Which parts of Juneau do you think are underserved by the school district, and what will you do about it?

  • School Board

    • Kyle Scholl*

      Candidate for School Board

      When I was at the football game, the Huskies football game — and I know I’m not too familiar with how the board as a whole is in with sports programs. But when I was a kid, we would have games Friday night. It was packed. And the last couple I’ve seen and been to, the seats are half full. Hardly any kids. And that’s kind of one of my main focuses is to work on the sports programs and help any way that I can to get that back up. Because I strongly feel that sports in a small town like this is really important for the kids.

    • Thom Buzard

      Candidate for School Board

      I can I tell you that, geographically, there’s no answer to that question because the school bus goes everywhere. Socioeconomically, we provide everything that they need to learn, so I don’t see that as a factor. But I do see an area where students are underserved.  Now, I call it industrial arts. There are a lot of students that would like to get involved but they can’t because there’s not enough of them. What I’m understanding is that there’s not enough shop space, there are not enough qualified instructors and there’s not enough equipment. 

    • Will Muldoon*

      Candidate for School Board

      There’s a lot of factors that are outside of the school board’s control that lead to the inequity we see. One of the great things about the public school system is that it tends to be a great equalizer, and when we have to have kids distance learn, there’s a lot of inequity built into that due to socioeconomic status and family factors. You know, I’m a resident of Lemon Creek, and I think that we’ve had a tough time in that regard, but I wouldn’t necessarily put that on the doorstep of the school board. I think that that’s a bigger and complex, community-wide issue.

    • Ibn Bailey

      Candidate for School Board

      And I believe that where we have our special education students and we have our talent enrichment development, or TED students, those two particular groups do have a lot of attention. But, I want to focus on the rest of the students — where we were in terms of equity, and student achievement. Those are two areas that I would like to further address. I think that there’s work to be done.

    • Aaron Spratt

      Candidate for School Board

      Right now, I think we’re all underserved by the Juneau School District. Our current policies in elementary and high school of passing kids on to the next grade, no matter what their academic proficiencies are, is a real failure of our system. Every single student deserves a robust public education and I will work on behalf of every student. Each one is the most precious person their parents have ever known.

    • Elizabeth Siddon

      Candidate for School Board

      One sub population identified in the equity pillar of our strategic plan are Alaska Native students. I support, through the board’s budget prioritization process, academic programs like the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy Program. I also support through outreach education efforts with NOAA providing fisheries research experiences. I’m really excited about a recently funded internship opportunity for Alaska Native students that I will participate in as a mentor.

    • Amber Frommherz

      Candidate for School Board

      I think one sector of underserved folks would be looking at and ensuring that we are identifying students who are experiencing homelessness and if we are serving them to the best of our ability as a school district. In addition, I also am a firm believer in early childhood education, and so I’m pretty sure there are some three and four-year-olds out there that could be experiencing some early childhood programs by JSD.