*This transcript has been lightly edited for grammar and clarity. You can also watch the live, unedited version from the Kodiak Island Borough's YouTube channel.
Brian Venua, KMXT: Welcome to the 2024 Candidate Forum, live from the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Chambers, and sponsored by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and KMXT. Tonight we’ll be hearing from candidates for the Kodiak Island Borough School Board and Assembly. The forum is being broadcast live on KMXT 100.1 FM and live streamed on the borough’s YouTube channel.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: First, the four school board candidates will have their forum during which we are using Zoom tonight to allow some of the candidates to participate remotely. Please note that Judy Carstens and Mike Litzow are unavailable to be here in person tonight so they are participating in the forum via Zoom.
Brian Venua, KMXT: Our forum tonight begins with candidates for the school board, where four candidates are vying for two seats. This forum will be broken into three parts. Candidates will have one minute to give an opening statement. Then we’ll move into questions. Finally, each candidate will have one minute at the end to give a closing statement.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: As a reminder, candidates must stop speaking when the timer sounds. And we ask that all candidates maintain a civil, courteous demeanor throughout the forum. If any of the candidates would like us to restate a question for you, please let us know.
We will begin with candidates’ opening statements. Each of you will have one minute for your opening statement. We’ll be going in alphabetical order by last name, and we’ll start with Judy Carstens. Please give us your opening statement.
Judy Carstens: I'm running for reelection because I believe in education in our community, and I believe in doing what's best for students. I've been involved in several important policy decisions in my six years on the board. These include being responsive to the community by adding civics education and personal finance as graduation requirements. Also, I work with administration to implement a cell phone policy at the middle school that has made a difference in instruction and social interactions. I collaborated with community members on the food committee to include menu changes to address our diverse cultures. I've been on the CTE committee providing educational opportunities for our students that benefit the community as well. I think I bring a balanced and community minded approach to the school board. I also bring a shared understanding of what our students need to be successful in life, including the underserved students in our diverse population in Kodiak, I believe I can make a difference. All students deserve every educational opportunity. Thank you.
Beate Daly: My name is Beate Daly. I'm running for school board because I believe a governing board should represent a variety of perspectives and experience. We need a parent voice on our school board, a parent with kids that actively has their children in the system. I believe our community has the ability to work together, even if our viewpoints differ, and we can overcome the current challenges faced by our district. So just so everybody knows, I have three kids. They're ages 13, ten, and eight, and next year, that will spread over high school, middle school and elementary campuses. My husband and I were doing some of the math, and we're around those places for just shy of a decade, by the time all of our kids move through it. So we're around those campuses quite a bit. Thank you.
Mike Litzow: Hello. My name is Mike Litzow. I'm a 13-year resident of Kodiak. I'm employed as the director of the NOAA Fisheries lab on Near Island. Both my kids are products of the school district, and I'm a candidate for the school board. When I think about a successful board member, I think most of all about leadership. About leadership in terms of willingness to lean in on difficult decisions, like budget decisions. Leadership in terms of taking on broad community input on difficult decisions that face the board, but then making a position that you would have it known. And then leadership in terms of maintaining a culture of respectful discourse at board meetings. I believe I've got the leadership experience to play this kind of role on the board. In my professional life, I have experience with administration and managing budgets. I have experience in public service, leading public meetings where stakeholders express very different opinions, and I build consensus in those meetings. I'm looking forward to the conversation tonight, and as listeners listen in, I hope that I'll earn their votes. Thank you.
Jesse Mickelson: Hi. My name is Jesse Mickelson, and I'm running for a seat on our school board on October 1. I've worked in post-secondary education for over 25 years, between Washington State University, Columbia Basin college and Kodiak College, currently. My parents both were teachers in KIBSD while I was growing up. That said, I want to inform voters that I'm running as a father, as a parent of three children who are in our school system. I want the absolute best for them and their classmates. I want them to have a good experience, and this includes recruiting and keeping quality faculty members, fully funding student activities and helping to build a strong relationship with the KIBSD staff, so we can keep student success as our number one priority. Thanks.
