Welcome to the Alaska Association of School Business Officials e-newsletter!
ALASBO Mission: To promote the highest standards in school business practices.
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Jim Anderson Receives
ASBO Pinnacle of Achievement
Award
Anchorage School Business Official Recognized for CTE Collaboration
Ashburn, VA — June 27, 2020 — Jim Anderson, Chief Financial Officer for Anchorage School District in Alaska, is being honored by the Association of School Business Officials International with its Pinnacle of Achievement Award for a two-district collaboration that provides housing for rural high school students to attend academic and career and technical education classes in Anchorage.
Anchorage School District partnered with rural Lower Yukon School District (LYSD), which was experiencing dwindling quality of accessible teachers and higher operational costs, to increase the rural students’ student career and technical education (CTE) opportunities. Rural schools with low enrollment do not have the opportunity to build a large variety of CTE classes that can provide certifications, so this partnership opened up significant opportunities for students.
LYSD purchased and renovated a vacant hotel in Anchorage to provide housing for 50 rural high school students to attend nine-week sessions. The LYSD students take online courses in the morning and industry classes at King Tech High School in the afternoon.
The CTE program provides instruction in such areas as welding, construction, electrical, metals, small engines, cosmetology, medical/health sciences, hospitality/tourism, technology, aviation, and business.
The project required extensive involvement by district staff with superintendent and school board support in both districts for this program to be launched successfully in November 2019, Anderson says.
“CTE builds hope for the future through acquired skills and develops confidence in students to be successful adults,” Anderson says.
The Pinnacle Awards showcase replicable projects and practices that allow district business leaders to exchange and implement new ideas to better support their schools and communities.
For more information about ASBO International’s Pinnacle Awards, visit asbointl.org/Pinnacle.
Note from Darcy: My original plan was to nominate both Jim Anderson and Andrew Leavitt for this award, however ASBO only allows one name per project to be submitted. ALASBO would like to recognize the collaboration between our two members and the innovative work done by both Jim and Andrew.
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Message from ALASBO President, Karen Morrison |
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Greetings colleagues and friends,
This spring and summer has been a very busy and unsettling time for many of us and all of the various roles we have in our lives.
What I have witnessed over the past few months is the resiliency, passion and commitment that ALASBO members and our affiliate organizations have exhibited to ensure a robust educational experience for all students in our communities and across our state. There is no winning solution and decisions are being made at a time when it is impossible to please all stakeholders and we have to make this happen with reduced and limited funding resources.
Our ALASBO Summer Virtual Leadership Conference was well attended and very insightful. Commissioner Johnson made a comment during his opening remarks that has struck a chord with me and I will paraphrase here as these are not his exact words: to remember our district’s missions of providing robust education and not have our missions be dominated by COVID.
There are times when I feel like COVID is the driving force behind what we are doing on a daily basis. But then I hear the kids attending summer school, laughing in the play ground or the students at the coffee shop that are talking about how excited they are for school to start. It is a changing world but the fact that students are excited about learning has not changed nor has the commitment of education in our communities.
ALASBO will continue to keep you informed in relevant topics for school business and COVID, especially with our Power Lunches. If you have a topic you would like for us to address, please email Darcy Carter at darcy.carter@alasbo.org.
Have a great start to school and stay healthy and well.
Karen
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Recent Board Policy and Administrative Regulation during COVID-19
by Lon Garrison, AASB
The pandemic we are all experiencing due to the coronavirus has created a time of considerable uncertainty. Not only are parents looking to school districts for information and guidance on how schools will operate, but so are district personnel. AASB's approach to school board policy has been to develop policies that are generally broad in nature and yet specific enough to address the issue. By providing policies that address the "what" and the "why," we can provide room to create the particular "how" in administrative regulation (AR). This provides for the greatest flexibility in local boards to adjust policies and regulations to fit local conditions.
In late April of 2020, AASB updated two pieces of its model policy manual to address pressing issues brought forward by the pandemic. Board policy 6114.4 PANDEMIC/EPIDEMIC EMERGENCIES was amended to clarify the school board’s authority to delegate additional authority to the superintendent as a response to a pandemic/epidemic and sets forth actions the superintendent may take, consistent with the law. This policy update acknowledges that during extraordinary times such as the current pandemic, the superintendent may need to take specific actions on behalf of the district in a timely manner that does not always allow time for Board approval. The Board is then expected to follow-up with the superintendent and review any such extraordinary uses of authority. School boards subscribing to AASB's policy update service should have evaluated this update and considered adoption right away. This update was not mandatory but was strongly recommended.
The most specific update concerning COVID-19 was the creation of new administrative regulation, AR 4161.8 (4161/4261/4361) ALL PERSONNEL- EMERGENCY COVID-19 SICK AND FAMILY LEAVE.
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Executive Director's Message- Darcy Carter
It's Always Something!
How are you?
Just when you may have felt like you had a grasp on all the challenges with COVID-19 and budget cuts, the arrows keep coming. Student counts, hold harmless questions, the White House payroll tax announcement and many more things with which to deal keep being shot at public education. For those old enough to remember Rosann Rosannadanna, Gilda Radner’s character on SNL, you may recall one of her tag lines “It’s always something!”
How are you doing? Are you handling the arrows well, or are you feeling so stressed that it is difficult to deal with all these issues?
