In a Wednesday meeting before the Senate Education Committee, several Superintendents from across Alaska delivered a presentation called “School District Perspectives on Educating During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Kenai Peninsula Superintendent John O’Brien was among the participants.
The other participants were Deena Bishop of the Anchorage School District, Kerry Boyd of the Yukon School District, Bobby Bolen of the Bering Straight School District, and Jason Johnson of the Dillingham School District.
Superintendent O’Brien was asked how students will be able to recover from the strange circumstances that have interrupted their learning process during the 2020 and 2021 school years. He said that three years may be a lofty goal to see a full return to normalcy, as this is a generational situation that must be tackled tactfully: “What we’re planning on doing in the Kenai is making sure that we leverage our CARES Act funding. We’re expecting around $9 million here on the Kenai over the next year. We’re pleased that we’re able to use that over two years. Our plan is to make sure that we are spending the majority of that addressing just this question on how we’re going to catch students up, how we’re going to provide them with opportunities that have been lost during this global pandemic. So, we’re planning on hiring additional interventionists, on top of the ones we have, to address literacy and math skills – those are the two building blocks that we really need to immediately address.”
He offered precedent to support his optimism: “We’ve learned a lot from studies done from Hurricane Katrina and the impact that students in New Orleans and Louisiana faced in those school districts when those students were out of school, in some cases, for over a year due to the impact of Hurricane Katrina. What we’ve experienced here with this global pandemic is a Hurricane Katrina on a national and global scale.”
Their next meeting will involve five other Superintendents on Friday, February 12.