at Edgcomb that I think help my mental health.
Mr. Caine.
In my personal time, I feel like that there is a lot of opportunities and access to people
who can help you, people who help with your mental
health, like personally I have met with a counselor a few times, discussed my
personal life and they seem to be very genuine and caring.
And there are a
lot connections that you can form and all the other students at Monichrome are very
supportive.
Yes, and we are, as you might know, right next to the search hospital.
So I know kids who can go to therapy there or other things.
And I would just like to say that a lot of students that come to Monashkim, they come
with those problems and they aren't a product of our school, but they're able to identify
those problem because they came to our schools and the resources we have available.
And you both are upperclassmen.
It has the availability.
Oh.
I'm a sophomore.
Oh, sorry.
Sophomore.
Sorry, I thought senior, but thank you for clarifying.
Can you talk about,
I suppose this is probably for Ms. Alana,
has the access to mental health that you know of
changed in your time at the school?
In a way, yes.
We did have,
I don't know her exact credentials,
but Ms Rokin, she was on upper campus,
but then she transitioned to lower campus and that changed.
And she's a registered now, so she is up there as the therapist.
But for the time I've been here, we've consistently had the two wellness counselors,
and that's the same, but just, they're both male.
So the female therapist has changed since I have been there.
Okay, Representative Dibert.
Thank you through the co-chair. Good morning. Thank
you so much for being here and as a third grade teacher, it's my
other role. I always ask my students what they want to be
when they grow up and how Mount Etch Come is helping you
achieve that dream.
Thank You through The Co-Chair.
Thank
you.
Ms. Alana?
Oh, um.
I want to go into the medical field in a way and I think that my age is preparing me like with the classes that I take
I have the opportunity to take
two science classes this year chemistry and anatomy and physiology and
Yes
I'm personally interested in pursuing a field of law and there are a lot of opportunities at edge-comb for things like this like debate
mock trial
these different AP classes and access to all these lawyers and attorneys over in Sitka.
Wow, okay. We're going to have one more question from Rep Eyshide and then we're
going move on so that we can wrap up at 10 till. Representative Eyeshade.
Thank you, co-chair him, shoot through the co chair. Thank
you both for being here. You're doing great. Take a deep breath. Smile.
and you're just doing great.
My question is, you know, students leave Mount Edgman every year.
There seems to be a spike this year so far.
Students talk.
I was a teacher for 25 years.
From your perspective, for both of you,
why are students leaving this here?
What do you hear?
I do agree that students leave for a lot of personal reasons.
We don't know what's happening back home.
I know students who have left for back homes,
for things that have happened back
home for mental health.
There has been a lotta change this year,
which has affected students, but so that's why I think
they're leaving it, and it's changed,
but also we don t know it s happening
back at home and there's a
lot things in Alaska that mental
health is a statewide problem.
I feel like the reason for the large amounts of people leaving in the eyes of the media
is because this year we've accepted a lot of freshmen and a
lot these freshmen I would feel aren't as academically strong as previous years and
our school really encourages you to excel and if you can't do that they're very strict on the
Finds you're allowed to like expectations. Yeah expectations
Thank you for that. Okay
Did you want to add something? Yeah, like for example edge comb we don't have D's and F's we have we go C to NC so our
For grades, it's like more strict. But you can get to pass a class
But I think that is good to help us achieve higher
And we have many, many leaders across the state who have come from Mount Edgecombe,
and that's what we want to make sure is that that opportunity is there,
and we still get the same kinds of graduates out of the school that we've gotten in the past.
So appreciate your time. We're going to move on now to our advisory board member who's online.
Thank you. You guys can head back. Thanks so much.
We're going to go to Howard Amos who sits on the Mount Edgcombe advisory board.
Mr. Amos, if you could put your name on record, and we have you down as just answering questions.
But if could share with us how long you've been on board and any information you'd like us to have, we would appreciate that.
Thank you for joining us. Good morning.
It's only over the phone and I am a graduate of Montage School in 1969.
I think I'm approaching fifty-seven years of graduation from Montagstrom but I became
a strictly volunteer ASP Board Member for Montague School.
I don't get any finances or anything like that.
So I'm simply a volunteer.
One thing I want to say about Monteskum is that it provides life skills for students
coming out of Montdeskums.
I originally came from a village of McCormick, Northern Nevada, Ireland, and the life skill
stator given to me during my educational years have provided a lot of assistance for me.
I became community leader,
has City Council board chairman,
tribal government leader.
And I went on to other different areas of business.
But that's very important.
For example, I took small engines,
school down in Monestam.
And when I came home, there are no mechanics, no shops, everybody has to tend for their own
fixing their snow machines, their old blood mortars, et cetera, for wheelers. And that's very important
for me saying something about Martin Edgecombe because that provided me with a lot of skills
I understand there's about the shortfalls in most of the schools here in Alaska and you
guys very well know that oil revenues are not as they used to be and that's been caused
some short falls in some funding for the Department of Education.
