All the Senate Finance Committee meeting to order.
Today is February the 12th,
we're in the senate finance room.
Please silence your cell phones.
Present today, we have Senator Stidman, Senator Olsen,
Senator Keel,
Senator Merrick,
Senator Kauffman.
Senator Cronklin, myself,
Senator Hoffman.
I just came back from getting my blood drawn
contrary to popular belief I do have a heart.
With that, we have, with that we
have one item on today's agenda.
We're going to have a presentation regarding Mount
Edgcombe.
Four of the members of this committee
went to Mount Edchcombe, there's been a big drop off
I'm sure if there was a 25% drop in enrollment in Anchorage, Fairbanks or
Juneau, there'd be alarm bells going off.
That is what's happening in Mount Edgecombe.
So we went to Mount edgecombe and we've invited the Department of Education to come forward.
and superintendent of Mount Edgecombe, David Langford,
please come forward, identify yourselves
and proceed with your presentation.
Before you proceed
with our presentation, I would like,
if you could give a brief summary of your experience
in education for the committee
and for listening audience.
Thank you sir. My name is Dina Bishop and I am the Commissioner of Education for the Department of
Education and Early Development. And I came to Alaska in 1990 after graduating college with a
degree in education. I worked in Copperworth School District for a couple of years. The
majority of my career was spent in Matt Sue Burrow as a teacher, I was a math teacher. Teacher,
I worked in district office, assistant superintendent,
and I was a superintendent in Metzoo
after an untimely death of the superintendent at the time,
so I as thrust in there pretty quickly.
And I've also served as the Superintendent
of Anchorage School District.
So at this point in time 36 years in education,
I retired in 2022 from the superintendent in Anchorage,
took care of my ailing husband and came back to work.
for the state in August of 2023 as the Commissioner of Education, sir, and as Commissioner
of education, could you describe what you feel your role is in
in
In Mount Edgcombe and how that fits into the scheme of
Education in Alaska
Thank you, Sir. That's a great question. As the commissioner of educational supporting
The job is really to move education forward in all schools and support all
schools. However, at Mount Edge come, it's a special school, as you know, and it was
designed when it did return back to the state after the BIA in its closure, coming back
to state. It was really set under the Commissioner of Education, kind of a
governance, if you will, under state Board of education rather than a local school
board, really, to
continue the high quality education for students all around Alaska and so my
Personal is as when you're the commissioner the best thing you can do is hire well
To hire a superintendent and have that school operating
At its at its fullest
Thank you for that background to please proceed with your presentation
Thank You. I'll have guests or those
Presenting with me, and certainly here to answer questions to introduce themselves before I begin.
My name is David. Excuse me. My names David Langford,
and I'm the Superintendent of Mountain Edge Come High School,
and also the superintendent of the Chatham School District.
Could you also briefly describe your experiences for the Republic?
Yes. Graduate College 1979. That started to be a long time ago.
I spent one year teaching in the lower 48th and then came to Alaska in 1981 and was first
in Lake and Peninsula School District for a year as I attended a music teacher for 16
schools in district and after that I went to Clowock in southeast for two years and that's
where I started hearing about the remake of Mount Edgecombe happening.
School administration and supervision in 1984 and was kept in contact with
Alaska and as Mount Edgkin was shut down in 83 and then being sort of reborn in
1985, I knew the superintendent, Larry Roschlow, that was leading the
transformation and contacted him early, ended up being the first person hired after
him.
and came in the spring of 1985 to help him actually build a school from scratch.
We had 1200 teaching applications for 15 positions,
so it was a huge process of just sorting it out,
but also tells you the interest that educators had in remaking
EDSCUM under the state auspices.
So that was very, very great experience.
with state-of-mountage come until 1982 as a teacher,
technology, business, relations,
and we were actually sending students around the world
to do presentations about what we're doing.
Had almost 200 people a year coming from around
the World to a week-long in-service
that we put on at Mount Edgecombe.
And so we had pretty much a worldwide reputation by 1992.
decided to leave Mount Edgecombe and do consulting work for a few years and I
thought that would only last a couple of years. And I'd be back in Alaska,
ended up lasting about 35 years, and when I... we were taking care of our
ailing. My wife and i were taken care our aeiling parents, as many of us have to do,
last year, and my wife and I said, what do we do now?
And we both looked at each other and said let's go back to Alaska,
and it specifically go to southeast.
So I originally applied to Chatham School District,
and was immediately ordered that job last February.
I kept offering expertise that I had about Edgcombe,
and anybody that would meet with me.
And then started meeting with the commissioner that spring,
Then the idea came about, can you run both districts?
I said I won't do it unless the Chatham board says I can.
And so I spent about a month and a half working with them,
talking through what the dual role would look like and
the benefits for them as well as for Mount Edgecombe.
And ultimately, they decided unanimously to let me do both.
And then my appointment came for
Mount edgecombe to become superintendent and I think.
June 30th and I started July 1 in Mount Etchcombe and been working diligently ever since to
do what I can to change the situation there as fast as I could. So thank you.
Good morning for the record. My name is Karen Morrison and
I serve as the Deputy Commissioner for The Department of Education.
You want to give a brief? Sure. Thank you um I came up to Alaska in 20
in 2001, and I lived in Petersburg.
Both my kids are graduates from Petersburg High School.
I got my Bachelor's of Science in Accounting from UAS in 2011,
and then I started working at the Petersburg School District
as a finance director.
I also have a master's in school business leadership.
And in 2023, I came to the department as a Director of Finance and Support Services,
and I served that position for almost a year, and then I was asked to move to become the Deputy Commissioner.
Thank you. Commissioner Bishop.
Thank You, sir. For the record, Dina Bishop, we'll go ahead and get started.
The department likes to start with the mission, vision and purpose and specifically speaking
the vision is what we all keep in mind of what students will be able to know and be
able do after they leave K-12 and this is especially true for Mount Edgecome.
Wanted to remind everyone and we keep ourselves reminded of our strategic priorities set by
The agenda is to really share a little bit of history.
Superintendent Langford did provide that a little bit now so we'll share additional
more information for those that don't know the start of Mount Edgecombe. Many
people at this table absolutely we're here and understand Mount
Edgecomb and at start. Student enrollment expanded educational options really where
we are. As I entered today we saw some pictures of the conditions of
the facilities and we have some more within our program here. And just share
I'll turn this over to Superintendent Langford.
For the record, I'm David Langfords.
Before you manage them.
Before we begin, Mr. Langfford,
Senator Stidman has a question.
Yeah, thank you.
Just Mr Chairman, just for the folks watching at home,
and as I referenced earlier,
four of us had gone down the edge,
come to meet with the school and the superintendent
and students and all that.
Some of the discussion today might get a little off of
the slide deck presented because of
the trip and some of
the other issues that we'll be working on here at
the finance table and I think it's important that
the others finance members know some
of
the background stuff that were working
on or things that
we've asked and it
You know, when you have a cockroach and you kick the wall open, it becomes much more complicated and problematic.
And that's the best thing to do is kick it open and clean it up.
So what we're trying to, I think Mr. Chairman, with the presentation today is bring the committee up to speed as much as we can.
Hang the dirty laundry out in the parking lot out back of the capital and then clean up and fix it.
The goal here is to improve Moneticham High School.
And we can't do that without accurate information.
Thank you, Senator Stegman.
Mr. Kleinford.
Yes, I'll go quick.
Just want to make everyone aware that basically I see Monetaichum three phases.
The first phase was from 1947 until 1983, run by the BIA.
huge, rich history of Mount Edgecombe throughout the state.
The second phase started, as I mentioned earlier,
started in 1985 when the State took over Mount Edgcombe
and we sort of remade the school at that point.
And I actually look at this year as the third phase
of Mt. Edgecomb and the reason I say that
is because we have a new dorm contractor,
we a have new cafeteria contractor and myself
as an administration, but other administrators on board.
And this has really been the first time
And that's something to situations, two decades that we've seen that kind of change at Mount
Edgecombe.
And I think it's very exciting to work with you and all the staff at Mt. Edgecomb to try
to remake Mount Edgekin and bring it back to the greatness that I
think that it once was.
Sir, for the record, this is Dean of Bishop, and our next slide really talks about right-sizing
the ship, which is interesting enough, similar language that came out in a news article.
To share a little bit of history, prior to David arriving July 1 as the superintendent,
I want to ground that and couch it in what happened last year, because David was not
In FY 2025, which was last school year, I was alerted in August,
which would have been the fall really as the school just started
after the first payroll that in our projections
that Mount Edgcombe was going to be $1.6 million over budget.
Knowing I shared earlier that I came here in august of 2023,
there was other than great reports from Mount Edgecombe,
things are moving along.