KMXT: Thank you. Moving ahead to questions. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond. We will rotate which candidate answers first, so the order won’t be the same for every question. Mrs. Carstens, you’ll go first with this one.
1. The Base Student Allocation, or how the state funds education, has remained nearly flat since 2017, with just a few one-time funding boosts. Knowing that one-time funding boosts are not guaranteed, how should the district craft its budget for next year?
Judy Carstens: We first have to wait and see what our new faces show in Juneau because of the election, and we're not really sure where we're going to stand with the governor and the state funding for public education. Of course, we have many advocates in the community that will continue to speak in Juneau and such. How do we provide? You know, I really can't tell you how we're going to do that. We have went through many cuts last season, last year, and we can't afford to do that this year. So I'm very optimistic that the governor is going to come through with a BSA that will be inside, and we will get $680, or $540, whichever the number is, but it will be not just a one-year funding. I've gone through this each year since I've been on the board, and it's not taken real softly or easily, and it's cost many nights of sleep, but I have admiration for our administration and the groups that make these decisions and bring it to the board for approval. I hope that answered your question.
Beate Daly: Great question. And I think that everyone's ears are perked up when it comes to funding. The one-time funding that we received this year doesn't allow for long term planning or stability, and we desperately need an increase in that BSA, our enrollment numbers are declining, which also plays a role in that formula and how much money our district receives. With these deep cuts that we just experienced for this upcoming school year, in that last budget cycle we went through, the superintendent also indicated that the next budget cycle will need to see some deeper cuts. So where does that come from, right? That's the big elephant in the room, and I'm not sure there's any great answers to that, other than we need to approach that as a community. I think there needs to be more community voice in that process. I'm open to the idea of working with our superintendent and our district administrators and fellow board members to host more of like a community forum, style a town hall where we can have open discussions and gather more input from our community, and it's a more transparent process, and one that we all feel like we've worked on and come to some resolutions together. I know that we have no room for error in our budget or inefficiencies. All of our aces have to be in their places, and that might take a deeper dive looking at… the structure of our district and some of those positions that we have currently, but once again, greater community voice from community members, educators, administrators, all working together for that common goal… That's going to be a tough, tough year.
Mike Litzow: Well, I think it's important to note that there are no easy decisions in front of the board when it comes to budget decisions in the next round, and there are no easy cuts that are left. We're talking about choices among essentials at this point. The perspective that I would bring to those decisions is first and foremost student value. I think we have to think about preserving positions that work directly with students and provide value to students when we can. I'm an administrator myself. I recognize the critical role of administrative positions in keeping a complex system like the school district running but I do think we need to put value to students as our first criterion when we're making these decisions. I think that extracurriculars and sports are critical to student outcomes, are a critical antidote against the anxiety and loneliness that many kids feel in our society. I think we should strive to protect those above all other choices when we're faced with these difficult decisions. I think it's important for the board to lean in on these decisions and take an active role as the representatives in the community, as being the deciders and making these difficult decisions. And I guess I'll just close by saying that I really seek this position with a feeling of humility. I recognize how difficult the decisions were for the board last round and how difficult they're likely to be next round, but that's the perspective that I bring to those decisions. Thanks
Jesse Mickelson: First of all, I was saying it's really tough to answer this question without knowing the exact nuts and bolts of the whole budget, but just from the outside looking in, from where I'm at, it would be…. I know last night at the board meeting, they had mentioned stratification, and I, along with most people I know, are horribly against stratification, if at all possible. I think I'm a strong believer in it's nice that the kids can walk to school when you got the little ones. It's nice to have a brother or a sister in the same building as you. That's one of the nice things that we would lose with stratification. So that would be one of the last things I'd want to do, as well as what Mike said about keeping student activities. I don't want to cut that budget off. If we're going to cut anything, I would want to cut employee travel. It would be nice if we could increase transparency, so we could dig into the budget a little bit further and see what all is being spent on. But I think if we did things like consolidate students, increase fundraising, maybe furloughs for certain admins in the summers. And I know people don't want to hear that, but I mean, you also don't want to hear they don’t have any money either. Maybe eliminate redundant admin positions…There's a few things we could do, but yeah, we are down to the bare bones. I listened into all the meetings last spring, and it was pretty bleak. But yeah, I would be…It would be better to be more informed on all that, and I think I would do my best to make a good decision on that. But again, I would want to protect student activities and athletics, and stay away from stratification, if at all possible.
