Anchorage School District Superintendent Dr. Jharrett Bryantt issued a second high-drama letter to families and staff on Friday, continuing to sound alarm bells over budget cuts but offering little accountability for his own role in spreading initial misinformation about the scope of the financial crisis.
In the new letter, Bryantt accuses others of “false claims” and “deliberate disinformation,” while failing to acknowledge that his first letter earlier this week contained inflated figures and exaggerated impacts. That first communication painted a bleak picture that suggested the district was facing a $98 million deficit, an inflated number that included federal funds that were never intended for recurring expenses, as well as one-time vetoes that are still under legislative review.
Nowhere in his latest missive does Bryantt disclose how many layoffs the district was actually able to avoid after reassessing its finances. Instead, he vaguely credits the use of “vacant positions and limited alternative funds” to reduce layoffs, while insisting that the cuts will still lead to “real and lasting impact” on programs ranging from after-school activities to literacy support.
This selective release of information is a calculated communications strategy. “This is damage control, plain and simple,” said a teacher. “They sent out the first letter to create maximum panic, then walked it back slightly without being transparent about the actual numbers.”
Bryantt fails to update the public on how many teachers and support staff have been laid off, how many were reabsorbed into vacancies, or whether the supposed “devastation” announced earlier in the week has been meaningfully mitigated.
In the Friday letter, Bryantt briefly references a positive development: Partial restoration of some federal funds, including those earmarked for the 21st Century Program, following advocacy from a bipartisan group of US senators; he names Sen. Lisa Murkowski in his political missive. But he doesn’t say how much and continues to characterize the district’s situation as an unfolding “crisis,” blaming both state vetoes and federal grant delays.
His letter concludes with a rallying cry against “confusion, false claims, and even deliberate disinformation,” encouraging parents and staff to use the district’s FAQ page to “defend the truth” and “protect the integrity” of ASD.
Read the news article about Bryantt’s first letter here:
This Bryantt POS is an invasive species to Alaska. Go home, little boy.
Superintendent Dr. J.B.: here’s a suggestion: shut down your huge administrative palace on Boniface and Northern Lights, and farm the staff out to individual schools. Then, those workers might help the actual teachers cope with your supposed ‘crisis.’ After all, isn’t educating kids your first concern?
Maybe someone should ask him why the district spent 50 million on an old
School to remodel for less than 200 students while closing several. One where kids from that school could have been easily busses.
Let’s see would that be the school in the most liberal district in the city? I have met some bad and incompetent superintendents before, but this man is on the top tier!
This is not leadership and what I would expect from an immature kid placed in a position above his head!
So, we have 10,000 fewer students in the Anchorage School District now but now one is being layed off and no schools are being closed. There must be a dispensary right close to the School District Offices. Get real folks!!!! I have no desire to support the State per pupal educational increase with these games being played.
‘ while failing to acknowledge that his first letter earlier this week contained inflated figures and exaggerated impacts’ …
Maybe because the only exaggerations were those of the folk endorsing Dunleavy’s libelous antics? You certainly don’t offer any proof here of ang of your exagerrated claims 🤣
How much would be saved and how many teaching dates
Would be preserved if he &6’d his pet dei projects?
I saw him on the news tonight, he offered little or nothing in the way of problem solving. The way he made faces, gesticulated, spoke, and generally carried himself was immature and not the way a serious person should ever behave, frankly I was embarrassed for him and for the Anchorage School District.