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Anchorage School District may reinstate the mask mandate this fall for students, staff

Suzanne Downing
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Anchorage School District may reinstate the mask mandate this fall for students, staff

The Anchorage School Board and Superintendent Deena Bishop have received up to 50 letters in what appears to be a stealth campaign coordinated by the local teachers’ union, Anchorage Education Association, asking for a mask mandate for all students and staff when school resumes this fall.

Dave Donley, a member of the Anchorage school board, said on the Mike Porcaro Show on 650 KENI radio that the mask mandate could be imminent, if parents don’t get involved. He has not been able to get a commitment from the superintendent one way or the other, he said.

Many of the letters coming into the school board have similar wording to them, and the letter writers are teachers or people who say they are parents.

Sources say that Superintendent Bishop may make a decision within a few days about whether students will be required to wear masks.

Some of the letters are citing a new recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which says children over the age of 2 should be masked in school this fall, even if they are vaccinated. That is not the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control.

The pediatricians organization in its updated guidelines says that an added benefit to wearing masks is that masks will slow down the transmission of other respiratory illnesses such as colds and flu.

Those with opinions on the matter may write to Bishop at [email protected] or to the school board at [email protected].

Read: Kodiak pre-K through grade 5 may be forced into masks again.

Alexander Dolitsky: United we stand, divided we fall with race, ethnicity in America

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Alexander Dolitsky: United we stand, divided we fall with race, ethnicity in America

By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY

In the past, many of my students at Alyeska Central School, the former state correspondence school based in Juneau, and my students at the University of Alaska Southeast, asked me three essential sociological questions: (1) How to define ethnicity and race? (2) How do the two concepts differ? and (3) How to define the term “minority?” 

(1) Ethnicity is a social, communal category we use to identify our heritage based on religion, geographic location or culture. It comes from shared values, shared upbringing, cultural norms, and learned behavior. Race is very much like ethnicity in that way; it is based also on shared beliefs and shared experiences. We tend to think of race as biological or genetic, but race is also a social and culturally created phenomenon. 

(2) Ethnicity is usually more difficult to trace because when we look at someone, we can’t immediately categorize them in a certain ethnic group. I had students who thought that because they are not African-American, Latino, or Asian, they have no ethnic identity. It’s wrong; we all do.

Ethnicity allows for more inclusion (it may consist of many biological races), and race for more exclusion (only one biological race). A classic example is Israel, where there are Ethiopian Jews, German Jews, Russian Jews, Polish Jews, and all kind of Jews. The issue there is ethnicity more than it is race. Ethnicity is the glue holding that society together.

The glue that holds us together in the United States is that we all perceive ourselves as Americans, though that may mean different things to different people. There is no longer a need to feel as though everyone has to go into this big stew and become one big mush. Now it’s OK to taste the individual flavors of the potatoes, the carrots, and the peas. But there is a new taste, too. 

(3) Historically, the term ”minority” refers to a people who constitute less than 50% of a broader population and are identified as a racial or ethnic group. Often, they have been the target of unfair treatment and have suffered disadvantages as a result. Thus, most Americans with ethnic ties to Europe would not be considered minorities, except for American Jews, and, for example, someone like myself, a foreign-born political refugee, who has suffered a history of persecution by a former totalitarian regime.

For decades, minority groups and foreign-born American citizens have faced poverty, discrimination, and the prejudices of people who have viewed them as different, less than equal and threatening. Despite the fact that the American nation is a nation of immigrants, and America has been nourished throughout its history by ideals and traditions of different ethnic groups, this treatment often continues to prevail in our everyday life by means of direct and indirect ignorance, prejudices, and stereotypes.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics of 2019, a little under 40% of the total population was either non-white or Hispanic; and minorities and new immigrants comprised about 55% of the labor force and 45% of all elementary and secondary school students in the United States. Actually, these non-white minority groups will comprise a majority of our population in about 25 years.