2. KMXT: Next, Ms. Daly will go first this time. KIBSD has had to cut several positions in the last few years to offset rising costs amid flat funding. Several programs have had budget cuts as well. What electives and departments do you see as the highest priorities to fund? What programs would you potentially cut further?
Beate Daly: Great question and a great follow up question. I am concerned about our reading and math scores. Only about a third of our students are proficient at grade level in reading and math, and I think that if we take that approach of aces in their places… and we've got some really talented educators in this town, and we need to be seeing greater gains from our students. And so that needs to be a focus. So when we're talking about resource allocation with very limited resources, that has to take a high priority so that we are preparing our kids for a world outside of school, outside of high school, and moving them through that so they're proficient in our basic reading and math. Activities: if you have kids involved in any sort of extracurricular activities, you will know how strongly our community loves its sports and its extracurricular activities. You will see how much extra effort staff and families put into fundraising and volunteering their time to maintain these programs for our kids, and that needs to be a high priority. If you go through board docs, a few years ago, we actually pulled $100,000 out of the general fund to support activities for our kids. That needs to be a priority for our kids, and not to mention all of the benefits that those activities and extracurriculars have on our kids’ self-esteem and their academic performance.
Mike Litzow: So in terms of the things I'd like to prioritize for keeping, sports and extracurriculars, you know, as I noted in my first response. There's all kinds of research showing lifelong benefits for kids who do participate in those activities, and they're often the kids who aren't finding the joy in the classroom, you know. And so I really think that we need to protect extracurriculars whenever we can to give our kids that broader experience. I'd love to see AP classes continue on, to give older kids a chance to take a whack at college level work. I think our welding, our auto shop, our CTE type courses are critical in a working town like this. In terms of the places where I look harder as we're making these very difficult decisions…I would love to be in a position to reexamine the decision about weighing off administrative professional travel against student activity travel off-island. I understand that administrative travel is in the agreement with the administrator’s union, I understand the value of professional travel, you know, not at all denigrating that or saying that it's not something that's important. But as we're making these decisions between critical services that we offer both to staff and to students, I would look at cuts that protect student value first, whenever possible. I think the board made some good decisions about positions like the safety director position. There are other positions that are removed from direct interaction with students that, to be frank, I think parents sometimes struggle to see the value of. And again, these are not easy decisions. There's no obvious low hanging fruit left but those are the guidelines that I'd follow in making those decisions.
Jesse Mickelson: I would start by saying that the programs that I would want to absolutely keep highest priority, vocational is number one I would say. As far as students go, it's nice to be able to give skills to students so that right out of high school they can get a decent paying job and support a family. If they do want to go further, science, technology, mathematics, STEM programs, that's got to stay. Activities and sports… I talked about that earlier. Fisheries, woodshop, auto welding, all the vocationals, those are high priority. Low priority things that we could maybe cut, and everyone's going to hate me for saying this, but I love music more than everybody else. I'm a huge fan, but I'm not sure if that's something that's absolutely needed. And I'm totally going to be memed for this, like, ‘oh, Mickelson hates music,’ but that's one of the things that I know they have done that done cutting in the past, and that's something we could possibly cut, cut out, or make it make it a club or make it an activity after school kind of thing, as well as choir and band. You could do those things after school as a club or activity instead of an actual class. We require four years of English… and only two years of math, which always kind of hurts my heart for that, because I'm a math guy, but I think we could chop that down to three years of English maybe with all the spell checking and Grammarly that we all have access to now. And what Mike said also is administrative travel…he said something about the Union, but that's something that's a possibility of cutting down too.
