David Boyle: Anchorage superintendent’s contract may be extended again

By DAVID BOYLE

The Anchorage School Board majority wants to extend Superintendent Jarrett Bryantt’s contract for the second time in less than a year.

The first one-year contract extension was done in February — just eight months ago. That extended Bryantt’s contract through 2026. Only board member Dave Donley voted against that extension.

Now the board wants to add another year, extending the contract through 2027—more than three years from now.

Why is the board pushing for this contract extension, twice in less than a year?

The board must be pleased with the implementation of diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) goals and Critical Race Theory in both the curriculum and hiring practices.

The board has even put DEI into its superintendent guardrails: “Superintendent will not operate without a plan to develop a qualified, diverse, and culturally responsive workforce.”

And remember the superintendent has implemented the “Transgender Guidelines,” in which it can hide from parents the gender identity and pronoun usage for students.

This is the same superintendent who removed the charter from the Family Partnership Charter School. As a result, parents removed more than 600 students from the Anchorage School District.

The district has also failed in its attempt to close excess schools, resulting in wasting money maintaining them. Parents pushed back against closing the six proposed schools and the district was not prepared for this opposition. Now it has too many schools and not enough students.

Former board president Margo Bellamy aligns with the superintendent and believes that social-emotional learning and “restorative justice” are vital to student achievement.  

But what about actual student achievement? Shouldn’t the superintendent be responsible for setting valid goals?

Here are the reading (3^rd grade), math (8^th grade) and graduation rates that Superintendent Bryantt will be held accountable for: 

So, by the end of the superintendent’s second contract extension, fewer than half of 3^rd grade students should be able to read at grade level. That’s the reading goal.

And a little more than 41% of 8^th grade students should be proficient in math. That’s the math goal.

These are very low goal that should be achievable.

The Anchorage School Board will vote on this one-year additional extension to the superintendent’s contract, as the matter is on the agenda for Oct. 15.

You can speak up here.

David Boyle is an education writer for Must Read Alaska.