I, was not alerted and did not think of issues
as rising to this level when we looked of course the job is a fiduciary
responsibility given to the school board and then to
the commissioner and the superintendent well we worked together to really look
at that. We found that COVID funds were expired and so many of the funds
were used on operational costs on contracts and personnel. That's not
necessarily a bad thing we have children that went through a pandemic
to support them.
But as you know, just understanding
some of the positions and things that were added at that time,
there would have been a gradual tick down of that.
And so we looked and just said, well,
Boy, we have a problem on our hands.
We have to make budget that year.
The contract increases, just in looking at it
from 2019 to 2025, had an increase in the dorm of 24%
in food service over 100.
Granite inflation at that time was also very high
over those COVID years.
We took a look, someone went on
started talking to the staff at the same time,
the growing concerns.
There was a vote of no confidence on the superintendent.
So I was scheduling time to get down to Mount Edgcombe.
I could not go when they had asked due to other commitments.
So the ASD, acting ASD did go on campus in 2024.
Shared pictures, similar to what you had,
shared pictures of the food,
shared picture of concerns,
I scheduled to go down there in January.
I met with the Staff.
primarily the staff's concern as well as the advisory board was how to get a
balanced budget and it was really unknown like what what happened here we
want to budget. And the Staff's concerns was that they hadn't seen a budget they
hadn t seen it and what I learned is through my experience again I was a
superintendent for quite a long time and as a math teacher I understand
math. And so I just immediately went to show me the audits. I want to see the prior, you
know, work, like, where, how do we get here so you can look at a trend, look
at issues, and as you know or may not know the chart of accounts necessarily
does not exist for Mount Edgum because it is operated as a section of regular
government. So the digging into this was a little bit different.
Having the finances at the school compared to the state really is a disconnect according to traditional school
Understanding of what's going towards administration? What's administration support? Where are teachers?
What is the dorm side? We had to really utilize different tools to dig into that and as
My deputy shared that it was different than regular school finance, but we did
you know, some, the COVID money, that there really was a large, over $5 million influx
in three years, which was able to carry over into the 23, 24 school year, and that's perhaps
why we didn't hear anything.
When finances are flowing, there's no problems, right?
Everybody could get what they wanted, then when we had a crisis, it became a
crisis.
One of the specifics was that there was a,
when we requested a budget be made
and let us work with the budget,
what came back was 14 teachers were going to be removed.
And I was like, just knowing high schools,
I wasn't an educator, I as a principal,
I said, there's no way that you could take
You have 400 kids in high school and knowing what their staffing was that you could reduce
and make your budget meet by 14 teachers.
I was like, that is not an appropriate budget.
So we then commandeered the budget and was able to work with staff and other things to
really get this set on the chart of accounts.
So that's how we wanted to explain to them how you set a school budget since that time
in this budget cycle.
six other people from our engineer on site in Mount
Edgecombe last spring and trying to understand why things
weren't getting done and how can we help how
can support as the state support we've got to turn
this around in FY26 there what for this school year now
there are reductions for teachers one administrator
and two administrative support this the support staff
were not classroom staff that was the goal to make up
far away from the classroom where the gimbazatted,
I call that's the front lines of schools,
we need teachers in classrooms and courses and all that.
We did go out and Nana did receive
the prior year in FY 25, we did put out an RFP
to look at are we getting best value
from our contractor, given the cost increases,
we didn't know if that was the going rate not.
service, vendor, nano management, actually
won that state contract.
We did, over time when we looked at the contracts,
we did notice that the state was paying for services
that were no longer being delivered by the contract
because there was an agreement at a school level
to move those over during the pandemic time
to pay for additional.
resources, and so we did move those resources back to Nana that that contractor would pay
for those.
So we not only took on additional, we took things that were in a contract that was supposed
to be paid for.
In June and July, the leadership changed.
I want everyone to know that I did not go to Mr. Langford and ask him to do this job.
Senator brought it to me with Mr Langford.
big issues to solve, then they started talking to me and I said I would not go
and poach someone else's superintendent.
come back to me.
They did come to back with the school board of Chatham
and talked about how this would look.
The biggest key feature for me for Mr. Langford
in his selection was number one.
He knew where the schools was and where it could be.
He had history there and he was interested in creating that.
The second thing was that Mr Langford had a business background
and knew debits and credits and revenue and expenditures.
of really understanding a budget.
However, once we did make some of those changes,
we had some staff transition out.
Before you leave that page, is that understood?
No. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
After you're done, I have a couple questions
on this page also.
The first line on FY 2025, the projected $1.6 million
was the 25 budget reduced by 1.6 million?
Thank you chair. That's a great question. It was
We did have some funds come in to the state from sale of land and the sale
Of the land went directly back to Mount edge come for their services and again a lot of the funding for that was used for students and travel
So we did make reductions in students in travel, but didn't want to take that away
We held positions and then use the sales of The land to create that space
budget using other resources.
And then in FY26, those one-time funds evaporated.
Yes.
And so you came forward and requested additional funds
to fill that gap from the governor
and part it to the legislature, or what
Thank you. That's a great question. There were funds that did not go through that were a request
and this was at the school level. It was around transportation funds.
So between FY 25 and 26, was there a reduction in the budget?
Yes, sir. there was a redduction in
the revenue received because the COVID funds were not there. So the
budget, the plan, how much was that and where did that reduction come from?
Sir, are you talking in the programming between 25 and 26 budgets so the
Sorry, I didn't understand. Are you asking where the reductions came from in? The revenue or in that program programs in
The programs yes, sir
We can share that primarily there on staff. It was staffing so four teachers and three administrative positions
Additionally everything across this the school had to be reduced so it did come in
a lot of activities travel for students, what had been done,
which was really good in the past, for example,
and I think I've shared this when there was a debate,
state debate tournament in Anchorage.
They were going to send the 30 students of the debate team
there with, you know, kids and...
chaperones, and we had to narrow that to who is competing in the state meet and
we have to narrowed down to the competitors in this state to do that.
So instead of the over $50,000 ask, we asked could you reconsider the students
that who really should be there?
And the request was to have all students go because they were on, you know,
the team and this is, they want to,
they went ahead of a cheering section.
And so, but I had work through all of those issues regarding activities
Again, not stopping things for students,
because they shared it was really important
but reducing them.
I can have the deputy commissioner speak
to other reductions that were specifically done
since she walked through this with the school.
Was the need for the AmeriCorps in the FY 25 budget funded?
Thank you.
So this is Dina, again, DINA Bishop for The Record,
and we can share what had occurred with The Americorps.
During the budget process, the principle of the dorm and the superintendent were able to make the decisions once the money was there.
Mr. Langford can tell you what he found out about the AmeriCorps and why and when it was reduced.
If you explain to the committee and to audience what we're talking about and what the mericor funds were utilized for.
Absolutely.
For the record, this is David Lang for the Superintendent.
I had to hit the ground running to find out a lot of things and one of the things I found
out that there were four positions, three AmeriCorps and what's called a Yale Fellow,
that had been actually at Mount Edgecombe, I think for the last 17 years.
The reason these, we found out the hard way very quickly, the reason that these positions
are so important is not only are the most cost-effective positions that you can have, it only costs
for each of those positions for a year,
and they're basically voluntary positions.
But the impact on students and student life
was that the primary role of these people
was to do nothing but be with students in the evening.
So they did everything for them doing puzzles,
to playing games, I've even heard them playing poker.
But if the students wanted to take a walk on the beach,
boom, they took a walking on a beach.
Or they needed to go to town,
they drove them to the town.
So, that being cut out of the budget in the previous year was a huge impact.
And so, as soon as I found out about that, I contacted AmeriCorps,
we tried to squeeze away that we could hire them, but they said it's too late.
There are no volunteers. And we try to get in this January,
and they still don't have any volunteers,
but we're trying to work that into the Budget next year.
So in terms of students going home,
I would point to that as one of their biggest impact,
that could have been prevented.
Senator Stadman.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
If I could, I got a couple of questions on this slide.
I was mentioning that there was conversations
with the senator.
There was on the selection of recommendation.
Could you help me with that?
What's going on?
Because I don't think there's anybody at the table
that was that senator?
No, sir, through the chair to Senator Sedman,
and David can comment more specifically
About that, but this was senator showers actually contacted me last spring with David Langford and some other folks
So I'll let him talk about that. Oh, yeah
I'd been contacted by a previous student who'd also been a teacher about edge come and now has a
Daughter at Mount edge Come and he was very concerned about what was happening in Mount Edge come in could I help and
I said I would be willing to start talking about it and He knew Senator
Stedman and
through I'm sorry
Senator showers. Excuse me and through that connection got me connected to
Dina Bishop at the commissioners level, and that's how we started discussions
Yeah, thank you, Mr.. Chairman just clarity, you know is as we go forward the next couple months through the budget process
There'll be several of these clarity questions. I'm sure another one is the land sale
There's been an interest here at The Table that any land sales
at Mount Etchcombe that those funds are retained
in some form of endowment, some from of a structure.