Judy Carstens: Well, having sat through six different budget discussions over my time on the board, I don't look at it as what I would go into and cut or decrease…My priorities, of course, are the student. So I would not want to cut any more that affects our students in any way, whether it be academics, whether it be activities. And… music and theater are my top priorities, because I see every student in their walks of lives that benefit from theater and music, if they so choose, as we do with athletics. But my priorities for the year, and this is including the budget, and I know it's going to happen, is we need to provide the best education for the population of students in challenging budget times, and they're going to be very challenging. But that doesn't mean we have to cut. Transparency of the process for families and the community, improving communication among staff, students, families and community. And one of my top priorities is also increasing our CTE, and that comes because I have received many requests from businesses stating that this is what we as the community of Kodiak need, are more technical positions. Looking at doing more on volunteerism in regards to interviewing, doing interview classes and such like this. So again, I don't as a board member of the last six years…I do not look at cutting more positions because we don't have them to cut…. [comments ended due to timer beeping]
3. KMXT: Mr. Litzow, you will go first with this next question.
Rural schools are constantly on the brink of closing due to shrinking populations and staffing struggles can have an even harder effect on a community. How should the district improve relations with and better support village schools?
Mike Litzow: So I think the steady decline in enrollment for village schools is really one of the most heartbreaking trends that we see in our borough. You know, back in the 80s, all the villages had thriving high schools with boys and girls traveling basketball teams, and then we're in such a different world now. I think the most direct way that the district can support rural students or rural schools was hinted at in the forwarding of your question, and that's that we have to work on staff hiring, staff retention for those positions. Those remote positions have always demanded the talents of special people, you know. It's not everyone who can pack up and move out to a village where they don't necessarily have a background or a community ready-made and thrive. But those are some of the very best teachers that we employ, and there's just a great tradition in Alaska of people stepping up and serving education in that way. So I really think focusing on hiring and retention for those positions would be the best way to support village schools. And I think, you know, just for the entire community, it's a critical outcome that we do whatever we can to support those schools when the enrollment at different villages stays above the thresholds that are set by the state.
Jesse Mickelson: I think Mike hit the nail on the head there with quality teachers. You really need to get... It's a special kind of person that can work out in a village. My wife did it for a few years, and it's something else. I absolutely loved going out there and visiting, and just had the time of my life out there. But it definitely takes a special person, special type of person to get out there. And again, that's number one, is you got to get someone quality in there. I worry that sometimes the district will just kind of kick someone out, reassign someone to a school from time to time. And I worry about how long that's going to last, because it seems like you're almost setting them up for failure when that happens. So I really hope we're being a little bit more mindful when we do send someone out there. Housing is always the big issue. Better technology… I mean technology is getting better and better all the time, but when you're in that rural school, if there's no internet, you're struggling. It's a tough day to make a class happen. A lot of them are linked right up to the high school, right up to the middle school, and they're joining in with those lessons. And if you don't have the technology, you're in some trouble there. But I think the biggest one, I would say, is quality teachers. We got to get good people out there.
Judy Carstens: I feel that within the last three years, possibly four years since I've been serving on the board, and we've had to recruit for village schools, that the principal for the village schools has done an excellent job. And at this point, we have top notch, highly educated teachers in all villages that are happy. And the communication between the town, the school district, the borough, and the school board is the best it's been. And you can ask the parents of students and such out there. In regards to teacher travel, that's one area I would never touch is bringing in village teachers, which we have done more frequently, so that they can be part of… feel more part of the school. But one of the things, like all of you have said too, is retaining, retaining teachers, but not just in the village. But their retention also borders on the retirement program, and wherever we're retaining or trying to recruit for the villages. That's one of the first questions that come up. What is your retirement program? Is there an addition for student? So where I'm going is we have work to do with the villages, but if you look at their reading scores and their math scores, as well as in other areas in the district, we have made improvement. But it's all things that don't happen overnight… It's just another one of my priorities are the villages. But I communicate well with the villages, and that's a good thing with them, because they feel a part of education.
