HEDC-260506-0800

Good morning. I call this meeting of the House Education Committee to order. Today is Wednesday, May 6th, 2026, and the time is 8:03 AM. Members present are Representative Dibert, Representative Schwanke, Representative Eichide, Representative Underwood, Co-Chair Representative Story, and myself, Co-Chair Himschoot. We have a quorum to do business.

I'd like to remind members to please silence your cell phones. We're in the Betty Davis Committee Room, Room 106, in the State Capitol Building in Juneau, Alaska, and the documents for today's meeting have been distributed to members and are available on the table outside the door and on BASIS. And I'd like to thank our recording secretary, Kale Brown, and our moderator from the Juneau LIO, Chloe Miller. Thank you for being here. And our excellent committee aides, Ella Lubin and Tammy Smith.

On today's agenda, we have several items. We have Senate Concurrent Resolution 17, House Bill 357, and a presentation from Representative Storey and the Tlingit Tlingit Language and Culture Center as the final part of our Celebrating Excellence in Education series. And because that will be a live presentation, we're going to have to hold that until the end of the meeting. So our first order of business is House Bill 387 entitled An Act Establishing the Joint Legislative Alaska Native Languages Academic Task Force. We have previously heard invited and public testimony on this bill.

5 Amendments have been received. I would like to invite Representative Story and Ms. Wilson— Ms. Smith, who's not here yet. So I think Rep. Story can probably handle this— to introduce yourself on the record and provide a short reintroduction of the bill. Sure. And I just wanted to say, um, one correction: it's the Tlingit Language Literacy and Culture.

Program. It's not a center, but thank you. It's a program, an optional program of the Juneau School District. Okay, so just want to correct that for the record and be happy to go to the front. Welcome, Ms. Smith or Wilson.

Glad to have you this morning. Not sure where that came from.

Yes, thank you very much, Co-Chair Himschoot and the committee. Thank you again for hearing this bill on formalizing having a Joint Legislative Alaska Native Languages Academic Task Force. As we know, we have had this education happening out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They've been coordinating the center up there. And this is a resolution that— this also has companion resolution in the Senate.

And we have amendments before us today. I don't know if you have any questions before the amendments, but it's been 50 years since we have had our Alaska Native Language Program happening at the university level, and it's time for a review and some fresh look at what's been happening. So, and with that, um, if we want to move to amendments, that's great. Okay, thank you for that. Any committee questions on the bill before we take up amendments?

Okay, we'll go ahead and start then. I will go ahead and move Amendment Number 1, also known as 34-LS1664/n.1. I'll object for purposes discussion. Great. Would you like to speak to your objection?

Thank you, Madam Co-Chair. So Amendment 1 very simply specifies membership on the task force, and as I looked on page 3, lines 8 through 10 of the, of the bill, it said, you know, initially 3 members of the House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House and 3 members of the Senate appointed by the President of the Senate. One of the things that struck me right away was I thought there could be more detail there to get more voices in on the task force. So the amendment just simply adds to each one of those line 8 and line 8 of the 3 members appointed, at least one of whom is a member of the minority. My genesis from this was I attended many of the Education Funding Task Force meetings over the last year, and that's what they have.

They had 2 members of the majority and 1 member of the minority. And I thought this would create a more bipartisan, expansive voice on the task force and strengthen it. Thank you. [Speaker:DR. BAXTER] Okay. Would you like to maintain your objection?

[Speaker:DR. WRIGHT] I would like to remove my objection. [Speaker:DR. BAXTER] Okay. Are there any other objections? Seeing none, Amendment 1 is adopted. Thank you for that.

Is there a motion for Amendment 2? Yeah, I'd like to make— I'd like to move Amendment Number 2. Is there any objection? I will object for purposes of discussion. Yeah, thank you.

Through the co-chair, this is just a pretty simple request that we remove one line within this task force language. I think that when we get into issues like morale and statements specifically pertaining to staff.

This is—. It's leading, and it just starts us off on the wrong foot. And I would ask that we take the time to consider removing this particular line from the task force. Okay, do you maintain your objection? I remove my objection.

Seeing no other objections, Amendment 2 is also adopted.

And that takes us to Amendment 3. Is there a motion? I'd like to move Amendment Number 3. I will object for purpose of discussion. Would you like to speak to your amendment, Representative Schwanke?

Just super short. Thank you. Through the co-chair, hm shood, I think this opportunity for us —to be most effective when we are reviewing a particular aspect of the university, that it would be really helpful to have them at the table and have an opportunity for them to, to weigh in. And I think we would be just— it would be a much more robust process and clear and transparent if we were able to add to the task force at least one staff member from the university. And specifically, I'm asking for the Dean of College of Indigenous Studies at the University because that particular person is the closest to this issue.

Okay. Any conversation from the committee? I'm not thrilled with this amendment. Oh, did you want to speak first, Representative Aysha? Yeah, thank you, Co-Chair Hemmschulte.

I just— again, I'm going back to the Education Funding Task Force. Again, we have representatives and senators on there, and I do know that the task force has reached out to stakeholders I consider the dean a stakeholder, and so I think there's ways to incorporate the dean's input outside of actually having them as part of the task force. Thank you. I was going to say something similar. I know when the Education Funding Task Force was put together, there was temptation to put all of these different people on.

It becomes difficult to get quorum, and then also it's a legislative task force. And so I would hope that the legislators on this task force will do the outreach to everybody who needs to have input, and I think that would include the Dean of the College of Indigenous Studies at UAF. So for that reason, I oppose the amendment, although I like the thinking behind the amendment to include all those voices, but I don't want to add to the task force. Is there any other discussion on the amendment? Representative Story, Co-Chair Story.

Ah, yes, thank you. I too speak against this amendment. I do believe that it is a legislative task force and it is important to have people coming before the task force representing so many different things having to do with the Tlingit language and culture and many other languages. And I know that UAA and UAS also have Indigenous studies. And so I think I would— it's important to not have one from one university, but again, it's a legislative task force.

Okay, so do you maintain your objection, Representative Story? Yes. Okay, can we have the clerk call the roll, please? Can I have one more opportunity? Oh, sorry, of course, closing comments.

Apologies. Uh, thank you through the co-chair. I appreciate the perspectives, but in With all due respect, the dean of this particular college is not a stakeholder. The dean of this college is actually the one that's going to be picked apart through this— how it is written, this particular task force, it's very detailed in what they will be looking at, including recommended strategies I mean, on page 4, it goes through recommended strategies A through F in how to grow the number of educators through the program, how to grow the recruitment and retention in the program, how to continue documentation through the program, long-term growth in academic research, expansion of research capacity. Those— with all due respect, those are not our purview.

