Pursed strings — Prospective recipients of stimulus say short-term funds do good in long term

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Immediately after Gov. Sarah Palin announced March 18 that she wouldn’t request nearly a third of the federal stimulus money slated for Alaska — about $288 million of $931 million — because there were strings attached, agencies and organizations that stood to receive funding started pulling strings of their own.

Palin later said the money was still on the table, and that she wanted the Legislature to review proposed stimulus spending to avoid leaving the state with extra costs from programs or jobs created with the two-year money. Lobbying began nearly as soon as Palin’s announcement was made to convince legislators that the money would be put to good use without creating bills that would come due when the federal dollars ran out.

On the Kenai Peninsula, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and Kenai Peninsula Food Bank say a short-term infusion of funding can be spent in a way that provides long-term benefits without recurring costs.

“We’re mostly interested in putting roots into the ground to help us be a stronger district, and not add things,” said Assistant Superintendent Steve Atwater, who will become superintendent at the end of June.

The district has a list of proposed uses for the $5 million it stands to receive in stimulus money. Only one proposal would create a new position — a stimulus funds coordinator who would track implementation of the funding and document compliance with federal regulations on the how the money is spent. But even that job would be advertised and hired as a two-year position that would end when the money does, said Melody Douglas, chief financial officer for the district.

The rest of it would be used for training, upgrading technology and in other ways meant to increase student achievement (see sidebar for list of proposed programs). Essentially, the district would be paying to make teachers better, not paying for new teachers.

“These are things we always talk about and want to do, especially educational assistive technology for preschoolers,” Atwater said.

“It’s not really a Christmas list, it was on our priority list anyway,” he said.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time, what we really hope is for the infusion to be able to accelerate the plans,” Douglas said.

In the realm of professional development, for example, a one-time infusion of cash can provide lasting dividends because the district can use it to train its own people, who can then train colleagues in the future.

“We can grow our capacity so the trainers have the recourses within the district, so we don’t have to spend ten grand to get trainers in here,” Atwater said.

Douglas said that, in talking to legislators, the concern seems to be that money could be spent frivolously, without much consideration or comprehensive planning. The district supplied the peninsula’s legislative delegation with a specific list of what the money could go toward.

“They were extremely pleased with having received it,” Douglas said. “It was like, ‘OK, this is what we were waiting for.’”

The majority of the education portion of the stimulus money would be funneled through the federal entitlement programs that serve special-needs and low-income students, and there are already a host of rules and guidelines for how that money is used.

“The Department of Education requires us to submit plans to the feds for how we’re going to spend the money,” Atwater said. “… This is not just free cash we can play with as we see fit. We can’t just go buy hot tubs. We have limits on where the money can go.

“This will help our special-needs kids. Anything we can do to help these kids is great,” he said.

Part of the governor’s stated rationale for not requesting all the federal funding is it could balloon budgets and create an expectation that newly created services or programs would continue after the money is gone.

Douglas said that wouldn’t happen at KPBSD, in part because the stimulus money would be a special revenue fund and have nothing to do with the district’s general fund budget. It won’t save the district any money by footing any existing bills, and it won’t create growth within the existing budget.

“These funds can’t be used to supplant general fund money. It cannot be used for anything we already pay for in the general fund,” she said.

But that’s not to say new practices that could come out of the stimulus money would necessarily cease to exist. The district’s budget philosophy every year is to look at where the district is at and where it wants to be, and prioritize spending to do the most good in advancing the district toward its goals, Douglas said.
Projects receiving stimulus funding would be looked at in that same vein, and if they prove to be vital in impacting student achievement, the district may find a way to continue funding them within its own budget.

“There could be some things we could do differently or better with this infusion. Using the budget model we could be in a much better place after this,” Douglas said.

At the food bank, Director Linda Swarner said money would be used to boost the existing emergency food program.

“We would not institute new programs, we would use it for existing programs, just to enhance what we have,” she said. “All of the funds that we get here at the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank stays on the peninsula and we help hungry residents from Homer to Moose Pass,” she said.

Money would be used to buy food for the food bank’s member agencies across the peninsula, including senior centers and other meal programs. It could also go to supplement the food boxes given out to residents at the food bank itself.

“It we got a significant amount it would go toward the clients that come in on a monthly basis. First and foremost would go to the 64 member agencies that have feeding programs. They’re all seeing an influx, and we’re seeing an influx in individuals and households coming to inquire about services,” Swarner said.
If the funding amounted to a large sum, it could be used to accomplish projects with one-time costs that the food bank couldn’t otherwise afford, like expanding or upgrading the food warehouse.

Otherwise, stimulus money will be used to do what the food bank always does — feed people.

“I strongly support the Legislature to consider accepting the stimulus money for the food programs,” Swarner said.

Atwater has a similar message for education funding. He and Douglas say the message appears to be well-received.

“It had a life of its own. It was such a shocking thing that the governor would say no to money for education,” Atwater said. “It didn’t take a whole lot of effort to get people upset. We didn’t have to lobby really hard.”

On Friday, the House approved a resolution accepting any money that Gov. Palin does not request from the state’s estimated $930 million share of the federal stimulus package. As of Monday, a similar measure was waiting to be voted on in the Senate, and the House Finance Committee had begun debate on a spending bill that would direct parts of the funding to specific agencies.

Students get new view on science — Class takes pictures of Earth with International Space Station camera

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Middle School’s seventh-grade trip photos are a world apart.

There are no snapshots of friends mugging for the camera, no remembrances of funny signs or interesting roadside curiosities, no photographic evidence of practical jokes done while the victim was sleeping.

That’s because the students weren’t the ones doing the traveling. But they were in charge of the camera, and they used their shutterbug and science skills to capture images not seen in any typical vacation slide show — pictures of Earth from space.

The KMS seventh-grade science class participated in ISS EarthKAM, a NASA-sponsored program that allows students to take high-quality photographs from the International Space Station as it orbits the planet.

The program has been going since 1996, and science teacher Allan Miller had students participate in it when he taught at Sterling Elementary School. When he started teaching at Kenai Middle this year, he found that co-teacher Cheryl Schey had done the program at Kenai Middle previously, so they decided to expand it to all seventh-graders as part of science class.

“This is a cool project. It has so many applications. It can be a social studies project, geography, a science project. Now there’s enough data over 10 years you can see some of the effects of climate change. You can see it with real student-generated data. I think that’s fascinating,” Miller said.

With EarthKAM, classes can reserve use of a special digital camera pointed at Earth on the International Space Station for three days at a time. They program it to take pictures at certain exact times — down to the second. Students figure out the longitude and latitude of what they want photographed, and figure when the space station’s camera will be in range by tracking the station’s orbital trajectory, altitude and speed.

“We had these little time zone things where you could see where the space station was going over at certain times and you had to find what you wanted to do, and it had to be pretty precise on where it was,” said Courtney McCauley, a seventh-grader. “And then you just put in the latitude and longitude and all that and where you wanted to take pictures of.”

Miller had the students take pictures of biomes across the planet. McCauley picked a part of the globe she’d like to see for herself one day.

“I like Sydney, Australia, and I want to go there, so I decided to take a picture of Australia. I took a couple pictures, this just happened to be the best of them,” she said.

The area she photographed is the West Coast of Australia, near Port Headland. It’s a section of coastline where copper-colored sand meets the deep blue of the ocean.

“The iron-rich sand and blue of the ocean really contrast each other nicely and there’s some beach in there. It makes some really unique designs. Some you would look at and you would swear it was art. It doesn’t even look like a picture,” Miller said.

“I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. I didn’t know it would turn out in that much detail, but I think it turned out really well. Other ones were good, but I think mine just had like the border and all that, and the water in it,” McCauley said.

It’s a difficult task to capture exactly what you want, Miller said. The altitude of the space station, the speed it’s moving at and a lag time in technology creates about a three-mile margin of error that needs to be compensated for.

“It comes down to luck of the draw, in that you don’t have total accuracy. You think you’re shooting a picture of a coastline and it turns out a nice shot of ocean,’ Miller said.

Student pictures are archived in a massive database, and can be viewed online at www.earthkam.ucsd.edu, by clicking on the Images tab and browsing by school.