Beate Daly: For the past year, I've sat on the Family Advisory Board for the Alaska Family Engagement Center, and we have individuals from very rural parts of Alaska on that board, and some of our challenges are seen in other places too. It's pretty common challenges maintaining these rural sites. I think that within our rural schools, we do a really good job of having and integrating cultural responsiveness within the school, using those knowledge skills, practices of culture as you're teaching. I think we can do a better job of incorporating them to that larger Kodiak community as a whole, and making sure that our rural schools know that they occupy their own unique space within the community of Kodiak as a whole, and that travel to town is going to be really important for access to resources, incorporating them in school activities with the larger campuses, that's going to be really important. An issue of internet access came up this past year, and some of our rural sites not having access to the right kind of internet to get their schoolwork done. So starting at a really basic level, making sure that our rural sites have access to those really basic resources so that they can get their schoolwork done, and the teachers can get that teaching done for their students. But also maintaining more of a stability of those teaching positions. It's really hard when we have a revolving door, but our in-town schools are also facing that issue too. And then there's finally, in helping them feel supported… [comments ended due to timer beeping]
4. KMXT: Mr. Mickelson is up next first this time. The applicant pool for certified teachers has continued to shrink. How can the district better advertise its positions and or attract more quality applicants?
Jesse Mickelson: Recruitment. And I think when we send people to recruitment, send people on recruiting trips, we got to send people with energy. We got to send people with charisma…When I was coming out of college, I was going to those job fairs. And, you know, you see all the different booths, you know, 'come work at our school, come work at our campus, come work at our company.' And whose table do you want to go to? We got to find… and we all know every building that you're in, you know that go-getter, you know that go-getter full of energy, they got the spirit. We got to send those guys and gals. We got to send them on these recruiting trips. And I think that's huge. I think we really need to make sure we're getting out there, we're advertising online. A lot of people find, find jobs like AK jobs…that get that listed. But a lot of it's, you know, word of mouth. So, you know, you see your old college mates, or whoever, like, 'hey, this job just opened up, you should come check it out.' That helps too. But it really helps to network and really, you know, send quality people down to get the job done to recruit. I think that's something that we should visit, coming up here.
Judy Carstens: One thing I think, if you were to look at the budget as to what we have spent on advertising and recruiting, you would be very surprised at how much it has been. We've advertised in several areas, but where we have been successful in recruiting teachers, and it's not only our district, but it's several districts in the state, that the Kodiak Island Borough School District has joined forces with, is recruiting from the Philippines. And come two months from now, we will have in our district 30 Filipino teachers, and that's been our best recruitment policy. You can go to the job fairs, and there's so few students, so few applicants that even go to the job fairs. They [KIBSD staff] went to one, I believe it was in Atlanta, Georgia, and five people came to the table. So it isn't that the district's not trying, and there's no easy answer, but we just have to, like Jesse said, we have to use word of mouth. We have to convince everyone that this is a very positive place to work. But I still believe that we cannot do that very successfully unless we work with the state government and a retirement program. That's one of the first questions a new applicant asks. So that's where I'm going. That's one of my main goals for the year, if I'm reelected, or when I'm reelected hopefully, is working with Juneau again. And that was very popular with the community last year. There was a great letter writing, but we just need to keep the word spread…to bring qualified teachers here.
Beate Daly: I love out of the box thinking and creative solutions. Our state has long relied on those J-1 visas to bring in workers, right? Whether it's seasonal, now it's bringing in the teaching force. So it's nothing really new for our state as a whole. And I really like the idea of having more Filipino representation within our schools, considering a large portion of our community is Filipino. My concern with the international travel is its long term sustainability and what the actual cost benefit analysis is for that type of recruiting. But I do understand and realize that recruiting fairs are not what they were of yester years, and that fewer people are showing up. But looking at that strategic plan for international recruiting would be a wise idea in the cost benefit analysis. So what's that total cost? How many people are we actually hiring from that cost? Having said that, I also think that we should continue our Grow Your Own program, supporting those that might be paras [paraprofessional educators] in the school interested in getting their teaching certification and having a job for them and supporting them through that process. They're already here in Kodiak, love the community, don't plan on leaving anytime soon. And I mean, paras gotta love them. You know, when I was on the PTA at North Star, we actually did a survey of our teachers, there's, you know, they were, I think most of the staff was new that year, and we actually asked them the factors that would make them leave, like, why would they consider leaving? And the one thing that they all said was the cost of living, and housing, and the shortage of housing. So partnering with city and borough to try to…[comments ended due to timer beeping]
Mike Litzow: Well, I guess I'd start my answer with seeing how sympathetic I am to the plight of teachers in our state and our country and in our district right now. In particular, with the loss of robust benefit retirement benefits at the state level for teachers, these jobs are just less attractive than they used to be. And the pay that our district is able to offer in this current budget environment is just not very competitive. It's clear that the things that used to work a decade or two ago just don't work anymore. The superintendent has been very clear that job fairs are no longer a viable means of filling vacant positions in the district. You know, if we go to all the effort of sending someone to a job fair, and we get a handful of visits at the desk, you know, two or three candidates, it's just not a viable way to keep the district going. All that might change, you know, if full employment ends in this country or if the retirement benefits at the state level are improved. But those aren't things that the board can do. So what the board can do is the board can continue to support international recruitment. In particular, I think it's a fantastic opportunity that we have with Kodiak High School, for instance that's 40% Filipino, to recruit from the Philippines, to recruit from other nations as well. There's a strong track record of success with those international recruitments, but you have to vet international teachers, just like you have to vet domestic teachers. I'm aware of international teachers in the system who are fantastic teachers and others who didn't do such a good job and were gone after a year. So that vetting is critical. But I think that's really going to be our best strategy until sort of macroeconomic conditions change.