Last year, I was first admitted with him during state basketball championships here in Anchorage.
And he is a very smart person.
I'm able to talk to him.
I support his position as superintendent.
And to top that off,
I have a granddaughter attending Mona's room right now.
And she's a junior this year.
A lot of times she calls my wife and I stating, she wants to get out of high school.
But I wanted her to go down there because of the education that I received there.
There are no technical education being taught in small schools, like being an art Christian.
plumber, carpenter, et cetera, and those were taught to me by Marnescombe High School,
and I think I hope they're still doing the same thing, but this budget tort falls, I
have a little clue what's happening, because I haven't not traveled out of Mournescomb,
But that's the way it goes at this point.
And during those ASB meetings, the department had mixed their reports very thoroughly.
I listened intensely for the Department of Action Making the reports on what they're
doing for their students.
approved by the ASB board members and I think that's important.
I know that I've participated in small schools, ASP,
out in Macquarie and it's
important for the
board member to make their approval for what's going on in the school.
some other board members through Zoom that I have not met before.
They're very active.
And one of the things that is important now is that we are allowing parents
to the ASB board members.
And that's very important.
They provide that important advice to their ASP.
So I appreciate that.
And I wouldn't support now.
Let's go if it were to be great in great debt.
But understand that we're not getting revenues anymore
as we did.
We have to make some adjustments to our budgets, et cetera.
So I appreciate your being able to talk to you.
Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Amos.
And thank you for your volunteer work on the advisory board.
If we could bring Mr Langford back up and go to slide 22,
I think we're all committed to wanting to look forward.
And that slide does look forwards.
So if you could just quickly walk us through slide
at 10.55, 9.5, apologies, Mr. Langford.
Yes.
I'm committed to rebuilding the enrollment at Mount Edgecombe,
and we've already started accepting applications for last year,
representatives visited last Friday.
I told many of them that managed could easily be at 600
students if we had a new dormitory and we
had the space.
The reason I say that is because last year we
had to turn down about 130 students that had applied,
but we don't have the place for them.
So the need is there.
If we get funding for new buildings,
that would be fantastic.
I could see managed can really growing.
We do need to do better on academic
Outcomes and that's why I've been starting to work with the academic staff
Every Monday on school improvement and what can we do?
Better and communicating the message to them that good is not good enough. We have to
Do something better.
We can't just be
No worse than any other school in the state.
We had to be better than the other schools in this state, so we're working towards that
Our aquatic center is up and functioning and doing a very good job and we're hiring
lifeguards that are managed come students and that's really excellent.
There'll be new dormitory-riffley placements coming in next summer, finally, and
that has been a big problem. I hear buildings that were full of leaks and problems.
not just this year, but really a decade of
unrepair and unfunding projects
or not funding projects.
We're already starting curriculum planning for next year,
looking at developing student leadership teams.
And you met some of the students that I'm working with now in
leadership and plan on having them come back in the fall and train
new students how to function and manage them to a much higher degree.
we're constantly developing administrative processes to move forward and so I think the
the outcome for Mount Etchcombe is very very bright and yes we've had 100 students leave
this year which is slightly higher statistically than normally but I
You know, the food service is always a complaint from students whether you're here in any school in the state and food
Service, but it's especially true for Mount Edgecombe because they eat there three times a day
so we've been working very digitally did or
Closely with nana corporation to revamp that as fast as possible and the first first
When I got there in July 1 I really doubted that we could open to school
It was the cafeterias in such bad shape and is repaired.
Yeah, we're not going to have time to go into all of that.
So I hope maybe at a future opportunity.
I'm curious, well, I think because we need to wrap up,
you know, the condition of the buildings,
the legislature has funded a number
of different upgrade opportunities,
and they have consistently been vetoed.
So we are here, and we our here to help you,
and want to support your school.
but it's going to take all of us to get that done.
I wanted to close with the mission of Mount Edgecombe High School.
It is to provide a challenging, unique education
in a residential setting that values rich cultural
diversities and traditions inspiring Alaskan students
to become successful, responsible, global citizens.
And I take that mission to heart.
I also want to point out Alascan student.
So maybe one day we can serve national students,
but right now we need to serve Alascan students.
It's in our mission.
And we're here to help you get that done.
So with that, we are concluding today's meeting.
Our next meeting will be on, oh dear, Friday, February 13th.
The House, what could go wrong?
The house finance subcommittee for the Department of Education
and Early Development will begin at 8 a.m.
and has been scheduled for most of our allotted time.
This meeting will be focused on residential school funding within the Department of Education and Early Development's budget.
If time allows, we will gavel in for the House Education Committee to hear bills previously heard.
As a reminder, the committee's email address is house.education at akaledge.gov.
Public testimony can be sent to this address.
We love hearing from people with no further business before the Committee.
Thank you for your time today, and we are adjourned at 9 p.m.