House Education, 3/23/26, 8am

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Good morning. I call this meeting of the House Education Committee to order. It is Monday March 23rd, 2026, and the time is 8.04 a.m. Present are Representative Elam, Representative Dibert, Representative Schwanke, Representative Eishad, Representative Underwood, Co-chair Story, and myself Co-chair Himshoot. We have a quorum to conduct business. I'd like to remind members to silence your cell phones. We are in the Betty Davis Committee room 106 in the State Capitol building here in Juneau, Alaska.

uh the documents for today's meeting have been distributed to members are available on the table outside the door and our our basis. I'd like to thank our reporting secretary, Gail Brown, and our moderator from the Juneau LIO, Chloe Miller, and um our committee aides Ella Lubin and Tammy Smith for their excellent work this morning. Today's agenda, we will have

Several items, we're gonna keep it moving this morning. We're gonna start with a short presentation as part of our celebrating excellence series. Um this presentation is from representative Underwood's Mat-Su school district. It uh and then after that we will have House Bill three eighty, House Bill three seventy four and Senate Bill twenty.

I'd like to welcome Representative Underwood to introduce yourself on the record and um I guess get us going on this presentation and we will be joined online by Colony High School music teacher

is Dr. Jamin Burton and Kelly Rents, representing Underwood.

Thank you, Chair Hemshoot, and I will do a brief introduction on these two. We had so many amazing things to pick from, from the Mat-Su, and I'm excited to have Dr. Jamin Burton and Kelly Rents here this morning. A little bit about each of them, Dr. Jamin Burton is the Band and Orchestra Director at Colony High School and he's the 2026 Alaska Music Educators Association Teacher

of the Year.

He is recognized across Alaska for his leadership in music education and his impact on students at Colony High School and throughout the Mat-Su Borough School District.

I will say from personal experience, my son was a huge sports player at Colony for football and basketball and if you have never been to a Colony football game,

you are missing out but Dr.

Burton and his orchestra and the band is very,

very, very entertaining so.

I do miss those days. And then we have Ms. Kelly Rents, she's the Choir and Drama Director at Colony High School. She is the 2025 Alaska Teacher of the Year.

With decades of experience in music education, she is known for building a strong, inclusive program for her students' outstanding achievements in performance and statewide honors. And together Dr. Burton and Ms. Rents collaborate on a number of student opportunities, including their recent production of Newsies and co-hosting the Mat-Su District Honor Festival,

providing students with high level performance experiences in the fine arts. And I'm not sure who's kind of gonna lead the charge but I'm gonna pass it over to them

too and I believe they have a short slideshow

for you. Yeah,

you guys.

if you could if you could each put your names on record and then begin your presentation, we're really excited to see this. Good morning.

Good morning, my name is Kelly Rance and

And I'm Jamin Martin.

we thought we would present a little slideshow for you.

I know it's longer than you're used to so we you can move quickly through the slides.

Just kind of a year in the life at Colony High Music.

We are going to start with last year's production of Hadestown.

This is a joint production by music by both departments. I also do drama so drama choir and

come band and we try to get as many kids on stage as possible. We work from November to about February to present the show to the community and try to get as many student-led things as we can.

The lights, the sound,

it's a student-run production once they learn how to do that.

So these are all just pictures from that and you can move through slides two through four if you want pretty quickly.

Then after you get through the Hadestown slides, slides four and five are of the music department in Ireland.

Last spring we had the opportunity to perform the St. Patrick's Dublin Parade and we took marching band orchestral and choir and we performed all over Ireland. We performed in Cova at their beautiful cathedral and then in Limerick. I think the highlight of the trip other than the great culture food and weather was in Limerick we had the...

performance to the cathedral and the audience interrupted mid-set for the choir to give them a standing ovation because they were just that well prepared and they were that well receptive and it was just a fantastic performance opportunity for all these students.

And then after the Ireland trip,

we have some pictures of our marching band known as the Northern Sound.

The marching band has performed at events all across the country in the world. We've been in Normandy, France and Ireland and St. Patrick's Parade, the Macy's Parade, the Rose Parade started the marching band 22 years ago now.

And we had about 106 people in it when we did the Macy's Parade since COVID has been a little bit smaller, but we enjoy putting the.

The Friday night lights in the football games at Collingwood High School for sure.

The next slide are just some choir opportunities we've had recently.

Last year we had a group that were the state champs performing a song from Newsies before we even really decided we were doing Newsies.

And then this August at the Alaska State Fair,

they were delighted to get to sing backup for Foreigner on one of their songs.

So that was a really fun opportunity for them and for me, this 80s chick right here.

Here was in heaven.

I was going to say, I went to a Foreigner concert in the 80s. Hello.

I was gonna say I went to

I can't say that I was actually there at that performance. It was amazing.

The next slide is from the drama department.

We had a senior this year, George Burlingame, who actually lost his mother.

His mother was our choreographer for our shows and died suddenly.

An amazing man.

I just wanted to highlight what he did this year in drama.

He wrote our fall show and directed it and he's moving on in college to direct film.

So it's really,

you know, we try to pull the kids in and give them leadership opportunities to do things like that and he just really shone this year.

So I wanted to highlight him.

Another thing that we do every year and take a lot of pride in is just having a lot of participation in the music festivals around the state from the ASA side of things.

So there's a picture there that has our contingent at the Allstate Festival.

We had several first chair medallion recipients in the choir represented in orchestra band and choir and all the kids are.

They represent Columbia High School in Alaska really well and they're top-notch students and they do these great performances and every November that All-State thing is one of the highlights of the year for us.

And the slides 13 and 14 are just some of the concerts we do.

We do a fall concert separately. We do a midwinter concert separately.

And then at Christmas, we do a joint concert with all of the music programs,

the choir,

the band, the orchestra,

jazz band,

percussion, and kind of invite the community,

our alumni to join us.

Dr. Burton wrote O Holy Night,

an orchestra arrangement.

for the choir song and we invite all of our alumni to come and sing at the end of the concert for us.

It also happens to be on the day of our school-wide pep rally that's themed around something this year was elf and it's a big time it's a great concert and then we usually end the year with separate concerts as well.

And then after that,

we get that's been a full year since we started now. So we ended just our.

Our last couple weekends we did was our music production.

So we started with our musical from last year and ending with our musical from this year.

Newsies was a spectacular show,

dancing,

flipping,

great music,

great acting,

beautiful set.

Kelly already mentioned that our George's mother passed away and she was our choreographer and so we had two students.

actually finished the choreography and teach the choreography to the students here so it was really a student-driven run show and they sold out the math Glen Nassi theater and just had a spectacular time and one of the things that I loved about this show is that we had the opportunity to have a couple cameos from some of our vice principles

And so they got to play the Teddy Roosevelt character and be the only adults on stage and the audience loved that and the students loved working with them and it was great to have them there because they got to see the process from start to finish and understand how much work these students put into it and how good it is for them and what skills they're developing, not just performing a musical,

but gaining leadership and confidence and creativity in all the areas that are going to be helpful for them moving on.

The very last slide,

you moved through the newsies,

was just last weekend, the weekend of spring break.

My choir goes up and sings at the start of the Iditarod, which is probably the most Alaskan thing we do.

They sing the Alaska State song and the national anthem.

So that was really fun.

And then after even just this past Friday night, there was an opportunity where the Palmer Arts Council brought in a group.

a group called Ball in the House and they came and did a workshop with my students and then we had a concert that night and got to sing with one of them but we try to say yes to everything um we're often tired but but fun in a fun way and um really the object is to get these kids out in the community and to get them some real life skills I know a lot of the kids that worked on Newsies um and that worked in Hadestown we have a senior that graduated last year

last year who ran our sound system for us this year so we try to give them real life experiences where they can go out then and be involved in the community and just be ready for life for whatever happens music is something that you can do for the rest of your life yesterday we had probably 20 people participate in a performance at the Glenn Massey Lamb of God and you know we we know that they're not all going to go

to go on to be professional musicians,

but they can do their real life job.