So they are not dispersed within the general fund and gone
that they're hopefully for the life of the school
in perpetuity to help fund this school over the long run.
So I think it would be nice to have a little more detail
on the cash flow of those sales.
And end of it.
And then the expensing and the process of the funds because as we move along the finance
committees trying to keep track of those numerics because eventually hopefully we'll have an
agreement with an administration and we could reconstitute that, those funds.
And we're not talking in the budget very much money.
tens of millions or hundreds of
millions. So it would be a small pool of funds. That would
be there every year to help subsidize Mount
Etchcombe. And I guess we'd go through the process and figure
out what we want to have subsidized if it's travel for
the sports teams or books for the kids, right? That's be
later on.
So I'd like to
have that laid out a little cleaner for
the committee members.
The other thing I think we need more transparency on here is the budget process and both in
the operating and capital.
But on the Operating side, Mr. Chairman, as you venture down to do the
operating budget this year, I
think it would be helpful if we had the Department produce maybe a five-year look back or some
reasonable length of time.
On on an excel sheet because they're talking about it being so much different to everybody else and look at it like a business
Where's the revenue? Where is the expenditures and track that?
I think that would be very helpful
And I'd like to have also mr. Chairman if we can have them explain a little bit more on
Who prepares the budget at edge come and how is it submitted and what kind of review?
Does the commissioner's office have on signing off on the Budget?
and then on into OMB and eventually on the table December 15th.
And you don't need to provide it today,
but we are the appropriators when I don' t remember
the sale coming forward and the appropriation
of those one-time funds for the purposes
that you had utilized those for.
At this table, we don't, as a practice,
we do not use one-time funds for reoccurring expenditures.
If those are, if the department felt that those were essential services,
those, that request should come before the committee.
important enough to utilize one-time funds, but if those funds were requested of this committee,
I'm sure that this Committee would give serious consideration to funding them instead of using
one time funds. So I wonder what was the thought process on the sale of that property and using
Those questions that you're putting forward are are great questions, and I agree with you that
One it's very difficult to spend one-time money on operations. Hence our whole issue that we discovered was spending
I'll begin again spending one time monies from COVID on that's how we really
came to this problem, the situation.
The year the school year had started August of 2024.
We had students in the building.
There was expectations, although we did have to make up.
The sale was a little over 900,000.
That was received for that.
There were actually two land sales,
and I can share the other one later on
where those funds went.
It was important to us that they went
directly back to Mount Edgecombe, we were in the middle of a fiscal year that the plan and the
expenditures did not match up. We knew we're going to be in an issue. It was a lack of understanding
of authority to spend and what you actually have. That's the language in
the state, but in a school district it's same thing. You have to estimate how many students you
will have, what the revenue will be generated with them, and then what program you will
I do that all the time and I did that for 15 years as a superintendent and assistant superintendent.
So there was a lack of understanding what authority meant and what your revenue was.
So when in the two systems at the school and the state weren't dynamic enough
to catch that at that time, and that's what we found out why this was done.
When the authority increased during COVID, I think there
occur and reoccur in August of 2024 when we were in the middle of a school year and students were we had
people hired programs done.
We did our best at reducing.
I believe many of you probably had complaints last year
because trips weren't taken or we weren't filling positions.
So this isn't new just this year
to kind of move into a system to ratchet it down
just a little bit to then build a budget
of revenue that we actually had.
So I am sir in complete agreement.
The initial money that came in happened at the time
that this issue occurred as well.
try to not have it affect students in a significant way
and we tried to step down the reductions
utilizing those funds.
Additional funds came in at the latter end of last year.
When we took a look and will have some pictures
at when the vendor vacated the private vendor
and the new vendor came and took $90,000
and found other funds to match it
and that we had had at end the year
to be able to upgrade the kitchen
get rid of those rats that, frankly speaking,
that was reported in the paper.
So we expended money on needs of Mount Edgecombe.
Please know I can guarantee not one penny from a land cell
went back to any other school
or any division of the government in Alaska.
Well, that's not the point.
The point is we are the appropriators
and those dollars should come forward
into the general fund.
And we should be the ones to appropriate those dollars.
The question that I have on FY 2026 budget,
the reduction of the four teachers and the administrator
and two support staff, was there a request
by the Department of Education to the administration
to say that those were essential positions
and needed to be funding of administration?
Was that request made?
Thank you chair. That's a great question. I would say yes, because that's the operational side of the house and there were education bills
to increase funding
for education as well and the bill that ended up the omnibus bill HP 57 these were on the
Operational side to the House and so the governor had some bills that increased education funding the Bill that actually came out was part of this
with those
$700 so were
had last year in regard to operational funds and ADM and the count and that's
what this is these funds go for absolutely did all needs in the state
get met by the the final number I I think you know the
The feedback now is that no, but there still needed to be made reductions.
And again, these increases, the school is about the same level of staffing that it was pre-pandemic.
So these were positions, there were seven positions added with COVID money, one-time money.
Sir.
Senator Stidman.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Think back to my question.
The budgetary process
I'm putting a putting edge comes budget together doing a submission sending it in to
your office
Getting it approved as it walk us through that because I am
I've not clear on the supervision the review the signing off of the budget
And then when there is problems in a budget how that percolates up
beyond the superintendent into
your realm because ultimately you're responsible, of course,
if you inherit a problem or not, right? I'm not saying you caused a
problem, but you you are the hot seat. And then Mr. Langford is the local hot
seat, so if
you can help us through that process, how that works.
Thank you through the chair to Senator Steadman. I will share that and I'm going to offer some support
Really about the budget process from Karen
Morrison deputy Morrison who actually worked directly with the school in so far as your question about
Items bubbling up its communications with superintendents
I actually have bi-weekly meetings with superintendent's all super attendance, but individually as a subset of
the state, Mount Edgcom, the information that came to me was really brought to
me and to my level through actually the teachers themselves. When they did the
vote or no confidence, that's when it was alerted to
Level of budgeting, there were prior letters sent to the superintendent that I didn't have knowledge to of.
That were, prior to my starting in August of 2023.
That had really suggestions and expenditures about where you're spending your money.
Please be aware that this.
These funds are one-time funds, and they will expire in FY24.
So there is evidence of that prior to my situation, but again on the first year,
there was nothing out of the ordinary brought to mind level for Mount Edgecombe.
But in so far as the budget process, I would please appreciate Deputy Morrison assisting me
because I didn't physically do that function.
For the record, this is Karen Morrison, Deputy Commissioner.
So in August of 2024, it was brought to my attention that
Manage Come had a budget deficit of 1.6 million.
So I worked with a fiscal team to try and identify what the issue really was.
And the state process is different than a school district process.
School districts submit their budget July 15th.
the division of finance and support services really does a deep dive analysis on that and
looks at like last five years and you know are there large variances.
Mount Edgecome being a state division does not go through that same process.
The actual expenditures that they were spending was based on their authority.
So that was one of the reasons why they had 6 million
an authority to spend out of IA, which is a foundation program.
But they are only going to receive 4.3.
That's not exact numbers, it's more of a scenario.
But, they built their budget or their management plan on that 6,000,00.
reduced. We really looked at staff professional development.
We put a freeze on that so there wasn't staff travel. As the commissioner shared, there were
open positions that we didn't fill so we left them vacant to get closer to that delta
I looked at what actually was spent in 2024 and the actual expenditures for 2025 and
compared them to the management plan that was submitted for 2025.
Many of those actual expenditure were not even on the manager plan.
the look back of what was actually spent, so we have continuity of services.
And then there was the four reduction in teachers that we did not
rehire, they actually retired and we didn't rehire those positions.
and then went out for RFP and put a few things back
into the dorm contract, the two positions
that were moved back to the state in 2023,
we put those back in and we also added laundry services.
So the process is the management plan comes in,
it gets reviewed by fiscal,
and it goes through the commissioner and I,
we review it and, I'm happy to report that 2026,
expenditures that we're seeing with the exception of the kitchen upgrades as well as the dorm upgrades are on the management plan so we are
on track.
Senator Stadman.
Mr. Chairman, I think it would be handy for the committee to have a three or five year look back whatever you feel is appropriate when we look at this particular
budget this year and review it to the earlier response of just having authority to spend and not looking
to the revenue side, to see if the revenues even there to span, that's, I think, a management
issue that needs to make sure we get that straightened out.
Going back to FY26 and FY27 on the title, right sizing the ship, do those budgets in
Senator, I believe that we will right-sizing the ship have a solid program moving forward.
We will able to live within the means of the education dollars that
we have, but certainly in any school or in
any district if there were additional funds and the legislature decided this is what we want with their funds.
Mr. Langford would love to see additional students have the opportunity to go to Mount
Edgecombe.
