Ketchikan’s School Board will consider $1.3 million in budget transfers to deal with shifting priorities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move doesn’t mean more spending by the district, but it allows officials to authorize moving resources from one category to another at Wednesday’s meeting.
Among other things, the requested transfers take money out of the 2019-2020 activities fund and put it toward things like supplies and professional services for distance learning.
The board will also discuss some policy tweaks set out by the Association of Alaska School Boards, including a measure that lays out professional boundaries that should exist between teachers and students.
The policies lay out examples of inappropriate conduct and reinforce staff members’ duty to report suspect behavior to administrators. The discussion comes after a Ketchikan High School teacher was convicted of sexually abusing a student last year. The board is not expected to take immediate action on the proposed policies.
Ketchikan’s school board will also review the results of a student and staff school climate survey.
In other business, district officials will discuss updates to the district’s back-to-school plan following a Tuesday evening school board work session.
Plans to this point have leaned heavily on distance learning in an effort to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus. But that’s led to pushback from many parents, who say they’re concerned their kids don’t do well learning from a screen — not to mention the cost and logistics of childcare for working parents.
Residents will have a chance to weigh in at the beginning and end of the Ketchikan School Board meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the White Cliff building. The meeting will be broadcast on local cable channels and streamed at the borough’s website.