And still support their community arts in the process.

And part of that too is that we are really big proponents of supporting our school community.

So we perform in assemblies and we perform for the student body and we go to the football and basketball and hockey and we try to get music in front of as many people as we can.

And it helps I think the students feel a sense of community with each other and it pulls the other adults and community members that aren't in the school.

school on a daily basis into what's going on and kind of highlight some of the positive things happening in schools.

I wanted to just end with a couple of like highlight quotes about the importance of music and education and fine arts opportunities and I'm going to use

From the National Association for Music Education's website,

research shows that at least some musical education has a positive impact on social and cognitive development of children,

and these effects are long-lasting,

better hearing,

better motor skills,

improved memory,

better verbal and literacy skills.

And then a second quote that I have says,

musician is constantly adjusting decisions. Tempo, tone,

style,

rhythm,

phrasing, feeling,

and training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once.

Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attention skills,

intelligence,

and ability for self-knowledge and expression.

And we just wanted to conclude by saying thank you for having us this morning.

That's a 10-minute review of a year in the life of colony high school music

And if you have any questions,

we'll take those.

I think we could take a minute for some very quick questions.

Representative Diebert,

and I just want to say tired but inspired is maybe going to be your motto.

Representative, seriously, thank

you.

I like that, I like that.

Thank you, through the co-chair to Dr.

Burton and Ms.

Renz. Thank you so much for your presentation and your work with students in Alaska.

I hope to one day get to see your students perform. I myself

took orchestra from 4th grade through 12th grade and I was in choir from elementary school to middle school and loved, I think my last performance was the Rainbow Connection by the Muppets, which was really amazing. I had such a fun time in middle school singing that musical made an impact on my life. And so my question for you is

does students who take choir, band, orchestra in elementary and middle school make a difference when you see them

get to high school.

Do you see a big difference

A

between

hundred percent.

students?

Yes.

Okay, can you speak on that?

Yes.

Can you speak on that?

I can speak to choir and then I'll turn it over to Jamin, but I know when kids don't have the option of music in elementary school,

they tend to not want to choose it in or they haven't been exposed to it in middle school.

We can't have these top level performers that don't start somewhere smaller.

You know what I mean?

Um,

you,

if they come in ninth grade and they're just learning how to read music or 10th grade,

you're not going to then have that level of excellence that, um,

that you kind of aim for.

And I would say, too,

in addition to just starting them young and being able to have high performances,

I think that music is just good for every single person.

One of my favorite quotes I like to tell people is that the highest percentage of.

which is undergraduate acceptance into medical school is music.

So if you do a music major and then apply to medical school,

that's the highest rate of acceptance into medical school.

And I think that it's because it develops your brain in a way that builds connections across curriculum and it makes you a well-rounded,

able to think and rationalize and understand things.

And we've seen so many kids that come in and just are kind of in a shell and by the time they graduate from high school four years later, you just see so much growth tremendous.

ability to perform and to be in front of people and the leadership growth and how it connects to other things is is important

Well, one of the examples is at the end of the year, some of the AP.

higher honors courses our principal was putting locker signs on people that had gotten really high scores on some of their tests and as I was going down the hallway I said do you notice something and she said yes every single one of these students is in the music program so I think that kind of speaks highly to what being in music has done for these students.

Fantastic. Any other questions before we move on with our agenda? Representative Eische?

Yeah, thank you co-chair Himshoot. Just a quick question. How many years have each of you been working in education please?

I've been teaching since 1989.

And I started in 2004.

Thank you.

He's a lot younger than I am.

Representative Story.

Co-chair start.

Thank you, Co-chair Himshoot. Through the chair, thank you for your presentation and congratulations on building such a wonderful fine program. I have to tell you I was reminiscing, could name all my band and choir teachers and I think the shout out to our music program and the capital city here is wonderful too. My question has been your feeder programs. When do you start

Mm.

offering music in your community, and has that, is there a firm commitment on the school board to that, or has that been slated for possible cuts with the budget? So if you could start with what your program currently is starting in elementary school. Thank

Um

you.

the kind of a little bit weird as a teacher talking about politics at work. Um

It's hard to answer that question because we don't know.

When I started teaching in the district 20 years ago, every elementary school had music,

and that is not true anymore.

I'm sure you've all seen the news that schools are closing across the state and the mass you just voted to close three schools.

Along with those budget cuts, they are talking about removing specialists from schools.

So we have some schools where they start music from kindergarten and have some schools where they teach it later like fourth or fifth grade. We have some schools where they start band in fifth grade and some schools where they start in sixth or seventh grade. And so we're getting kids with a wide range of ability coming in.

And it really is a trick to try to figure out where they are and how to make cohesive groups and help them all progress with that.

It's a challenge.

Thank you for that.

And I had one last quick question that set for Newsies, who constructed that?

So Jack Foster,

who is a former teacher for the Matt Sue,

we had he didn't design it, he built it. And then we had a

A former member of the Glenn Massey Theater who no longer, he's out of state,

but he designed that.

So, but with the help of parents and kids, we had some work days where the kids would come in and he would teach them.

So it's kind of a learning process the whole way, putting kids behind and, you know, giving them the power to learn how to use drills and how to put sets together and how to build things.

So definitely a group effort. Jack Foster led the way on that.

amazing that the retired stay involved as well. So it really is a work work of the heart. Thank you so much for being with us this morning and helping us celebrate what you do and and the great things that are happening in your programs. Really appreciate you being here.

Well, thank you. Thank

Thank

you so

you much for

for having us. And we're going to go off because we have kids coming in now.

Okay, perfect timing. Okay, and

Okay,

we're going to

thank you.

we're going to move on in our agenda as well. I want to recognize Representative Bynum joined us at 8:07, so he got to see what's happening up in the Matsu as well, which is

which is great. And next on our agenda is House Bill 380 by the House Education Committee entitled An act relating to funding for residential schools. This is the first hearing of this bill and its first committee of referral. And I'm passing the gavel over to co-chair Story and I'm going to wander out to that table and I don't think we'll even take it at ease because there's no presentation to set up. So

Thank you, Co-chair Himshoot. Welcome to the dais. Can you please introduce yourself for the record and any staff with you today?

Thank you. Good morning. I'm Rebecca Hemshute. I am Co-chair of Education. I also represent House District two here in southeast Alaska. And with me

For the record, Edward Richards, staff to Representative Himshoot.

We also call him EJ.

I think I can just tell you briefly what we're trying to do with this bill and then EJ will go through the sectional analysis and we have a couple of folks for invited testimony. So this

With the Education Funding Task Force we were able to visit the Nenana Student Living Center and they showed us what they're doing out there.

Great program. And then they said, and we haven't had an increase since 2015. So think about how costs have gone up in your old household budget from 2015 until now. So

They also added it's going to be really hard to continue operating if something isn't done to adjust the budget for the living side. So this is not the base student allocation, this is the living side of what they do.

There are nine approved residential school programs across the state. This bill

makes an adjustment. So they're each paid by region monthly for the students in their care. This bill makes an inflationary adjustment to that monthly amount based between 2015 and now. So

So

I guess I'm gonna stop there assuming you guys know a lot about these schools. If you don't we have a little more information, and I'd like to turn it over to E.J. to go through the sectional analysis.

It's pretty quick.