Taking these demographic data into account, core cultural values, norms of traditional behavior, moral principles and beliefs, and the ethnic landscape of our society are changing rapidly. It is imperative, however, to maintain and protect a cohesiveness, integrity and Judeo-Christian core cultural values of our diverse nation — a required necessity for cultural survival of any complex society. 

Indeed, in the last several decades in our country, neo-Marxist and socialist ideology aims to quietly penetrate our political, educational, social and cultural systems. Eventually, unless it’s opposed and reversed, this radical development will cause a complete breakdown of our core cultural and morals values.

As a prominent American anthropologist Ruth Benedict once stated: “The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.” Thus, to apply Benedict’s vision and words to today’s reality in America, prejudiced behavior, radical Marxist ideology and divisive rhetoric of “white privilege” and “critical race” doctrines, with its outgrowth of “Black Lives Matter,” “systemic racism,” “structural racism” and today’s “ANTIFA,” should not have a place in our political, educational and socio-economic systems. Certainly, these so-called progressive narratives should not be used to advance political agendas. 

I have always been fascinated by the phrase “United We Stand” and its subsequent juxtaposition “Divided We Fall.” Or, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

We are dangerously close to toppling our house.

All Americans must stand up and unite for Freedom, Liberty and Truth.

Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.

Read: Neo-Marxism and utopian Socialism in America

Read: Old believers preserving faith in the New World

Read: Duke Ellington and the effects of Cold War in Soviet Union on intellectual curiosity

Don Young campaign party scheduled

Suzanne Downing
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Don Young campaign party scheduled

Congressman Don Young will have his annual Taste of Alaska fundraising party on Aug. 4, but at a new venue: The home of Stephen Routh, and with over 100 co-hosts. Notably, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Sen. Dan Sullivan and Julie Fate Sullivan are the special guests.

Young has been representing Alaska in Congress since 1973 and this spring announced he would run for his 26th term. Rep. John Dingell, Jr., of Michigan, who retired in 2015, holds the record for longest consecutive serving congressman, with 59 years of service.

Kodiak kids Pre-K through grade 5 may have to wear masks when they return to school

Suzanne Downing
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Kodiak kids Pre-K through grade 5 may have to wear masks when they return to school

The Kodiak Island Borough School District is developing plans to mask children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, once school opens on Aug. 30. Students in the 2020-2021 school year wore masks after schools reopened.

An earlier plan was to have masks optional for students and staff. But the district staff is now recommending to the school board that the younger students be required to wear masks this fall, but masks for middle and high school students will still be optional, although recommended for those not fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

The district required masks during summer school this year for all students, but if a big spike in Covid cases is seen in Kodiak, Superintendent Larry LeDoux will ask that the mask mandate be reinstated for the children too young to be vaccinated.

Kodiak has seen 1,161 cases of Covid-19 among the 13,500 residents, or about 9 percent of the population of the island. Six deaths are attributed to the virus.

Since July 17, some 33 new cases of the virus have been diagnosed in the Kodiak Borough, a slight uptick in cases mirroring the upward trends seen around the world this summer.

There are 219 students in the Kodiak Island School District in six “town schools” and five “rural schools.”

The district’s Covid-19 mitigation and racism/equity plan for the 2021-22 school year is at this link.

Head of RPEA resigns with scorching letter

Suzanne Downing
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Head of RPEA resigns with scorching letter

The head of the Retired Public Employees of Alaska announced her retirement, effective Aug. 1, with a letter criticizing several members of the executive board, particularly the board secretary, Stephanie Rhoades.

Sharon Hoffbeck, who has served as RPEA president in an volunteer position for the past nine years, has a strong record of defending the rights of public employment retirees, including fighting to stop the diminishment of retiree health care benefits. A lawsuit she initiated against the state is expected go to trial at the end of August. Her resignation could imperil that lawsuit, which is fighting to save the medical benefits of retirees.