That's the purview of the University of Alaska. I would ask that we seriously consider having somebody from this program on the task force so that it can be as robust of a process as possible. And with all due respect, I will just remind the committee, I would hope no legislative task force would pick anybody apart. I hope that the goal of a task force is to do a look back, look for what is working, and try to accomplish what is in this document. So could we have the clerk call the roll?

Representative Schwanke? Yes. Representative Dybert? No. Representative Eichide?

No. Representative Underwood? Yes. Coacher Storey? No.

Coacher Himschute?

No. Two yeas. 4 Nays. With a vote of 2 yeas and 4 nays, Amendment Number 3 has failed.

That moves us to Amendment Number 4. Is there a motion? I will not offer Amendment Number 4.

And that takes us to Amendment Number 5. Is there a motion on Number 5? I move Amendment 5. I'll object. Objections.

Okay.

Would you like to speak to your amendment, Representative Underwood? Yep, just a simple one, kind of like Rep. Schwanke's, is just adding someone from the Department of Early Development Education appointed by the commissioner just to kind.

Kind of be involved, see if we can do any feeders from our programs going into that program and closing the loop on that education-wise. Okay. Is there discussion on this amendment?

Representative Schwanke and then Co-Chair Storey. Yeah, thank you. Through the Co-Chair, I actually appreciate this amendment. I think that there's been some really incredible outcomes from the programs. At the university trying to help improve the continuation of different Alaska Native languages throughout the state.

And one of the best outcomes of this program has been the opportunity for us to bring these languages into our schools all across the state. And I think that there's been some really amazing products from that. And I think we're going to hear about one here just a little bit later this morning. And this particular seat would really, I think, help us understand where this program at the university is falling short and where it could be improved. So I think that it would be a really good addition to the task force.

Any other discussion? I think it was— co-chair Story was next. Thank you. Yeah, I would prefer that this amendment not be adopted. When the original authorizing statute was authorized.

It did not put the Alaska Native Language Center under DEED. There is a relationship, but I think that the primary functions of the language center is much broader than what's happening at DEED. And I certainly hope we will be hearing from— the task force will be hearing from DEED, but I think it is a legislative task force, and I think it's clean to leave it that way. Okay, seeing no other discussion, do you maintain your objection, Representative Story? Yes.

Okay, could we please call the roll?

Representative Daibert? No. Representative Eichardt? No. Representative Underwood?

Yes. Representative Schwanke? Yes. Coach Herstory? No.

Coach Hempschulte? No. 2 Yeas, 4 nays. With a vote of 2 yeas and 4 nays, the amendment has failed.

Um, I would look to Coach Herstory for a motion.

You want to do it from up here? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Lubin.

I move House Bill 387, also known as 34LS1664/n, as amended with attached fiscal notes and individual recommendations, and allow legislative legal to make conforming changes as needed. Okay, are there any objections? Okay, seeing no objections, House Bill 387, also known as 34-LS1664/n, moves from committee as amended with attached fiscal notes and individual recommendations, and I authorize Legislative Legal to make any conforming changes. Thank you very much, Co-Chair Storey and Tammy Wilson-Smith, for joining us this morning on this bill, and we're going to take a really quick at ease to to sign paperwork. At ease.

Okay, we're back on record. I want to recognize that Senator Tobin joined us at 8:10 this morning, and that's a good thing because our next item on the agenda is Senate Concurrent Resolution 17 by the Senate Education Committee entitled Recognizing the 50th Anniversary of the State's Regional Educational Attendance Areas and Celebrating the Enduring Contributions of the State's Regional Education Attendance Areas to Public Education, Local Leadership, and Community Life in Rural Areas of the State. And I would like to invite Senate Education Committee Chair Senator Tobin and staff Mike Mason to put themselves on record and and begin your presentation. Thank you for being here. Well, thank you.

Thank you, Co-chair Himschoot. For the record, my name is Lukie Gail Tobin, and I have the pleasure and privilege of representing the neighbors who comprise the communities of North Anchorage. Good morning. My name is Mike Mason. I am staff to Senator Tobin.

Well, thank you all for hearing this concurrent resolution. Uh, the genesis of this particular document came after a conversation with UAF Chancellor Emeritus Marshall Lind, who also served as the Commissioner of the Department of Education and Early Development from 1971 to 1983, which is the year I was born, 1986, and to 1987. Chancellor Lind was talking about this moment in history, this dynamic that we have, our state's legacy and the establishment of Alaska's Regional Education Attendance Area, and noted that this is the 50th anniversary. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with what was going on in that period of time, 1971 to 1983, we were going through a transformational change. The—.

There was oil that was discovered on the North Slope. There was a lot of conversations about a disparate education system. We had not only state-run education institutions, but also municipal education institutions, and then institutions established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that were known as the historic boarding schools. And There was so much conversation about what is the, the constitutional mandate that we have to provide an equitable education to every child.

Didn't have access. And as that conversation was really brewing, there was a group of young kids in a community who said they wanted to stay home. They wanted to learn in their community, but there was no high school for them to attend. And they ended up suing the state, being led by a woman named Anna Tobolak. And that case is now known as the Molly Hooch case, although if you look at the actual court documents, it is Tobolak v. Lind.

Marshall Lind was the chancellor at that time. Now that court case was not necessarily a part of, but it was in concurrent time as the establishment of the REAAs. The idea was to bring education back to local control, to root it in the local community, to have that voice of the local community embedded in the education options and offerings that were happening across Alaska. The piece that I feel very fascinated by when I, I look at the establishment of the REAAs is that they were drawn upon the same lines that the tribal corporations were divided so that you really would have those regional communities have voice for their indigenous background in that education system. The idea also was if those communities decided to boroughize, they would have an already formed school board based in that regional community.

So there was a lot of thought put into these REAAs. There was a lot of consideration and contemplation. Of course, we know that that time also spurred the largest single investment that we have made in public education. It is how we built over 100 90 schools, which we did through a GO bond at that time, to really invest in localized, local control education for all students. So the resolution before you simply acknowledges the, the incredible work that Chancellor Lind and many of our education stakeholders did at that time to build a better education system for all Alaskans.

One of the things that we're really excited about is the two invited testifiers we have on the line to talk about the critical role REAAs play in the public education of our students. We also are happy to walk you through or read portions of the concurrent resolution if the committee so wishes, and we're here for any questions that the committee might have. Okay, thank you. Um, I think— is there any question from the committee or discussion before we go to invited testimony? Okay, seeing none, we will go to Madeline Aguilar, who is online.