Just one example, clean clothes for the kids.
The four of us went in the dormitories and looked at the state of the washers and the
the other body was there, she conveyed to us that she graduated 17 years prior to our visit
and she informed us those are the same washers and the
same dryers that
she utilized 17
years
prior for the committee's information.
Those dryer are not even commercial quality dryiers.
They are just regular series notebook dryers as far as I can see, but I think over two-thirds
of them were not working.
We were informed that it was hard to get parts for those dryer.
In regards to getting close, cleaned,
I don't believe that you're right-sizing that ship.
This is just one example.
There are a lot of other examples that I think the members that were there could address.
So, but in my viewpoint,
this ship is not operated and those are
people may not want to go back to the EDSCM.
I wonder if you might respond just on that one topic.
Sure. Thank you, sir. That is a great topic and I do agree with you and the manner in which
Refresh happens is within your budget and a solid management plan
As you stated a lot of those items are one-time items that you continue to reinvest whether they be technology
Carpets repainting things like that in a system. I agree. We didn't get here overnight that within a
In a management of a system, there is a refresh that you build into your budget each time,
whether it's with your maintenance funds or other funds, so in right sizing the ship,
it is moving forward. I absolutely agree with you. Is Mount Edgcombe where we want it to be?
Absolutely not.
I believe with the leadership that is there in support for this school that we can get there,
but I don't, I will share with you evidence that
we had that there was, there were needs at the school
that were visible to the eye that no one pushed forward, at least speaking of operationally through.
I set myself picking up trash.
on my visit in January.
Students were set to return in two days
and there were trash filth on the sidewalks.
I walk schools almost all my life.
You have to have pride in the facility and the people
and what you do to how successful schools.
I felt as though we might have loved the school but we didn't manage the
school well and I want to bring back solid management and investment because I
believe that when we are successful education is the best place to invest
money but the return on that investment must be seen and and i appreciate what
you say because i absolutely agree with you those kids deserve more.
Senator Stidman.
I don't know the name of the entry building when you've come in and the parents come
in, right by the pool, came in that where the trophies were.
We exited that building and then headed over towards the girl's storm.
But the garbage question came up with it.
And we were told that the Garbage Bill wasn't paid and
the garbage men wasn t picking up the garage.
And it attracted brown furry things running around which is not really what you want as brown bears running round you're looking at your kids for dinner.
So there's an issue there and I think that's been rectified and it caught the superintendent's attention.
So it is a serious matter Mr. Chairman we asked him we ask the school on the trip or suggested to him
And I'd like to make a more formal request to the chairman that he he asked the School for a
Asset list it's like we have
For dot they we had a list of all their equipment around the state
It's about half the side on only 30 side of this table. It was a giant spreadsheet
We'll laugh about it when we see it because it so big
But what we can see, the age and the hours used of the equipment, so we know when they
want to cycle them out, if it's early, we could ask them why they're getting rid of
this piece of machinery when it could have more hours on it, and or if its been totally
wore out.
So we make sure they have good equipment.
I think things like the dryers would show right up, it can be vehicles, could be other
Things need to be upgraded because there is a concern
That there's a lack of political support
Four-mount edge come over a period of time, which leads to this
Downward spiral and it's hard to turn around once you're in a downward spiral
and that would also be connected to the
In my opinion to why a school wouldn't be coming back
to us for the appropriation, the supplemental appropriation to deal with their school year.
And that could be a subject we need to take up with the OMB Director,
who their budgets have to go through.
So it's all kind of interconnected.
Senator Stegman, can you go and explain to the committee what you feel is a fundamental problem
that fall under the Department of Transportation.
Okay, so there, if that gets into the capital budget,
there's been some confusion on that
that the commissioner is helping with,
and some updates on it,
so maybe we can do that later in the presentation with that.
That is a big issue.
That's a huge issue, please proceed.
This is David Langford, the superintendent
through the chair, I just wanted to address
the issues that you just brought up
about the washing machines, et cetera.
When I got there in July 1,
I was really worried that we could even open the school.
And so scrambling as fast as I could
to get those machines up to date, etc.
But you're exactly right.
Not only are they 17 years old
and they all need to be replaced.
There's also not, there hasn't been a plan to,
for maintenance that every year we're buying two new
washing machine's updating the old ones
and putting that in the cycle.
vacuum cleaners in the dormitory.
Only two out of 15 actually worked.
And we had to scramble just to find money to do that.
40 beds that had be replaced immediately.
I can go in furniture that was at least 17 years old
and was dilapidated and just looked bad.
So there's a long list of these things.
that had been left to sort of the one-time upgrades,
but every year there should be a certain amount of money
that's appropriated just for upgrades of furniture
for students in the dormitory,
which is totally different than a regular school district
that wouldn't have those kinds of needs.
So to me, it's a two-fold problem.
We have to fix the problem we have now,
but we to fixed the long-term strategy
of how we don't get into the situation again.
Well, we'll have the fix,
the problems of why these...
have gone on for 17 years and why the budgetary issue
and the need for these hasn't come to this committee
or to the subcommittee.
That is fundamentally the big question,
you know, for the school.
to be falling apart, we looked at the floor,
we look at ceilings,
we went up to the attic,
we looking at exterior of the building,
we looks at roofs that are leaking.
Structurally, those financial requests need to come
before the committee, before
the buildings collapses,
like what is happening in Antioch.
Commissioner I wonder if you might respond to that this is
critical
Yes, sir. Thank you later on in the presentation
I do have some of those projects and and speaking of that what was it specifically about I know you mentioned any
Process process what?
Fundamentally how?
Why haven't these as Commissioner? I no you you havenít been there for 17 years, but you're the commissioner today and
Do you see a problem in the process of getting those before this committee?
Thank you, sir.
I will, whether it's a problems or not coming before the committee, I can share with you
that, again, the differences in regard to, and I know that sir, you have a bill out,
like a major maintenance list for school districts,
and then what happens with the process with Mount Edgegum?
It is maintenance through the DOT,
and I do want to share that over time, I believe,
you know, really since 2018,
I think there was out appropriations made in about 20 million
dollars that may have been not finished the
process.
In about 15 million that actually were in as major
maintenance projects.
When I went there last January, there were funds from 21, 22, and I understand during
that time things were difficult to get done around the state because we were in a pandemic.
But there was quite a bit of money on the table that things weren't done.
I'm not sure how in the past those came, if they were before this committee or not,
I just knew that they we're sitting at DOT and not being completed and managed to completion.
And hence, the problem gets worse in so far as the cockroach problem that we talked to,
well, not literary, I don't think there's cockroaches, but scenario that was utilized earlier.
I will have to do some more research on that, but I do know that there were projects that were undone,
that the legislature through the process of the state had funds and they weren't moving along.
And so that was, we're trying to complete those so
that we have an actual count of, the next level of needs.
We did have re-appropriate and redesign some of those projects to go to the highest need.
The highest need to hit first one of those needs was and projects was the dormant or the superintendent's
quarters and and David agrees with me or superintendent language that leaders eat last that any kind of
appropriation that was made for the Superintendent quarters would would
That that shouldn't be on the list as more than what students need in schools. So so I can't directly answer your question
but I I understand that
Crystal clear that this group can assist in in moving
Support for schools, especially Mount edge come forward. I
Appreciate that and I appreciate what has been done the
the goal here is to
Bring back edge them
to
Being respected and students wanting to go to the school
having a list that is longer than what what we're seeing today where 100
students are leaving the this is going in the wrong direction we told the
students when we were there we are proud of the fact that they were have been a
shiny star and we wanted to turn that around to those days and that
we're having you before this committee. Senator Stedman.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think, you know, some of the questions and explanations get kind of
sticky and it's not a fun subject that we were working on today and we all recognize that.
But here at the table, we always try to encourage kind
of direct conversations and take the sugar off of it. And so we know exactly what we are dealing with
But when you reference something like didn't get through the process,
those issues where somebody watching at home wouldn't understand what you're saying,
they were vetoed by the governor.
Those appropriations were put in at this table because of the need at Mount Itchcombe and they
were vetoed. So we just need to be clear what we're dealing with because we'll get into
the capital budget requirements coming up and how we are going to try to move that process
or
vetoes
So we
Senator Kaufman
Thank you through the chair to Commissioner Bishop. There's a spectrum of issues being discussed
We're about to get into the capital issues, but there's the operating budget issues
There is capital budget issue and there is the various problems that have been a
discussed and more that we're about to is there a an improvement plan is
there like a kind of the project management plan or something like that
that describes hey here's what we found here is the issues we've got and here
is what were doing and heres the funding plan for that if there isn't
something that might be a good idea to
Tease through all of these things going forward.
Commissioner.
Through the chair to Senator Kaufman, there is a master plan for the facility.
And we will deliver that to this body.
