The Wrangell School Board met via web conference last Monday, May 18 and heard of several unethical and potentially illegal things happening in the district. Another person said the district had a hostile work environment.
David Macri was one of the speakers that evening.
Macri was the district's former secondary school principal, before his resignation and being put on administrative leave in March of this year. Macri spoke in the meeting to say that there were several problems in the school district's work culture. He did not go into details, but he said there were several unethical and potentially illegal things happening in the district, and he wanted to apologize to the public for not reporting them while he was principal. He said that the public needed to ask various questions of the school district, such as why multiple key personnel have resigned in the past year?
How does the school district have "two of the possibly highest paid teachers in the United States?" How can a principal-teacher be allowed to enjoy the benefits of teaching and the teacher's union, while also acting as principal?
"I am saddened to have been a part of the current state of affairs I am witness to occurring in the Wrangell School District," Macri said. "Please let me explain that while I knew these things were happening I dedicated myself to working them out. I wanted to be of assistance to a new administration, to be a team player, and to be a part of something that was pure and just, through collaboration, cooperation, and coordination, and teamwork. I now see the error of my way."
Brittani Robbins, IT Coordinator for the district, also shared some concerns with the school board. The district has a hostile work environment, she said, where administration has ignored or attempted to stifle complaints from employees. She also said that she has been made fun of for medical conditions she has, and has had her absenteeism and travel for medical needs discussed by staff without her presence, which she said goes against ADA regulations.
In a separate letter to the school board, also received in this meeting, Robbins outlined some concerns she has about the future of the district's technology department. The superintendent recently decided to dissolve her position as of May 22, she said, in an effort to save money. This cuts the technology department staff in half, she said, and would leave the technology director alone to handle the entire department's duties. Some of the duties she normally handles, outlined in the letter, include on-demand tech support, software maintenance, FY 20/21 quote requests from vendors, deploying new digital resources, ticket request management, device monitoring, software and social media audits, computer lab maintenance, and much more.
"In a time when the world is changing so drastically and people are being forced to move to a digital style of learning, working, and living, it doesn't make sense to cut technology by 50%," her letter reads.
Diane O'Brien also spoke to share concerns about the technology department. She is concerned about how decisions are being made in the district. The decision to get rid of a technology assistant program, she said, was not discussed with the department or the building administrators. At a time when technology is more important than ever for delivering an education to
students, it seems like a bad idea to eliminate half the IT staff.
"I understand that the position description does not even include what the present staff's responsibilities are," she said. "Minus one position, a litany of tasks that will not be performed, we will soon go from being the best at technology to the last in technology."
O'Brien also wanted to thank everybody in the district for their work in putting together this year's online graduation.
Ryan Howe spoke during the public comment section of the meeting. He wanted to say that, in his opinion, the school district did a good job handling distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of this school year. It was a rough start, he said, with classrooms and teachers having to switch to online education suddenly, but he said he felt things came together very well by the end of the year.
"It was very chaotic to start, but I think in the end it wound up being a pretty positive experience," he said.
Following the public comments, the school board moved on to consider what steps need to be taken for the next school year. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster provided a brief presentation on "Alaska Smart Start 2020." Smart Start, she said, is meant to be a framework for how school districts can plan for the new school year in the midst of the pandemic. This framework was put together by the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Education and Early Development, according to information in the meeting's agenda packet. Basically, Lancaster explained, the school district needs to establish three separate plans for how to reopen and operate this next year, ranging from "low risk" to "high risk" frameworks.
"Just to kind of give you a little bit of a framework, low risk would be basically opening up as normal, on time, and having a few modifications," Lancaster said. "Maybe some masks available, definitely health precautions like washing hands all the time, that sort of thing, a little more spacing in between desks. High risk is basically what we're doing now. We don't have students in the buildings and there's no congregate activity at all."
These three plans can be modular, too, according to the agenda packet. This means that portions of a "medium risk" plan, hypothetically, could be used as part of a wider "low risk" plan. Likewise, a portion of a "low risk" plan could be used in a wider "high risk" plan, depending on the situation. The three areas where the plans need to focus on are the conditions for learning, the continuity of learning, and the capacities for learning.
Lancaster said that some plans were already being brainstormed amongst staff at Evergreen Elementary School. Some of the ideas being tossed around include dividing the student body into different groups, and alternating which group comes into the buildings on different times of the day. There was also an idea to have a four-day school week, to allow the buildings to be thoroughly cleaned each Friday. Brainstorming on these plans will be ongoing, she said, but Smart Start is designed to be a framework for what the plans should look like.
During the meeting, the school board also appointed Jade Balansag to be the board's new student representative, approved of a memorandum of agreement with Michele Galla to deliver online courses, and approved of a four-year lease of iPads and other equipment for the student body in the total amount of $178,563.
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