Our other invited testifier is not showing up online yet, so we'll go to Dr. Aguilar in the Cuspbuck School District. If you could put yourself on record and share your testimony with us. Thank you for being here.

Good morning, co-chairs and committee members. For the record, my name is Madeline Aguilar, Superintendent of Cuspbuck School District, REAA number 5. I am calling in support of SCR 17. As a current REAA superintendent, I appreciate this resolution because it recognizes something important about rural Alaska that can sometimes get lost in statewide conversations. REAAs were never just about operating schools in remote places.

They were also about making sure rural communities had ownership, voice, and local leadership in public education. Further, the Alaska Constitution requires the state to establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children. In practice, that means educating students in communities separated by thousands of square miles, no road system, extreme weather, high operating costs, and limited infrastructure. It means making sure a child in a small village along the Kuskokwim River has access to opportunity, qualified educators, activities, meals, transportation, and a school that's connected to their community and culture. As a leader of an REAA district, I will tell you directly, this work is difficult and it is expensive.

But REAAs reflect the belief that children should be educated where they live and where their families are rooted, not only where it's easiest or most cost-effective for the system. Education in Alaska cannot be one size fits all. In Kuskokwim, our schools are far more than buildings where instruction happens. They are where communities gather. They are where cultural events happen, where meals are served, where emergency response is coordinated, where young people build identity and connection, and where communities come together during both celebrations and loss.

In our region, the school district is also the largest employer, the largest economic driver, and one of the few stable public institutions present year after year. Our schools help sustain our communities. We help grow local leaders, educators, board members, pilots, health workers, tradespeople, parents, and the future generations of Alaskans who remain connected to where they come from. I appreciate SCR 17 because it recognizes not only the history of REAAs, but also the people who have sustained them for 5 decades through enormous challenges changing times and difficult conditions. Thank you for your time, and I encourage your support of this resolution.

Thank you very much for your testimony. Are there any questions for Dr. Aguilar? Um, Co-Chair Storey. Ah, yes, uh, thank you, Co-Chair Himschute. Through the chair, welcome, Dr. Aguilar.

It's always good to hear your voice and know that you're hard at work out there supporting our students and communities. I was wondering If you could tell me a little bit more about the school boards out there and how we are doing in this time where we've had really tough budget situations. Has there been momentum for people to continue serving on their school boards supporting the work in the REAs, or has it been difficult to have people serve. Dr. Aguilar. Thank you.

Through the co-chair, you know, it's a mix. So I was actually speaking with someone yesterday. The way that our boards are broken down, they are board members do represent specific communities. So while it's intended to be kind of equalized as far as the number of people in the communities, You know, some communities do have a more active involvement, but one thing that I do appreciate is often— take one of our smallest communities, Crooked Creek. They have the opportunity to run for 3 different seats on our 7-member board right there along Antioch and Kalskag, 2 of our larger— or 2 of our larger villages, you know.

And so we do typically have multiple candidates that run for a board seat. And so there is active competition, there is active, you know, campaigning, getting out in the community, taking a stance on priorities. So I do really believe that this local leadership, local governance model is being acted upon and is driving the decisions that are being made for these REAA districts. Follow up? Follow up?

Yes. Could you tell me a little bit about how they meet? Dr. Aguilar.

Through the co-chair, um, how they meet— so we do a mix. We always offer our meetings on Zoom, but we do attempt to move our meetings throughout the district every month. We have a monthly meeting and we attempt to try and get to each of our schools throughout the school year so that board members from across the region have an opportunity to see schools on the other end of our district. Sometimes, you know, if we have new board members, they've never been to another village that far upriver or downriver. And so we do actively attempt, you know, weather permitting— that's the biggest thing out here is that weather permitting and the travel, because we do have to fly there, we have to boat there, drive on the ice road there, get real creative to get to our schools and get that many people all together in one place, but we intend to do both, provide that access.

Follow-up? Yes, through the chair. Thank you for that information, and please, please share how much we appreciate their work. So important that they are committed to providing a quality education to their students, and I really appreciate that the copies of this resolution, it says on page 3 of the bill will be sent to each regional education— educational attendance area school district. I think that's really important to acknowledge their work.

Thank you.

Are there other questions for Dr. Aguilar? Representative Schwanke. Thank you, the co-chair. Thank you, Dr. Aguilar, for weighing in and And the sponsor for bringing this particular resolution. I just kind of had a question that I was hoping you might be able to expand on.

Uh, when we were looking at our district, House District 36, we have the largest rural district. Um, it's generally the interior, and we have rural road system and flyout communities. And if I include all of Fairbanks, we have 65% of the Type M certificates for CTE instructors are within our district. And having been on a school board where we hired Type M CTE instructors, I, I know personally we have a hard time recruiting certified, highly qualified certified teachers in this arena, and I was hoping that you might be able to expand a little bit on your comment about the changing models and the opportunities that we now have through better training.

Transportation and opportunities, specifically with the variable term residential programs? Dr. Aguilar. Thank you. Through the co-chair, so I would say right now in education, first and at the forefront is we're all getting very creative. We obviously have guardrails that we're operating within and our standards and what we're trying to meet for every child.

And so now, you know, especially with technology, it does look a little a little bit different. We do leverage multi-modes of instruction, whether it be for CTE or a core class, you know. But one thing we hear, the resounding comments from my local region, is that they desire in-person instruction. They want brick and mortar, in-person teachers. And so to speak to your comment about the Type M's, that is something that historically as a district we have leveraged more of.

And then as teachers, you know, historically were a bit easier to recruit and retain, those fell, you know, to the side just a little bit. But now, especially with the intentional focus of the Grow Your Own model, that is something that in a leadership role we've taken and done a bit of an about-face in attempting, especially I'll take Cal-Sked for example, you know, where we specifically recruited someone that could be eligible for a Type M in order to facilitate bringing in those community members and leveraging individuals that, you know, are rooted in our community, from our community, to teach their grandchildren, to teach their nephews, to teach their nieces, and that are invested in our schools. And so, I mean, just generally speaking, I would say, especially with the vast distances and speaking to transportation, you know, the While especially with the cost of fuel recently, transportation has become more of a challenge. However, we, we do make an effort. So our board prioritizes student opportunities and people personnel.

And I, I'm really confident in saying that we are providing different opportunities in different ways. However, my desire is to continue to grow what we can offer. In the district. And that's one of the reasons I support this, is because I have a very intentional focus of bringing more opportunities back to the district, because I do feel like they were a little bit pushed out and we had to travel all the way across the state to access things. And so that's been one of my priorities.