Hoffbeck said that the office manager and medical information committee director are also resigning due to the hostile environment she says has been created in the workplace by Rhoades.

Sources say that Rhoades, a former judge who has been on the board for about a year, has been constantly harassing Hoffbeck in what appears to be an attempt to force her out of the organization.

“It’s been pure hell since Stephanie came on the board,” said a MRAK source, who concurred with Hoffbeck’s assessment of the situation.

“There are several on the executive board who have allowed themselves to become convinced by the board secretary, Stephanie Rhoades, that my management style is not in the best interests of RPEA members and by extension, all retirees. She seems to disregard or ignore the many achievements under my leadership such as the completely successful DVA lawsuit, the establishment of the Retiree Health Plan Advisory Board, the hiring of an accounting firm to help assure fiscal responsibility rather than depending on volunteers who have been elected but may not have the appropriate skills, and the medical diminishment lawsuit that is currently set for trial at the end of August. Her complete resistance to my leadership has created a very hostile environment that I am no longer willing to endure,” Hoffbeck wrote.

“I expect you will hear varying stories from other sources that differ from my explanation. I leave you to draw your own conclusions based on your own experience with RPEA while I was the president,” Hoffbeck continued.

“There is still much to be done to resist and fight the state’s plan to reduce our retiree medical benefits as much as possible. I plan to continue to be involved in helping prevent this ever-increasing loss of retiree benefits, just not as president of RPEA,” she wrote.

The organization represents the interests of not only state retirees, but municipal and school district retirees statewide. The organization has about 5,000 members who pay about $35 a year to keep the organization going.

Will Interior Secretary Haaland see more than ducks and eel grass at King Cove?

Anchorage Daily Planet
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Will Interior Secretary Haaland see more than ducks and eel grass at King Cove?

ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is slated to visit with residents of King Cove during a visit to Alaska in September.

During her confirmation meetings, she reportedly promised U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan she would meet with villagers to talk about a short, one-lane gravel road skirting the edge of the 330,000-acre Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to reach Cold Bay’s all-weather airport for medical evacuations in inclimate weather.

Haaland’s department over the years, and under different administrations, generally opposed the road between the communities. When Interior, under President Donald Trump, approved a land swap that would allow the road to be built, U.S. District Judge John Sedwick rejected the deal. Trump’s administration appealed and Biden’s Department of Justice has filed a legal brief in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals defending the exchange.

The Aleut fishing village of about 950 has fought for decades to get such a road to the Cold Bay all-weather runway for medical evacuations in poor weather, but without success. The roadway would be routed along the edge of the 330,000-acre Izembek refuge. Environmental groups claim such a road would endanger migratory birds and eel grass they feed on – despite there already being more than 40 miles of roads in the refuge used by hunters.

The 11-mile stretch would complete a 30-mile road that would provide a reliable ground link to Cold Bay’s all-weather runway when the area’s notoriously fierce weather grounds small planes.

King Cove is the poster village for the disconnect between Alaska and those who value a duck more than a human life. It is emblematic of forgotten federal trust responsibilities for Native Alaskans. Environmental interests fear allowing such a road would set precedent and pave the way for bars and convenience stores in refuges across the nation. That somebody surely will die at King Cove someday trying to reach medical help without the road is of little consequence to them.

King Cove is a tiny pin hole in a very large map, a wind-blown fishing village in the Aleutians East Borough. Located on the Pacific Ocean side of the Alaska Peninsula, out near its end, it is about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage and hard against the Izembek refuge.

Residents have been trying to get a road built since before the refuge was designated mostly as wilderness by the Alaska National Interest Lands Act in 1980. Unsurprisingly, they say, nobody bothered to tell villagers there would be a wildlife refuge nearby, or that it would contain wilderness or affect construction of a road to Cold Bay.

