A parent asked the Anchorage Board of Ethics on Tuesday to investigate alleged ethics violations in the school district's process to close Campbell STEM Elementary.

Haim Wenger, a Taku-Campbell neighborhood resident, told the board the district gave only six business days notice before voting to close the school and provided less than one business day for public testimony. The district is facing a roughly $90 million budget deficit that has driven school closure recommendations.

Wenger said the school board ignored public testimony, refused to disclose its methodology for selecting schools to close, and violated its own internal processes. He said the district may have violated the Alaska Open Meetings Act.

"The school board essentially has been ignoring public testimony, been ignoring new facts," Wenger said. "Their methodology for this ignored their own internal processes."

The district has not responded to Freedom of Information Act requests seeking details about its decision-making process, Wenger said. He said the board has reversed its rationale for the closure multiple times. The Anchorage School District did not respond to a request for comment.

A lawsuit filed in early April by parents and a community group is already challenging the closure in Superior Court. The suit alleges lack of transparency, limited public input, and improper notification in the closure process. The court heard oral arguments on a preliminary injunction request on April 27, seeking to block the closure and require the district to disclose its reasoning.

Wenger said the district is moving forward with plans to transfer teachers, the principal, and students out of Campbell STEM despite the ongoing legal challenge. Campbell STEM is the only nationally certified STEM elementary school in Alaska.

The Board of Ethics chair told Wenger the board receives complaints on a standard form that allows complainants to cite specific sections of the municipality's code of ethics.

"Typically whenever we hear complaints, for example, of potential ethics violations, we do receive those on a form that the Board of Ethics puts out that gives you an opportunity to sort of cite to where in the municipality's code of ethics the conduct appears to be inconsistent with the municipality's ethics," the chair said.

A board member told Wenger the board has a narrow scope and encouraged him to review the code of ethics to determine whether the alleged conduct falls within the board's jurisdiction. "The form is online, and we do have a pretty narrow scope here. Definitely encourage you to look at the code of ethics and see if there's anything in there that kind of falls, that this content that you're seeing falls into there," the board member said. It remains unclear whether the Board of Ethics has authority over school district matters.