Follow-up? Follow-up? Yeah, I really appreciate that, and we too have I know in my district we've done a pretty good job of trying to bring in some professionals that have business experience, personal experience, and they can come in and really fill an important gap. But the smallest schools, we still have troubles. And, you know, if you've got something like 2 or 3 high school students, you know, in a particular rural school, which we have quite a few of, I was hoping you might be able to expand a little bit on the variable term residential school opportunities that we're building and specifically the opportunity to bring in really highly qualified industry professionals that I know are donating actually a lot of their time to help kind of bring some incredible skills and opportunities to our students that they don't have in the brick-and-mortar schools.

Yeah, and with respect to, um, Rep. Schwanke, I want to clarify the variable term programs that we're building are being built by districts. They're figuring this out. Yeah, so, um, Superintendent Egglehart.

Through the co-chairs. Yes, so one of the things going back to that model with our different partners, that's something over the last 2 years we— I guess to drill down further, my desire is not— I do not want to have to send our students halfway or all the way across the state for opportunities. So I do firmly believe that we can offer opportunities in a more centralized location within our own district. Districts. For example, take the opportunity in, in Kalskag for— we have a fully functioning shop that is our only school with a functioning shop.

We don't currently— we didn't have an instructor. That's why we're trying to move towards that Type M to get it back open and running. But the opportunity to move our students within the district— right now we have our entire secondary staff and all of our students in Kalskag for academic decathlon. We transported 105 people from across the district yesterday. We were running, I would say, close to half a dozen planes moving people around in order to get them all together and provide those regional opportunities.

Those are the same families, the same traditions, the same, you know, woven cultural aspects of our district, and being able to keep them at least in district and move about within their families in the region has definitely been the priority of Cusplug in bringing those opportunities back. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Okay, I think we'll move on now to our second invited testifier, Superintendent John Hargis from Lower Yukon School District. If you could please unmute yourself and begin your, your testimony, we are grateful for your time this morning.

Yes, thank you. Good morning, Chair and members of the committee, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is John Hargis. I'm the superintendent of the Lower Yukon School District. As we recognize 60 years of the REAA system, I want to start by saying this model has been essential to ensuring students in Alaska's most remote communities have access to public education.

And our district schools are more than buildings. They are the center of the community, a place for safety, culture, and opportunity. We've seen what's possible when we invest in students. Over the last, past few years, our graduation rate increased from 65.9% to 77.6%. We've also seen growth in math and literacy and a significant increase in students reporting they feel safe at school.

Those gains are the result of focused investments in instruction, including responsive practices and strong student support systems. But I want to be clear that those gains are fragile. Our EAA districts operate in a very different reality. We receive no local tax revenue. Every dollar comes from the state or federal government, and the cost to deliver education in rural Alaska is significantly higher.

Whether that's transportation, housing, utilities, or simply getting staff and materials into our communities. We appreciate the recent BSA increase. It's made a difference for us. It generated about $1.5 million and helped reduce our reliance on reserves. But even with that, we are still operating in deficit.

Predictable sustained increases are critical if we want to maintain progress. I also want to highlight our Kuzelbach Career Academy. This program is giving our students access to hands-on career training and dual credit opportunities that simply would not exist otherwise. For 3 consecutive years, students who attended had a 0% dropout rate. That is the kind of return on investment we should be building on, but it requires stable residential funding.

Finally, Access matters. Transportation, broadband, and safe facilities are not extras in rural Alaska. They are foundational to equity. If we want all students to have the same opportunities, those investments have to remain a priority. As we look ahead, the question isn't whether REAA works.

It does. The question is whether we will continue to invest in it in a way that allows rural students not just to access education but to thrive. Thank you for your time and your continued support. Thank you very much for your testimony. Are there any questions for Superintendent Hargis from the committee?

Representative Schwanke. Thank you, through the co-chair. Thank you, Superintendent Hargis. Those are really phenomenal graduation rate improvement statistics, so well done on that. I was kind of curious—.

Thank you. I think I understand from previous conversations with Dr. Aguilar that I know her district relies very heavily on grant funding. Could you describe describe a little bit of your district's funding breakdown between state federal funding versus grants that you have to go out and get? Superintendent Hargis? Sure.

We do rely heavily on grants also between our general funding grants. I don't have specific percentages at my fingertips, but for example, our Kugelblatt Career Academy is funded somewhere between 80% and 85% by grants that we go out and chase and secure.

You know, those are competitive grants, not formula grants. So, but we're always working on partnerships and grant funding to secure, you know, those monies to maintain that program, as well as, you know, grants that we use, Title funds, 6B for special ed, et cetera, et cetera, are all.

Very— every dollar counts in our district. Follow-up? Quick follow-up? Follow-up? Uh, thank you.

I'm really glad, uh, that we were able to kind of get that on the record because it does, it does show that some of our best programs that we're able to kind of think outside the box with our REAA districts do come from grant funds. One more kind of follow-up question: what would it mean to your district if we were able to carve out specifically highly variable utility costs from the general BSA for funding?

Um, Superintendent Hargis. Uh, thank you, um, to the chair. Um, it would mean that we would be able to pay our utilities. We're in the middle of negotiations right now with our teachers and our classified staff We're looking at wanting to do good things for people that work hard. And when our fuel bill all of a sudden becomes twice as much as we were expecting from last year, we have to make tough decisions when it comes to our staff, salaries, benefits.

And then also, obviously, the first things that get cut are programs for kids. So, you know, help with utilities helps everybody, um, and ultimately students. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. And, um, Superintendent Hargis, I want to follow up on that grant question.

We're going on a little bit of a bird walk here, but my question is, often grant funding is to launch something, and so how much of your grant funding is something that you can kind of count on year after year after year versus— I guess I could ask this in two ways. One is sometimes you just don't know if you're going to get the— is it going to continue or not? And then sometimes a grant is there to establish a program like a pilot and then you're expected to pick it up and continue it. So can you speak to the— I guess the certainty of grant funding since you use so much of it?

[Speaker:JASON] Yes. I can speak to it to an extent off the cuff, so please forgive me. We've been innovative in our district and have chased a lot of grant funding that, you know, we started our KTA program right before COVID hit.

And so, when we got COVID money, we were able to use a lot of that money to sustain programs. And, but after that money ran out, we had to become pretty innovative and, you know, chasing different partnerships and grants to stay afloat. And I've had my, CTE and Residential Director Conrad Woodhead testify, you know, a couple of times over the last few days about a lot of those partnerships and grant money that we bring in to maintain those systems.