Ferocious weather grounds or delays King Cove’s aircraft about half the time. Eleven people have died in unsuccessful medical evacuations and other plane trips in and out of King Cove over the past four decades. The worst accident was in 1981, when a medevac crash killed all four aboard. Trying to reach Cold Bay by boat in bad weather is dangerous, too. It is a harrowing two- to three-hour trip through life-threatening, tumultuous seas.

Coast Guard helicopters regularly are used to evacuate residents in horrid weather. Each medevac mission presents a very real danger to pilots, crew and residents. Watching videos of the missions will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Congress has done about everything it can do to appease environmentalists and avoid building a road. In 1997, it provided $37.5 million for a clinic and water access to Cold Bay that included a $9 million hovercraft later beached because of expense and reliability issues.

It turns out, a simple, gravel road is the only safe way to medically evacuate those who need to reach Anchorage, no matter the weather. Without the road, somebody, some day, again is going to die in King Cove trying to reach medical help.

It is simply a matter of time. Perhaps Haaland will see the importance of valuing human life over ducks and eel grass.

We can hope, but we will not hold our breath.

Read more at the Anchorage Daily Planet.

Anchorage’s deep state: New equity officer can’t be let go without OK from Assembly

Suzanne Downing
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52
Anchorage’s deep state: New equity officer can’t be let go without OK from Assembly

CRITICAL RACE THEORY AT CITY HALL

The new Anchorage chief equity officer, who makes $115,000 per year, was hired in the final days of Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson’s 8-month duration at the helm of Anchorage City Hall.

This is one of the positions that could be trimmed by the new Mayor Dave Bronson, conservatives say.

After all, it’s Critical Race Theory in practice, something that conservatives find reprehensible.

Some who voted for Bronson have expected that the position had already been eliminated, since there’s already an equal opportunity officer at the city.

Clifford Armstrong, the director of equity and justice, cannot be fired or laid off, no matter how egregious his actions may be, without the express consent of the Assembly. The position cannot be left vacant, now that it has been filled.

Read: Equity officer hired out of Tacoma to run new office for mayor

That clause is written right into the ordinance. The mayor doesn’t get to decide if he is doing his job, which according to the ordinance, is to improve the lives and livelihoods of people with certain skin color, disability, and LGTBQIA+ status. 

Enabling legislation job description is downloadable here:

AO-2020-079S-As-Amended-OCRDownload

The “equity” term refers to “equal outcome,” as opposed to equal opportunity, which is why people who believe in hard work and merit-based rewards object to the new fad that has come from the Critical Race Theory concept.

Armstrong runs the Anchorage Office of Equity and Justice, which has been structured in the same way as the Office of Internal Audit. The auditor also can’t be fired without the approval of the Assembly.

“After the initial appointment effective immediately, the term of office for the chief equity officer shall be four years, ending on December 31, effective with appointment to the term beginning January 1, 2021,” the ordinance read. It went into effect before former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz left office after a major scandal involving a local news reporter.

“The chief equity officer may be dismissed by the mayor only for cause shown, and only with the concurrence of a majority of the assembly,” the law reads. According to the ordinance, “The office of equity and justice shall have such assistants and employees as are necessary to perform all required duties.”

There are no clear deliverables for the job, so firing the equity officer “for cause shown” is clearly an impossible task, unless the majority of the Assembly is flipped to conservative, which is unlikely in Anchorage. The next election is in April.

According to the ordinance, Clifford’s contract will remain for four years, beyond the next mayoral election. He will get to cruise for four years, collaborating with radicals who control the Assembly and passing information to the Alaska Democratic Party. All on the taxpayers’ dime.

Vice President Pence slips quietly in and out of Alaska to support wounded warriors

Suzanne Downing
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Vice President Pence slips quietly in and out of Alaska to support wounded warriors

Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen slipped quietly into the Lake Clark area over the past few days to visit with military veterans and their spouses at the Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Heal Our Patriots lodge at Port Alsworth, where wounded veterans and their spouses have solace and support for their marriages and their faith in God. Plus, they get to fish and hike.