“I think just being able to take a picture of anything you wanted and see the picture back and see what it looks like in real life. You may think it looks like something but when you get the picture back it may look like something else. It’s a different point of view than what you see it from,” McCauley said.

Not only did the project contribute to the students’ knowledge of geography, orbital mechanics and other topics, their photos contribute to an archived body of science.

“There are some incredible shots in there. I think students take a real sense of pride because, ‘This is my picture. I took this from space.’ It’s probably the closest thing any one of us will get to being there, that’s for sure,” Miller said.

Except in Miller’s case, that may not be true. He’s still awaiting word of whether he’ll be selected into NASA’s astronaut program. He applied with 4,000 other hopefuls in July, and made the cut down to 120 selected for the interview stage. He went to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in December for a round of interviews and rigorous physical, psychological and intelligence testing.

From that he was selected as one of 40 finalists, and just spent another week in Houston undergoing more medical testing. He’s the only educator left in the running, in a pool with mostly military pilots and doctoral-level scientists, he said.
“It’s just a bit intimidating, for sure,” he said.

Miller will hear in May whether he’s one of the 10 to 15 selected for the astronaut program. If he is, he’ll have to report to Pensacola, Fla., in early June to start learning how to fly jets.

“It’s not going to be a gradual little transition, it’ll be wrapping up school, then taking off,” he said. “We’ll see. I feel real good about how it went. They didn’t find any big medical problems, which is what they were looking for this time.

“It’s going to make for a long couple months waiting, for sure.”

The wait is broken up by some excitement this month, as Miller is spending the week in New Orleans at the National Science Teachers Association National Conference on Science Education, where he will be the first ever recipient of the Dr. Wendell G. Mohling Outstanding Aerospace Educator Award, co-sponsored by the Challenger Center for Science Education and Sally Ride Science.

The award recognizes a teacher who demonstrates excellence locally and nationally in the field of aerospace education. A committee of teachers, professors and scientists selected Miller from a pool of nominees across the United States. He gets $3,000, a free trip to the NSTA conference, and the award will be presented by astronaut Sally Ride at the awards banquet Sunday.

“It’s just so humbling. It’s the first time they’ve presented this award nationally, just for teachers specializing in space and aerospace science. I enjoy what I do, but I don’t think of myself as national class,” Miller said. “And so it’s really humbling to go down there and kind of be representative of all teachers.”

Miller said it will be a thrill meeting Ride, since she’s one of his heroes.

“Talk about someone laying the groundwork for ladies in space and ladies in science, and she continues to be a nationwide leader in science education,” he said.

He’ll be decked out for the honor thanks to support from back home. He went to Malston’s in Kenai to rent a tuxedo for the event, and when owner Ron Malston found out what it was for, he donated the rental.

“It’s neat to see other people getting excited about it, too,” Miller said. “There’s thousands of teachers in this district working hard every day, and there just isn’t enough recognition for teachers out there. A lot of times the recognition doesn’t come for years. To have it right when I’m in class is pretty exciting.”

Playing with history — Kids get their take on Alaska’s past in play

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Putting kids in charge of Alaska history can garner interesting and enthusiastic results.

There’s the Good Friday quake of 1964 and resultant destructive tsunami, the gold rush gets some attention, as does fur trading and President Warren Harding driving a golden spike into tracks to commemorate the completion of the Alaska Railroad.

Through it all, legendary Skagway villain Soapy Smith is trying to steal anything that isn’t nailed down — including the spike, which is actually nailed down — and there’s the occasional outbreak of mild shoving. Plus a charging moose that mows down a group of drummers.

In short, “It’s wonderful,” said Sue Biggs, music teacher at Redoubt Elementary School in Soldotna.

Biggs and her students have put on two plays a year in her five years at the school, she said, and she often either adapts a book to use as a script or the students help her come up with songs or dialogue to enhance a pre-written show.

But this year, the spring play was up to her students to devise.

“Because of the 50th anniversary of Alaska, I thought it would be great to do something historic for Alaska, and there wasn’t anything,” Biggs said. “I approached them and said, ‘What would you think about us writing our own play?’ The kids who were into it stepped forward and did a Jim Dandy job.”

The play, “North to the Past,” involves 200 students from seven classes, and they all got input into the play.

“That’s why it’s such a large undertaking, because everybody is going to be involved in some way or another,” Biggs said. “What I told them is pretty much they’d do everything. My philosophy of doing plays is that everyone finds a place so it isn’t just a small group of kids performing and everyone else just singing. If you want to be on stage, find your place that is special to you. We had students creating dances because they’re dancers. They created sets because they like to build and they like to paint. People are acting because they like to act, or tripping because they like to fall.

“There’s a lot of falling, a lot of screaming and a lot of running in this play because it’s written by kids. I’m trying to keep everybody safe but also allow them to express themselves the way they want. I’m trying to take all of their pieces and pull it into a play.”

Biggs and her students brainstormed a list of milestones from Alaska history and she had them choose seven that would be in the play.

“So they chose what they wanted. Us coming into statehood is not one of the things they chose, so it’s not part of the play,” she said.

Soapy Smith has a prominent role in many of the scenes, since Biggs suggested the play needed a villain, and students liked that he was a genuine Alaska bad guy.

“They glommed onto that one and built his character throughout the play,” Biggs said.

Each class chose a theme and designed the dialogue, action and sets for that scene. Student authors came up with the storyline that wove through the scenes.

Fifth-grader James Elsey and sixth-graders Savannah Cartwright and Logan Parks came up with the idea of a family that steps into an elevator in a hotel while on vacation, only to discover it’s a time machine. The elevator then takes them to various stops in Alaska history, where there’s a problem to be resolved at each stop.

“You figure out that a bad guy named Soapy Smith is trying to steal all the gold,” James said.

James enjoyed writing the humor of the play, like having one of the kids complaining about needing to go to the bathroom throughout the entire play, until there’s actually a place to use the bathroom, when she decides she doesn’t have to go anymore.

For Logan, the creative process was the highlight.

“I want to be a writer when I grow up, so it was an awesome experience,” he said.

Savannah said she enjoyed all of it.

“I don’t really have a favorite part, the whole thing was pretty cool,” she said. “We wanted to do something fun that we would enjoy. I think it’s a lot of fun because so many people got to write the stuff and write the songs and it’s actually something you did.”

That’s the part Biggs is most pleased with, that the students created so much of their own play.

“I’m just amazed at the storyline and how they were able to bring it to the great ending,” Biggs said. “It ties people in history to the people in the present and it took us awhile to find an ending, but when they pulled it together it was just a pleasant surprise, and I just think the whole storyline is delightful. I’m just very proud of everyone for all the work they’ve done.”

“North to the Past” will be performed at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Soldotna High School auditorium. The show is free and open to the public.

Superintendent ready to learn about retirement — Peterson to step down June 30

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

There’s someone Donna Peterson wants to meet.

It’s a person she knew some time ago, before she became Dr. Peterson, was named superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and got too busy to keep up with old acquaintances as well as she would like.

It’s someone who loves to read and travel, goes for long bike rides, has plenty of time to spend with family and friends and, as Peterson recalls, had a bit of a wild streak.

Herself.

After 10 years at the helm of one of the largest school districts in the state, and the largest employer in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Peterson is stepping down June 30. She announced her resignation Jan. 28 to give the school board plenty of time to select her replacement. It also gives her time to prepare for the next chapter in her life — one where she’s the main character.

“I’m just going to have a break,” she said.

She’s not moving on to another job, much less locations. She’ll stay in Nikiski and do the things that she’s put on the back shelf during her tenure as superintendent.

“You wouldn’t want to give up a lake house now that you have time to enjoy it,” she said.

An item on her agenda is to finally have time to pay back one of her neighbors, Dan Carstens, vice principal at Nikiski Middle-High School, who likes to buzz her house on a jet ski or some other motorized craft, thinking he’s irritating her, she said.

Of course, being superintendent means she’s hardly ever home to hear it, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting retribution.

“I’ll be buzzing his house, except I’ll do it in the middle of the night when he has to work the next day,” she said.

Her first priority, though, will be spending more time with her 94-year-old grandmother, who lives in Nevada. Peterson is her primary caregiver, but can only manage to visit a few days here and there during the school year. She’ll also have more time to spend with her husband, Rudy, and travel to watch the college volleyball games of her daughter, Jamie.