And it does have a Master Plan with.
Jobs costs things like that in so far as your last statement was how to get it funded
I I don't have that information attached to that master plan
But the masterplan of the facilities and you will see great need as with many other rural Alaska schools
Sir Kaufman
Thank you through the chair. I look at everything like a project
And if it's going to be used the term earlier,
manage to completion.
If something is indeed going
to manage the completion, it is going
to need the accompanying finance plan for those.
It's something I've talked to a lot of folks that come
into my office or to the committee wanting.
capital funding to do something, you've got to have a plan of what you're actually going to
do and then pin those costs to the execution of those tasks, whether they're operating or capital.
May I respond? May i respond. Thank you through the chair to Senator Kaufman. Absolutely.
And I can share with you when we looked at the funds that were sitting at
the state level that we're already approved. We did
work with Stan, I don't know Stan's last name, but he's the maintenance man that gave me a tour of the
facilities when I was there last January. And he was the one who shared well our projects aren't
getting done and it's like well you already have money so we did and we had a plan to redesign and
basic needs of roofs. Three roofs will be replaced this summer. We have them set up to do that.
But insofar as into the future, I would like you to know that we have been having discussions
that once we do get to a place that, we can kind of catch our breath, that
we would to utilize the dormitories in the facilities during the summer, it's a shame that
they sit empty when there's one of the biggest kids musical camp there, where we could actually
and monetize, if you will, buildings that sit empty in the summer to be able to
build capital, to being able place back in school improvements. And so knowing
that the state money is sparse to think smartly, and sir, I respect what you are
saying, David and I have had the initial conversations in that regard to how do
Buildings and and can get needed repairs. How do we keep up those repairs with a plan of maintenance over time?
And then also how then we if
For four months out of the year
Buildings not being used how could we best use those resources to gain more funding?
And we thought we could either put them in the building or put then back to Mountage come we would have to get approval but
back into their
Books their student activities really to their Student Life
So thank you sir for that and I appreciate that coming. Thank you senator Kauffman
We can move on to the next page if we're done with page six
Thank You sir, and i will move through this very quickly
These are on the operating side critical positions filled one thing that did happen that was unexpected once
Superintendent Langford was hired.
We had a principal at the academic side,
which is the school and a principle on the dormitory side.
That principal did resign and retire in July,
which was.
within 30 days we were going to have students there with that other his team
left as well and so we had to rehire critical positions which did in the fall
impact student availability to do things because we needed the supervision but
we can go back to that but sir one of the things that you talked about when you
did your introduction with student enrollment and I wanted to share a 30,000
can speak to those issues of that drop in enrollment
that's occurred this year.
Mr. Langford.
Yes, it's David Langfords, superintendent
for Mount Edge coming through the chair.
Yeah, this is the enrollment over the last 10 or more years
and this the count data.
So the top line is how many students.
At the beginning of the count and then how many students are at the end of
the year.
So right now we're sitting at 311 students, which is about a 25% increase of students
leaving this time of year, so we are counseling and working with every one of
our students as a priority as we did last fall, that we want them there and we
want their ideas and want to know how to improve things.
So we track all the reasons that students have left this year and why and try to really understand
is there something we can do differently.
So far, all of the data, of all 100 students that have
left since this years, we cannot find any trends, like we did not have any majority of
the students saying it was the food or was it the dorm or is this or the other thing.
But all those were issues that we are working to rectify as we go through.
Well, I would go walk through that building and I could say that if if I were a parent
I wouldn't let my child go to school there, you know
Maybe they're not saying that but to the condition of that school speaks for itself
That that is one of the underlying problems that I that
I see and hopefully you see that as well
Senator Steadman
Thank you, mr. Chairman, you know if we go back to 17, which is the first year that's the drop of about 33 and then 55 and
then 40 kids
Students and that seems to be historically kind of what I remember,
you you keep an eye on edge come over the years
So this has been a slow acceleration
And then pretty quick this year showing a negative trend that it's not positive
So when I look at this so if you get
Kids funded at students funded it. Well, we can go this year
388 or last year 422, but you end up with 359
Like last Year and maybe you're down around 311 this Year
What kind of
Extra funding if there's such a thing as extra funding which it doesn't appear to be but
Would would that entail?
because you're paid by the head count and how many kids are there.
Help me with that.
And I know you have fixed costs to deal with.
Senator Stedman, through the chair, I'm not entirely sure I understand what you are asking.
So if you start with 388 kids and you end up with 100 kids, you paid 388.
You only have 100.
Where's all the money go?
Through the chair to Senator Steadman in a school system teachers are
On a yearly contract. So essentially what happens when students leave as your class sizes become super small
the things that you need to reduce sometimes during the year if there wasn't funding for that are
Items that, are not in that contract it would be things like student
I mean you would basically have money for fewer students so it, would look like you could do a lot more
because you're not
Reducing that year you you are utilizing that money that you receive for two eighty eight, but only serving three eleven
So there's more money to go around to everyone. Was that make sense? Yeah kind of just like if you're enrollment
If you were paid three hundred eighty and enrollment went to four hundred and eighty-eight
Just opposite opposite. Yes, sir
Senator keel
Thank you, mr. Chairman
Commissioner mister superintendent. I noticed that that top blue line is is October 1 to start of the October count period
What would that look like if we went back to five weeks to when you started filling up the dorms for the year?
How much higher would it be year would there be a difference?
We started the Year with 403 students this year.
We always have students coming in at the last moment and a number of different reasons.
We also added seven students these year, four of them from the typhoon.
losing your home and displacing your family and then going to do school all in
space of a couple of weeks that my heart goes out to them that it was it
was tough so but we all try to open up the school to any students that would
come you know during that time period. I'm not I can you clarify more what the
question is.
The 403 down to 388 is real useful for this year.
Do we have any sense, maybe, from folks
with a department longer, what does that sort of trend line
reach back, or do you generally have that October 1 number
pretty much match the last week of August number?
Thank you sir through the chair to senator keel just because I have a little bit of a history
There are four hundred and two beds and so generally
There our four 102 students you try to keep from around Alaska the additional students are coming from the local high school
So we could go back and get those data for you
but 402 is the beds that we have available for students
who would actually be boarded through the boarding school
but the Sitka school district at different times
has had a large number of additional students and some not.
So anything over 402 would be students
that were not part of the Boarding School process
but we can give you those first day counts
Thank you, sir
Thank You, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Commissioner. That'd be very helpful. Appreciate that
Then I guess the the other question would be
How is the plan looking
to have
Better numbers next year, right?
So we we haven't talked a lot about how it's going to miss funded. There's been a reference to the foundation formula
Of course, that's a piece of it. They're some additional state funding just like
other boarding schools, although it operates differently, but we do that.
So as we try and figure out next year's budget, what's the plan to bring the enrollment counts
back up, or is it to let it ride, I think we had to send a drill through the chair.
This is David Langford, the superintendent.
But as you can see with the top blue line,
Edgkin historically has been at full capacity
in terms of the number of beds we have,
anything over 402 403 at the most is students
that are coming in local.
So the target is always full enrollment at 403.
I am targeting the same for next year
and one of reasons that
I believe that we're going to reach that target is because we had over 100 students this year apply that
we could not accept. We just never room for them. So that's why my long-range plan is to find ways to
expand Mountage Kim because the need is there and students do want to come but we just don't have the
bed space to be able to make that expansion. The budget is being built on 370 just to
fairly confident at this point we've already started enrollment and every day
or getting phone calls coming in from parents and working through the process
already so we'll know by the end of March typically if we're meeting the same
marks that they have in previous years but I anticipate that the need is there
and the students want to come to Mount Edge come still so I understand the
The monage come is probably at a disadvantage compared to other schools because you look at
city of Anchorage or Fairbanks, they can be assisted in their budget by their community,
whereas edge come in a unique position and hard to attract additional support.
And I think we need to take a look of that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I think it'd be nice, and the department
has over time delivered this to my office,
but a list of all the students and where they're from,
communities,
and also the ones that left.
We're not interested in their names,
but just where do they came from and then which ones left?
And also that I've been concerned
the last several years of the school enrollment
There's school district across the bridge to Mount Edgecombe that we don't
Displace any
beds at Mount edge come because I guess is a clear way to put that because this school is
made for the our run for
The young Alaskans from remote areas that don t have those opportunities
So it would be nice to take a look at that
I think there's quite a few from Anchorage and there'll be a handful from around Southeast
But I think the vast majority is up in your district, Mr. Chairman, and Senator Olsen's district.
Thank you. We can get that information provided.
Commissioner Bishop of Page 9.
Thank You, sir.
We wanted to share some new and expanding options.
The reductions that were taken this year,
core programming was settled.
You're reading, writing, arithmetic,
you're four core science social studies.
And so many times when schools have to reduce,
it is in electives, but they were trying to think
outside the box and how could they use partnerships.