Again for the record, EJ Richards, staff to Representative Himshoot, and through the co-chair to the rest of the committee, I'll be presenting the sectional analysis for House Bill 380, version A. Sorry. Section one amends AS 14.

sixteen two hundred B_ by increasing the funding for the per pupil monthly stipend by the wa following for each respective region. A three hundred nineteen dollar increase for a total of one thousand five hundred forty nine dollars for region one. A uh three hundred twelve dollar increase for a total of one thousand five hundred twelve dollars for region two.

16 200B by increasing the funding for the per pupil monthly stipend by the following for each respective region, a $319

increase for a total of $1,549 for

region 1 a $312 increase for a total of $1012 for region 2 a

A three hundred seventy seven dollar increase for a total of one thousand eight hundred twenty nine dollars for region three. A three hundred ninety two increase for a total of one thousand nine hundred one dollars for region four. A four hundred sixty one dollar increase for a total of two thousand two hundred thirty seven dollars for region five. And that concludes the sectional analysis.

$377 increase for a total of $1129

And that concludes the sectional analysis and

And it's a pretty straightforward bill, so through co-chair story to the committee, we're available for questions or to go to invited testimony.

I think do we have any questions at this time? Okay, we will hear invited testimony then right now. We'll proceed with that.

And I see that we

would like to invite Conrad Woodhead to introduce yourself, unmute, introduce yourself for the record and begin your testimony. Welcome.

Thank you, and good morning to each member of the House Education Committee,

and thank you for looking at residential funding and allowing me to speak to the issue.

For the record, my name is Conrad Woodhead,

and I serve as the Career and Technical Education and Cusebeck Career Academy Director for the Lower Yukon School District.

I'm speaking today on behalf of the Alaska Residential Schools Coalition,

representing districts across the state that operate residential programs.

programs and serve students from some of the most remote communities in Alaska.

First, thank you for bringing House Bill 380 forward.

The coalition appreciates the committee recognizing that residential programs play a critical role in expanding access to career and technical education,

workforce pathways,

dual credit opportunities,

and industry aligned instruction.

Opportunities that districts like the Lower Yukon School District cannot provide at scale without residential access.

Year-round boarding schools and variable term workforce programs like Coos of Act Career Academy integrate K-12,

university,

industry and non-profit partnerships to deliver programming that is more resource intensive and in many cases simply does not exist in students home communities.

I'm encouraged that workforce development is at the forefront of conversations right now.

It's a priority in just about every room I've been in this year.

But the reality is the residential funding structure has not kept pace with that priority and the current model is not sustainable over time.

As mentioned, these figures are not estimates.

They're based on audited FY24 data compiled by Mr.

Jerry Covey across our coalition districts.

That analysis shows it costs approximately $25,700 per student to provide room and board,

while the state stipend is about $12,900 covering only about half of the actual cost.

And importantly,

those stipend levels have not been updated since FY15.

With the loss of one time appropriations and FY26 residential programs are now operating with less funding and that they had in recent years.

The lower UConn school district,

for example, the funding we receive to house students in residential programs covers on average just about 20% of the actual operating costs of our program.

Many of these programs are doing their part,

but we cannot do it alone.

KCA, for example, has helped close that gap through opportunities with the Federal Office of Indian Ed,

discretionary grants made possible by our partnerships with our tribal communities.

But those funds are limited,

competitive,

not a stable long-term solution,

and they still leave a significant gap.

House Bill 380 is a step in the right direction,

and we appreciate the committee's leadership. However,

it does not yet fully address the scale of the funding gap.

gap needed to stabilize residential programs so we would encourage continued consideration of alignment with Senate Bill 257 which more fully reflects actual operating costs and ensures funding keeps pace moving forward again I appreciate the committee for your work and taking testimony on this important bill adjusting and and taking a look at this will help programs like ours continue like ours continue to do that

the important work of helping our students become Alaska's next workforce.

So thank you.

Do I have any questions for Mr. Woodhead and thank you for your presentation. Any questions?

I have a question.

I don't know, Mr.

Woodhead,

if you can help me understand this, but when I look at the different regions and there's a different amount for each residential school,

was that, if you could help me understand the history behind that,

does it have to do with geographic cost factors in the region,

different years that they went into effect,

any history you have on that would be helpful for me.

Sure.

Those amounts are based off of regional locations of these programs.

So for example,

Kuzovec Career Academy operates in Anchorage.

And so we have a lot of resources in Anchorage, whereas NAC Tech operates in gnome and shipping costs and personnel costs are different.

So and I'm sure Mr.

Manning would agree.

that those regional adjustments are important and a reflection of the true costs of programs like ours.

Thank you for that information.

Seeing no further questions,

we will now move on to Patrick Manning.

He is the superintendent within Nanny City School Districts. Welcome,

Mr.

Manning. Please unmute yourself,

introduce yourself for the record,

and begin your testimony.

Thank you.

Co-chair Henshaw,

co-chair Story,

and members of the House Education Committee,

thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

For the record,

my name is Patrick Manning. I'm the superintendent of Nenana City School District,

and I'm here on behalf of the Alaska Residential Schools coalition.

I want to begin by thanking you for bringing forward House Bill three eighty.

We truly appreciate the committee's recognition that residential school funding has not kept pace with inflation and that this issue deserves attention.

Alaska's residential schools are playing an important role in preparing students for the state's workforce.

Through career and technical education,

dual credit opportunities,

and hands-on training that connects directly to employment opportunities here in Alaska.

For many students in rural communities,

these programs provide access to opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach.

At the same time, we'd like to share some context around the current funding structure.

Residential school stipend funding has remained essentially unchanged since FY15,

even as costs have steadily increased.

Based on audited expenditures from Alaska's seven residential schools two years ago,

the average cost to house and feed a student was approximately $25,700 compared to a state stipend of about $12,900.

This creates a significant gap that the districts have been working hard to absorb in order to continue offering these programs.

We are very grateful for the one-time funding provided in recent years,

which has helped sustain programs.

With those funds no longer in place, however,

we are now seeing increased pressure on districts as funding is returned to earlier statutory levels.

Looking ahead,

our shared goal is to ensure that these programs remain stable and continue to serve students across Alaska.

House Bill 380 is a meaningful step in that direction,

and we appreciate the effort to move this conversation forward.

We would also respectfully encourage consideration of how this bill might be strengthened to more fully address both current needs and long-term sustainability.

In that context,

Senate Bill 257 offers a helpful framework.

A more closely aligned stipend funding with actual costs provides a mechanism to keep funding aligned with future BSA adjustments and helps address the immediate funding gap beginning in FY26.

We believe aligning House Bill 380 more closely with the approach outlined in Senate Bill 257 could provide a more comprehensive and lasting solution.

Our intent is not to expand programs, but to ensure that the strong programs already in place can continue to serve students and support Alaska's workforce needs.

We appreciate the committee's attention to this issue and your continued support of Alaska's students and communities.

Thank you again for your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you for that, Mr.

Manning. I see we have a question from

up-divert.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you, through the co-chair, to either Superintendent Manning or Mr. Woodhead. I appreciate Representative Story's question on just the numbers for each region, but I want to hone in on region 5, which is the highest dollar amount and just

I'm assuming some of that is due to like the high cost of energy and heating our homes, also maybe transportation of materials, and I know that Fairbanks is probably the hub for resources and materials, not sure, but I just wanted to highlight that high cost for region 5. If you want to expand on that or not. Thank you.

Any question, any comments on that from Mr. Woodhead or Superintendent Manning?

Through the co-chair, I can comment on that.

So part of the expense

part of the expense

Excuse me, could you put your name on the record again? We have two of the males testifying and it's helpful for the Recording Secretary. Thank you.