5. KMXT: Back to Mrs. Carstens who will go first for this question.
The school district has been bringing in teachers from the Philippines to supplement their staff (as part of a national shortage). Do you believe this is a sustainable approach? Why/why not?
Judy Carstens: That's a great question, because I don't have the ability to look into the future. Like Mr. Litzow said, the vetting is very important of late. The last two recruitments, there's been…. it's all a learning curve. I do believe that it's sustainable to the point that they are allowed with their visas and how long they can stay. They will bring families here, and it will increase our population in the schools, but, yeah I believe it'll be sustainable. It's going to be a lot of work, and it's going to cost us some money, because it's not... But back to the fact that we spend a lot. There's other school districts that are sharing, they're traveling together on the next recruitment, and it cuts down on the cost with just one district going. So basically, I'm happy with the ones we've hired, and we just need to go forward. And the Filipino students like Jesse said, are totally benefiting. It's different sitting on the other side for the six years that I have and seeing the work that has gone into this recruitment and keeping, and training, and so it makes me sad.
Beate Daly: That's a great question, and it's the same one that I have too, is how sustainable is this? And the short answer is I don't know. I'm not sure if enough information has been presented in creating a model to see and look into its sustainability. You know, in preparing for tonight, it was a question that I had myself and wanted to dig a little bit deeper into. And so you start digging in through board docs thinking, you know, this is an investment, like Judy said, you know, we've, we've put a lot of money in it, and I would have thought it would have had its own presentation somewhere in board docs, with mapping out a plan, a cost... Gosh, even if it was a two-year plan... It would have warranted something like that, and I simply didn't find it. But it needs to be looked at. I feel like I do think it's a good out of the box solution. There's a lot of things I like about it, but I question it sustainability as well. Thank you.
Mike Litzow: So in terms of sustainability, I think the biggest issue with international teachers is turnover. A J-1 visa for a teacher is good for three years, can be extended for two years, and then you're done. And so there's turnover built into the system. Ultimately, we want teachers who work their entire community, their entire career in our community, and who can go through that arc of becoming expert teachers. You know, teaching is a craft that really demands time and experience to excel at. But that turnover issue is not limited just to international teachers in our system. Under the conditions that we're able to offer for employment right now in the district, we have turnover, incredibly high rates of turnover in all teacher positions, you know, whether the incumbent is international or domestic. And it's just a really persistent problem for the district. But unfortunately, that's a problem that is outside the remit of this board. I mean, until the state steps up and we as a state community, step up and fulfill our responsibilities to fund education, we're going to be stuck with this situation where we do have a lot of turnover. Unfortunately, the board is in a situation where we have to make shorter term reactions to fill out our roster year by year. So until the funding profile does improve, until the state does step up with a consistent commitment to BSA increases, I think that the international teacher route is really the best fix that I've seen suggested. And I think, you know, ultimately, I don't see how we'd be staffing the district without it. Thank you.