So David can share a little bit about what...
are offered at the beginning, as I said with the reduction in supports at
the Beginning of the year many of these classes were built during the spring and
into the or built in the fall into spring but he can talk in detail about
these or share other information if you'd like. Mr. Langford. Yes, it's David Langfrid
Yes, these are all additions that we've done this year and scrambled to find ways to pay
for people, some of them volunteer positions.
The Nupia language class is something the students really wanted and we finally found
because they lost their teacher retired the last year and so that's back again so
that very popular. I've started a brave leadership class to teach groups of
students a large problem-solving skills and capability and they're already
work doing that and doing a really great job identifying why students leave and
the problems and helping me understand what to change. Lots of dual enrollment
new cultural classes and volunteers that are coming in now to work with us we've
expanded the welding program with UAS dual enrollment exponentially and one of
the problems that we encounter is that, we really don't have a CTE dedicated
facility at Mount Edgecombe and if we had that that would be
Super attractive to students around the state because we we fill every single seat that we're allowed through the UAS and their CTE program
We added drivers training with two teachers this semester, and that's been very popular. I think we have about student 30 students in that
Process, so there's a number of changes. We're making right away
And you might say well, why didn't why did it happen at beginning of the semester?
I was totally consumed as was everybody on campus just getting the campus ready for students
inhabitable as fast as possible and getting to write people on the bus getting all of these
hires because of all the last minute resignations they had in July. So we're now making that happen
so now we are all turning our attention more to program and support of students and as a way to
So thank you, so that's a good transition
Matching some pictures that you had when the vendor did vacate we right away
Sent some folks and David as well to meet so this was in
really
July started
I guess June when it started to be noticed and we started then
Wanted to share that part of the decision to really look at the contract was the USDA did in a federal inspection
We had 59 violations as you can imagine
looking at these pictures and
We started, to make some changes and utilizing funds
We did at, the same time have the
approximately $90,000, then that was some of the money that we did invest from the
land's haulsor into this. The upgrades, although not everything is listed in the
154, almost $155, 000 that
we just did in that area. We actually needed to buy new flatware and things
like that that all disappeared even though we probably believe it was old, but it
did belong with the school. So we had lots of things to do from plumbing upgrades
really the carpets and the dorms and other things really needed.
Nana had to really get in there and make some improvements.
Wanted to share that we had our USDA, they came back.
And the first USDA was in 24.
We did work with last year, and I have some data and letters
of instruction and what we could do.
But again, it takes someone just holding.
folks accountable to the work, but this year we do have three clerical errors, technically
four clerial errors. One was with students. We didn't log their snack foods correctly
and then other errors but nothing was in preparation of food or safety of foods. So we're glad
I think Mr. Chairman, yeah, normally we stop at the end of the slide so you can deliver
your thought process through the whole slide and then we have a few questions.
I thank Mr Chairman.
It would be nice if we got a copy of that report.
And the other thing I'm curious about, the previous superintendent, did the last superintendent
ever go into the cookhouse and eat with the kids and walk around and check that stuff?
a food fire alarm, not a fire fire
alarm but.
Thank you.
Through the chair to Senator
Seven, I do know that the former
superintendent was at the ground
floor with kids quite a bit and
enjoying cultural events,
supporting things.
Her background was in instruction
and in cultural teaching, fabulous
top of the line, but in certainly
The skill of managing something through to the end was probably not the forte,
but in so far as supporting the operational side of a school and teaching and learning,
that was where I think the skills were.
Too much today, superintendent's jobs are more on the business side of the house than the instructional side
of house and that leads us to believe that, you know, we need to continue to build those skills
in that area on, um, business, side-of-the-house for our school leadership.
Senator Stidman? That's hard to even believe. I believe the previous superintendent had technical
I have a hard time believing somebody unless they're blind, literally blind.
Could not have walked into that kitchen and said, what are you guys doing?
What's going on here?
This is unacceptable.
You don't need a degree in culinary.
All you need to do is have some form of vision, even bad cataracts, you could see it.
May I respond, sir, through the chair to Senator Steppen.
I do believe that that person could do that.
And notice what you shared with me today is kind of like moving forward and how do you finish things and certainly Senator Kaufman talked about that about what is the plan to get this done then and and that may have been
where the disconnect was with the department and the job of a superintendent is to technically
helm those things down and I think I would say that the former superintendent did care
about that and did see those and absolutely wanted support in that area and maybe didn't
you know, before it was attacked.
So I do believe that person did see that.
I want to share that
Thank you.
We want
to get into detail in some other areas.
But do you have a comment?
Yes, the senator Stedman through the through
the chair through
the Chair.
I just wanted to comment that to to rectify
this situation.
in a matter of months took a whole team,
not only our campus maintenance team
but the Nana Corporation that took over the food contract,
they were contributing over and above their contract
money to the situation, people to this situation.
And it took
all of us and including deed putting more money into it to even get it operational and we did
we didn't pass our food inspection the first inspection which was amazing to me that we were
able to get to that point that quickly. Needs a lot of work still and were still at it and
moving things forward and I will say that some of the upgrades that were just did this year
were 20, 30 years old and things that hadn't been touched and hadn t been changed in that amount
page 12
Thank you, sir in student engagement. We just wanted to share some information about what Nana actually did we have
Increase in food
Students actually being fed. Uh, we we had to keep count with the USDA. So we did have a 20% increase
in addition
The monthly collaborations if you'd like more detail from the superintendent you can share the student groups do talk about
what kind of
Menu they want now and they really nana ended up hiring somebody to work with the students to do that
and then also incorporating foods and I
Am indigenous foods in other things if you'd like more detail. I just wasn't certain of the time
That's why I started to speak very quickly. Thank you
Thank you, mr. Chairman, I think
There's been improvements in the meal
quantity number of meals and I assume that that's
Also increase in in food volume not just headcount because I
think there was
comments made when we
Did that tour that?
That the kids were concerned that the portions were small and they were that was been rectified
You recognize that and then when the when issue came forward that they didn't have salt and pepper
Could you just that's another one that you rectified recognizing that? And maybe you could touch on that there's
It's an issue, but it's a little it a positive twist in the end
Mr. Langford
Yes, just an interesting statement through the
chair
while
these are these
Things would just come up and
When it came up that where that immediately in the fall the students said, you know, there's not an assault in a food
I thought this was a USDA problem that we weren't allowed to put enough assault into food
And it wasn't until just last month when we had the
visit from the inspection from USDA, and they said,
don't know, that's not at all.
Students can have access to salt, salt their own food,
but the food service wasn't providing it.
So that is an answer to your question that we rectified
that right away.
It's interesting that just the very smallest things
make a huge difference to students.
And working with Nana Corporation and their parent company, NMS,
they've been very, very responsive to everything that we have.
And in fact, just last week, they changed the food management
manager from NANA to someone new, not because things were going bad,
but just we wanted to go from good to great.
And now we had a new food manager.
the dinners, the evening meals were already much better.
And so this is a really positive step that I'm going forward.
Thank you.
So their specific comment was they could see the skin
of the potatoes in their mashed potatoes
so they knew they were real.
So it was the mouths of babes let you know that.
So I am happy that, but they will give honest
and good feedback to us.
This is David Langford, the superintendent of Mount Etchcombe.
This just a picture of what we encountered in July.
This, again, we talked about the washers and dryers,
but this was the furniture situation throughout all
the dormitories and many of these, I don't know how old they were,
but we had to start a process of figuring out
how to dispose of them, how get them out of there,
for new furniture until July and the D was able to come up with about $73,000 that we reinvested in
and through the process all of that just started arriving in December and now we have all new
furniture working with Nana Corporation they read it all the the machines so that they have much
aspects to them and so that's these have been really positive things that have
happened in a very short period of time. We just put in 40 new mattresses and
deed was able to find funding for for those mattrices but again that is the
same kind of problem that we need probably 10 new mattress at least
every single year built into the budget so this is these are in constant
rotation.
The 15-passenger ban that we got is just simply the rotation
through DOT of the old van being rotated out,
but we're very, very thankful for these things.
Senator Stadman, just before we get into that,
Mr. Blankford, I appreciate your comment on the mattresses,
but I think we might want to accelerate that if we did 10
mattresses a year for 400 beds, it'll be 40 years old.
So we might want to grant it we want accelerate that substantially and cycle them out every 10 or 15 years or whatever life of a mattress is
10 years seems to be a
reasonable time 20s a long time
40s doesn't work
Thank you senator stegman, okay
Just a quick comment to center stedman through through the chair. You're exactly right
And one of the things I encountered is that there's no excess on campus when I came on
in July 1, so we didn't have like 10 mattresses sitting in storage just waiting if something
broke down or, you know, God forbid a mattress caught a fire or something, we wouldn't
have the capability just to replace that on the spot.