Sure. This is Superintendent Manning, Natomas City School District. Um

yeah, m many of the things that you mentioned are the reason for that. They're um the travel costs uh for

sending students to these facilities as well as um just the supplies that that need to be shipped in to to cover their boarding and and uh taking care of them while they're in these facilities. All of that has gone up drastically in the last few years. It's very expensive to get um

These resources out to these sites and everything is exponentially more expensive than those that are further from the hubs.

Follow-up, Representative Divert.

Thank you, Superintendent Manning. And can you share with the committee just an overview of Region 5? Like that includes Fairbanks, Nenana

to maybe Galena? I'm not sure. Does maybe Mr. Woodhead or

Superintendent Manning.

Yes, I don't know who would like to answer that question, but please introduce yourself again for the record.

Yeah,

Conrad Woodhead,

supervisor of our Career Academy,

Lower UConn School District.

Yeah,

just to speak to that question,

that's the idea here is that the subregions of Alaska have different costs associated with putting on programs like ours.

And so I think that these bills do and fit into.

past practice looking at different regions looking at the actual cost associated with those regions and then trying to fund appropriately because there is argument that folks that are closer to the hubs have less expense versus folks that are more remote I have you know myself tried to make the argument that because we're serving Western Alaska perhaps we should be

considered as part of the Western Alaska and then but since we're operating actually in Anchorage and not in one of our remote regions the adjustment in cost reflects that so that's as much as I can say to that in the past history for that but hopefully that that provides some context

Representative Divert, is that satisfactory?

I see that the sponsor, Co-Chair Himschoot, has a comment or question and then I have Representative Schwanke and Representative Eichheit in the queue.

Thank you, Co-Chair. Sorry, I thought it might be helpful if I just read off the names of the schools so that you can get a sense of where they are, because you'll recognize them from your home district. So region 1 doesn't have any of these residential schools, and notably we do have Mount Edgecumbe, but that is not included in this. Mount Edgecumbe is funded separately as a division

of the Department of Education. So in region 2 we have Voyage to Excellence and Kusilkvak Career Academy. Region 3, and those two facilities serve a total of 74 if they're fully enrolled.

And then region 3 has 100 total students at Nenana Living Center. Region 4 has 75 total students fully enrolled at Kuskokwim Learning Academy and Ready Academy. And then region 5 could have up to 296 total students at the Northwestern Alaska Career and Technical Center, Galena Interior Learning Academy, Residential Living Center in Kavik and Star of the Northwest. So I hope that adds some context to

which facilities we're talking about.

Thank you for that. Representative Schwanke.

Thank you, Mr. Co-Chair. Thank you both, Mr. Woodhead and Superintendent Manning for being here and presenting today. I would like both of you to offer just

a highlight of some of the opportunities that some of our Alaskan students receive at your residential schools or academies that they cannot get in their communities.

And I understand a lot of kids come to these residential and academy programs for a lot of different reasons,

but I do know that several come from very small communities and villages that literally do not have high school opportunities. So I'd love to hear some of that from you.

Thank you for that question, Representative Schwanke. If you could start, Mr. Woodhead, I appreciate that.

Absolutely, Mr Woodhead, KCA, Lower Yukon School District. Yeah, I can talk about this stuff all day.

I won't today.

I'm really excited about the metrics that programming like ours are starting to receive. We serve and we have three different variable term intensives.

that we provide.

We provide weekly intensives with some key partnerships.

We provide quarterly intensives and we provide semesterly intensives.

For the quarterly and semesterly intensives we are serving lower Yukon School District students from our 10 village sites along the lower Yukon Delta and the coast down to Scammon Bay and Hooper Bay.

We are finding that roughly 50%

of our graduating classes are taking advantage of one or more session of KCA throughout their high school career.

And for those 50% of graduates that take advantage of our programming,

we're producing 70% of our districts,

valedictorians and salutatorians out of that. And for the last three years, if you've come to KCA one or more sessions,

you had a 0% dropout rate for that 50%.

and the graduating classes that are taking advantage of our programming.

We steer students to career and technical education opportunities.

You know, one of the highlights of our model is that we're bringing students a quarter at a time, so roughly eight to nine weeks at a time, we're finding that that is enough time to make really tangible changes in students and they come back to their villages more prepared.

talking about their future and then we help them really get ready for the day after high school and what that could look like for students and then we also are the dual credit conduit for our district so if students are accessing dual college credit through opportunities like middle college Alaska middle college school and then ANSEP acceleration we are the housing conduit for students from our region to participate in ANSEP acceleration and then we have a great partnership

Partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks is teaching through Technology T3 Alaska program,

which provides a lot of different dual credit opportunities and career pathway opportunities for students. And yeah,

bringing our students to those resources has been really advantageous to us, but it's come at a cost.

We knew back in 2019 to build a regional hub, it was going to be

It was going to cost about $95 million.

We used capital improvement monies to buy about a half-star hotel here in Anchorage and then renovate it and use that as the conduit to access just these really amazing programs that our students now have access to.

Mr.

Woodhead,

thank you for that.

Could you please clarify some of those programs?

Yeah, so we have nonprofit partners like Alaska Resource Education and Renewable Energy Alaska Project.

Those folks come in and teach our students along with one of our teacher record folks.

We're not using OSD teacher to teach science. We're using partners to teach science.

So that's a great example.

We go over to King Tech High School and access up to 17 different career pathways over there.

So students get to do that. The makeup of that.

That partnership is that Lower Yukon School District,

with their residential and Perkins funding,

buys the tuition to allow us access for our students to go over to King Tech High School,

and then Anchorage School District then opens the door to students from their eight comprehensive high schools to come join our students.

And I think that that's really where the magic is.

Our students, you know, they're pretty big fish in a pretty small pond,

and when they come to Anchorage, we kind of flip that.

and they have to work with next to students from one of the most diverse school districts in the nation and get to learn how to work with others.

with different backgrounds and while they're preparing for what they want to do after high school and I want to be clear too you know we want our students to be successful no matter where they end up so we're not encouraging students to go one way or another what we encourage students to do is find their own pathway and we can help them get there so if that means sustaining themselves in a you know some sort of hitch work in the industry or seasonal work that allows them to go home and be the best subsistence hunter they can be

then we want to support that if they want to be somewhere else or go see the world we also want to support that so we blitz our kids with options and then support them in in the pathways that they want to receive themselves in and then we're highly encouraging we provide all the wraparound services to help our students because we believe here at KCA that we really can't prepare for the day after high school until we take care of the needs of the day so we've added a lot of resources to help

help support our students in that way.

Thank you, Mr.

Woodhead. Before we go on to Superintendent Manning, you said you had 50% of the students chose to attend a variable term.

Is that because that's what the funding is limited to,

or is it because some students just aren't ready to go away from home and go to a variable school?

Sure, I think it's a little bit of both and I think that why our model seems to work so well for our student population is because year-round boarding schools for our students, you know, going to a more urban setting or a bigger place, it's kind of a scary thing and that's a year-long commitment.

So the light at the end of that year-long tunnel for some of our students and we do, we lose over,

you know, about 100,

120 students a year around boarding schools.

boarding school options every year but we're finding that for some of those students they're picking KCA because they can come back quarter after quarter here for about a dozen to 18 students they're choosing us as their year-round boarding school option but for others they get to pick and choose when they want to be here so if they want to be home for moose or goose season they can do that and still access current technical education if they want to go home for basketball season

or mixed six volleyball season they can do that they can pick and choose so it's it's really nice because it just provides another option for students without having to give up you know if I'm a if I'm an elementary kid or a middle school kid and all I have dreamt about is playing basketball and scam and bay for Harley sundown my whole life then I might not want to go to a year reporting school option so it's it's really nice to have those options for students kids

Kids get the pick and choose now.