Jesse Mickelson: I definitely agree with Judy and Beate that I don't know. I can't see the future when it comes to the sustainability, I hope that it works out. I pray that it works out. It's nice that we already have a huge proportion of Filipinos in the community… I mean, of all the countries we could get teachers from, we're getting them from the Philippines. So that's really nice. But, yeah, I think what Mike said there's a main hurdle, a large hurdle that we're gonna have to overcome is the visa issues. So hopefully we're able to work around that and we don't have such a huge turnover. The only complaint I've ever heard from other parents, I hear a lot of stuff from other parents throughout the community... is one of the things is the accents. If you're trying to take an English class and your teacher's got a thick accent… I've heard that over and over and over again. As a math guy, when I was going to college, I had professors from India, Asia, Russia, Hungary, Chile, Mexico, France. And I could do all the accents. I’d nail them by the way. But I learned through those, you learn after a couple days like, ‘oh, that's what they said? That's what they said.’ It sounds like a kind of a really terrible thing when, 'Oh, they got an accent'….After a while you learn how to communicate with people. So it's not as big of a hurdle as people think it is. So hopefully, like I said, I can't tell you the future, but I hope it is sustainable.
6. KMXT: Ms. Daly, your turn to go first this time.
Across the state there’s been a continual shortage of people in trades, such as plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. Do you believe the district has provided adequate support and encouragement for kids to pursue trade-based work? Why or why not?
Beate Daly: Oh, trade work, yes, yes, yes. If you follow the school board meetings, I think it was a couple of months ago, we actually had an update of trades and what was being done at the high school level, and partnerships are being built between the school district and our community businesses. They had the owner of Highmark Marine come in and provide his input. You know, we talk a lot about trades as a trade off from college, and it's not. The trades are so important and high in demand, and it doesn't make reading and math any less important. Like if anything, it's going to be really important to have your basic reading and math skills to do any sort of trade. But with those growing partnerships, I think we're on the right track of offering kids a route via trades. There was also feedback from community members in the trades that, you know, kids were struggling even to know how to go in and ask for a job and ask for an application. So even outside of that actual training for that particular trade, we also need to be giving our students the skills to go out and apply for a job. But yeah, trades, I think we're on the right track with that, and I want to see that continue to be supported as well. Thank you
Mike Litzow: I think that vocational education is one of the best things that the district does at this point. And really I base that answer on the experience of watching both my boys go through KHS and one just graduated and one's just entered as a ninth grader, and their experience in the vocational classes has been some of their best experiences in school so far. I think that largely happens because we are lucky enough to have really, really good teachers in some of those vocational classes. Are there things we could do better? I'm sure there are. Is this something that we need to prioritize as we're being forced to evaluate budget decisions again? Yes, absolutely, it's one of the most important things that we do. I think the character of Kodiak as a working town, and then the persistent shortage of skilled trades people that you identified in the question you know, both lead us to really need to prioritize vocational education as really sort of a core identity value of the district. So I think we're doing it well, and that's something that's a success, that I think we should foster continuation of. Thanks.
Jesse Mickelson: I'd like to start by saying I think they're already doing a fantastic job with the trades. My daughter is 15, has already taken woodshop. And when I was in school, I took woodshop and I made a napkin holder that could not hold a napkin, and I had a board with a bunch of holes that I drilled in it. And that was what got accomplished in my woodshop class. She made a bench that is the nicest piece of furniture in our house, and I set my coffee cup on it every day, and I look at it and I'm like, 'how did she do that?' And whoever her teacher was that did that, [I’m] so thankful. He did a wonderful job.
She's in fisheries this semester. I'm loving that they still have auto there. I think they do flight simulators from time to time. I'm loving the trades. I hope they expand, if anything. I hope the vocational program expands, maybe HVAC, electric, I'm not sure if they do technology anymore, MIS navigation, "6-pack," OUPV license, I'm all for those. Not every kid needs to go to college…I think it's a good idea to get that skill while you're still in high school for free, and you can go out and just start tearing up the world when you're 18.
