Abuse of authority? Principal tells parents to lobby Legislature for school funding

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Using his position of authority over students, Goldenview Middle School Principal David Nogg wrote to parents Monday, leaning on them to push the Legislature for more Base Student Allocation (formula funding) cash for schools. He pressed them to lobby the Legislature. Or else he’ll have to fire 9 teachers and one vice principal.

And he said that proposed budget calls for a reduction of nine full time teachers at Goldenview. and one of the two assistant principals. Those reductions he appeared to blame on the Legislature, although they are the choice of the school district and principal.

Every year the same thing happens. The education establishment and unions ask for the base student allocation to be raised, and every year since 2014 it is not raised, but one-time funding is added into the education budget, which ends up at roughly an equivalent to a BSA increase.

The principal’s request came at the same time the Anchorage School Superintendent told parents he would block immigration agents from entering school property. Superintendent Jarrett Bryantt effectively declared Anchorage public schools to be sanctuary zones for illegal immigrants.

“I am reaching out to you today with an urgent and deeply concerning issue that will have a profound impact on the educational experience of our students at Goldenview Middle School. Due to the district’s ongoing budget deficit, the proposed budget includes significant cuts that will dramatically alter our ability to provide the high-quality education and well-rounded opportunities that our students deserve,” Nogg wrote.

“Specifically, the proposed budget calls for a reduction of nine full-time general education teachers at Goldenview—equivalent to an entire grade level’s worth of classroom educators. Additionally, despite serving 930 students, our school is also losing one of our two Assistant Principal positions. These reductions will lead to larger class sizes and fewer course offerings, limiting the choices and personalized instruction that are critical at the middle school level,” Nogg continued.

“Beyond the classroom, one of the most devastating impacts of the budget cuts is the complete elimination of all co-curricular activities for our students. This means no sports, no National Junior Honor Society, no performing arts, and no other extracurricular activities that play a vital role in shaping well-rounded, engaged, and successful students. I have always encouraged our students to become well-rounded ‘Renaissance kids,’ and these cuts will severely limit their ability to explore their interests, develop leadership skills, and stay connected to their school community,” he wrote.

Then Nogg gave parents their marching orders:

“These cuts will not only affect Goldenview but will touch every school across the district. It is critical that our community makes its voice heard. I urge you to contact your legislators in Juneau and advocate for our students. Let them know how these budget reductions will negatively impact your child’s education and overall school experience.”

He added contact information to aid parents in their lobbying efforts.

Goldenview Middle School has 668 students and 35 teachers for a student:teacher ratio of 19, according to the State of Alaska Department of Education.

According to the Anchorage School District’s dashboard, it has 780 students.

U.S. News says the school has 626 students.

Principal Nogg puts the figure at 930 students, which is 19% higher than what the school district says.

About 45% of the students at Goldenview are grade-level proficient in reading and about 29% are proficient in math. Gov. Mike Dunleavy and conservatives are hoping to improve those scores by requiring accountability for education, something that has been lacking in the districts across the state.

In January, Anchorage Superintendent Bryantt said that the district has a deficit exceeding $100 million and he said it was driven by “more than a decade of flat state funding and rising costs due to inflation.”

Bryantt said “deep cuts are unavoidable, and their effects will be felt throughout our community,” and said that the funding needed was equivalent to $1,963 per student more than the existing base student allocation of $5,930 per student.

Last year’s one-time increase was $700 per student, which he argued left a gap of $1,263.

Meanwhile, for a variety of factors including the bad management of education in Alaska’s biggest city, Anchorage publicly funded schools have lost nearly 13% of their student enrollment since 2010, with a current enrollment of about 42,700. The parents have chosen to take their children to other alternatives, including private schools, homeschooling, and to the MatSu Valley.

49 COMMENTS

  1. Ahh, Goldenview Middle School. That was the mob that taught my daughter that WWII was a war of genocide against Japan. It took a high-volume, high-intensity discussion with the teachers in her pod to back down from that nonsense. I digress.

    Of course the teacher wants parents to lobby for more school funding. Not that any of that funding will translate into higher student achievement and test scores. Nope. The extra bucks will come from our pockets and go straight to those represented by NEA-AK and the AFT.

    • So, I guess from your experience then that there’s no chance they’ll ever change to school’s name
      to Harry S. Truman Middle School, eh?

      • Sarvagy, Truman did not want to drop the bombs but the Japan stubbornly swore to fight to the last man. That meant hundreds of thousands more deaths of Americans. The Japanese were so stubborn it was everything they could do to bring themselves to surrender after the second bomb. You would have appreciated the bombs if you in one of our combat units over there.

        • Methinks you missed the point of my post: I was poking fun at the school for having a misguided pro-Japan, and thus de facto pro-axis, view of history.