It doesn't feel so high stakes for them and it's safe. We are a bubble of the culture right here in Anchorage.

We're 60% OSD product working in our staff. We are inviting and what better way than to help our young students understand what it takes to be from the region, to make it in Anchorage or to go back home and try to make it on their own. It's just a...

They're great examples for our students.

Thank you for that,

Mr.

Woodhead.

We will now go to Superintendent Manning to tell us a little bit about the CTE offerings in his area.

So Ms.

Hi.

Superintendent Patrick Manning,

Nanana City School District,

through the chair,

just want to share some of the things that we do here that I think are important for our students. We have a great welding program where our students get certifications and prepare to go out into the workforce.

We also have a construction program that gives them

real life experiences and opportunity to develop those skills.

We have an ETT program that we run as well for those that are more interested in the health fields and then beyond those programs we also provide other opportunities as mentioned by Mr.

Woodhead such as we have band and choir,

we have dual credit.

at it.

We have a transition coordinator who works with our students and helps them prepare scholarships,

applications for college, and exposes them to different programs that are out there other than just the academic tracks.

And then, of course, we have an interventionist that works with our secondary students, those who come to us that need help in their academic skills as well. So those are some of the programs that we have that I'd like to highlight.

I thank you for that. I was wondering if you could comment on do many of the students apply for the Alaska Performance Scholarships? Do we have the curriculum in place if they would like to try and earn that scholarship?

Yes,

we do.

And fortunately,

in the last few years,

we've been able to do more for those students as the Alaska scholarship expanded into the CTE realm a little bit more.

And that was a great boon for those students that have come to us.

Thank you for that. And now I'm going to go to Rep Eichheit.

Thank you, co-chair Story.

Through the co-chair,

thank you both for your invited testimony.

Thank you for your service to children.

I have the same question for both of you.

I'd like to start with Mr.

Woodhead.

First of all, thank you for being in Anchorage.

I represent Northeast Anchorage,

so thank you for being there.

And also thank you for noting how you interact with Anchorage School District.

Drake King Tech Academy it's certainly an ecosystem in education you know a lot of different folks working together for the betterment of kids but since this bill essentially increases funding after approximately 10 years of stagnant funding what what has your enrollment been first of all at KCAA and then for superintendent Manning maybe statewide for our residential schools has has the enrollment trend been

declining, stagnant, or increasing. And then the second part of the question is,

if you get some increased funding to make up for the flat funding over the last 10 years,

do you think your enrollment will increase?

Through the co-chair.

So we have a residential max of 70.

And so our count period is the Friday of the last Friday of the first quarter. So this year I believe it was October 18th.

And so it's a one time count. And so the folks that we have on campus that night are the ones that we include in our count.

I mentioned that we have three different variable terms that

that we operate under so we have semesterly quarterly and weekly and there's ebbs and flows so we try to target 36 OISD students per quarter plus we average about six to seven semesterly students and then the rest of the students that we're bringing in that gets us closer to 70 are through partnerships that we're doing with

other programs.

So those other programs include Bristol Bay Region.

They provide us the distance aviation instruction, but then when they bring their students into Anchorage,

we house those students,

our students fold in with them,

and then participate in those intensives. We have other weekly intensives that we're offering through the T3 program and University of Alaska Fairbanks. And so when they have

have a

programming that happens in Anchorage at our T3 hub site,

which is KCA,

our students fold into that as well.

And so we have students coming and going. We've stacked our partnerships really smart.

There's consortium models popping up all over the place, seems like.

And for us, you know, I don't have a welding booth. I don't have an auto body shop.

I don't have a culinary program.

We go out and we partner for those things.

And so what you get at

Good at KCA, you have a really robust residential program with driver simulators and flight simulators.

We're teaching core content area through Apex Online Learning and other partners that are coming in,

but really the CTE access is all through really strategic and intentional partnerships.

Voyage to Excellence is one of our partners.

They provide the driver's ed instruction for us.

So we've just gone out there and we found the partners to be able to stack and braid these funding sources.

It is exhausting. I mentioned, you know, we're constantly chasing and living and dying by the grant cycles and having stagnant residential funding has not been helpful in those pursuits. And again,

I really appreciate the fact that we're talking about this and looking at it a little bit closer.

closer for us as as mr Manning had mentioned these fundings will help us maintain what we have and again we're constantly looking for other resources that are going to help us provide the wraparound services that our students require we have a robust student health services in partnership with South Central Foundation to do clinics here at KCA those types of things have been really important to providing

just a well-rounded program that meets all the needs of our students that come in from a pretty remote region so I hope that answers your question I again I'm happy to answer any more about this but yeah

It's there's a lot of moving pieces with a lot of different funding sources and a lot of different partnerships

Yeah, through the co-chair.

Bye,

Shai.

Mr.

Woodhead, that was a fabulous answer, but it wasn't to the question I asked. I just simply wanted to know if your enrollment over the last 10 years at KCA has been declining,

stable,

or increasing. And what I got out of that...

That is maybe it's been at its max capacity over the last 10 years.

So if you can just clarify that question.

So we've been existence in seven for seven years.

And what we've claimed on this is a hard one kind of for me to answer what we've claimed on our roles was at first was right in the middle of COVID.

So those were about half capacity,

what we were claiming on our roles and we opened at half capacity with the blessing of our board.

or during COVIDs to help us kind of mitigate getting through that.

Coming out of COVID,

we're closer to 70 every time.

So I would say over the long run because of the pandemic,

you know, yeah,

we're upwards to where we should be residentially,

yes, and in terms of the amount of applications we're getting and the folks that we're taking in,

that's been fairly consistent throughout.

Thank you. And then superintendent.

Yes, Manning. We will go to Superintendent Manning now. Please um

Please

introduce

yourself. Superintendent

Manning.

Manning, Nenana City School District, through the co-chair,

we have the capacity for 100 students and during our count period that's usually right around where we're at is the 95 to 97 number and so for us in the last 10 years that number

has been pretty steady.

When we, we've had a few years that dipped.

I've been superintendent for about eight years.

My second year in, because of the transition in my position, I believe,

our numbers were low for some reason that year. But since then, they've been up. And so, and I'm pretty sure that

Galena City School District has experienced the same thing

as far as the numbers increasing.

We just don't have the capacity to increase our site anymore.

I'm not sure whether Galena does,

but I do know that there is an interest just mostly because of the opportunities that we provide that bring students in.

We've been able to keep our enrollment up and pretty steady.

Thank you for that response.

I have a question.

Is the one-day count period

effective? Do you feel that that's reflective of what the attendance is or do you think it should be a similar 20-day count as done in other schools?

Through the co-chair,

if I could just comment on that,

I would say that...

There are year-round boarding schools and there are variable term boarding schools and for variable term boarding schools it's you know we have ebbs and flows in the amount of students that we have and obviously having a single day count period we are we are right at quarter transition and so we have a lot of students in our

our in our facility during high peak times and that is definitely one of those times so moving the count period to a different time might be reflective that we only have 45 students at night and maybe not 70 at the end of the session like the end of quarter one in October so for me personally the singular count day makes sense because of the variable term this

of a lot of these programs.

I know that we have in it to request a different day count period for the week-long intensive variable term programs that we have.

Obviously you don't want your count on a planning week when no students are in your building.

So those are all things that each program examines and then make sure that they're looking ahead to make sure that the count period is on the.

on the appropriate night.

Thank you for that response. Superintendent Manning, do you have a response to that question?

Superintendent Manning and the Nana City School District,

my response would be that the one date works for us.