She’ll read, exercise, relax and reconnect with friends.

“I really want a more simple life,” she said.

Does that mean she’ll don an apron, and learn to crochet and bake?

“God, no,” she said.

“I’m not crafty, so that’s not going to happen. I don’t cook, so that’s not going to happen. My circle will grow wider. A lot of it now is work-related. I hope to expand that.”

Not only will stepping down give Peterson time to herself, it also allows the freedom to be herself. When you’re in charge of the largest organization on the peninsula, responsible for more than 2,000 employees and 9,000 school kids, everything you say and do can be subject to scrutiny. You can’t allow a bad day to affect how you interact with others, you sometimes need to keep your personal opinions to yourself for the sake of diplomacy, and you can’t cut loose with friends at a bar over the weekend.

Not that she plans to do that now, she said, but the opportunity to only speak and act for herself, and not the entire school district, is appealing.

It’s also a bit daunting, downshifting from a public position of authority where she’s always informed and involved to being out of the loop.

“Sunday afternoons the phone rings and it’s not usually going to be a good thing,” she said. “I’m not going to be the one on the other end of the phone. That will be really hard to get used to.

“I’ll be exercising a lot, and finding other substitutes for that adrenaline rush that comes from being the leader of a large organization.”

The last time she took a break was over 20 years ago with two babies at home, and that only lasted five months before she wanted to get back to work, she said. So she expects to start working again sooner or later in some venue, writing articles and maybe another book, expanding her professional coaching business and perhaps volunteering locally.

“Anytime you’re involved with the kids, that keeps you young. It’s good for all of us,” she said.

She started out in KPBSD as a parent volunteer in 1990. Her first job here was as a sixth-grade sub for Tim Peterson, who now works out of district office as the human resources director for KPBSD. Maybe now she’ll finally be able to distance herself from the misconception that she and Tim are married, she said.

She taught fourth grade at North Star Elementary School and worked her way up to principal of the school, then curriculum director for the district before being named superintendent in 1999.

It wasn’t a post she expected to have for so long — she’s now the longest continuously serving superintendent in the state — and there was no way to foresee that the decade to come would include so many challenges.

After a boom of population growth and construction money on the peninsula in the 1970s and 1980s, resources dried up in the 1990s and student numbers have been steadily trickling downward, leaving the district having to pink slip employees, cut programs and consolidate schools. At the same time, education regulations were on the rise, with increasingly strict and cumbersome government initiatives, including the big one, No Child Left Behind.

But those challenges led to strengths and the district’s accomplishments that Peterson is most proud of, she said. The district adopted a culture of constant re-evaluation and not only making do with less, but making the most of what it had. That led to the first-rate technology system the district has in place, Peterson said, which is vital to keeping the far-flung district cohesive and in providing expanded opportunities to the district’s rural communities.

Peterson also pointed to the district’s finance department, which is regularly recognized for its excellence — another outgrowth of the lessons learned from stretching resources as far as they would go. And businesses and the larger peninsula community have been integrated into the school district through various partnerships.

“That would not have happened without scarce resources that caused us to look at things and do so many things differently,” Peterson said.

That’s not to say Peterson is glad the district was faced with resource challenges. Sometimes the hard times were just plain hard.

“We lost a lot of good people and we lost a lot of good energy because of scarce resources,” she said.

Another down side of the job has been dealing with controversial issues, she said. Not the contentious issues themselves, like school consolidations, but not always having all the cards on the table was frustrating.

“You might think politics, but I’ve enjoyed the politics because it’s all about education,” she said. “But controversial issues when things come up. I don’t like being surprised, but you’re going to be surprised if you put yourself out there and try new things,” she said.

“You’re always waiting for the ‘gotcha’ in this job.”

Some of the highlights of the district in the last 10 years Peterson pointed to have been the numerous awards and statewide and nationwide recognition district personnel have garnered, the role KPBSD has taken in being ahead of the curve on state and federal education initiatives, and the district’s hiring process for new administrators.

“It involves large groups of people providing input, being involved in the interview process and stating their opinions. It’s been good for the district,” she said.

In the list of accolades accumulated over the past decade, one of the most prominent is the fact that KPBSD made Adequate Yearly Progress, the benchmark of student achievement in No Child Left Behind legislation, as an entire district for the past two years in a row. KPBSD is the only large district in the state to do so.

“That took a long time. In 1999 we started the student achievement focus,” Peterson said. “… We said, ‘Until we get here we can’t talk about much more.”

Now that the district is “there” — with increasing success in student achievement and with state funding reworked last legislative session — Peterson said it’s time to step down and let someone else guide KPBSD to its next destination.

“It’s the perfect time to move on. Administrators are in place, the district is doing well. From the beginning coming in, you see administrative careers as having a lifetime,” Peterson said. “We have a wonderful new school board and we have new blood in there with administrators. I started thinking about, is it time to have somebody else take this to the next level?”

Peterson said she thinks school will change in the future, with school buildings and classrooms looking and operating differently than they have traditionally, and a new focus on kids’ individual learning needs.

“How is that is going to look? Let’s go try some new things. Everything’s in place to be the leaders in individual instruction. But it will take a long time and be a large time commitment and I’m not the person to do that,” she said.

She said she’s not worried about the future of the KPBSD, because folks are prepared to do a great job. But she’ll be hard at work in the next few months to ensure that future, helping the new school board get familiar with the district’s direction, and facilitating the transition for whomever the school board chooses to take her place.

“So the person loves the district as much as I do,” Peterson said.

Shooting for the stars — Kenai teacher in the running to become NASA astronaut

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Like many kids growing up in the Apollo era, Allan Miller wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up. Somewhere along the line of adolescence, college, adulthood, kids and careers, most give up that dream and make peace with being earthbound.

Not Miller. At 45, he’s getting another chance at outer space.

“I’ve always been fascinated by space,” Miller said. “My earliest memory is sitting on my dad’s lap, watching Neil Armstrong land and walk on the moon.”

The Kenai Middle School science teacher spent last week in Houston at the Johnson Space Center undergoing interviews and rigorous physical, psychological and intelligence testing to determine if he’ll be picked for NASA’s astronaut program. He and 4,000 other hopefuls applied for the program in July, and Miller made the cut down to the 120 selected for the interview stage. They’re being brought to Houston in batches of 20.

“I didn’t even think they’d give me a second look when I applied. I was very surprised when they gave me a call,” Miller said. “I lost 28 pounds because I don’t want to present myself as an overweight 45-year-old. I’m doing my best youthful impression. Anything to hide the wrinkles.”

Of the 450 astronauts in history, three were 45 or older, Miller said. But even so, he’s got some marks in his favor. For one thing, he’s already been through the selection process. He applied during the last round of applications in 2003 and also made it to the physical examination stage before NASA disqualified him because testing showed abnormalities with his eyes.

Tests since then show the abnormality was benign, and he was invited to apply again.

“Anytime NASA sees something they don’t understand medically, you’re out of the game entirely. It turns out I was just born with big optical nerves, bigger than most. They decided I just have weird eyeballs,” he said.

Being a military pilot is no longer the most direct route to becoming an astronaut, which is good for Miller because his early aspirations of joining the Air Force were squashed by his poor, 20/100 vision. Nowadays, NASA considers doctors, scientists, engineers and even teachers who can inspire the next generation of astronauts.

“When I walked into it five years ago, the most shocking part of it was to meet the other 19 people down there. I was just so humbled and feeling inadequate,” Miller said of the cancer researcher, Navy test pilot, people with multiple doctorate degrees and scientists in obscure fields of study who were in his interview group.

“You almost needed a translator when you asked, ‘What do you do?’ I spend my day hanging with seventh-graders. I just look at myself and go, ‘Why am I here?’ But they know who they’ve invited, and for whatever reason, I’m worth the recall.”

Miller speaks Russian, after teaching English in the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1988, teaching Russian at Skyview High School for six years, and being a translator for the Russian biathlon team in the 2002 Winter Olympics (he’s also been a cross-country ski and biathlon coach) and for an exchange program between Alaska and Magadan, Russia. That skill would be useful on the International Space Station working with its Russian inhabitants.

And he’s got a science background. Miller worked with the National Science Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., and participated in a research trip to Antarctica two years ago.

