Business as usual, or cautionary tale?

By Brett Glidden
Is the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s transportation “bailout” from the state business as usual or a cautionary tale?
Recently KPBSD changed their mission statement, in part, to read: “the mission of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is to develop productive, responsible, citizens who are prepared to be successful in a dynamic world.”
No argument from me there. It makes me consider two things. First, what does it take to be a responsible citizen? Secondly, how can our district model this for young people? I’m not talking about our teachers. They model active participation every day, and for this I am sincerely grateful. It’s the decision-makers I’m frustrated with.
Dr. Steven Atwater said, in his blog, “To be a productive citizen requires much more than understanding the separation of powers or the Bill of Rights. It includes actively participating in our democracy.” I wholeheartedly agree. This is true on a national scale and, in my opinion critical, on a local level. To participate first we have to care, then we have to understand how the process works, then we have to act. I see people who care and act locally everywhere, and for this again I am sincerely grateful.
I would like to offer some suggestions to our school district about how to better support this new mission. As we are teaching kids how the democratic process works on a national level let’s talk about how it works on a local level. In this case the school district has a governing board, with elected representatives; they hire and oversee the Superintendent who in turn oversees the myriad of school district staff and students. We get to vote for a representative and they get to vote on issues that impact the delivery of their mission, except the student representative, who has no vote.
Here’s a good quote from the board’s policy manual, which is available only in part on the districts website: ‘The Board believes that in order for education to succeed there must be an ongoing partnership between educators, parents/guardians, students, and the community. The Board encourages the participation of all segments of the community…’ How exactly I want to know, do they encourage this? I have found no way to participate except to write letters or e-mails. Giving brief ‘testimony’ at a board meeting or work session is not a partnership, it’s not a conversation. Is there another way, without having to run for the board?
I naively assumed that the site councils were a way to participate. I found no organized interface what-so-ever between site councils and board members or administrators above the individual school principal. Why? Did you know that in some districts around the country the site council members are board committee members who can evaluate principles and participate in hiring school staff? Not in our district. Apparently, our local site councils used to be called ‘Site-Based Decision Making Committees.’ Why did their ability to make decisions get taken away? How can we get it back?
This brings me to the current transportation budget issue. Maybe it’s good that we have the status quo in our busing of students and school opening and closing times, but maybe there were other options. I know that the district is not going to let up on the issue of equity. Why does the southern peninsula get one-tier busing and other parts of the district have to make do with two?
I know why, because the board and administrators made that decision! I’m not going to feel badly about a decision I didn’t make. Maybe we could have saved money to buy some buses to prevent this problem in the future, or some other option that was never up for a board vote. So here is my point, we deserve more of a real partnership with our school districts decision-makers, and specifically to address this issue we deserve a committee. How is the rising fuel cost to be handled this time? How do I know we won’t need a bail out again? The more money we take from the state the more we have to do things their way is my understanding.
Call and write the board members, ask them why they didn’t recommend a committee to address this deficit, will they now? I never got a good answer to this question. Juneau is forming a committee to address reoccurring education funding issues, could we follow their lead? While we’re at it, let’s ask for site councils to have representation on committees and task forces. The board has a committee called ‘Community Relations’ but the charge and members have not been established. Could we have a community member on that one?
I don’t wait to plan or budget entirely until I find out the amount of the Permanent Fund Dividend. Should we just keep holding our breath each year waiting for Juneau to make our final decisions for us? We could organize to push for Juneau to make the education budget decisions earlier? One way or another, let’s all support the school district’s mission for our kids to care, to understand and to participate.

Brett Glidden is a 10-year resident of Homer, mother of two kindergartners at McNeil Canyon Elementary and studying social work with a special interest in youth advocacy.