      • Sarvagy, Truman never wanted to drop the bombs but Japan stubbornly swore to fight to the last man. That meant hundreds of thousands more deaths of Americans. The Japanese were so stubborn it was everything they could do to bring themselves to surrender after the second bomb. You would have appreciated the bombs if you were in one of our combat units over there.

      • Harry S. Truman Middle School. I see what you did there. I take Col. Paul Tibbets’ view on nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki: it ended the war, and saved perhaps millions of lives had we been forced to invade to do so. He was unapologetic to the end. In short, Japan effed around and found out.

    • Seventh grade Social Studies is Geography. Eighth grade is early American History (through the Civil War). When exactly did they talk about WWII?

      • Justin, you prove the old adage that history starts the day you were born. We do not know how old Rollo’s daughter is today and when she went to GVM (opened in 1997). Furthermore there used to be elementary schools in the district, that taught an overview of WWII in 5/6th grade…just saying.

    • Rollo you appear as dense as this hack Suzanne. I took two seconds to go on the district data dashboard and gv has 935 students. It’s truly sick that you can’t even report anything factual. The only abuse of authority is you abusing the poor keyboard that you used to try to drag this guy. He was the principal at mears for my son and did a phenomenal job in helping him navigate academic and social issues. When he moved to gv I entered the lottery to get my daughter in because I had faith and trust in his work. Thanks to Mr. Nogg my kids had great middle school experiences and are now thriving as young adults. Maybe google him and see how he is clearly one of the most talented and authentic pricipals in the business. It’s a sad day when you try to defame such a genuinely good guy who is respected by those who actually know him. I hope he sues you for such a claim. Now that’s click bait! Do your homework lady.

  2. Just the other day before one of the education committees, in person, in Juneau a rural school district superintendent said that the BSA for her school is $63,000. I would expect that district has no local property tax. I would expect that superintendent received 3 days pay at her six-figure annual rate plus per diem and airline miles for her trip to Juneau.

    Look at any graphic portrayal of demand and price and you’ll see that when the price for the demander is zero the demand in infinite. That is, if the cost is zero there is no end to what a rural school superintendent will demand for school funding. The government funding conundrum in Juneau is that every dollar of spending has one or more lobbyists and the cost to most of those paying the lobbyists is too close to zero or actually is zero. Common sense, let alone thrift and honesty, has no lobbyist in Juneau.

  3. The consequences of hiring an “educator” but getting a union activist..that principal needs to be unemployed for violating the public trust under the guise of student advocacy

  4. The ASD budget seems to go up significantly every year, but the quality of the education seems to be falling at an inverse rate.
    .
    Perhaps, the problem is not funding.

    • CBMTTEK you are correct. The money is going in to the black pit called administration.
      When will the taxpayer wake up and wanna do something about it?
      Whether we have kids or not, we have a vested interest in having smart people come out of school. They are going to be our future leaders doctors, lawyers,and heads of business.
      With what we’re looking at now when you see Greg cman and Frank’s blogs, you can see we are desperate need of education

      • I often ask “Exactly how many vice principals does a school need?”
        I attended a HS with about 1,000 other students, and we had one Principal, and one Vice Principal. These days, your average HS has a dozen Vice Principals, and the education is not getting better…

        • I think that the Vic pro cables are former ASD employees who got into trouble and told go be a pro cable with a fat salary until you retire.

          My personal take on that. I have no proof but teachers and staff get into trouble just like service high school incident.

    • Because the clergy answer to a “higher authority” and are correct (if they are of the correct ideology and religion).

    • Uh. We “Bible Thumpers” aren’t paid by federal and state tax payer money. I can’t speak for all believers but I will speak for my family. We aren’t motivated by money or funding, we are motivated by The Word and putting our beliefs in Christ first, and to that end, putting the believe in YOUR salvation first. This principal was looking out for selfish interests, motivated by what exactly? More dirty funding.

    • Bible thumpers (as you so eloquently put it) hang out in church and are not representing the government, unlike this principal. In essence you have government lobby for more government using the private information of parents (as in names and email addresses) to essentially blackmail them into supporting his demands.

  5. How is it possible that every year on ground hog day, all 53 school districts show up financially destitute in Juneau???? Fire 40 Superintendents & fix it!!!

    The real problem is that parents are voting with their feet and that means less students to draw a BSA for.

    Bethel typically starts 100 Freshman a year. Rule of thumb is half drop out before they graduate.
    So the senior class graduated 50 students last year. 50 X $22,000 = $1,100, 000 lose in revenue, just from the state’s portion of funding for the Lower Kuskokwim School District. Then double that loss, cause the Feds kick in over $20,000 per student… that’s just the senior class…

    Maybe if Bethel changed their curriculum to reading, writing and arithmetic, quit hiring men that wear dresses to class to teach, maybe parents would be less likely to pull their kids out of public schools and look for other options like homeschool or in some cases sending their kids to live with relatives in villages to finish school.

