The Sitka School District opened last month with all classrooms fully-staffed, including an extra teacher at Baranof Elementary.
All principals in the district reported to the Sitka School Board at its regular meeting Wednesday (9-7-22) that things went smoothly in their buildings as school opened at the end of August – a contrast, especially, to the last couple of years.
Sitka High principal Sondra Lundvick described an opening day consisting of freshman orientation in the morning, a free barbecue lunch, games, and an all-school assembly with an aerial drone photo shoot of the entire student body in the parking lot, spelling the letters S-H-S like a marching band.
For Lundvick, professionally, this was a new high bar.
“I will say this was the best first day of school I’ve had,” said Lundvick. “And this is my twenty-ninth year in education. We won’t say how many years I went to school myself — but lots (laughter) — and this was absolutely the best.”
Enrollment at the start of school is below the administration’s projections – but not by much. Superintendent Frank Hauser reported that 1,111 students were attending Sitka’s schools.
“We are about 14 students behind our projected count for the budget,” Hauser said. “But even today, we picked up another student, and so we’re staying optimistic as students are coming in.”
Hauser also introduced the district’s new teaching staff to the board. The 14 teachers and paraprofessionals posed for a photo, and brought a lot of energy and laughter into the board room. In some ways, Sitka is fortunate to be able to fully staff its classrooms, as some other districts across the state have been hard-pressed.
Nevertheless, there was an exception to this otherwise good news at the school board.
The problem isn’t in Sitka’s classrooms during school. The problem is in those classrooms after school.
“My name is Annette Evans. I’m the Ventures coordinator. And I don’t want to rain on the parade. But I’m here to give you a little bit of an update on the staffing situation at Ventures.”
Ventures is the after-school daycare program housed at Baranof Elementary School. During the summer, Ventures is a full daycare. It’s also an independent nonprofit organization, and it’s in trouble.
“Last week, I had to cut our daily attendance and half due to staffing,” said Evans. “I had to tell parents on Thursday that after the weekend, we were going to have to reduce from 30 students per day to 14. This was devastating.”
Evans is one of four staff members at Ventures. Two of the other three are high school seniors who qualified for their jobs by taking an elective course in early childhood development. The problem, she explained, is that licensing regulations don’t allow for more than one-quarter of a daycare’s staff to be under 18. So she had to cut her enrollment to stay in compliance.
Ventures has been advertising for additional adult staff since August 1. Evans says that since school district employees aren’t allowed to double-up, she’s been looking outside the box for ways to bring on more people.
“Ventures parents are spreading the word. Grandparents are asking their retired friends. I’ve asked my mom to work,” she said, with a sigh.
Evans plans to bring the childcare crisis in Sitka to the community health summit on September 15, to brainstorm solutions. In the meantime 16 families are having to scramble to find after-school care for their young children.
Usually, school board members don’t respond to testimony during the “persons to be heard” portion of a meeting. However, board president Blossom Teal-Olsen broke with that convention, and told Evans that Ventures played a vital role for her family when she was a single mother. Teal-Olsen said that the board would “project the message.”
“Hopefully in the near future, we could get back to you running at full force,” said Teal-Olsen. “Because I’m pretty sure that families are in need of your services.”
