With no way to raise money on its own, the Sitka School District has to make a strong case for every penny it spends.
Jennifer McNichol understands that schools are under pressure from cutbacks in local and state budgets, but this incumbent school board candidate finds that education is worth standing up for.
Since her appointment to the school board last year, Jennifer McNichol says she has been “riding the learning curve.” The most surprising thing about serving on the board? How uncertain funding is from year-to-year for the district.
“I think it would be easy to actually be completely absorbed by the budget concerns and money — how do we spend it and how do we save it. But I think there’s actually a good system in place that keeps everyone’s eyes on the ball. Which is education, not money.”
McNichol is married to John Baciocco, the chief of staff at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, and has two sons in the district. A senior and a freshman. Since the birth of her first son she’s worked part-time as a doctor — a pediatrician, also at SEARHC — so she says it’s easy for her to value education.
“My profession also involves children, and advocacy for children. So it’s really very easy for me to tie it all together as a parent, as a physician, and as a school board member. Things kind of come together nicely.”
Before she took over the seat vacated by Lon Garrison last year, McNichol already had been an activist for schools. When the district needed people to testify before the legislature on school funding issues, she would get the call.
She says advocating for schools comes very naturally.
“It’s what builds a community, and binds a community together. How we treat our children, and how we develop our children into our future voters and citizens — it’s just the easiest thing to care about. It’s not hard.”
But while caring is easy, working on the school board can be hard — especially nowadays, with both state and local governments in a difficult position to help.
The Sitka School District restored two teaching positions this year, because the board felt that cuts went too deep last year, leaving students idle at the high school.
A major responsibility of the board is nailing down priorities. McNichol says it will be a tough call.
“Yeah, teacher positions and classroom sizes are an issue. But the non-educational entities are as well. Last year the auditorium was the big attention-drawer for our budget hearings. The previous year it was the pool and Community Schools. Honestly, everything has to be considered because it’s all vitally important and really enhances our community as well as our children’s education. But if we have a limited amount of money then we have to consider limits on how we spend it.”
It’s too early to know precisely what the big attention-drawer will be in the board’s budget-building process next spring. But two ideas seem to emerge every year: Closing Pacific High and folding it into Sitka High, and cutting some extra-curricular activities.
McNichol is fully behind the alternative school.
“I think the value is almost immeasurable. That’s 30-plus kids that are still in school. I don’t think they would necessarily still be Sitka district students if they were simply rolled into the high school. I think the physical separation, the structural differences at that school, the whole philosophical difference is really important, and it’s part of what keeps them engaged. And those are kids that tend to stay in Sitka, and work in Sitka. The kids that were at their graduation ceremony last May I now see in their workplaces. It’s a pleasure to see that.”
McNichol is a believer in activities as well, but their future may be less secure. McNichol says that the schools are compelled to provide education, and that she would be nervous about being too attached to anything “not legally mandated.” Her own kids are standouts in Cross Country and Drama, Debate, and Forensics. But activities are costly to the district, and they’re costly to parents.
High fees are creating inequities for students that are growing hard to justify.
“I certainly hope it doesn’t come down to eliminating things but the other reality is that it becomes harder for individual kids to participate if we are simply passing on those costs as activity fees.”
School funding and activities will remain central issues for the school board in the coming year, but they have been sidelined somewhat in the campaign. McNichol’s opponent is a vocal anti-tester, who would like to sever the district’s ties to the state’s assessment system.
McNichol isn’t buying it.
“I did not love taking what was called Iowa Tests back when I was a kid in elementary school and middle school. Learning to fill in bubbles was a challenge. But it was necessary. I would hate to walk into the SAT or ACT without having taken a standardized test before. I think it’s also important to have some basis to compare districts, to compare states, to compare schools. No it should not be the focus. Teachers should not be spending inordinate amounts of time teaching to the test, obviously. But I think well-designed tests are important and a fact of life.”
A major complaint of the anti-testing movement is the educational standards that are being measured. The Common Core has been vilified by opponents who consider it a government intrusion into schools and — especially — into parental rights.
McNichol believes testing has been unnecessarily politicized.
“The Common Core — which is what Alaska Standards are fairly closely aligned with — was not developed by a presidential administration. They were developed by educators and governors and that process began long before the current administration was in place. So I don’t accept the idea that they are a political statement and that we should treat them as such.”
And she’s not sure if anti-testers represent anything close to a majority. As a sitting board member this past spring, McNichol says she heard very little about testing, even as the state fired its vendor in mid-year after a technical snafu. She says, “I heard way more about the auditorium.”