    I say no new funding until they consolidate school districts and get rid of everything DEI.

    Then put a tax on the ballot in a special election this fall. If it passes, then increase funding next year with one time increases… My guess is any tax will fail miserably, which keeps the Base the actual Base and a legislative appropriation a yearly event.

  6. Cut the administration by 50% then come to the table and ask for help.
    I have stated before we have 3 teachers in our house and 3 more that live next door and every one said the administration is the problem.
    The teachers should go on strike against the administration and get this problem solved.
    20 years of more and more money has produced less and less results so why do you voters continue to support the unions and the spend all we can get school district employees?
    All you need to know is when ever a left leaning politician gets elected the unions get raises and more perks.

    • When the Dept. of Education was created in 1979 (or was it 1980?) the teachers at my high school began complaining about all the money going to the administration. It seems it’s never stopped.

  7. Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt can and should be arrested if he attempts to block the Federal Government Officers from carrying out their duties. It is called obstruction of Justice.

  8. It would be dereliction of duty for any educational leader to NOT advocate for increased school funding. Most—if not all—ASD leadership notified their students’ parents about the predictable effects of inadequate funding for next school year.

    Parents want to be informed of the effects of legislative funding decisions (and indecision). I appreciate knowing what’s coming down the pike and I know plenty of other parents feel similarly.

    From 2011 to 2022, the Base Student Allocation increased by LESS THAN 5%, while Alaska’s urban consumer price index has risen by 24.6%. (Source ADN 1/26/23)

    The BSA has not increased since 2017, meanwhile inflation has risen more 15% since then. Other estimates indicate that the BSA should have increased by $1300 in the same period.

    The BSA would need to increase by $1,348 to match the buying power of peak year 2015. (Source January 30, 2023 memo from the Legislative Finance Division)

    Using 2019 data the University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and Economic Research determined that Alaska spent 7% less per pupil on public education than the national average. We Alaskans know how much more expensive it is to live here! Education is not immune to cost-of-living differences.

    There’s so much to honestly and fairly debate surrounding education and funding. It’s disingenuous to portray a principal advocating for his teachers and students—for caring about providing quality education—as some kind of activist shill.

    Let’s talk honestly about the disproportionate number of administrators—or about these GIANT contracts the district awards to their friends who create curriculum content!!

    We all want solutions and should not be seeking to distract from the REAL PROBLEMS in education.

    • How much of your income are you willing to give up?
      Say 75% sounds like a starting place.
      We want accountability before any money goes to the school district.

    • My theory is all the extra principals in the school district have gotten in trouble and told to go over in a corner and be a assistant principal until you retire, making six figures.

  9. Suzanne, it’s seriously laughable how little research you appear do on some of these posts. The “35 teachers” at GV is the 2023-2024 number before they added all the 6th grade students and staff for the 2024-2025 school year. Additionally, the state of Alaska student number is not up to date and the number you’ve quoted here as 780, from the district website, appear to not be the current enrollment, but rather is the CODE NUMBER for the school, which each school has been assigned. It took me five minutes to figure out where these inaccurate and irrelevant respectively, number came from. I feel confident the current principal of the school is aware of his enrollment numbers.

    As a lifelong Alaskan, former private school teacher, homeschooling parent, and spouse of a career ASD top-tier (really) teacher, I’m well aware of the issues that plague our Anchorage school system.

    But, to paint an administrator, who is also a well established educator, as somehow abusing his authority by encouraging parents to voice their opinions about how they believe these changes will affect their students is gross. Are you surprised that those in the thick of it might see these as negative impacts?

    The loss of 9 full-time teachers for this single school isn’t a made up number. It’s right there in the district’s budget and presentation materials, along with all the other FTE reductions across the district. What appears to be strikingly absent is deep reductions in the head-shed administration and the school board budgets. My quick perusal of the budget packet (hundreds of pages) show those budgets as barely moving and in some cases, increasing.

    At least, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

    • Tracy Simmons, as you describe, it is very difficult to get good student counts at any AK school. Those numbers were due to the Department in November last year. But my question is this: “Why did the number of classroom teachers double from 21 to 42 classroom teachers from 2024 to 2025? Makes no sense. Check the budget for ASD. Thanks. Maybe you can explain this.

  10. Many people in ASD are pathological liars!
    We go through this every year. More
    Money with no accountability or
    Proficient outcomes.
    They just spent millions to build a new Inlet View school for 299 students/
    They are only closing 2 schools and should be closing several more.
    Sorry ASD stop your lying!