And our board has been gracious to let— to allow us to, you know, kind of be innovative in chasing grant money. But we rely heavily on, you know, things like Perkins, Title funding, you know, some of those sort of things. I don't have a percentage breakdown in front of me that's general fund versus grants, but I can happily get that information and send it to you if that's appropriate. You're welcome to send it. I don't know that it's really germane to the bill that we're working on, but yeah, it's impressive how much we're getting from our districts for the investment that we're making in terms of principals and directors of programs who are writing and maintaining grants and reporting on grants and all of that.

So I think we have a question from Representative Eichide. Thank you, Co-Chair Himshew. Through the Co-Chair, Superintendent Hargis, I'm finding the discussion about REAAs very fascinating. I've learned so much over the last couple weeks. Today is one of those days.

But you talked about some academic gains. You talked about rewarding your hard-working employees. What, from an REAA superintendent perspective, what is the number one thing the legislature can do to help you attract and retain a, a good education team to protect these fragile gains? Superintendent Hargis. Um, thank you.

Through the chair, I think that Staff retention, I think, is number one in our district. And keeping good teachers and good staff for many, many years, just, it shows results. The PITT system bill, I think, is huge. And putting some of those things back in place to keep people in Alaska. And, you know, I'm Tier 2 myself, and I think that that's, you know, a big part of the reason that I still live and work in rural Alaska and, you know, and part of this district.

Thank you. Okay. I think we'll open public testimony at this point. Let me see. So, we're going to open public testimony on SCR 17.

Looking in the room, is there anyone wishing to testify in the room? I know we have one public testimony online, and that is Marshall Lind. We were so lucky to hear from you previously. Chancellor Lind, if you could put yourself on record and begin your testimony. Thank you for being here this morning.

Thank you. My name is Marshall Lind, and I just want to say I think the resolution before you is a well-written resolution. I think it captures what the REAs are all about. And I think it clearly— the REAs, you heard excellent testimony before, and they were able to speak to the realities of what's going on in rural Alaska. And I think the REAs clearly met what was intended by the legislature 50 years ago.

I know that the REAs met the intent of the State Board and the Department of Education, the things we had in mind 50 years ago when the REAs were created. And it's far more than education. That we're talking about here. We're talking about communities working together, local and regional involvement, leadership, accountability, many different things besides education. But the most important thing is it demonstrates the state's commitment to a system open to all, open to all students regardless of where they might live.

So, to sum it up, I would just say I urge your support for the passage of this concurrent resolution. I think it's well done and it's timely. So, thank you very much for the opportunity to talk with you. Thank you very much for your testimony. Are there any questions for Chancellor Lind?

I guess we had our opportunity a couple days ago. So, thank you very much for being here this morning, and with that, we're going to Close public testimony. And I think what we'll do right now is take a really— well, do you guys have any closing comments on your legislation? Okay, let's hear from you first and then we'll take an at ease. Well, thank you, Co-Chair Himschuh.

Once again, Lukie Tobin, Senator for District I. I think in the testimony that you've heard, the passion and commitment for this form of education in Alaska, and I just want to share a few closing thoughts about this incredible decentralized education system that our state has. One of the things that I think we often talk about is education funding and how our system braids together local contributions, it braids together federal dollars, and of course it includes state support. Often we highlight that our REAAs don't have the ability to make that local contribution in a financial sense. But what they do offer us is not only their impact aid that we do deduct from the total state aid that they receive, but they provide in-kind services. Many of our REAAs offer buildings.

Their regional corporations or their tribal governments offer space for students to learn. We also see incredible curricula and lesson plans created from these teachers in these areas that are rooted in local knowledge. They are culturally sustaining practices, and they also help us understand the unique place that we have. One of the things that I particularly enjoy about our REAAs is they also provide these incredible facilities across our state where, as you heard in the testimony, communities are able to gather to seek opportunities to be in fellowship, to have potentially evening basketball, which we know is very popular across.

Across our state. But what they also offer is a space for you and I to come visit, a place for us to sleep at night. They offer an opportunity for our Department of Transportation public facilities to deploy out when there's natural disasters and they need resources in the communities. And of course, they help us defend the space which we claim. They are part of our national security system, and they are absolutely critical resources to ensuring that we have a presence all across the state and defend our wild spaces.

So I want to close with a comment that Chancellor Lynn made in Senate Education Committee that I think just really elevates the power of these institutions across Alaska. He noted that in the creation of the REAAs, community interest and pride increased as boards and advisory councils became actively involved in curricula and programs reflecting the local culture and values. The new facilities became true community centers serving as locations for the entire village to gather, with the gymnasiums being extremely popular. So thank you again for hearing this resolution. We really appreciate you taking the opportunity to ask our invited testifiers, uh, very informative questions and to just learn more about this unique system of education we have in our state.

Yes, and a comment that I had intended to make earlier was the investment that was made in 1976 when when the state came into money, the number one thing we did was invest in schools for every kid. So that is really an important part of our history, I think, to note. I'm going to take— oh, did you want to add a comment, Co-Chair Story? Ah, yes, I did. Thank you very much for everyone's testimony today, to the committee and to everyone.

I was wondering, and I think our invited testifiers are still on the line. Mm-hmm. I think so. Yeah, I threw the chair to them and— Sorry.

Oh, they're gone. Oh, okay. Apologies. I see them here, but it doesn't say if they're on or not. Okay.

Thank you for that. I guess my comment that I want to make was just I was interested in just learning more about the indigenous language culture in some of our REAs and how, you know, that is evidenced. But I'm sorry, I missed the opportunity, but I know both of the testifiers and I can reach out to them. Thank you. Okay, with that, I'm going to take a really brief at ease here.

Okay, so we're back on record here. I want to thank Senator Tobin and staff member Mason for being here this morning and presenting this bill. And I would entertain a motion from co-chair Story on SCR 17. Thank you, Chair Himchute. I move SCR 17, also known as the 34-LS1620/A with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes.

Are there any objections? Seeing none, SCR 17, also known as 34-LS1620/A, has moved from committee with attached fiscal notes and individual recommendations. We will take a very brief at ease to sign— sign the paperwork.

All right, we're going to be back on record here in House Education. Really excited for our, um, our next presentation. I'm going to turn it over to Co-chair Storey to do an introduction. And help us with our next celebration of excellence in education. Coach Ostró.

Thank you, Co-chair Himschoot and committee members. I am so proud today to be presenting the Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy program as an example of excellence of education from our Juneau School District. I believe statewide it's just an exemplary program. And to start us off today, I have a local educator Nakuklong. Am I saying that right?

Thank you. Sorry. Nakuklong Hans Chester. I have known him for a very long time. He's been a teacher, well-regarded teacher in the Juneau School District for a couple decades maybe, and he has been at various schools in our district, and he came to teach with the Tlingit Culture Language Literacy Program several years ago, and he's really brought it to another level.