Since his last go-around with NASA in 2003, Miller has been actively involved with bringing outer space down to Earth in the classroom. When he taught at Sterling Elementary, prior to his sabbatical with the National Science Foundation, he established it as a NASA Explorer School, which opened up a host of projects in which students could participate. At Kenai Middle, where he teaches now, he just finished a project where students linked with the International Space Station and took pictures of Earth.

“The neat thing about NASA is they really have the corner on the market of inspiration,” Miller said. “What’s more inspiring than rockets?”

Science comes to life when it’s not just from a textbook, he said. Instead of reading about cells and cytoplasm on a page, he has students do a project simulating NASA’s Phoenix Mission, which put a lander on Mars to look for signs of life. So many of the advancements the space program has made seemed like science fiction 15 years ago, so it’s exciting to learn about new technologies and discoveries as they’re happening, Miller said.

“I just want kids to come away with an awe and wonder of science,” he said.

That’s a large part of Miller’s motivation for pursuing the astronaut program — he’s learning a lot that he can take back to the classroom.

“My passion is kids and education. For me, it’s just another part of being a good teacher,” he said.

NASA will continue its interview and testing process through the end of January and select 40 to 50 candidates to move on to the next round. From those, 10 to 15 will be picked for the astronaut program, Miller said.

The mission they’d be involved in includes spending three to six months on the International Space Station doing human physiological research to find out how to combat problems astronauts face when spending long periods of time in space, like bone and muscle loss from being in zero G, radiation exposure, immune system issues, and discovering ways to recycle water and grow food in space. Solving those issues would help make a manned mission to Mars possible.

If Miller is selected, he and his family — wife, Joan, and kids Xander, 9, Mackenzie, 7, and Sasha, 3 — would move to Houston. He’d spend four to five years training before flying a mission to space sometime in 2013 or 2014. Joan has been wonderfully supportive of him pursuing his dream, Miller said, and their kids are getting used to the idea.

“The big worry at this point is how much hockey is there in Texas. That’s the crisis decision,” Miller said. “They’re excited about it, but at the same time, it’s change. … The thought of Dad sitting on top of 7 million pounds of thrust is scary, and that comes with great risk.”

Miller said he wants to show his kids that some risks are worth taking if it means following your dreams.

“I think it’s a good life lesson. Sometimes life opens opportunities for you and you walk through the door,” he said.

He’s also prepared to show them how to make the best of things when they don’t work out as planned.

“This is so far from selected. It’s just a very, very remote chance,” he said. “It’s an honor to get to this level, especially to be there a second time. It could turn out to be nothing more than a wonderful pat on the back from NASA, and thank you for the time and some sunshine in December.

“If it doesn’t happen, sure, I’ll be disappointed, but so many things have happened in pursuit of those goals that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

Imagination blasts off — Special guests spark interest in science

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Middle School students had some auspicious guests in class Friday, all the way from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, including their own teacher.

“I see you, Mr. Miller!” a few voices piped up as the videoconference link was established, letting the students see their science teacher, Allan Miller, and Miller see the 50 students in his classroom.

Miller was in Texas last week undergoing interviews and testing for NASA’s astronaut program. He’s one of 120 from a field of 4,000 applicants still under consideration in the nearly yearlong application cycle. NASA is in the process of winnowing that batch down to 40 or 50 by bringing them to Houston in groups of 20 for interviews. By spring, 10 to 15 will be picked to be the next astronauts.

Miller rounded up some of his fellow applicants and others he met at the Johnson Space Center to talk to his students back in Alaska. They each told a little about their backgrounds, if they were applicants, or their jobs for NASA if they worked there. Then the students got to ask questions. True to middle school form, the students had a few curveballs for their guests.

“Would people say you’re cool?” was a question for an astronaut in training, who will fly a mission to the International Space Station in February.

The answer came with a laugh: “I have a 13-year-old back home who would probably say, ‘No way.’”

Students also wanted to know how long training takes before going to space (2.5 to three years), how big the International Space Station is (each of the seven or eight modules is the size of a school bus) and how astronauts train to do spacewalks (practice in a swimming pool).

A professor from Stanford University talked about his research trips around the world and the different opportunities students have for research and study with NASA, including a recent test of worms and bacteria from toilets sent into space.

He’s taught at the college and elementary school level, and said younger students are his favorite to talk to, “Because you guys actually pay attention.”

“Do you mean that, or are you just saying that to make us feel better?” a student wanted to know.

Two Navy jet pilots were a big hit with the students and got several questions about the kinds of jets they fly, how they got to be pilots and if they like flying jets.

“Absolutely. It definitely beats working for a living,” one of them said.

Another candidate talked about his job building satellites and his history playing football at Purdue University, a medical doctor told students he wished he had a teacher like Mr. Miller when he was their age, and a scientist with a doctorate degree told them how much he enjoyed going to school:

“How would you feel if, by the time you graduated from high school, you were only halfway done with school?”

Miller did a slide show of photos from Mission Control and other areas of the space center, and some shots of the tests he underwent, including one of him in shorts undergoing body measurements.

“Sorry about that. You really didn’t want to see that image, did you?” he said.
The final speaker was a mechanical engineer specializing in robotics that Miller had met when he applied for the astronaut program five years ago.

He showed students how far robotic hands have come over the years and showed some robots developed for space missions. The robots included “Robonaut,” a humanoid figure; a flying camera reminiscent of a training device Luke Skywalker fought in the original “Star Wars” movie; and “Spidernaut,” with eight legs to distribute its weight so it could walk on delicate surfaces.

His current project is designing wheels for rovers being developed for missions on the moon and Mars.

“What is the first robot you ever built?” a student asked.

“If you count Legos, then Legos,” he answered. After that, it was a version of Robonaut.

After a half hour, it was time for students to participate in a school fire drill, and Miller to get back to attempting to become an astronaut. But that doesn’t mean he stopped being a teacher.

He signed off with a yes or no question that would determine whether he assigned homework over Christmas break:

“Who wants to be a scientist or engineer when they get older?”

Many reasons to celebrate — Kindergarten class learns Hanukkah holiday traditions

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

When Lisa Cotler was going to school in Cincinnati, December meant Santa Claus and Christmas carols, and getting teased because those things weren’t part of her Jewish family’s holiday traditions.

“I was one of two or three people in my class who were Jewish. We were very singled out and made fun of. They never acknowledged differences in religion,” she said.

So when Cotler’s son’s kindergarten teacher invited Cotler and the other Jewish parent in class to help with a Hanukkah activity, she was thrilled.

“For me, as a mother, it’s wonderful because my mom wasn’t able to have that opportunity and see that because our schools didn’t do that,” she said. “When I walked in there, they were shouting, ‘We’re going to have Hanukkah today, we’re going to have Hanukkah today.’”

Sharon Harris joined Cotler in presenting Hanukkah activities for Eileen Bryson’s kindergarten class at Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Science on Dec. 16.

“Mrs. Bryson always has fun stuff in her class,” Harris said. “There’s always something that’s going on in the classroom. Kids at that age are so much fun because they’re very open to everything and very interested in learning.”

Bryson said she tries to incorporate all the kids’ backgrounds and traditions into class.

“I’ve been doing it for, oh, probably 12 to 15 years, actually. I just feel like it’s really important for children to be exposed to different cultures and different experiences. If people are open to that, I feel like that’s a wonderful tradition, along with everything else. Kids really love it. It makes them open to thinking of different ways of celebrating.”

Her classes have learned about Hanukkah and Kwanza, and she’s invited kids’ relatives from other countries to help with activities, like making a piñata and corn tortillas with a girl’s grandmother from Nicaragua.

“We always have people from different groups in class. We almost always bring them in to talk about what it’s like in their home, in the country they came from or wherever, and usually cook and do something food-related with them,” Bryson said.

On Dec. 16, Bryson read the class a book about a little girl who didn’t have her own hanukiah, also called a menorah, so her grandfather helped her make one out of potatoes. Harris and her daughter, Isabelle, and Cotler and her son, Seth, showed the class their families’ hanukiahs, and talked about what they mean, where the tradition comes from and how they are lit for eight nights.

Bryson said the class had dipped their own candles earlier, so it was a nice tie-in to the Hanukkah event.

Harris and Cotler helped the class make latkes, which are potato pancakes traditionally eaten during Hanukkah.