Judy Carstens: I have nothing but great things to say about the school district and our CTE program, and it's one of my most prideful accomplishments on the board is working on the committee with CTE and working with the community members. And Kodiak is in dire need of truck drivers, mechanics, diesel workers, secretaries. And when we would have these meetings, it would be the community leaders that would come in and talk to us and say what they needed. So we are trying to fulfill that.
But like Beate said, and this is going to happen, is I am working with the gentleman from Highmark, and one of the things we need to really work with is on how to interview and how to have eye contact and how to just walk in the door. These are simple things, but we get grant funds, and I see CTE growing in Kodiak, and we're keeping kids in school because of CTE. And another thing too for the community to understand is this year CTE is due for a curriculum review. So we will have a curriculum committee set up, and anyone that wants to sit on it is very welcome, and we will review the curriculum…well, there's three curriculums we will review this next school year, but CTE is in good shape. Makes me very happy. Thank you.
KMXT: That concludes the question segment of the forum. We’ll move ahead to closing statements which we do in alphabetical order. Mrs. Carstens, please go ahead with your closing statement.
Judy Carstens: First of all, I would just like to reiterate what the position of the school board is. We have four roles, four roles only that we really need to weigh in on… The rest of it, we monitor, we have great input, but we aren't the final decision. But the four that we have is on the budget. We oversee the district's budget, and we make the final decisions, which we don't do lightly. Hiring and evaluating the superintendent, and I was very fortunate in the past years to be on this hiring committee, and that was not easy either. Another one is policy, developing and overseeing policy. But curriculum is a very important one for the school board, and it's a very important one for the community, and this year, like I said, CTE is up for curriculum review, but so is language arts... [comments ended due to timer beeping]
Beate Daly: To those listening in and those here tonight, thank you for taking the time to gather information you need to make informed decisions. I pledge to do the same if elected as a board member, always gathering information, asking questions, reaching out to you, making partnerships. Thank you to the chamber and KMXT for hosting this event, providing us candidates with a platform to share viewpoints. I also want to thank my fellow candidates for being willing to put themselves out there and help make for the best educational experience possible for our kids. I'm grateful to call Kodiak home, and I want our quality of education and program to be the reason people want to move here and stay here. I want to see every opportunity utilized to strengthen our partnerships between schools, students, families, and community. We all care, and that is the boat we are all in as we guide our youth towards their future. So please show that you care and that you want to be a part of the decision making process by voting. Make a plan to vote. Election day is Tuesday, Oct. 1. Early voting starts Sept. 16 in the borough building. And if you'll be traveling, fill out your absentee application now to vote by mail. Remind your friends, family, and neighbors to vote. Let's make this year a great voter turnout.
Mike Litzow: Well, I'd like to thank the chamber and KMXT for organizing this event, and I'd also like to thank the other three candidates for running and putting themselves out there and playing their part in supporting students and education in our town. I run for this seat with a really deep sense of humility. I recognize how tough some of the decisions are going to be that someone who fills this next three-year term is likely to face, but I also run out of a deep belief in the value of public schools in Kodiak, educating the next generation is one of the most important responsibilities of our community, and public schools are a wonderful institution of shared values and shared expectations that really forms the core of our community. I run with the hope that we can get back to the tradition of the Kodiak schools being a place where kids can get a great education. We really need our schools to be a reason for people to want to move to Kodiak and not a reason for them to stay away. I'm running for the school board to contribute what I can to make our schools a success for the students and for the community. Please do vote on Oct. 1, and I would appreciate your support. Thank you.
Jesse Mickelson: One of the things I did not get to mention earlier was one of the things I'm for is early-out back to Fridays to benefit students who travel for activities. If they're going to miss a day of school, it would be nice that they did not miss a full day. That's one of the things that I would change right away if I had the power to. Also other things I'm for: more transparency with spending, streamlining the bureaucracy, very involved in the hiring and recruiting process, justification of redundant positions, extremely supportive of village education, encouraging grant funded positions and professional development activities that, again, are grant funded. I'm against changing things for the sake of change, and I'm only for changing things when we have hard data like how it is, let's change it. And then finally, I don't think money buys intelligence. It could buy a shiny new building, it can buy state of the art technology, but you will not get quality education without quality faculty.