And I really wanted him to talk a little bit about how we're doing the science of reading with the Tlingit culture. And so if you could come forward, please, and introduce yourself for the record. And then we are going to— we're fortunate today, we're going to have some of the children come up and present to us too. But please. Stand?

If we can hear you, maybe. Yeah, okay. Yeah, apologies. It would be wonderful, but the mic's—. Okay.

Yeah. Uh, representatives and co-chair Himchute and co-chair Story, my name is Nakatan Hans Chester, and I was born and raised here in Juneau and went through the Juneau School District. Um, and so I've, I've gone through the system and Since I was a child, I've seen a huge shift in what's happening in education here in Juneau, especially with Language Reclamation.

So the original teachers from TCLL are Kookawatsi, Kitty Eddie, and her sister Nancy Douglas. They were the ones who answered the call from the district and Sealaska Heritage back in 2000 25 years ago when they were looking for Native educators who could lead the kindergarten, first grade classroom the following fall in 2001. We are currently, um, fully staffed right now with a principal of our own, a classroom teacher in K-1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Each classroom has a language teacher with one vacancy, and we have 3 elders who work with us We also have a special education teacher. We could use really one more special ed teacher.

We have a really high SPED rate. Regardless, we have, uh, 4 paraeducators who are working with our special ed teacher. You can see the asterisks here on the slide show the positions which are currently funded through the Sealaska Heritage Institute grant, which is running out at the end of this September. Here are the elders who work with us. One of them left us about a year and a half ago, Leona Santiago.

So we still have Grandma Cockeshot, Grandma Gates, and Grandpa Yeekagoo working with us. We also have a handful or two of interns from different programs within the education system, so we partner with SHI and the university and the Choice program through the Juneau School District.

TCLL really does lead instruction for language and culture across the globe. One of the things that's really powerful with what we do is we are reclaiming and revitalizing intergenerational transmission of Tlingit epistemology, so the knowledge of our people. And we're doing it in ways that really are bringing back things that haven't been taught in the educational system ever. And so we're bringing ways back into a system in a way that makes sense for us and our students. And so you can see one of our students reading a text with Grandma Gates in the kindergarten, first grade classroom.

So we have a really strong connection between our elders and learning. One of the things that Grandpa David, who left us just before COVID brought to us is the four corner posts of Tlingit education. That you can listen, people can listen, people are intelligent, people are self-respecting, and people work together. That's what the, all of the words in the black say. The words in red, Tlingit, awéwé, mean you are a human being.

And that's what Xing'it means. It means human beings. So one of the things that— one of the impetus of the program starting was a lack of academic connection and growth along with identity in the Western system. And so over the last 25 years, there's been a huge shift in how we're teaching and what we're teaching in the program. And what I'm working on right now is a systematic, explicit form of instruction for kindergarten through 5th grade.

What I'm— what— and now I'm bringing to the team to help me with, because it really is a lot of work. We're developing lesson maps for each grade level for direct instruction in Tlingit that are also going to be tied to the books that are being developed through the current grant with Sealaska Heritage, where we're writing 60 children's books in Tlingit that are tied to our curriculum. Along with this work is what Grandma Florence has done. She's taken sticky notes and written Tlingit words and put them on the pages of almost 200 books. Some of them are kindergarten level, some of them first, second grade.

And what we're tasked with this summer is taking that work and typing it out and printing them on labels and putting the labels over the English so that next year we can use all of these resources that she's worked on for us in instruction that is directly tied to this Tlingit literacy development. So we're hitting all of the reading elements just like in Western education and with what the READS Act is pushing for students to strive for. We're doing it in our own way. Doing it on our own terms and really exercising educational sovereignty and self-determination in order for our students to become literate in both systems, English and Tlingit. Uh, here's a couple of examples of the things I've developed for anchor posters for instruction based on the work that Richard and Nora Dauenhauer have put forth.

You know, a generation ago.

I've established the syllable division patterns for Tlingit because when we use phonics as a way of teaching and then as a way to decode words, we need to know what the syllable division patterns are, just like we do in English. And so I thought a lot about it. I took the entire Beginning Tlingit book and went through it and figured out what are the syllables and then figured out what are the patterns. And you'll see that under the poster, or under the syllable division patterns. And so this is really crucial to what we're trying to do next school year, which is to use.

Tlingit language as the mode of instruction for literacy in kindergarten and first grade. Part of that is using this phonological awareness scope and sequence, another document that is in draft form which I've developed that shows what's taught at what grade level, what skill at what grade level. Our team has worked with Deed and, uh, with TIDE's TCLL Inc., which is ran by Nancy Douglas, one of the founding teachers of TCLL, and Miss Shken George, who was also a teacher in the program. Uh, we worked with them and other languages up in Anchorage to develop these, uh, Alaska Native language arts standards, which directly feed into what we're doing also in English within our classrooms.

The basis of our program, however, is Oral Narrative Standards. And so several years ago, our team developed these standards, which we brought forth to the school district and was adopted in November of 2021. Our standards are based on listening, cultural understanding, comprehension, and reciting. And so within all of these standards, we knew that we needed another supporting document that shows at what grade level, what standard is addressed. So we developed then the Tlingit Oral Narrative Standards and grade-level outcomes.

And so we really thought about how this not just works in one grade, but how it systematically works and is vertically aligned across the grade levels.

We've collaborated, like I said before, with Deed. I'm currently working a part-time job with the University of Oregon to develop the literacy screeners for benchmarks in Tlingit. The project is called ELSAIL, Literacy Screeners for Alaska Indigenous Languages. There are two other languages who are currently doing the similar work up north with Yup'ik and Inupiaq, and there are several languages this year that are also now a part of this ELSAIL project. And this project, project is headed by Gina Biancarosa from the University of Oregon.

She's the one who developed the DIBELS benchmark, which many, many schools use, which our school district uses in English to measure growth. And so I feel really honored to be working with such gifted and talented people so that we can develop measures in Tlingit that make sense to our people that also measure literacy growth. Uh, the other thing our team is working on is with the World Class Instructional Design and Assessment team, uh, Vitaly and Cary from WIDA. We just met with them the last 2 days to continue our work with a proficiency assessment that's based on oral language development. We have several different measures that we're looking at with student growth in oral language, and this is causing our team to really reflect on how we're teaching and what we're teaching and why we're teaching.