“We’re going to make lattes?” one student asked.

Bryson said that incorporating food into class is a great way to hold kids’ attention.

“I think anything hands-on, cooking or anything like that, they like it. They just need to be involved one way or another,” she said.

One of Harris’ friends that she met when she spent five years in Israel sent dreidels for Harris to give to the students. She explained what the Hebrew letters painted on each side of the four-sided top meant, and how you play the game. Each player usually has a pile of gelt, which is Yiddish for money, that is actual coins or, more often, coin-shaped chocolates. The kindergartners played with stacks of interlocking building pieces.

Harris explained the game. To start each round, players put a piece of gelt into a central pile. One player spins the dreidel and does whatever is dictated by the letter on which it lands. “Hey,” for instance, means “half,” so the player takes half the pot of gelt. “Nun” means none, so it’s the next person’s turn.

“I think it was really nice. I mean, with 5-year-olds it’s difficult to hold their attention for long periods of times,” Harris said. “I think especially the dreidel game was fun for them. It utilized some of their early math training.”

And it was fun for Isabelle and Seth to share their traditions with their classmates.

“She was just really happy to share with the other kids, and they’re happy to learn,” Harris said. “That’s the thing that’s good about Kaleidoscope, they’re very open to all holidays and customs. Isabelle, for one, likes to learn about all different things. That’s kind of what makes that school special.”

“I think that Seth felt very good about it,” Cotler said. “I don’t want to say he felt special, because I don’t think that was the intention. I think he was able to express to the other children, in 6-year-old terms, why it is that we do what we do.”

Little by little — State moving closer to preK education

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Keeping the attention of 11 4-year-olds long enough to sing a song or practice counting can be an impossible task, especially two weeks before Christmas. Yet Title I teacher Tricia Young at Nikiski North Star Elementary School was beating the odds Dec. 11.

Sort of.

One little girl was engrossed in trying to pull all her limbs into her shirt. Another girl’s attention was split between her Dorothy of Oz red glittery shoes and a cut on her leg, making sure to limp until a Band-Aid was applied. A boy was perhaps a little too attentive, jumping in with comments and answers whenever he had a chance.

Still, when the students were asked a question, their hands shot into the air. When told to “crisscross applesauce,” they dropped into a cross-legged position. And when a song required dance moves, limbs re-emerged from their cotton T-shirt entombment, and the previously immobile injured leg was miraculously healed.

In the pre-kindergarten class, that’s a big part of what learning entails — teaching 4-year-olds to listen, sit still, get along, pay attention and follow directions.

“It’s important. If they go into kindergarten knowing the social skills necessary to learn in school, they’re ready to go,” said Denise Cox, the preK teacher at Nikiski North Star.

There’s also an age-appropriate curriculum with academic skills, including the alphabet, colors and shapes, following a calendar and counting to 100. But it isn’t taught through lectures or sitting at desks.

“Our program is learning through play. We try to make it as playful as possible,” said Phyllis Oberhauser, a preK aide funded through the Salamatof Native Association.

A look around the cluttered classroom confirms that, with stacks of toys, puzzles and games, a box of dress-up clothes, fish tank and class pet cages, and art projects hanging anywhere there’s room. The kids take a music class and physical education, and have outside recess when the weather’s nice enough.

To the kids, school is fun time — at least after the initial period of adjusting to being away from home and their parents for part of the day.

“We do a lot of comforting the first few weeks,” Cox said.

To the education community, pre-kindergarten is a vital step in getting kids off to a good start.
“It’s called prevention versus intervention. If we catch them early on, we can prevent many of the difficulties students have once we get them in school,” said Doris Cannon, director of early education for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

Cannon said the results of research on the impact of preK education are clear — early education is tremendously beneficial in catching, addressing and preventing learning problems.

“We know that having universal preschool available to all — not mandatory, but available to all — would certainly be a benefit to our kids. It’s just a good opportunity for kids,” said district Superintendent Donna Peterson. “In my experience as an elementary teacher and principal, if there’s one place we could make the biggest difference, this would be it.”

Kids learn the basic rules of school and how it operates, and they get used to being away from home so when they get to kindergarten, they’re ready to jump in with learning. If students do have learning challenges, they can be identified and addressed before they get behind in school. Students also get an introduction to basic academic concepts, like ABCs and 123s, which some kids may get at home, and some may not.

“It kind of levels the playing field for a lot of kids,” said Robin Thye, a kindergarten and first-grade teacher at Nikiski North Star. “If they don’t have a strong background coming into school, the preK program really helps.”

Nikiski North Star’s preK program has been going for four years now. The first year Thye had kindergarteners from the preK program, she could tell a difference, she said. Of all the students who have gone through the preK class, so far none have needed special help later in school, Oberhauser said.

But as successful as the preK program is at Nikiski North Star, it’s the only public preK program in the district. That’s because the state doesn’t fund general, public preK education.

Special education preK programs are funded by the state, Head Start programs for low-income families get public funding, and there are some private, preK educational programs, generally run in conjunction with day care. But none address the needs of the general population of students.

That may be beginning to change. Gov. Sarah Palin announced a plan to include $2 million in next year’s budget for the state Department of Education and Early Development to try a pilot program for half-day preschool. It would serve about 500 kids around the state, and districts would apply for the money through grants.

It’s not universal, public, preK funding — which KPBSD is hoping for — but it’s a start.

“At least they’re talking about it. Just to have the discussion on the table is encouraging,” Cannon said.

If the pilot program happens and KPBSD were to participate in it, Cannon said the district would approach it like it does everything else — determine where the greatest need is and start from there. Ultimately, Cannon said the district doesn’t want to start something that isn’t sustainable, but hopes the state is moving in that direction.

“We wouldn’t want to have it for one year, then it’s gone. When they land somewhere and it’s sustainable, then we’ll be there,” she said.

At Nikiski North Star, the preK program exists because the school saw enough of a need for it that it decided to sacrifice in other areas of its budget to shuffle funding and make it happen. There used to be a preK, day care sort of program at the Church of the Nazarene in Nikiski, but that was canceled.
“Everyone started looking for other places to put their kids, and there just wasn’t anywhere,” said NNS Principal Lori Manion.

The school receives federal Title I money because of its percentage of students from low-income families. Parents started pushing for a solution to the lack of preK and day care options in Nikiski.
“The community really was screaming about a need for preK, and we looked at the research that said kids who get started in an early educational experience, we weren’t going to be doing intervention on them as they got older,” Manion said.

Four years ago, with the district’s blessing, the school rearranged its budget to offer one session of half-day preK. They did without a kindergarten through sixth-grade Title 1 interventionist aide to do it — “that was really hard,” Manion said — and Manion recruited Cox from her position as librarian to do preK part day and library the rest.

The success of the program was evident the first year, Manion said, with an added bonus of increased parental involvement. Parents are encouraged to volunteer in the preK classroom, helping with art projects, reading or anything else. Those parents typically stay involved as their kids progress through the grades, helping with fundraisers, volunteering in classrooms and joining the PTA.
“We have really capitalized on parents getting involved early on,” Manion said.

Ramona Malston volunteered in the classroom last year when her son, Kyle, was in preK. She said the half-day format was a great transition into full-day kindergarten.

“He was just very comfortable in that school environment going from being a stay-at-home child, he was pretty shy and I was pretty concerned about his being able to sit down and focus. He really learned a lot and they do a lot of fun activities,” she said.Richard Malston said preK gave Kyle a head start on academics — he counted to 29 on his own in a parent-teacher conference last year — and got him excited about school.

“The social interaction and learning, he had a good time and he was really excited about school. Of course, his older brother (Brady) was going to school so he wants to be like him,” Richard said.
The mandatory attendance school age is 6, so preK isn’t required for 4-year-olds. Even so, NNS added an afternoon preK session to meet the growing demand, with 15 kids in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.

There are still challenges. The little guys and girls needed smaller furniture, new curriculum materials and don’t always fit in with the hustle and bustle of the rest of the school, although Manion said they try to integrate preK as much as possible into assemblies and events.

Transportation is the biggest hurdle. Students are only allowed to ride on school buses if they’re 40 pounds or heavier, and not all preK 4-year-olds meet that requirement. Even if they do, buses only take them one way — to school for the morning session or back home for the afternoon session — since buses don’t run in the middle of the day. Manion said transportation funding would be crucial to creating a successful statewide preK program. In the meantime, the school is working with the Central Area Rural Transit System to find a solution.

