On Thursday, February 20th at 6:30 PM, the Anchorage School Board will hold a regular school board meeting. This is probably the LAST CHANCE your voice can be heard regarding the 7-Period Day. School Board Members need to hear from an Educated populace that WE DO NOT WANT THIS CHANGE!! It will sacrifice literally weeks of class contact time and that is NOT GOOD for students!
If School Board Members want to do the right thing by ASD Students, they need to HEAR FROM YOU!! So please GO to the meeting. Speak out against this horrible plan. Directions for getting on the agenda are below. And if you cannot go, Email or call every school board member on the list. Below are their email addresses and phone numbers taken from the ASD Website. Below that is text for a sample letter which you should modify. Copies of the same letter are worthless.
Be smart, knowledgeable, professional but forceful with your comments. Have your facts at hand. Write clearly and briefly if you are sending an email. Speak briefly and to the point if you are calling. And if you are presenting at the meeting, PRACTICE what you will say. Be polite. Use data. Don’t whine. But get the job done. We cannot have this ridiculous schedule throw a blight on education in Anchorage. GOOD LUCK.
MEETING SIGNUP PROCEDURES FOR IN-PERSON TESTIMONY
Persons may notify the superintendent’s office to sign-up to testify to the school board up to one hour prior to the start of either the early or late session of the regular meeting. Contact may be made in one of the following ways:
Phone: 907-742-4315
Fax: 907-742-4318
Email: SchoolBoard@asdk12.org
In person: 5530 E Northern Lights Blvd., Anchorage
If the person has not called in, or otherwise provided notification 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting, they may sign-up with the school board secretary in the boardroom until the president has called the meeting to order. Persons wishing to testify should give the secretary their name, telephone number, and topic of their testimony. Persons may not sign-up other persons to testify.
A sign will be posted in a prominent place in the boardroom advising the public of their right to sign-up prior to the beginning of the meeting; this sign will also have a copy of the agenda and a list of those who have previously signed up (without telephone numbers) to testify.
Persons who wish to sign-up after the president has called the meeting to order will be advised by the president if they will be allowed to testify.
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS
Tam Agosti-Gisler
President
Seat F through April 2015, first term
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 4
Email: agosti-gisler_tam@asdk12.org
Eric Croft
Seat B through April 2016
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 2
Email: croft_eric@asdk12.org
Bettye Davis
Seat A through April 2016
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 7
Email: davis_bettye@asdk12.org
Pat Higgins
Seat C through April 2014, second term
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 6
Email: higgins_pat@asdk12.org
Kameron Perez-Verdia
Clerk
Seat D, appointed through April 2014
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 1
Email: perez-verdia_kameron@asdk12.org
Kathleen Plunkett
Seat E through April 2015, second term
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 3
Email: plunkett_kathleen@asdk12.org
Natasha von Imhof
Vice President
Seat G through April 2015, first term
Phone: 907-742-1101 ext. 5
Email: von-imhof_natasha@asdk12.org
Dear SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS NAME
I am a PARENT / STUDENT / TEACHER in the Anchorage School District. I am writing with my concerns over the proposed 7-Period School Day for High Schools.
A 7-Period Schedule does not save the district money and results in reduced student contact time amounting to more than a month of lost time per class over the course of a year. How will Anchorage students be competitive if they are a month behind the rest of the world?
Claims of additional elective classes cannot be demonstrated when lost core classes from RIF’d teachers must be replaced. Alleged increases in Graduation Rates are not reflected in data presented by schools with these schedules, even in the Mat Su.
Finally students and teachers will be subjected to more homework to produce and grade respectively, resulting in diminished academic quality.
Please vote to maintain the 6 period day that high schools currently enjoy.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
(1131)