So it really is a reflective practice for us. Really quickly, um, this is a, uh, these are two graphs that show the growth between students who were in the language nest that is ran by Dakhjini and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska So the, the light blue color are the students that were graduates of the language nest that they run. The students that are in the yellow are students in TCLL who did not go through the program. And so you can see right here that there is a direct correlation to what the language nest is doing and the growth that the students are making and how that then is transferred into their early elementary years within TCLL. And so it's crucial that we have these programs in place so that students can become literate in both systems.

Uh, the future of our program— so we're working next year towards every classroom having direct language instruction through the literacy development and lesson maps that we're creating. Uh, we'll be field testing new assessment tools for high-frequency phrases And, uh, we'll be implementing the Core Phonics Screener, which is a screener I developed some time ago and just never really had a population of students to really test it with because I was working in a different school within a program I was developing that was not completely language-based. It was a part of another system, like when students would go through SPED programs or through the TED program. So my program was within that schedule and within that system, which caused it to be about a half hour of language 4 times a week. So it wasn't really what we're doing right now at TCLL, where it is language integrated into academic instruction.

And so next year, like I said earlier, we'll be using Tlingit to teach literacy in kindergarten and first grade. And really have a solid base from student knowledge to then use our assessments and really see what students know in not just Tlingit but in English as well.

And with that, that is the end of my presentation for this morning. I really thank you all for your time and to Representative Storey for the invite. We really are grateful for the support and the work that's happening within our schools. We understand the situation within the current times which have impacts on our students, but we also know that you all are doing everything within your powers to make sure that we have these opportunities, that our students have these opportunities, because they deserve this. It is their birthright.

And not just them, but the future students that will go through our system. Our future generations deserve this as well. And so I really thank you. Our program really thanks you for all of the time and energy that you're putting in towards student learning and education. Gunasheesh.

Gunasheesh. And if I might, before you ask questions, if any, I just wanted to say thank you very much for your presentation today. I was so looking forward to sharing with the committee the rigor of this program, how much it takes to put together a literacy program rooted in culture and language and trying to blend it with 21st English kind of work. I just can't express my thanks enough to you. I know this has been a passion of yours.

Absolutely. And I see that your sister is here. And if I— with your indulgence, I see the teachers are here from the program. If they could come up and introduce themselves on the record and share what they teach, I think it would be really, really important.

Yes, please, for the record, we're recording this. [SPEAKING TLINGIT] My name is Jessica Chester. My Tlingit name is Segoot. My brother is Nakishon. So I don't know if he explained our shagoon, our ancestors, but we're from Dry Bay outside of Yakutat, and we're Gnaaknaxhadi from Duganaahit, also known as the White Frog House.

I've been working at TCLL 19 years, I think, 19 years, and it's just been amazing to see the growth from where it's— where when I first started working into where we are now. And also to see the growth within the Juneau School District in their place-based education and integrating language and culture all across the district has been an amazing thing to witness, especially growing up in Juneau. Um, so gunalchéesh for inviting us today. Oh, and I also teach with Mr. Josh.

I'm his language teacher in the kindergarten first grade classroom. Gunalchéesh.

My name is Nay. I teach middle school Tlingit language, so 6th through 8th grade, and I also teach 4th and 5th mathematics. In our language, which is a brand new thing this year. I've been with the program for about 3 years, but I also have 2 students in the program who absolutely love it. Ganiigiiizh for having us today.

[Speaker:JOSHUA JACKSON] [SPEAKING OJIBWE] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE].

Good morning. It's good to see you all. My name is Josh Katschanie. I also go by Mr. Josh. Anyone that knows me in Harborview knows me as Mr. Josh.

I am from Cake. I am from the Freshwater Sakai House in Hoonah. This is my 11th year teaching in TCLL, but I've been teaching for 18 years, um, I started student teaching in TCLL, um, and it forever changed my perspective on what education could look like. And I never knew that it existed in a system, um, like I grew up in. And so I eventually came back when my mentor teacher retired.

She had bugged me and bugged me and bugged me for years to join TCLL, but it was always after the year had started and I couldn't leave my kids. And so when she was retiring, it was, it was, uh, I'm retiring, you need to come and step into my shoes now because you're the perfect fit. And so I've been with them since. But yes, as Ms. Jesso was saying, I work with her in K-1, and the way she keeps track of how many years she's been teaching is she's one year longer than I've been teaching in the district. So thank you for having us.

If I may. Yeah, thank you. I remember meeting Mr. Josh when he was teaching kindergarten, I think it was, at Harborview. And when he says he couldn't leave his kids, he means when he starts each year, those little 5-year-olds and young people, he didn't want to leave them in midyear to switch to go to TCLL. But you were destined to do that, and I thank you.

He was just such a popular teacher, they were disappointed he went over to TCLL, the main school. But— and that's true for all these teachers. They were in our different programs in elementary school and then they— or different levels and then they went over to TCLL. I would be remiss if I didn't thank Sealaska Heritage Institute for their commitment to this program. They have contributed a lot of grants to fund teachers and curriculum and professional development and, you know, so much.

We're so fortunate within our local school districts, and I know you have them each in your region, of the tribes and the industries that step up to help us grow the kind of programs that are reflective of what our unique regions want to see. And so I just can't thank you all enough for taking time out of the day to come here. We've all had a chance to highlight different programs in our districts, and they've all been exceptional. And I believe we're waiting for a little treat right now to end this. Any questions?

Oh, sure. Maybe. Yeah, sorry, I'll do it later. Maybe we can do it with you right now. I think we're ready to go with the kiddos.

Okay, okay. They brought some things for us today.

Awe! Awa!

Ya wa! Awe!

Awa! Ya wa!

Ahem! Ahem! Ahem! Ahem! Ahem!

Ahem!

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Mr. Chester? Yes. Could you tell us a little bit about what you just sang to us? Certainly.

And thank you everyone, that was wonderful. So the opening songs are songs that belong to the Dukh Dwaydi people. And the history that goes behind those songs spans millennia. If you would like to look into the history that science has found, you can Google Glacial Lake Montana, I believe. And there's— there are documentaries about that which talk about and show what happened to the landscape over 15,000 years ago numerous times.

And so the songs that we opened with, the last song of the series is saying, "Tak yai phet sak, we di ak," take that raft and push it out into the open. And what it's talking about is how these two ladies who were elderly decided that they would be the ones, if anything were to happen to them, that they would be the ones to go. If they were to die, that it would be someone older and not a younger person who had their whole life ahead of them. They came across a glacier that they couldn't walk over, but they found an opening underneath that was maybe a mile or a mile and a half long. And so these ladies got on a raft and floated underneath the glacier and came out on the other side.