We're able to...

open up our opportunities for students some of them maybe have applied for Mount Edgecumbe or someplace else and so by the time they they get to the place where they've sorted out where they want to be or where they weren't accepted and then accepted for us it's nice to just have one day to say this is where we're at today and then of course that number adjusts throughout the year based upon homesickness or

You know whatever else goes on throughout the year,

but it at least gives us a chance on that one day to to say okay We've got a solid group of students here that we can prepare for for the year

Thank you for that response. I had another question,

and that question.

Just escaped my mind.

So let me pause for a second.

Oh, thank you.

My question had to do with how your funding mechanisms go between

The different school districts, because you say with the one time funding we did not get any funding was a little confused about that. I know that you're funding the the home district has um th this is my understanding, the home district gets the B_S_A_ number and then there's a memorandum of agreement and they pay a certain amount for the

the services that you're providing.

But if you could help me explain that a little bit more, I'd appreciate it.

And I'll start with Mr.

Manning.

Thank you.

Superintendent Manning, he ran the city school district.

In response to that, for us, we,

our funding right now, we get the boarding facility funding and then we also do get the count number for the BSA in our district.

Those students become our students for the year and so we're funded to.

to carry that load with them.

As far as what has happened as far as the funding,

it was established in FY15 and then a few,

not this year,

but prior to this year we've had some one-time funding that has helped us, assisted us in meeting the needs and hasn't fully met what we expand on these students.

but it's offset some of that cost and that was channeled through different pieces like CTE or different areas like that that when you see that funding and that that really helped but this year I think just the individual who used to kind of carry that was Senator Quick Bishop and I just don't know what happened but for some reason we didn't get that one time funding this year.

year, and I think for us, it's been a real, real tough year without it.

Thank you for that, Mr.

Manning.

I have Superintendent Manning.

Mr.

Woodhead,

what is your response to that question?

Yeah, not a ton to add on that. We're in the same boat.

I would say that while our residential funding serves 70,

upwards of 70 students,

we serve way more than 70 students within our typical school year.

So, and again,

variable terms, a little bit of a moving target.

That's why the one night count is so important because if you're going to look at a 10 day or a 10 day count,

a lot of our variable term programs are a week long intensives filtering multiple students in throughout their quarters.

So yeah, that's what I would say to that.

A follow-up to that question,

Mr.

Woodhead. I thought I heard you say that you didn't get a BSA

increase and so does that mean you so I thought you didn't get BSA headcount.

Our students are part of the Lower Yukon School District,

so for the at least 36 students that are coming in,

we do get a BSA rate and a residential rate for those students.

For the others outside of our district students that are filtering through our programming,

we're counting other school districts in that count for the count period.

Much like, you know, let's say Voyage to Excellence,

for example.

Will they partner with...

four to five different school districts I believe to be able to do that and they each get a student allocation for their for their respective districts and then voice excellence and Chugat School District gets the nightly rate for the for the gets the residential rate for the students that are in their program for that night I hope that answers your question

Yes. And it brings up another question for Rep. Elam. And then I'm going to move on to the fiscal

note. Rep. Elam, thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate the work you guys are doing there in those CTE programs as well.

Always something that's kind of near and dear to me. I guess this question might be for you guys, but it is probably more for the sponsor kind of planning of I'm just kind of wondering how we got to the numbers and how do we know what the numbers should be and if that those numbers work for you guys.

Thank you. Co-Chair Story through the Chair to Representative Elam. Our calculation was just basically taking inflation from 2015 to 2025 and applying that to the previous number.

Yes. I'll go to Rep. Hemshoot first.

Okay. So yeah, follow up?

Yeah, follow up.

Just basic CPI.

Correct, which through the chair is based on anchorage prices, but it is the number that we use.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. And I did note that both testifiers recommended that we look at Senate Bill

257.

257. And so perhaps the sponsor

Rep. Hemshoot

can comment on that.

Sure. I think it's important to go through that fiscal note quickly as well. But Senate Bill 257

ties an increase to the base student allocation. So when the BSA goes up,

residential funding would go up. I don't have any

disagreement with that. I think it's important to note that the Education Funding Task Force will be looking at residential schools. And so that kind of structural change is something that the task force is looking at and will study and come back with recommendations. So while 257 may be a good solution, we wanted to make sure that we didn't lose track of a basic solution while looking at a solution tied more to policy. And so we wanted to make sure we had both options out there.

Thank you for that. So we're going to go on to

Director of Finance and Support Services, Heather Heineken to share the fiscal note. Thank you, Director Heineken, for being with us today. And then I wanted to thank our invited testifiers today, too. Thank you. That was very helpful. Ms. Heineken,

good morning.

co-chairs,

sorry,

and House Education committees.

For the record,

my name is Heather Heineken.

I am the Director of Finance and Support Services for the Department of Education,

and today there is one fiscal note for HB 380 for residential school funding,

and this bill increases per student amount for residential program grants under AS 14-16-200B,

and it's approximately 26% across the board.

Currently in the governor's budget is $9.307 million for residential school programs.

HB 380 would increase the request for FY 27 by $2.286 million.

And this increase assumes the approval and funding for the Bristol Bay Regional Career and Technical Education Program that is proposed in the FY27 governor's budget.

And then the same increase is proposed for the out years FY27 through 32.

And this is for OMB component number 148, residential schools.

programme fund. Um I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Do I have any questions from the committee?

I do not see any questions. Thank you very much for your explanation. And I'm going to return to Rep Himschoot to give any closing comments and then we will move on.

Thank

Oh.

you, Co-Chair Story.

Oh,

I believe we

excuse

noticed

me.

public testimony.

Public testimony. Yes. I should look at my notes script here. Sorry about that.

Thank you Ms. Lubin for responding so quickly to that. So I'm going to open up public testimony on this residential bill.

Is there anyone in the room who wishes to testify?

Seeing none. I will go online. Do we have anyone online who wishes to testify? Seeing none. I'm going to close public testimony.

Public testimony is closed. We will now set House Bill 380 aside to be taken up at a later date.

Our next order of business is House Bill 374 entitled An act relating to the base student allocation and providing for an effective date.

This bill has been heard twice in this committee. Once for introduction and invited testimony and once for public testimony.

We will now bring it back before the committee to discuss the fiscal notes.

Representative Hemshoot, will you please introduce yourself again for the record and begin.

Thank you uh co-chair Story to the committee.

I don't have a lot to add. This is a pretty straight-forward issue. But we didn't have uh I don't think we had a chance to look at the fiscal notes. We wanted to make sure we had that opportunity today.

Thank you. Rep. Hemshoot, we have Director Heineken on the line.

Would you go over the fiscal notes please?

Good morning again,

Co-Chair Story and Health Education Committee.

Again, for the record,

Heather Heineken,

Director of Finance and Support Services for the Department of Education.

For House Bill 374, there are three fiscal notes.

The first fiscal note is the Public Education Fund,

which is OMB component number 2804.

This is proposing an increase to the base student allocation by $630 from $6,660 to $7,290.

The proposed increase will create a cost of $158,599,000 in FY27, and the cost will be the same for the out years of 28 through 32.

And the bill takes effect July 1,

2026.

The second fiscal note is the foundation program.

And this is, let me start with its OMB component number 141.

This is a $0 fiscal note and it's a funding mechanism for, it's a general fund transfer to the public education fund. So

They're not directly deposited into the foundation program,

so it's for analysis purposes,

for information purposes only.

And then the final fiscal note is Mount Edgecumbe.

And this one is for an interagency receipt between the Public Education Fund and Mount Edgecumbe component number 1060,

and that would increase the funding for the component by $453,000, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that, Director Heineken.