  11. As a parent of a child at Goldenview, I see a principle that has always put the welfare of his students first. I do not think he “abused his power” by informing parents of what was already out there. As the leader of his school, he did what he was supposed to do by communicating with parents and letting us know what we can do to have our voices heard in hopes that our schools can keep some of the programs that are being cut. I hope all principals in the district are fighting for their kids the way Mr. Nogg has & continues to do.

  12. President Trump mentioned previously that school choice must occur in time for the 25-26 school year, which for most homeschool families, or families confirming public or private sectors with their enrollment, needs to occur by July 1st, 2025. Considering how quickly Trump is cleaning up our government, this is totally feasible… knowing previous Alaskan bureaucracy in the education sector, that is a different story. Our family would like to see an article published on when School Choice will really begin for Alaskan families. We would also like to see how the Administration and State of Alaska in particular plans to hold public sector, private sector and homeschool programs equally accountable, in terms of their spending, their curriculum and their outcomes. We’ve never understood why a public school teacher can, as an example have donuts reimbursed through the district and yet an Abeka chapter book is not reimbursable through any homeschool program. There are significant disparities between what is allowed and considered acceptable even between homeschool programs, one program offers an allotment of this, while another offers half of that. Programs continually chalk this numerical disparity up to services provided and costs associated with that program, but the reality remains quite different. Whether a child is enrolled in a neighborhood public school, a religious private school or a community homeschool program, each student allotment should be the same.
    The disparity between what public schools are spending and here they are cranking out a bunch of ding dongs vs the fact that homeschool families are producing high caliber students on a fraction of what ASD spends should be the highlighter here for everyone. Don’t let the Tracy’s fool you.

    • Alaska home school programs have a significntly lower graduation rate. They also refuse to take part in standardized teating. Good parenting=good students and good results. We should look for reform in how kids are being raised. kids do not all grow up in my house where they are read to and required to study, go to sleep, and turn off the electronics. School choice will make no difference in the overall scores of Alaskan students. The students that are doing well are not because of the school, all schools are trying, the kids with good parents will continue to do well. The kids with parents with poor parenting skills will just get booted from private schools. Fight the fight that needs fought and quit beating up on the poeple doing the work.

  13. The funding process is flawed, to be sure. Every January the school funding gloom-and-doom cycle begins, with dire pronouncements of layoffs, cutbacks, closures, program cancellations – statewide. And yet, every year in May, our heroic legislature finds a way to fully fund the schools.

    Who else is getting tired of all this?

  14. I’m with you most of the time, Suzanne, but not on this one. This was not an abuse of authority at all. David Nogg is an outstanding principal. What he did was not an “or else”… that’s just bad journalism, Suzanne. You’re better than that. He gets his marching orders from the Administration Building, which has not announced any of their own cuts whatsoever. What else did you expect him to do? His email had nothing provocative in it at all, and like some of the other posters have mentioned, you didn’t say a thing about how many cuts are being made in the administration building.

    I read the letter Jarrett Bryantt sent out, and all he really said was, “Here’s the law. We’re going to follow it unless a judge tells us otherwise.” I don’t see what you saw there, either. If you don’t like the law, get the law changed.

    This is a gigantic nothingburger. We need to increase the BSA to match inflation (at the very least) and we need to empty the Admin Building and sell it. Any admin positions that are actually necessary can have their offices actually in a school so they can see kids every single day.

    • So “doing as I was told” is the excuse for trying to influence parents for political agenda purposes? And here I thought “Just doing as ordered”as an excuse for abhorrent behavior went out of style during the Nuremberg Trials.

  15. “According to the Anchorage School District’s dashboard, it has 780 students.
    U.S. News says the school has 626 students.
    Principal Nogg puts the figure at 930 students, which is 19% higher than what the school district says.”
    …and people wonder what ASD students have low math scores.

  16. Instead of firing teachers, how about we pink slip a whole bunch of principals and other admin types. Walk into any school district office and behold all the dead wood. Dead wood being a metaphor for those who apparently have little value or purpose. And can’t be fired and know it.

  17. Governor DunLeavy
    Instead of Throwing Money at the schools lost cause, as our children continue to score at the lowest level. I suggest you bring President Tump and Elon Musk an invitation to come to Alaska and Drain the swamp, and all the Waste happening in our schools.
    I’m sure we can start eliminating at the top instead of at the teachers and students
    Level.

    • Good idea Spence our politicians can’t or won’t do the right thing.
      It’s just Easter to hold out there hands and take more PFD money as that’s what it’s about money and union’s .

  18. I’m interested in knowing what has happened with this. Is Superintendent Bryantt letting the heat and pressure settle down so this can be ignored and forgotten? Would the same result occur if this were a principal telling parents to advocate for a conservative or even, GASP!, a MAGA position? Our dear superintendent will hide behind the tires “personnel matters” excuse, but inquiring minds want to know.

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