Copper River School District Board Welcomes New Members

The Copper River School District (CRSD) Board elected Mark Somerville as its new president and welcomed new member Preston Callison at its regular meeting on October 28. Vice President Heidi Jacobsen was nominated for president, but declined the nomination. Both Heidi Jacobsen and Clerk/Treasurer Hannah Bengston retained their offices. 

In reports to the board, both the Slana and Glennallen Advisory School boards (ASB) reported elections as well. In Glennallen, Rebekah Levine was elected to the chairperson position, Melanie McGinnis to vice-chairperson, and Leah Hoffmeister to the position of secretary. In Slana, Kayla Coleman was elected to the board. George Drinkwater was elected chair, Bessi Henry as vice chair, and Kayla Coleman as secretary. 

The Glennallen ASB also noted a concern that parent-teacher conferences and newsletters were difficult to understand. They praised a recent change to the recess and lunch schedule. 

The Slana ASB noted challenges in staffing due to recent staff illness, and aides and teaching staff helping with gaps in transportation.

In board comments, Anna Bell-Hand expressed concern the area would be greatly impacted by the impending gap in food subsidies for low income people. She stated people “will be hurting big time” and asked Superintendent Laville whether there were any plans for the district to help.

Laville replied she has been discussing this with other district superintendents to see what their ideas are. At the bare minimum, CRSD schools will increase available snacks for children. She also stated she will work with District Business Manager Sandy Friendshuh and food service staff to “see what we can do.” She added, “It is one of the things on top of my list.” 

Hiring approvals this month were Mervin Laville as Glennallen School evening custodian and Sabrina Coleman as special education paraprofessional at Slana School. The Slana paraprofessional position was newly added by the district. The school currently has 13 students. 

Recent highlights reported by district staff included an intensive HVAC learning experience attended by two students with Jason Roslansky, an Upstream learning trip to the Coast Guard Base and Providence Hospital in Valdez, and a tour of the Solomon Gulch Hatchery for Kenny Lake students. 

The board approved teacher continuing education policy revisions. A rubric was created to score whether courses are demonstrably relevant to the teacher’s work and from a reputable instruction source. The policy was also revised to state that to qualify for a pay increase for an advanced degree, the degree must be in a relevant field. Teachers must receive grades higher than a C for continuing education to count. 

The district is creating a new parent and family engagement coordinator position to help fulfill engagement policy requirements for Title I schools. Title I schools have a student poverty rate above 40%, and receive additional federal funding for programming. 

The CRSD policy committee is working on a “threats of violence” policy to add to the district policy. They also noted that external links to head lice information are outdated and worked to update those. 

The complete agenda and minutes from this meeting are available here:https://www.boarddocs.com/ak/akcrsd/Board.nsf

The next meeting will be December 2 at 6:00 p.m. The October 28 meeting was in lieu of a November meeting. The date filled a requirement to promptly swear in new board members after their election is certified.

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