At NNS, the benefits of the program far outweigh its challenges, Cox said.

“I can see nothing but positive. I don’t see the negative of it,” she said.

Peterson is hoping the state kicks in to make Nikiski’s success possible throughout the district.

“It isn’t a matter of the school district trying to make kids smarter or take education down to younger and younger ages, it’s just having quality opportunities for all children,” Peterson said. “We’re not trying to make readers out of 3-year-olds, we have age-appropriate activities for them. It’s a good thing. The earlier we can do age-appropriate things with children, the better off we’ll be.”

License to learn: District extends HeadSprout

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Education starts in the home, and parents throughout the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District had a tool this summer to start kids off on the right track before they ever set foot in a classroom.

The district bought licenses to HeadSprout last spring, a phonics-based reading program on the Internet, and made the program available to parents of incoming public-school kindergarteners.

The measure was an attempt to fill the void of a pre-kindergarten program in the district — a void created because the state doesn’t fund preK programs for the general school population (see related story, page 1). With HeadSprout, parents could log their kids onto the program on the Web, and they could work through the lessons over the summer.

The program boasts successful results in teaching phonics and beginning reading to kindergarteners, and in being a tool to help struggling older readers. So far it seems to be successful in KPBSD, said Doris Cannon, director of early education for the district. It was developed through extensive research about the way kids learn, Cannon said. Every element of the program is field tested with kids, from the critters they interact with to the sound effects and even the number of times the program will prompt kids to give an answer.

At the halfway point of the school year, Cannon said the program appears from anecdotal evidence to be working well.

“I’m pleased with what has been done with it. With any new programs you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get,” she said.

She heard from 25 to 30 parents about the program. Of those, only one didn’t like it, she said.
HeadSprout is now being used in classrooms, and as an intervention tool for older readers needing extra help in grades one and two.

“(Evidence) shows these kids who used it did fine in school when they got here and didn’t get caught up in the intervention process. It’s been well-received by the parents, and the kids are doing well with it,” Cannon said.

Five hundred eighty-six licenses are shown as being in use in the district. Of those, the district estimates that about half are actually in regular use. Cannon hopes to see those numbers grow, and the district has decided to continue licensing the program for another four years.

Nikiski North Star Elementary School is one of about five schools actively using the program.
Teachers reported some mixed results — it works for some and not others.

Nikiski North Star preK teacher Denise Cox said it’s a little too advanced for some students, but others do well with it when they’re ready. Kindergarten and first-grade teacher Robin Thye said she doesn’t use it much in her room, but from what she’s seen the program moves quickly and the kids seem to enjoy it.

Principal Lori Manion said she’s happy with the results so far.

“There’s a group of kids out there that have really taken off with it,” Manion said. “There’s definitely a need for it. From all I heard from parents, they really enjoy it and think it’s a very focused activity for (the kids) to be doing.”

Retire the change — Teachers, public employees lobby for return of pensions

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Holly Abel and Joanne Frey are at opposite ends of the age and teaching experience spectrum, but they’re both in the same boat.

Abel is a first-year teacher, while Frey has been in education for 20 years. But both are new to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District — Abel as of this year at Soldotna Middle, Soldotna Elementary and Tyonek schools, and Frey as of 2006 in Seward.

Both work in specialized fields that are becoming increasingly difficult for the school district to fill — Abel as a psychologist, Frey in special education with severely disabled kids.

And both are thinking about leaving the district due to changes in the state’s Public Employee and Teacher Retirement Systems.

Abel was born in Soldotna. Her parents and mother-in-law were all educators and qualify for Tier I Teacher Retirement System benefits from the state.

“We’re very grateful that both of my parents are under the Tier I retirement plan because they have health concerns. It’s much easier taking care of them knowing that some other entity is helping out,” she said.

Abel and her husband moved to Soldotna to be closer their families. At the time, being familiar with the benefits her parents receive, Abel assumed KPBSD was a good place to work, with decent benefits. She didn’t realize the state Legislature, in 2006, changed the retirement system from a defined benefits program — akin to a guaranteed pension — to a defined contribution plan — a 401(k) plan with variable returns. The change created a new Tier III for teachers and Tier IV for public employees. Those tiers operate on the defined contribution system.

Now that she knows about the change, Abel and her husband are questioning their decision to move back home.

“I guess I expected a little bit more security and predictability from the retirement system. That’s been a little bit scary realizing that’s not the case. It’s scary thinking about having a home and kids in this area and staying here,” she said.

In contrast, Frey did do research before moving to the peninsula, but it didn’t do her any good. She was living in Louisiana and decided to move after her home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. She consulted a financial planner and studied the retirement information on the state’s Web site before committing to KPBSD.

“Before I left, I did my homework, because being the age I am and my years teaching, I was very concerned about what would happen here,” she said.

At the time, in 2006, the Web site detailed the Tier III retirement system for teachers, which was still a defined benefits program. The planner advised that KPBSD would be a good move, so Frey hitched her trailer to her truck and headed north to Seward.

Somewhere around the Dakotas, it all fell apart. Her truck broke down, leaving Frey to buy a new one, and the state’s retirement program switched to the 401(k) system.

“While I was driving up here, lo and behold it changed and the new system took effect. When I got up here I realized, ‘This isn’t good, this isn’t what I signed up for,’” she said.

Frey doesn’t know what to do now. She’s nearing retirement, but with the stock market in sad shape, her 401(k) isn’t generating much money. She’ll qualify for Medicare in five years, but worries Alaska doctors may not continue to accept that coverage. She doesn’t know if she’ll be able to keep her house in retirement.
She’s thinking about leaving her job.

“I’ll go deliver mail in mailboxes if it gives me a good retirement,” she said. “I don’t want to leave teaching, I love what I do. … That experience and the things I can do, and the things my staff and I together can do, may be going down the tubes.”

No benefit to working here?

Those were just two of the many stories shared in a forum on retirement security Saturday at Soldotna High School, organized by the Alaska Public Pension Coalition.

The purpose was to bring teachers and public employees together to discuss how the state’s move from a defined benefits retirement program is affecting them and their fields. Similar forums were held in Fairbanks and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough on Saturday, and one was held in Bethel last week. All were videotaped and footage will be combined into a documentary that will be shown to legislators in an effort to motivate them to bring back the pension plan.

Kenai Peninsula legislators were invited to Soldotna’s forum. Rep. Paul Seaton, of Homer, was the only one who attended.

LaDawn Druce, a local teacher and president of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (the local affiliate of the National Education Association union) organized the Soldotna event. She said she was pleased with the 50-person turnout of teachers and public employees from around the peninsula, and with the wide-ranging discussion.

Much of it included the same theme — people love their jobs educating youth, saving lives or in some other way serving the citizens of the borough, but are considering changing jobs over retirement benefits.

Several central peninsula firefighters talked about how difficult it is to recruit and retain personnel for fire departments in Alaska as it is, even before the retirement system change. Tony Prior, a Kenai Fire Department captain, said firefighters can earn three times as much working for private companies on the North Slope, and get much better support.

“They say, ‘What do you want, we’ll get it for you. We’ll get three of them.’ And here we’re begging for it,” he said.

Benjamin Simmonds, with Central Emergency Services, said he heard the same thing from recent graduates at the University of Fairbanks.

“The students said they wanted to remain but will not, and the reason for that is the retirement system is gone,” he said.

The result is Alaska is becoming a training ground for public employees, the firemen said. The state pays for their education and training, they work long enough to qualify for benefits, then they go to the private sector or take jobs in the Lower 48 with better benefits — taking all the money Alaska invested in them with them.

Alaska State Troopers alone cost $125,000 to $150,000 to train, said Tim Evans, the president of the Kenai Peninsula Central Labor Council and retired vice president of the state AFL-CIO. In the Kenai Peninsula Borough, 57 people left municipal jobs from January to October 2008, compared to 10 years ago when just 13 people left in an entire year, said Lynne Carter, with the Kenai Borough Employees Association.

