During its regular meeting Wednesday the Ketchikan School Board will consider signing a letter objecting to the Alaska Department of Administration’s proposed allocation of unfunded pension liabilities.
The letter, written in conjunction with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, says that the state overestimated the School District’s liability and understated the state’s liability regarding the public employee retirement system and the teacher retirement system, referred to as PERS and TRS.
In other matters, Superintendent Bob Boyle writes in his memo to the board that mid-September through early November is when the majority of student growth occurs. It is also traditionally the time of year when the District shares standardized testing results. However, the Department of Education last year changed the required tests.
The new Alaska Measures of Progress or AMP test foregoes pencils for digital devices. Moving the test into the digital world allows the questions to change in real time according to the student’s previous responses, which aims to create more nuanced results.
The district expects to publish the results from last year’s tests in October. Because the AMP test is so different from previous standardized testing, the District has been discouraged by the Department of Education from comparing the new and old test results.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in Borough Assembly chambers at the White Cliff Building. There is time reserved for public comment at the start and end of each meeting.