And this is the series of songs that represent that history. And so we have this history too among our own people. There is a lot more to what I didn't share that goes with this history that belongs to the Dakh Lwaidee. And then after that, we sang a song that was composed by Mike Moore. He was a Wooshkitan man from here in Juneau.

His descendants are Rosa Miller and their family, and we call it Juneau City because that's what he sings, that this Juneau City will continue to go on is what the first verse is saying. And the second verse is saying that my mind is spinning around like when I have some spirits, that when I think about you, the children of the K'agwantan. So those are the songs that we sang. Was there another one we did? Okay.

Oh, we're going to sing "Raven in Daylight," which is a song that Minnie Johnson from Yakutat recorded in 1954 with Frederica de Laguna, who was doing fieldwork there. She did it in 1952 and 1954 and had several recordings of not just oral history but songs. And so One of my passions is to go to those recordings and to listen to them, and there are several songs that I've learned from those recordings. This is one of the songs that I learned that we taught to students over Zoom. We had no idea they were learning the song over Zoom because it was during the pandemic and was one of the few things that we were able to do throughout the day with them.

And then after the pandemic We came back to school and my sister said, "Let's try Yeekpe'aa." And so we— at one of our first gatherings, and so we started the song and literally every child started singing the song with us. And we had no clue at that point the impact that just that one song had on the program. And one of the critical things with this song and Tlingit songs, we have what are called vocables. The start of the song that are not words, and then we have a verse, and then the vocables, and then another verse, and then sometimes the song ends or sometimes vocables again. And when Minnie was doing the recordings, she was doing— using wax cylinders.

Fredrika was using wax cylinders, and Minnie noticed that the cylinder was low, and she didn't want the recording to stop at mid-song, so she emitted a lot of the vocables and the songs that she sang and just did the verse. And so before we came back after— during the pandemic, I one day just decided I'm doing vocables for the song. And so you'll hear those this morning. So it's a song that I've reconstructed partially, but it's a song that these kids have revitalized. Mr. Chester, before you guys start, I want you all to know— and don't get nervous— but This room is being broadcast to the entire building, so everyone has the opportunity to watch you right now, which is fantastic.

They also might be taking pictures, and as a former teacher, I want to confirm that if people are taking pictures, it's okay to post those. Is that acceptable? Do we know? Yes. Okay, fantastic.

We'd like to share what you're doing. We appreciate it. And I did want to say, our— the principal of Harborview is here, who oversees the element— Molly Yerksis, who oversees the traditional program, the regular program, and then TCL/LALL. So thank you for permission to let everyone come up today, and the district really supports this program. It's great to see that.

And so thank you. Guten Schuss.

Aneeka, aswa eke ekwana, ya di eta aya, aya eju sha sha eekwa ba shika di eta, e a a a e a, e e a a aya a.

I don't know if your teachers told you, but you're in House Education Committee at the state capitol. And so one of our work that we do is we work on budgets for education funding and we work on different policy. And so it's so great that you can come to us today and see where we do our work. But when you look up at the Hill here and you see this building. That's a lot of times what we're doing is we're working on supporting your education.

So thank you for bringing— thank you for coming to us and showing us what you are doing every day. We are very grateful to you for doing that.

Tena shuda udithina. Hallelujah. Weh, weh, weh, ah.

Eie, ah, eie, ah.

Eie, ah, eie, ah. Hallelujah.

I bet they heard that on the 4th floor. I bet you they did. We don't have corners. We have corners. Ooh, that was an opportunity to roll some bills right there.

Okay.

That's great. Can I make one comment? Of course.

Thank you. I did want to say to the committee that they have 118 students in the program, and so they asked if they should all come. I said, I said, well, thank you, but we— maybe about 30 at max. But thank you so much. And again, I mentioned Sealaska Heritage, but I know that there's many other organizations that have helped this program too.

And so So just thank you to all of them and thank you. I thought it was fun to end with children at the committee today. That was great. Thank you. Okay.

And so Representative Aishite. Thank you, Co-Chair Himschuh. Just Co-Chair Storey, thank you so much for that. You know, you mentioned at the end that we work on these numbers and they are so important, but it is so nice to put a face to the numbers. So just thank you.

That was very moving. And just thank you. Okay. So we need to kind of wrap things up today. I am very concerned about my Tlingit dancing being recorded.

I can't help myself. I got to do it sometimes, but I am not a good— I've worked on it. I need to work on it harder. So—. Oh, Representative Schwanke.

Co-chair Himschute, the dancing is all individualized. You don't have to be like anybody else. That's the benefit. That's true. You did great.

It's true. Co-chair Himschute, if I might, if you had any questions for teacher Chester about what he is doing, his work with literacy programs, please let my office know and we will get them we will get the questions to him because what he is doing is exemplary, which I've already mentioned, but— and he said it is globally recognized that how— what this program is doing. And so, anyway, please let me know if there's any questions. Thank you. Okay.

With all of that, what a crescendo. Okay. That is going to conclude our meeting for today. Um, not sure what's going to happen next with Education Committee. We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

I do want to thank the committee for all that you've done, um, this— I guess throughout the 34th legislature. I imagine we'll see each other again in the committee. If we don't, thank you for being here. Thank you for your work. Thank you for, um, yeah, all that you've done to make sure that what comes from this committee is sound policy and good for, good for kids.

So yes, I wanted to really say extend our thanks as co-chairs. It's been really great to have committee members who express good questions and, you know, come to us with any important things that they think we should be talking about. And so I appreciate everyone's contributions over the year. And again, we will probably be meeting again, but we just wanted to say our thanks. In the event that we don't meet again, does anybody have closing comments?

And we didn't really prep for this today. So there's, you know, a chance that we'll be meeting next week, a chance that we're not. But is there anything burning that anyone wants to say since we do have a couple minutes before we wrap up potentially? Okay, Representative Eisheidt. Thank you, Co-Chair Himschute.

I just, uh, you know, it is Teacher Appreciation Week, and as I was looking around the committee here, uh, we have 3 former school board members We have 3 teachers, and then we have a person who served in borough government and is a father. And I think it brought a lot of unique perspectives to the committee. So I just, uh, I really appreciate everybody here, and I'm so pleased that we, if we are ending our committee, we end it on such a high note. So I really appreciate the opportunity to work with you all. So thank you.

Any other closing comments? Okay. And who knows, we could be back here next week, so. I also want to make sure to thank Tammy Smith and Ella Lupin, who make all of this happen, and sometimes against incredible odds, not working for the easiest co-chairs in the building. So thank you very much for putting up with us and helping our meetings come together.

Seeing no further business before the committee, we will keep you informed on next meetings and any other time that we need to get together. But for today, this meeting is adjourned at 9:52 AM.