“What an encouragement to these couples who have sacrificed so much,” said Franklin Graham, President and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Learn more about Operation Heal Our Patriots at this link.

Win Gruening: Alaskans are finally getting back to work

Suzanne Downing
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Win Gruening: Alaskans are finally getting back to work

By WIN GRUENING

Thanks to supplemental Federal unemployment benefits ending last month, Alaska workers, like those in many other states are finally getting back to work.  Republican officials across the country have long claimed that generous unemployment benefits were a disincentive for returning to jobs. 

In what has become a national trend,  many Alaska business owners have not been able to fill open positions.

In a recent ADN article, Misty Stoddard, an owner at Rain Proof Roofing in Anchorage said she wasn’t getting many applications. Some people have told her they’d prefer to continue collecting unemployment benefits.

Many business owners in the local hospitality industry have similar stories to tell. Trina Johnson, owner of La Mex restaurant in South Anchorage, said she’s had trouble finding workers.

A record-high 48% of small business owners in the U. S. reported unfilled openings in May, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.  Alaska’s reliance on the visitor industry has disproportionately affected our state as restaurant owners, tourism related businesses, and their suppliers are experiencing a growing labor shortage as the economy tries to recover.  

In many cases, the $300-a-week benefit, which was reduced from the $600-a-week payment authorized under the original CARES Act last March, meant that many unemployed workers were  earning the same or more by not working.  According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, based on a 40-hour work week, the average unemployed American was getting the equivalent of $17.17 an hour – more than twice the Federal minimum wage.  In 21 states, unemployed households could potentially earn the equivalent of $25/hour while not working. 

In March 2021, there were 31,841 Alaskans collecting state unemployment benefits, over three times the number collecting unemployment benefits a year earlier. Yet, the Dunleavy administration had been hearing from employers for some time that a growing labor shortage was preventing businesses from fully re-opening as pandemic related precautions eased.  According to Alaska Commissioner of Labor, Tamika Ledbetter, the state’s available-jobs database had more openings than the number of people on unemployment.  Based on that information, on May 14, Gov. Dunleavy made the decision to discontinue the Federal supplemental payment beginning in June.

In doing so, Alaska joined 17 other states that announced they planned to end the special Federal benefit.  A week later, at least 25 states, including Alaska —all with Republican governors—had announced similar plans.  Some states even decided to offer bonuses to employees that returned to work.  “In Arizona, we’re going to….encourage people to work…instead of paying people not to work,” Governor Doug Ducey said announcing Arizona would be offering one-time bonuses to returning workers.

Dunleavy’s action was praised by Republican officials and many private sector business leaders.  Some Democratic lawmakers, UAA economists, and labor unions disputed that the higher unemployment payments discouraged people from work and criticized the cut.

However, evidence has continued to mount since then that ending the benefit has positively affected many states across the country, including Alaska.

Recently released U. S. Labor Department data on unemployment claims reflect welfare rolls expanding in the states where the unemployment bonus remains in place. Conversely, the number of people on welfare is shrinking in the states where the supplement expired. 

States that announced an end to enhanced federal unemployment benefits in June saw a 13.8 percent drop in residents receiving benefits from mid-May through June 12, according to an analysis by Jefferies LLC.  States announcing an end to the federal unemployment in July saw a 10 percent decline in residents receiving state benefits.  Meanwhile, some studies show states that continued the bonus posting increases in initial claims.

In Alaska, total unemployment claims dropped from nearly 30,000 the week before the extra federal benefit ended to just under 26,000 in late June, according to state data. They peaked at more than 66,500 a year ago.

As visitor numbers begin to increase across the state, it is critical that Alaska businesses are able to staff up to meet the demand. 

Thanks to Governor Dunleavy, one more impediment to accomplishing that has been removed.

After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening began writing op-eds for local and statewide media. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations and currently serves on the board of the Alaska Policy Forum.

Read: Ranked choice voting is not that simple

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