Druce said the state trumpets portability of benefits as a good thing about the retirement system, meaning employees can take their retirement savings with them into other jobs. But that creates brain drain by encouraging qualified, trained personnel working in valuable, important fields to leave the state.
“How can portability be a good thing for this state?” she said. “How can you honestly believe that?”

Complicating matters is Social Security. Borough Mayor Dave Carey said that teachers and many public employees in Alaska don’t qualify for Social Security because the federal government gave states the ability to opt out of it. Alaska and 16 others did so, under the theory that public employees were already getting retirement benefits from the state. On top of that, Carey said recent events, including U.S. car manufacturers forcing unions to accept lower wages and retirement benefits, have him worried.

“If we don’t get out there and protect our rights, we will be undermined,” Carey said.

Carey is a retired teacher from KPBSD, under Tier I. He said it’s a matter of equality, with new teachers never able to get the benefits he does, even though they do the same job.

“We have to stand up for equal pay for equal work,” Carey said.

“We have to convince our legislators to do the right thing,” said Dick Kapp, with Central Emergency Services. “… I think we have to tell our legislators, I voted for you, now you vote for me. They understand that.”

Another perspective

Seaton, the lone Kenai Peninsula legislator who attended the forum, said it’s not that easy. The state retirement system is a matter of balancing current costs with future obligations. Adding new tiers, with successively higher restrictions on eligibility for benefits, was an effort over the years to get a handle on spiraling costs.

PERS Tier I was established in 1979, and it took 10 years before the state realized, “uh-oh, we didn’t think we were underfunding the system,” Seaton said. PERS Tier II was established in 1986, and PERS Tier III (equivalent to TRS Tier II) came about in 1996. At one point, actuaries counseled the state and local municipalities that they didn’t need to contribute as much money to the retirement system. That resulted in a significant shortfall in funding when the mistake was realized.

Another part of the problem is the growing cost of providing retirement benefits, since the amount of time for which the state provides benefits for is growing. Life expectancy in 1970 was 80.2 years, and rose to 83.7 years in 2005, Seaton said. The Supreme Court has ruled the state is constitutionally obligated to pay PERS/TRS pensions, so the only way to limit retirement costs was to limit benefits, and/or increase the restrictions on when people became eligible for benefits.

In 2006, the Legislature moved away from the pension plan altogether in creating PERS Tier IV and TRS Tier III, which involve employees contributing to their own retirement funds and managing how the money is invested in the same way most private sector employees do.

The new system doesn’t cost any less to operate, Seaton said, with the state and municipalities still paying in about the same amount to fund the plan.

“We designed it to not be cheap. We designed it to not save money,” he said.
The benefit of a defined contribution 401(k) program, for the state and municipalities, is it reduces cost liabilities down the road. Seaton said legislators didn’t want to encumber future budgets with paying for the current retirement system.

“These are the situations that you have to look at from the other side of the coin,” Seaton said. “That is the perspective that we are looking from.”

But he does recognize that having a less desirable retirement system than other states and private sector employers does hurt public sector fields, in recruitment and especially retention, so he’s open to suggestions.

“I’m hoping that the employees come to us with some better ideas,” he said. “… If there’s a way that we can get there so that we don’t generate unfunded liabilities on the budget of our kids and grandkids, I’m perfectly willing to do that.

“I’m hoping that as we go forward we’ll be able to work together on how to solve this, not just from one perspective or the other. You are the valuable people that make this state work. We just have to make sure from the other perspective … that when your kids are in these kinds of positions, that they’re not totally hamstrung.”

Yeah for clay — Nikiski students put process over product in art

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

When clay artist Terry Inokuma teaches a class, it’s about the process, not the product.

She keeps kids focused on learning each step of the process by not letting them know what they are making.

“I don’t tell them what it will be because kids have expectations of what it should look like so they jump ahead in the process,” she said.

She also teaches them to let their hands guide them by having students sculpt some pieces under the table without looking at their work.

“They separate their sense of touch from vision because we’re usually too dependent on our eyes,” she said.

But the beauty of clay is it’s a 3-D medium, which can appeal to kids who may struggle with other art forms, such as figure drawing.

“The two-dimensional world is so visually attached, whereas the three-dimensional world is allowed to be a little more abstract. It doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said.

Inokuma is finishing up a three-week stint as the artist in residence at Nikiski North Star Elementary School this week. The program, administered by the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, brings artists into schools to share their medium with students who may not otherwise be exposed to much art.

Inokuma is from Oregon. She’s done residency programs in her home district, and applied for the Alaska program after meeting a relocated clay artist from Homer. She’s been to Chenega on Evans Island, Teller, King Cove, Sand Point, Wasilla, Anchorage and Pelican. Her next residency will be at Sterling Elementary in January.

“The goal is to teach the basic methods of working with clay so as they progress through the clay world, if they love it, they’ll have the basics in working with clay,” she said.

At Nikiski North Star she’s working mainly with fourth- through sixth-graders, but has taught the primary grades, as well. There’s even an old kiln at the school to fire the kids’ projects. Being a clay artist, she’s had to improvise that portion of her classes before. In coastal areas she’s been to it’s usually warm enough to create a fire pit, but she’s also had to repair old, broken kilns, use a wood stove and create her own kiln with a burner and propane.

She has a clay day each time she does a residency, where she does demonstrations and her students exhibit their work to the public. Nikiski had its exhibition Friday. Inokuma said parents and teachers have been supportive of her work at the school.

“When I’ve heard from parents they come walking in with wide eyes saying, ‘What are you guys doing here? My kid’s coming home saying, ‘Clay is fun,’” she said.

Inokuma says parents should find a way to support the artistic tendencies all kids have, no matter what mediums they’re suited to.

“I encourage all parents to encourage the artistic sides in all of their children’s worlds, because everyone learns so differently and it opens up different avenues for children to learn,” she said.

Driven to extremes — School bus drivers may strike to resolve contract issues

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Around 2,800 students across the Kenai Peninsula begin and end every school day with a ritual that plays out all school year long — waiting for a big yellow bus to pick them up and take them home.

If negotiations between First Student, the bus company that contracts with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District to transport students, and the union representing the 120 drivers on the peninsula don’t make headway soon, that ritual may be abruptly interrupted. Drivers voted 88 to 5 on Dec. 1 to authorize a strike.

The threat is an attempt to force First Student to reconsider its position in contract talks. First Student workers voted last February to join the Teamsters Union 959, based in Anchorage, and have been in contract talks with First Student since March. First Student, which bought out Laidlaw and took over its transportation contract last year, made what it called its “last, best offer” in late October, which was rejected by workers. Talks were at a standstill until the strike vote.

On Monday, Rick Traini, executive director for Teamsters 959, said he’d reached out to the First Student labor manager, who told him they could meet again in mid-January.

“I tried to relay to him that that’s more than a month away,” he said. “We can’t continue to let employees sit out there and not come up with a contract. They want to see meaningful progress between now and then. I don’t think waiting another month is good for the situation.”

Now that a strike is authorized, it could happen at any time. The school district has said it hopes to receive advance warning, so it can pass that warning on to parents, many of whom will need to make other arrangements to get their kids to and from school. But giving parents — and First Student — time to prepare for a strike takes some of the sting out of it, so there’s no guarantee drivers will want to devalue their bargaining chip.

The result could be a logistical mess for the school district in dealing with schedules and absences, for First Student in trying to transport as many kids as it can, for parents rearranging schedules to get kids to and from school, and for kids themselves, who may end up waiting — and waiting, and waiting — in the cold.

That’s not something drivers want to see happen, but they are prepared to take that step, said Michael Morris, a central peninsula school bus driver.

“It’s going to be hardship, yes, but you have to prove your point and have to stand behind what you believe. It’s going to be hard for people, yeah, but that seems to be the only thing this company understands,” Morris said.

First Student did not return calls to its Soldotna and Anchorage offices seeking comment for this story.

Drivers say there are several issues they want resolved with First Student. Jamie Brewer, a First Student driver who lives in Soldotna, attended the Dec. 1 school board meeting to announce the strike vote and explain why drivers unionized in the first place.

“Some of our main issues were fair treatment, respect, equal pay and safe buses. We organized because we felt that together we could positively change things, the way they worked with the contractor you chose, because we care deeply about the kids we transport and because we consider our jobs to be very important to making the District run as smoothly as it does,” she said.