So that's one the thing's long term, I want to see vacuums, mattrices, all those kinds
of things that we have spares sitting there ready to go.
We don't encounter problems
Senator Stegman. I agree a long term should be the end of the budget cycle this year on some of this stuff, mr. Chairman
There is a supplemental process that the legislature has and
Maybe we'll
You'll have one requested to the administration that can come forward to for consideration of This Committee we are the appropriators
Senator keel thank you, mr. Chairman. I know the slide is ready to move to major maintenance
But I want to talk about ongoing maintenance stuff. We put in the operating budget year over year
And as I look at this year's budget request, I I think I see that going down. It looks like
25 spend in in this school part was about a hundred and seventy eight thousand
I Think that's but it's for 25 and then over on the facilities part. Thank you
FY 25 spend said it was about 200, 210, that's going down to 170, 175, so that ends up being
a reduction if I'm reading the governor's request right. Can you help me with what the
plan is to just keep up? Commissioner. Thank you. Through the chair to Senator Keel,
may I request that Deputy Morrison answer this question?
Thank you, through the chair to Senator Keel, thank you for the question.
This is Karen Morrison for The Record.
As I built the management plan for fiscal 26,
I actually built it on the school district template that school districts have to
submit every year because my brain being fairly new to the state system didn't fully comprehend the states side of it.
Some of those expenditures that you're specifically talking about, they're still in the budget.
I had our fiscal team pull the 178 that
you had mentioned yesterday at the committee hearing.
And I looked at what was actually in there and all of
those things are in The Fiscal 26 Management Plan.
In addition to other services, that contract services cleaning sort of custodial services.
They're all in the management plan because I went back two years and I looked at
actuals and made sure that they were and they're not aligned with how they've been previously
reported. Because when I see something that's an object class that structural,
Something that's a service we put under 3011 so we I did move things around
Maybe to the detriment of our fiscal team as well because they maybe had to move
Things back, but everything is captured those expenditures have not gone down
The problem is when you go back and look at actuals
Obviously that is not the right number when we look the condition of the
the beds and the
vacuum cleaners and such. So, actuals are the wrong thing to look at. We need to
look what is needed and bring those budgetary requests to the to
the committee somehow because actual we wouldn't be here if everything was
are what got us into this problem, Senator Stegman.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just something to consider, and it's certainly your call,
Mr Chairman, but the university, we have a committee of the whole
that does the operating budget and reviews the capital requirements.
We want to considered doing that for the Mount Edge Commission.
We have full committee the hole for both capital and operating.
Because all of us here are very concerned on this issue.
Thank you senator stegman, please proceed
Thank You senator Huffman
There was a request to really to keep an eye on what has happened in major maintenance projects and we would like to share
completed in 2026
primarily in the summertime, were these three items on there.
The first item campus-wide was in fiscal year,
the funds were given in 20 fiscal, year 2021,
the bleachers, the fund were provided in
fiscal years 2022, and the campus wide ADA
was provided on fiscal-year 2021.
I do wanna share that
What you did with getting boots on the ground did occur with me in January and then the discussions with
Maintenance on-the-ground
Let me believe that that's we just need to get in there and get to work and gets some action
And so planned for this coming year
Beginning in May of 2026, but actually happening this summer
which would be
May go into a
Fiscal Year 27 is the replacement of Ivy Hall
in both dorm roofs.
I know that there was a veto that I was asked a question
about in regard to roofs and windows.
I regret that.
I was working on a major maintenance action plan here and did not understand that so that was
crystal clear that things need to get aligned. For these and my prior explanation what we did is
just take all projects that were sitting and not completed, took a evaluation of that, how much
re-prioritize work with OMB to be able to get the projects we needed done at the highest level and
Then re prioritize them. So we should have this summer quite a bit of work going on
Continuing into to want the next fiscal year
We know we won't be beable to finish that is the kids should ventilation and then please know that the other high priority projects
We have determined that. The funding availability is not present because of the Other Higher Priority projects that
ended up costing more because it's getting done later.
I think this is a perfect place for Senator Steadman
to review some of the history of our requests
that had hit the red pen by the administration on major maintenance.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, so I sat now with the commissioner and
It's really at the commissioner's level that we have to operate.
And she brought me the list of old appropriations that went back to 16, because there was confusion
over there.
When we looked at this school, Mr. Langford said that they were going to fix the roof,
but the rough money was vetoed.
As they had gone back I could have been mentioned earlier to old appropriations which we do and
We refer to them here at the table as re-appropriating the money and they redirected that money
reappropriated the oldest appropriation looks like it goes back to 2016 and
on up through 22 and then
Those projects were completed those funds appropriate those projects where completed
There's a half a dozen or so.
Then they got some older projects that are still underway.
And that's project funding from 21, 22, and 26.
So when we do the capital budget,
we're going to do a historical look back.
Because the concern I have is that when
we look at the capitalist and we picked like item number one
That are gonna be you want to be re-appropriated by the department to do that project. We could have taken project number two
Right rather than have a veto didn't end up with nothing
So there's that issue we're gonna clean that up. I've had a discussion with the staff
To notify alleged finance that we want these documents put together. They'll be
Inquiriesing into Department of Ed to make sure we got
Everything's lined up because we want we wanna have alignment with the Department of Education
Ledge finance and the legislature and then when we look at their list
Have concerns
If there's leaky windows and we've been talking about the dorm but the school building itself has problems
We haven't even touched on that yet in the grounds in The grounds
So, you know, we'll be looking at a list and I'm sure
those items and I'm sure when we we have noticed items that aren't on the list
we'll be inquiring why they're not on a list so we get a whole picture of what
we're dealing with best we can so that process is kind of underway I was a
little surprised I am sure I haven't had a chance to talk with each finance I
'm true there a little wheel of surprise to the the funds and then the that it
were available and in the process of dealing
that it was handled at DOT, public facilities.
But apparently there was a change,
when me director told me three, four years ago,
where they brought it more in-house.
So we need clarity on that system.
And however it's structured,
we just need to have it clearly understood.
So, we don't make inadvertent errors
when we're trying to deal with Mount Edgecome.
From my perspective the further away we can get away from the only or the deal of teal this and
Get it concentrate
Different maintenance of this because there's lots of it and edge come is just a dot in that whole system
To concentrating on edge comes through the department and then OMB and into this table
I think we have a shot at having a clear understanding
And I'm a little concerned that they're understaffed when we're talking about this on maintenance itself
They have one one-and-a-half positions or something like that one and a half positions. We've got buildings that were built in 1939
You know one half position is gonna lead you so much
So I think we'll be putting inquiries in on that
Also, I am concerned at the superintendent doesn't have enough
fungible money at his discretion to deal with
emergency type small items not roofs my foundations or you know water system big stuff, but the little stuff
That he can respond
For instance, he mentioned his mattresses doesn't have replacement mattruses. You know, He shouldn't go through the gamut of
you, know
Produce a mattress for a young student that his mattress becomes dysfunctional. He should be able to just take care of it
Anyway, so that's kind of where we're at.
We're, we've, I do appreciate the commissioner
bringing forward her list and where, you know,
so she's not hiding the peanut and there's nothing
like that going on.
So we'll take a look at, look
at that and we will have it here in the table
and then go through it.
I'm wondering, this might be a good time to get
into our meeting that we had with a search.
And the properties that were conveyed by BIA to deed and the condition of those we learned.
We knew, but we reinforced that a lot of the grounds are contaminated and were contaminated
The department
Was there
Or will there be any requests to?
Clean that property up
If not searches
Wants to do some educational stuff
Which the property is the properties are earmarked for health and education
And people want to use that, there are organizations that want
to provide additional services to the students.
But we have not seen any requests from the department
or the administration to address those.
I wonder if you might comment upon that.
Thank you, Senator Hoffman.
I am unaware of the outside of you mentioning it the other day I haven't, I had no knowledge.
So I can defer to anybody on the team that we could get back to you and.
Senator Hoffen, this is David Lang for the superintendent.
I would not.
be in favor of selling more land at this point. We have some critical needs that could be addressed
maybe through that process and one of them is teacher housing that I know of five positions last
a super high cost of living in Sitka they declined and didn't want to come, but if some
of that land could be reclaimed and they have teacher housing there, that could
be a long-term income kind of situation where that money could go into student
activities funds or it could come back as a fungible kind
of use environment. So cleaning it up would be
a part of the process that we'd have to clean it
for the Department not to be aware of the lands
that we have out there that are polluted.
We've received that information from search.
We also have what the Center from Sitka
referred to as Little Bay Route.
I mean, visual expense, you know, inspection.
leaving the airport and driving in.
It's quite obvious, it's pathetic.
It is on our land.
I don't know if you've seen it,
but we haven't seen any, I saw it when I first went there,
and we have not received any requests to clean that up.