We must each find our own way of dealing with stress, especially when it is compounded by a global pandemic. Besides the basics of a healthy diet, plenty of sleep, prayer/meditation and regular exercise, what quality of mind supports you?
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ASBO International Launches District Level Membership
Targets
District membership expands the reach of ASBO International beyond the CFO/Assistant Superintendent/School Business Manager titles, encouraging members from all levels in the business office, as well as staff in other related departments (Human Resources, Transportation, Food and Nutrition, Information Technology, and more).
District Membership includes one voting member per district and three copies of print publications. All district members receive the following benefits:
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Member Spotlight: Elwin Blackwell |
Our member spotlight shines on Elwin Blackwell. Elwin is the School Finance Manager at the State of Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
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Breanna Gentry from Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District and Madison Blackburn of Wrangell Public Schools have been named
recipients of McClain J. "Mack" Easton Memorial Scholarships, named for a school business official who died tragically while serving the Fairbanks North Star Borough SD.
These $1,000 scholarships are awarded annually to graduating high school seniors
Recipients are selected by the ALASBO Awards Committee, to whom we extend our thanks for their work.
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More about our Annual Conference Keynote Speaker
In our May newsletter, ALASBO introduced you to our Annual Conference keynote speaker, Dr. Jeff McCausland. Get to know him better by reading this excerpt from his recently released coauthored book.
LEADERSHIP VS. MANAGEMENT
The afternoon and evening of June 30th, 1863 was a busy time for Union cavalry commander John Buford on the outskirts of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Fortunately, he had two capable subordinate commanders in the person of Colonels William Gamble and Thomas Devin. Thru these men Buford sought to exercise the leadership which would place his organization – his soldiers – in the right place and at the right time in order to be successful in the coming battle.
But John Buford also had a management function to fulfill. Having placed his organization in the best possible positions on the terrain west of Gettysburg, he also had to manage logistics for his organization – food, water, ammunition re-supply, medical support – which would sustain the soldiers in the positions in which he had deployed them. He had to also manage the intelligence gathering and the communication systems which would keep him informed of the actions of the enemy force about to strike and the friendly forces he expected to come to his aid.
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Thank you to our Power Lunch presenters!
June 9:
Carleen Mitchell, Deputy Director, APEI
Preventing Disability Discrimination in the Workplace
August 18:
Heidi Teshner, Director of Finance and Support Services, DEED
Elwin Blackwell, School Finance Manager, DEED
Hold Harmless (HH) Provision within the Foundation Formula
Our next Power Lunch is scheduled for:
September 1:
Katie Rutledge, Director of Payroll, Anchorage School District
The White House Memorandum on Deferring Payroll Tax Obligations in Light of the Ongoing COVID-19 Disaster
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Welcome New Members!
Karen Clark, Southeast Island SD
Terri Kohn, Southeast Island SD
Rebecca Moore, Delta Greely SD
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Virtual Summer Leadership Recap
ALASBO held its first Virtual Summer Leadership Conference this year. We had some great presentations on a variety of topics. Recordings are posted in the ALASBO Community Library on the ASBOIntl.org website.
Thank you to all our presenters!
Welcome and Introductions
Dr. Michael Johnson, Commissioner, DEED
Shawn Arnold, President, ASA
Dr. Lisa Parady, Executive Director, ACSA
Change Leadership: Communicate, Collaborate & Commit
Claire Hertz, President, ASBO International
Creating a Paperless Office
Amber Cockerham, Business Manager, & Cheryl Fleming, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Valdez City Schools
Tribal Compacting 101
Katie Parrott, Business Manager, Ketchikan Gateway Borough SD
Management Best Practices & Communications Parts 1 & 2
Carleen Mitchell, PHR, SHRM-CP, Deputy Director, APEI
Iceman Spark - Grassroots Innovation Program
MSgt Cronin, USAF & TSgt Daubins, USAF
Effective Leadership in Changing Times: How to Thrive, not Just Survive
Dr. Karen Gaborik, Superintendent, Fairbanks North Star Borough SD
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Message from Dr. Lisa S. Parady,
Executive Director, ACSA
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August 19, 2020
Dear ALASBO Members,
This summer our ASA Virtual Summer Meeting incorporated the message of #bettertogether. It wasn’t the first time, or the last time, we have echoed this sentiment. I find myself repeating this message in the many, many virtual meetings that we have faced since then because I have seen it in action every single day during this COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, the Alaska Council of School Administrators is an umbrella organization for that very reason. Each of our members – the Alaska Association of School Business Officials (ALASBO), the Alaska Superintendents Association (ASA), the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals (AASSP), the Alaska Association of Elementary School Principals (AAESP), and the Alaska Staff Development Network (ASDN) – play essential roles in stewarding, defending and supporting equitable public education for all children in Alaska.
It is undeniable that those of us who are defenders of public education have faced enormous challenges this year. Although we may be a little worse for wear, collaboration has gotten us this far, and it will be what gets us through to the other side of this unprecedented pandemic.
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TRS 2020/2021 School Year Reporting
Don't Forget to STAT Back Employees
Article provided by State of Alaska DOA DRB
As the beginning of the school year approaches, it is time to revisit the beginning of year reporting procedures for the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS). All Teachers who were put on TSE at the end of the school year need a STAT event entered when they return to work. Please report the following on your first payroll (pay period end, or PPE, date on or after July 1, 2020) for school year (SY) 2021:
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