Do I have any questions from the committee?

I've seen no further questions.

We will now set an amendment deadline for House Bill 374 as Thursday,

March 26th at 5 p.m. Please submit all amendments to my office or the office of Rep.

Himshoot by that time.

We will now take a short at ease to return the gavel to Rep. Himshoot.

We're back on record and we are going to move forward with our agenda to our final order of business, which is Senate Bill 20,

sponsored by Senator Greg Jackson,

an act relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation education in public schools and relating to the duties of the Department of Education in Early Development. I would like to invite Senator Greg Jackson and staff to come forward, introduce yourself on the record and begin your testimony.

Senator L.V.

Grey-Jackson, representing District G in Anchorage. Um I'm really thrilled and and truly honoured that my bill is being heard um this morning. This legislation has the potential to help our kids learn life-saving measures that will make a difference in communities across the state. Cardiac arrest is the f

third leading cause of death in the United States, claiming over three hundred and sixty five thousand lives each year. When administered immediately, CPR can more than triple a person's chances of survival. This legislation aims to strengthen health education in our schools by equipping students with the knowledge and the skills that they need to respond effectively in emergencies.

This year, during the Senate Finance Committee hearing,

the senator from Gallaudet reminded us that CPR has been needed more than once in this very building,

and those moments lives were saved simply because someone nearby had the training and the confidence to act.

The American Heart Association recommends this curriculum nation-wide as a proven way to introduce hundreds or even thousands of new lifesavers into our communities each year. The program not only teaches practical skills, but it also builds the confidence students need to act when every second counts.

During a uh visit with members of the Heart Institute of Anchorage, I saw training videos from rural communities. It was truly inspiring to see these students that are eager to learn these essential techniques. The Heart Institute shared um that many students retain these skills for years, um ready to use them when they're needed. But most importantly, this bill does not present an unfunded mandate.

The course is a one-time class during the student's career,

not a semester or year-long requirement,

so it won't overburden our magnificent teachers.

Furthermore,

the bill has very strong support from organizations such as the Anchored Fire Department,

the Heart and Vascular Institute and the American Heart Association.

My goal this morning here is to ensure that students gain life-saving skills while supporting, not burdening, again our incredible teachers across Alaska. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony and would you like to or for your introduction, I guess, of your bill, would you like to present the

sectional analysis or summary of changes? Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Gray Jackson here again and I'm here with my magnificent intern Denali and she'd be more than happy to do the sectional analysis.

Awesome. For the record, Denali Zantop, intern for Senator Grey Jackson. Thank you again, House Education Committee, for hearing this piece of legislation. I will briefly walk through the sectional analysis, as well as some changes to the bill and the key points for Senate Bill 20,

CPR curriculum.

As for the sectional analysis,

section one of the bill removes CPR from the existing health education statute, and section two creates a new standalone CP

CPR Education Requirement.

It directs the department to develop age appropriate, hands only CPR curriculum as well as determine the grade levels the curriculum is taught in and require schools to provide the instruction.

The curriculum must follow national evidence-based guidelines including hands-on practice and may be delivered by certified CPR instructors,

EMS providers or certified teachers. As for some changes to the bill, um as originally introduced this

This bill include an effective date of August twenty fifth twenty twenty five. Um because the bill did not pass last sesh last session, the date was removed in senate finance, so now the bill will take effect in either ninety days after enactment or upon the governor's signature. No other changes were made. Um for some key points for this bill, this legislation expands CPR education and equips more Alaskans to

to respond to cardiac emergencies. It builds confidence in students and prepares them to act when it matters most.

This bill emphasizes hands on learning, improving retention and real world readiness. As previously mentioned, schools have flexibility in who provides the instruction,

including teachers,

EMS providers and certified instructors, with support from partners like the Anchorage Fire Department to help identify qualified individuals statewide.

Increasing the number of CPR trained individuals strengthens community and emergency response.

helps create more lifesavers each year. CPR certification is also valuable is a valuable transferable skill particularly in the health care and public safety fields. Thank you.

Thank you for that analysis.

Are there questions from the committee before we go to invited testimony?

Okay, great.

I think we'll go online to our first testifier,

which is Chief Schrage of the Anchorage Fire Department.

Please introduce yourself on the record and begin your testimony.

Good morning.

Yes, good morning. Thank you. This is Doug Schroge. I'm the fire chief for the municipality of Anchorage Fire Department.

And I would like to thank you and the members of the committee for hearing this bill and to Senator Craig Jackson for bringing it.

You've heard about the bill and what it intends to accomplish.

I mainly want to speak about the importance of providing CPR instruction in the school system.

As you know, this adds CPR training to an existing health curriculum.

It's not new.

and uses existing readily available curricula that is available just about everywhere.

And it can be taught either by a local EMS provider or a local CPR instructor,

which many fire departments are able to provide particularly in smaller and rural communities.

The importance of this bill is that it is key to closing the gap between engagement of our 911 system and saving people who have experienced sudden cardiac arrest.

Every day of every year someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest and often the first person providing CPR that has been trained is the EMS provider that arrives in an ambulance or on a fire truck.

In the interim,

our dispatchers and dispatchers in many communities are able to coach people into performing hands-only CPR over the phone,

but this is far less effective than it would be had people been trained.

I heard Senator Gray Jackson say that not only that,

but being provided this training in the school system.

provides people with the confidence to take action,

which is a hindrance and it's an impediment to many people engaging.

We have mainly relied on workplace requirements and voluntary recruitment of adults to engage in CPR training,

and this has been insufficient.

We know that most cardiac arrests occur in the home.

And I believe that this is a student of any age that has been trained in CPR is likely to be home and can provide life-saving care.

There are many examples where a student has provided CPR in the home.

This bill is supported by the Alaska Fire Chiefs Association.

I'm a past president of the association and a current member.

And the members of this association represent fire departments throughout the state,

small and large,

and this bill is intended to minimize the impact on the school districts.

We do want to be sensitive to the refrain that we want to avoid providing mandates to the school district.

This is a life-saving opportunity that I feel very strongly about and I think the greater good is served by providing CPR instruction to students in the school system.

So I'm happy to take any questions and I'll remain online.

Thank you again very much.

Thanks for your testimony.

Are there any questions for Chief Schwage?

Co-Chair Story.

Thank you, Chief Schwage, for your work, commitment to the Anchorage and statewide fire departments.

And I'm wondering if you can give me a little history here.

When did we go to the hands-only CPR?

as a best practice?

And if you could give me a little

Thank

rationale for

you.

that.

Sure.

Sure.

Thank you,

Coach Air Story.

That's an excellent question.

The science of cardiac arrest and resuscitation, CPR,

supports the idea of hands-only CPR.

especially in systems where EMS is close by.

So what we have found is that for short periods of time,

CPR is more effective if it is provided with continuous chest

compressions without the interruptions

of stopping to do a rescue ventilation or a mouth-to-mouth breathing. We have learned that...

The pause that we were traditionally taught to provide mouth-to-mouth breathing actually reduces the effectiveness of the circulation of the patient's blood to their brain and other vital organs.

Now after some period of time,

the amount of oxygen that is entrained in the bloodstream

is depleted and rescue breaths are appropriate,

but for short periods of time,

say up to ten minutes,

hands only CPR is the preferred method.

It's also, you know, performing mouth-to-mouth respirations is an activity that many people would view as an impediment to providing care,

It's also,

and so hands only CPR is being promoted as the solution.

Alright.

Thank you for that.

Okay.

Okay. Other questions for Chief Schrage?

Representative Eichheid.

Thank you, Co-Chair.

Thank you, Co-Chair Henshew.