Brewer said the union has filed unfair labor practices against First Student for refusing to provide information, making changes without drivers’ input and not coming back to the negotiating table.

“Our negotiations for decent benefits, wages and working conditions should not be this difficult,” Brewer said. “… As school bus drivers, we pride ourselves on our jobs as highly trained professional drivers who carry the most precious cargo in the world. This company should treat us fairly.”

Traini said wages, health insurance, safety concerns, fair treatment and days off are the main sticking points in contract talks. He said school bus drivers are trained, professional drivers, yet are the lowest-paid of positions requiring a certified drivers license.

“They’re hoping for a meaningful increase, and something that helps them keep up with the cost of living down on the peninsula,” Traini said. “Obviously, they’re looking for a livable wage.”

Morris said first-year drivers get paid $14.30 per hour by First Student.

“I just think it’s kind of ridiculous we get paid less than a lot of line drivers and things like that,” Morris said. “You know, with the way we have to work, you almost have to be a psychologist to drive these buses. It sounds funny, but to take care of that many kids — 50 kids sitting behind you, that’s pretty tough. Teachers wouldn’t have to deal with that many kids sitting behind them.”

For health insurance, Traini said less than one-fifth of First Student workers use the company’s plan.

“The cost is so prohibitive that a general employee can’t participate,” he said.

A related issue is a lack of paid sick days. Traini said workers get five paid holidays off during the school year. Beyond that, if they don’t work, they don’t get paid.

“If you get sick in October, you’re at home without pay and without health care,” Traini said. “I don’t think parents would appreciate bus drivers coming to work sick and driving a bus because they can’t afford to stay home sick.”

Safety and bus maintenance issues have come up that drivers don’t think have been addressed adequately, Traini said, including heaters on buses, the lack of studded tires and radios that don’t work properly. Beyond the specifics, though, workers would like a better process in place for addressing safety concerns with First Student management, such as a safety committee, Traini said.

Fair treatment is the other main issue. Traini said workers want equity in wages, schedules, benefits and other matters, so all drivers are subject to the same rules and treatment, instead of some getting special deals. Traini said that addressing those issues would lead to less turnover, which he estimated at 25 percent.

“The turnover rate is a big thing to us. Obviously, we’re looking for a fair enough contract that there isn’t a lot of turnover,” he said. “… They want to be treated the same. I think that’s why they asked us to represent them.”

Morris said the unionizing has helped drivers stand up for changes.

“Now that we’ve got the union started, anyway, at least you’ve got somebody backing you that will go with you,” he said. “Before, three people talking, that’s just ridiculous.”

Not all drivers are on board with the union, however, or the decision to strike.

Danny Shannon and Chris Williamson, drivers in Homer, say they’ll still drive, even if a strike is called.

“I will be showing up and driving. I’ll show up to work and do my best. If I have to double up routes to get the job done, I’ll do my best.” Shannon said. “Several of our drivers (in the Homer area) will be showing up and driving, because we signed on to do a job to drive a bus. The company keeps their part of the bargain — they pay us well, the insurance benefits are good — there really isn’t anything more we can expect from them.”

Shannon said he’s researched driver wages and talked to insurance agents, and concluded First Student isn’t giving drivers a raw deal, considering the amount of hours they work. He comes from a religious background that opposes unions, and doesn’t like being forced into that system.

“I think a group of employees have the right to say, ‘Look, we’re not being treated fairly, we’re going to quit,’” he said. “What I have problem with is when it gets to bullying and extortion tactics and threatening people if you dare cross the picket line we’re going to do something, and using children as pawns to twist the arms of the company to get more money is absolutely deplorable. If (First Student) is treating them so badly, how many people would still be working there? They’d go work for somebody with more money.”

Williamson said he worries that being forced to pay union dues would make any pay increase moot.

“The reality is unless I get like a four dollar an hour increase, the union dues I have to pay are going to give me a pay cut,” he said. “That would make me upset because I didn’t agree to get less than what I’m making.”

Shannon and Williamson say they’ve heard the complaints drivers have about not being paid for a full day’s work, even through the on-again, off-again driving schedule makes it difficult to hold another job during the day, and that different driving jobs — a regular school route vs. an activity bus, for instance — pay different amounts. But drivers know that going in, they said.

“You’re accepting what the company is offering,” Williamson said. “We’ve taken this bizarro selfish stance, and companies are running a business. They’re trying to make a profit and that’s just the reality of life. If I were running a business, I’d do things to generate a profit. As an employee, I am choosing to accept those things. If I am unhappy, I’d go find another job.”

As for maintenance and safety issues, Shannon said that, in Homer, at least, he had no complaints.

“In Alaska, winters are hash and roads are harsh so the buses do break, but they do fix them when they break,” he said.

He pointed out that the Homer bus barn has won the state’s Best-Maintained Midsize Bus Fleet Award, most recently in 2007. At the time, the inspector was quoted in a Homer newspaper as saying the Kenai Peninsula overall “did very, very well.”

Shannon said he recognizes other people’s right to unionize if they so choose, and doesn’t think his fellow drivers are bad people or are intentionally trying to hurt children. But he does hope the union doesn’t get its way.

“I hope First Student has enough integrity not to cave in to their demands. Like with any extortion, once you give in you’re going to have to give in again and again and again. They’re never going to stop. They try to spread the image in the community that all the drivers are united against the company and things like that. But you hear very few people in the community who support this. I don’t hear, ‘I hope you all go on strike and strand the children.’”

Morris, on the other hand, said he does hear community support for drivers and a strike, if it comes to that.

“I hate to see it myself, I mean about the kids. I really enjoy the kids, the ones that I have. You know, you get them trained and they’re basically all good kids. … I really got a lot of support from families. I picked their kids up and talked to them and not one said anything against this. Everybody’s for us, that I’ve talked to. The only negative I’ve heard is from our own company.”

As for other drivers who don’t support the union, Morris said he suspects that sentiment will change.

“As soon as if we do get more pay or anything, it’s really funny how quick they shut up. People will scream and holler and as soon as the pay changes you don’t see them saying, ‘Well, I don’t want that money, or don’t want that help from the union,” he said.

Don’t be too sure, Shannon said. He’s committing to driving through a strike, no matter what the consequences.

“John the Baptist was beheaded for doing the right thing,” he said. “I figure the least I can do is do the right thing, and take the consequences as they come. I hope I won’t be beheaded, though. I would prefer to not be beheaded.”

Traini said, as with any union strike, people would be free to go along with it or not, if one does occur.

He’s hopeful the community will show support for drivers in negotiations with First Student, and when it comes time to renegotiate the contract with the school district.

“I hope people reach out and contact their school district and assemblymen and ask them to support a fair contract for the people that work with them, live with them, go to church with them and shop in the same grocery stores,” Traini said.

Editorial: Both sides should stand together for kids

Contract negotiations between First Student and the Teamsters union representing school bus drivers on the Kenai Peninsula have several sticking points — wages, benefits, paid time off, fair treatment and maintenance issues.

There’s a lot to argue about, and the debate’s been going on since March. But there are a few things both sides of the contract talks between First Student and the Teamsters union representing the bus drivers can agree on: No one wants kids left standing on the side of the street. And everyone wants quality, experienced bus drivers.

The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Drivers have voted to authorize a strike in order to force First Student to come up with a better offer. Since they invoked the “U” word by voting to unionize last February, drivers have bite to their bark.

Unions draw fire in some camps for bullying companies into meeting unreasonable demands, collecting forced dues from workers who don’t want to be members, and for strikes that often hurt innocent bystanders more than anyone else. In this case, it’d be kids and parents.

On the other hand, unions can be a useful tool in ensuring workers are treated fairly and can bring about needed changes that workers standing alone can’t.

In this situation, both sides still seem willing to talk.

While unions sometimes can take advantage of people, companies and corporations can take advantage of people, too. With wealth inequality as high as its been in America since the late 1920s, 20.4 percent of peninsula residents without health care insurance and retirement plans torpedoed by stock market woes, it’s clear companies have been doing more than their share of advantage-taking lately.

Representation at the table isn’t the issue, whether it’s a union rep, a lawyer, or the workers themselves. What matters is finding reasonable middle ground that fairly compensates drivers for the valuable job they do, yet still allows First Student to be an effective — and that means profitable — private company.