I mean,
it should be obvious to the landlord
that this is unacceptable.
Thank you, sir. I did tour that and that was pointed out to me
My personal knowledge.
I just want to be clear doesn't mean that department doesn t know and I will certainly follow
Back on you.
I do know that there is a very large
Building as well. That's an I saw in some other things
Once again on my tour. I spent the day quite a bit of my day with the maintenance
Gentlemen who is out there now and did point some of those out.
I will follow up with that and
Have some more responses I regret I wasn't prepared to answer that question
Yeah, I think there is a lot more detail here that we should have come back for another meeting just on that subject matter of the land use the
some of the proposals to Penrod Hall, which is the big building we're referring to, it's
an old military barracks. I think that should be transferred here, or maybe it already has in
the excavators tearing it down today. It's at that point. But then there's the little,
what we call little bay route, I mean, Sunrop, and you named it that a couple years ago,
we had it on the screen up in front here because we've been struggling with
wanting to clean it up and it takes appropriations and support from the administration, and
it is a health hazard for the community and the kids and even the dogs and cats that go
by that place, it's horrible.
And then there's Millerville, where they're staging from construction of the new hospital,
and that has to be cleaned up.
But the cleanup costs are worth more than the land, I think there is probably some arrangement
with an interested party that has capital, like Search,
to get it cleaned up and still retain some kind of use
or something to help facilitate the need for housing
because they need housing too. I think we
should look at that coming forward and give them time to
get the whole background.
Land is scarce when you have mountains and water on both sides.
And if we as landlords don't want to clean it up and utilize
it, I've been informed by search that they have no problem
in cleaning that up, and developing it for health
and educational purposes.
So I think that that should be given serious consideration.
decision makers, ultimately it's our property and it is sitting there contaminated or buildings
that are dilapidated. They need to be addressed. So I would like to work with the U.S. Commissioner
to see what can be done. It starts with school, the problem, it seems every time we
go down the path, there are more and more
andmore issues that aren't being addressed.
I'm glad we're addressing the immediate needs,
but there's long-term needs that need to be addressed
that are not being address by the Department of Education.
Do you have a brief eddies?
A briefeddies.
closing comments. I'd like to get to the slide show that we have to give the general
public an idea of the condition of, the grounds that, we toured. Commissioner?
I'll just show the other slides. Thank you, Senator Hoffman. We could just quickly move
About Mount Edge come and and certainly looking forward. We are committed
To this school and to the people of Alaska and especially the young people. Of Alaska
Thank you for the opportunity to share information
Senator Crock did you have a question?
Thank You, mr
I think I have more of a statement can go back to page five
And you just showed all those beautiful pictures right here. Yeah
My concern on page 5 is what's the mascot of Mount edge?
Ah, I just became aware of that problem by yourself.
So that page five, right there, there's no right.
So obviously I think I highlighted that in our meeting.
These are very proud people that are brave, they're lady braves.
They've been that since 1947.
That's the sense of pride for that school.
But I was just want to notice, my daughters played volleyball.
They were on a lot of fairy trips.
That was reduced cost to travel across southeast or anywhere else, right?
And so now those ferries are not there anymore. They're on Alaska, Ireland.
So the extreme cost and I can relate back to whether it's Galena or Indiana or Mount Etch come.
There's no plan like...
You've highlighted today we have to have a plan of replacing stuff these kids are there every single day
This is not a normal school, right?
So I appreciate you guys highlighting this cuz
We're on a fiscal cliff ready to
Have billions of dollars of stuff fall in front of us and we're not addressing any of it
So this is just a little dot. Thank you. We'll take brief at ease
call the meeting back to order.
Senator Steadman, you're most familiar
with the pictures that are here in Edgecombe.
You might want to say a few words on this.
So these are, we're about out of time,
so these will be pretty fast, but this is part of the
school itself is built in the late 80s.
This is the entrance.
I think the superintendent's office is those windows there
just showing work that needs to be done on the corner,
some vehicle or something, hit that.
Here we have a shot at a ceiling and you got a ventilation and that's roof dial up there
that is obviously condensation or roof leaking or what have you.
Next slide please.
This is inside one of the older buildings, across the straits as the Sitka you can see
the water going down the wall.
So there's condensation and or leaky roofs.
next slide please. That's inside the school itself. There's electrical issues in the floor.
Those things need to be addressed. This is the girl's dorm, exterior of the girls dorm.
That building I think was built in 39. The roof, there's nobody lives upstairs where the dormers
are. They're just storage, but they're substantial leaking. I mean that roof is
ASAP, windows are leaking and roof is dysfunctional.
Next slide, please.
Another shot of the outdoor or outside of
the building, the siding needs to be, you know, addressed.
Actually, this building needs
to replace, right now we need to make sure it's comfortable and
safe for the students to live in.
Next Slide, Please.
There's a ceiling shot.
I think that's inside that building.
If I remember right, you can see the tiles
from being all the leaks in the roof.
And there's reference earlier in a meeting
that as it come to the attention of the commissioner
and the superintendent, they've been changing
and working on some of these roof tiles and stuff.
I thinks some those have been addressed.
So this is just additional stuff, I'd.
Next slide, please.
I want somebody from the committee looking up there
Whatever's up there, I guess. Obviously the leak. There's more graffiti than easy or more ceiling work needs to be done
I don't know who the guy is in the front with the shiny head
Next slide, please
That is upstairs. This is not where the kids are
Residing the kid's are residing in extra more down just so it's clear
to everybody
This, is the Leakey condition of the roof and you can see the maintenance
The crew is, every time it rains, it has to go on extra duty on pale maintenance of all
the water.
And you can look inside that tote that looks like an 18-gallon where we're made great
tots.
It's water stained in there, so this has been going on for a while.
Next slide, please.
That's a staircase.
There's another senator, Senator Cronk heading down the staircase, they have to have similar
So it's not nobody's living upstairs of this stairwell.
I just want to make sure that it is clear.
This is just to a storage area.
And they can't really put the stuff upstairs.
It gets soaking wet.
Next slide.
Next line, that's the same stair well.
Here we go, dealing, again,
that is up in the attic area up there.
So they have opened up the
The the spackled area to try to you know deal with the the drains or the leak you rough next item or slide
Here's some washers and dryers
We talked about earlier today. We'll work with
Department on the schedule to upgrade and modernize and deal it these and then deal
With the ones that can be easily repaired next items
This looks like
the part of the galley
Area back of the galley is that correct kitchen. You have back in the kitchen and this is after they spend a lot of time cleaning it up
And we don't have any photos here of what they started with but
next slide
That's also in that in in a cook house or a galie
The floor issue it's you know an older floor hard for the hard-for-the-hard for they nana to maintain they've painted it
They're doing what? They can but
We need to, I think, probably have some appropriation upgrades
there, really get to the end of it.
The next item, next slide.
Oh, we got a little trap there.
It looks like, keep the vermin down.
So they're addressing that.
They have spent a lot of time dealing with this issue,
and I they are on the back side of that,
I would say, pretty much on backside.
Mouse decided that he survived the last onslaught
Next slide
Again pictures of the floor
Dealing with need for you know paint and sprucing up there's a piece of a kitchen equipment off to the left
There's also some wiring issues
Need to get the electrician in there to give the new stove new range hooked up
So they're trying to come up with the
Electrician because they were all busy in town to take care of
Next line
And this is in the gym.
There's a visitor that comes into the jam
in a little brown furry one.
They have the students have a nickname for them.
That's his hide-to-winkle toes.
So his days are numbered.
The next item.
That is the last slide.
So that kind of can go with Mr. Chairman,
the ones in presentation.
I was hoping the idiot.
Yeah, there are over 500 slides,
but these are just some of them
Yeah, it's over 500 and I think I
Think that
Would have been nice to end with the ending slides in the presentation of the student body
That's what we're trying to that's where I talked to the chairman about a minute ago trying orchestrate that
So we leave on a high note instead of
the you know the maintenance pictures at the end, but
Would it be nice have more time to have for the Student Body that
slides at The end and closing comments commissioner
Thank you, Senator, for having us and giving us an opportunity to speak and I want you to know we're committed to moving forward and supporting the school and doing our part for the young people of Alaska.
I have a question.
budgets that we pass, capital and operating on whether or not they should be included or excluded
and
for the red pen activity
vetoes. Do you have comment on veto's on the education capital in operating budgets?
Sir, are you asking me if I have a
reviews the budget are you asked are all these needed or
Does the administration contact you saying I'm contemplating vetoing these items? What are your responses?
For defending the budgets, sir, I believe that's a function of OMB. I have not participated in that activity
Thank you for that center
That concludes today's meeting then we
have another meeting scheduled for 1.30 and we want to say that we
want work with you to rectify these problems in the short term and in
the long term. Thanks for your presentation. We are adjourned.