To the Co-Chair, Chief Schrage, thank you for your service,

first of all, at keeping Anchorage safe.

The question I think I have that I think you kind of said, but I just want clarification,

if this bill becomes law, at least from the Anchorage Fire Department's perspective,

would you be willing to make E_M_S_ personnel available to come into the schools where needed to teach this hands free or mouth hands only C_P_R_

Chief Schrage.

Yes, thank you,

Representative. I shied through the co-chair.

We are currently providing on a limited basis CPR instruction to the community, including in the schools,

basically on us on a volunteer basis by some of our providers.

I would hesitate to commit the entire fire department to providing CPR instruction to every classroom,

but that is something that we could evaluate once we understand what the need is,

given the fact that the CPR instruction is not required on a continuing basis one time during a student's...

career in the school system.

I think that the commitment would be manageable,

but I would be reluctant to commit to that without understanding what the need would be locally.

Other questions for Chief Shragi?

I have one.

Chief Shragi, what is the survival rate for people who are administered CPR?

Thank you for that question.

I didn't hear who asked the question,

This

but through

is Co the-Chair

chair,

Uchik,

so co-chair.

yeah.

Okay,

thank you.

The survival rate varies,

but it's directly correlated to the administration of CPR.

We know that survival rate declines about 10% for every minute that CPR is not provided.

So the rest depends on the system.

If you're in a system such as Anchorage where we have a five to six minute response time,

sometimes better,

sometimes a little bit slower,

the survival rate is improved.

If you're in a system where the response time might be 10 to 15 minutes,

it makes the provision of CPR prior to EMS arrival even more significant.

Nationally, the survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest is quite low.

I haven't seen the latest recently, but I think it's around 30%. In Anchorage, the survival rate is closer to 50%. And the provision of...

handle the CPR,

especially when accompanied by application of an AED or automatic defibrillator, it greatly improves the survival rate.

Thank you for that. We have another question from Court Chair Story.

Thank you, through the chair,

to, let's see, what is your title?

see.

Chief Schrage.

It says in the bill, the department shall determine which grade levels are required to receive instruction under this section.

Do you have a certain age grade level in your mind that you think instruction would be appropriate?

Chief Schrage?

Thank you, Co-Chair Story.

I don't have a specific age in mind.

I know that CPR has been successfully taught and utilized by children at all grade levels in school.

I think it's safe to assume that the sooner you provide the training, the more likely it is that...

Let me say that differently.

At the earlier age that you provide the training, the more likely it is that somebody,

a student trained in CPR will have the opportunity to perform CPR on a family member in particular.

Yeah, that's my answer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Schragi.

Thank you Chief Schrage. I see no other questions from the committee so we'll go to our other invited testifier Jason Dahl, safety officer with the Anchorage Fire Department.

Please put your name on record and begin your testimony.

Good morning co-chair, Health Education Committee. My name is Jason Dolph. I'm a safety officer with the Anchorage Fire Department.

I'm a second-generation firefighter and a 27-year veteran in the emergency services here in Alaska,

working both as a professional in Kodiak and now here in Anchorage.

I'm a certified emergency medical technician. I'm an EMT instructor as well as a longtime CPR instructor and here today to talk to you a little bit about Senate Bill 20.

I want to first start by painting a little bit of a picture. My very first day as a firefighter, very first call I ever responded to about two minutes into my career was a cardiac arrest,

a little bit of a picture.

a sudden stop of heart function.

And I'll never forget the scene. It's imprinted in my mind that because as I walked through the door,

there was a man laying on the couch. He was gray in color and around him was about eight family members and none were performing CPR or attempting any other life saving measures.

And, you know, you have to ask yourself why,

why would a family member not be willing to or to help or engaged? And it.

It was simply because they didn't know what to do.

No one had ever trained them in CPR. They never had the opportunity.

It wasn't required for their work or in any other capacity throughout their life.

During my career,

I've responded to more than 10,000 emergency calls and incidents,

and in that time, I've made this observation.

When responders arrive and no bystander is performing CPR,

we most often have negative results despite our best efforts and despite advancements in medicine.

On the other hand, when CPR is being performed by a bystander on arrival,

we also have very positive results,

and that is simply because for every minute a cardiac arrest patient goes without CPR,

chances of survival, as Shragi said,

drop exponentially by about 10%.

CPR even has only CPR can double and most often triple the survival rate,

and earlier the better. What we say in our business is that...

Time, the faster we can get our hands on the chest,

time equals heart muscle.

There's over 350,000 out of hospital cardiac arrest each year in the United States.

While immediate CPR is critical to survival,

only about 40% of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest actually receive CPR before professionals arrive.

Many people aren't trained,

people simply don't know what to do.

Like

my very first call or people are not comfortable engaging in patient care.

In order to save lives it's imperative that everyday citizens learn and perform immediate hands-only CPR until help arrives and so the question always in every community with every emergency response system comes up how do we engage the community to learn CPR.

Senate Bill 20 aims to start CPR education early.

Children as young as 9 to 10 years old can acquire the knowledge and perform the skills of CPR.

It's been shown that even children as young as four are able to learn at least some role in CPR and the continuum of survivability.

CPR in schools gives an opportunity,

an environment,

and a means to provide life-saving training where we can avoid busy adult schedules and high demands.

It normalizes CPR.

Subjects learn in school become comfortable and second nature.

Students learn confidence and gain reinforcement from participation with peers.

And our end goal is to create a generation of lifesavers, citizens who were taught very early the importance of CPR and the critical steps and skills for CPR.

It aims to create a culture of cardiac awareness,

a lifelong commitment to life-saving skills, and ultimately change the narrative that we see every single day with the cardiac arrest problem.

Once it started and we built a foundation, we believe it will perpetuate itself indefinitely.

Now, you guys may already have heard that over 40 states have already addressed the cardiac arrest problem and CPR bypassing legislation requiring

that over 40 states have already addressed

the cardiac arrest problem and CPR. Bypassing legislation requiring.

The introduction of CPR in the schools.

And as a state, our EMS system has always been on the leading edge of innovation and growth.

We are still very fortunate that in Alaska, a curriculum has already been developed and is ready to go.

Stakeholders and emergency responders are poised to assist with the implementation of CPR in the schools at a local level.

And as such, as you heard, there's no fiscal note or financial burden associated.

In closing, my wife is an elementary educator.

She's been in elementary classrooms for over 25 years.

My daughter is a senior in high school,

and I myself am even a substitute teacher. I've been substitute teaching with Yanker School District for over 20 years.

I have a very high regard for education and our education system in Alaska.

All of the subjects we learned are important,

reading,

Mm

writing,

-hmm.

math,

history,

art,

all of it. They create a well-rounded individual and they are important to the growth and development of us individually as humans.

The saying goes that knowledge is power.

I ask you this,

if someone is in cardiac arrest,

the only knowledge powerful enough to save them is the knowledge of CPR. What?

what can be more important no amount of reading writing math history foreign language art economics you name it is going to save that person and is there anything more powerful than that I certainly also understand the demands of our students and educators I hear it firsthand I've seen it firsthand

And hands-only CPR is easy to learn for both students and educators.

Curriculum and resources are abundantly available through the state of Alaska EMS.

It only takes an hour,

and best of all,

it costs nothing.

Representative Dibert and I, Shai, I had the pleasure of meeting you at Fire Ops 101 in 2024,

where you worked side by side with Anchorage firefighters to play a role in emergency response,

and you spent an hour with...

with us learning and delivering CPR and so you can attest to how simple it actually can be.

I thank you for the opportunity to allow me to testify.

I'm really excited to have this Senate bill in front of you today and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Are there questions from the committee?