EED Commissioner Sampson visits district
schools
Commissioner Roger Sampson of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Childhood Development toured schools in Kotzebue, Selawik and Kiana Thursday, with an eye on new educational services being offered by local Boys and Girls Clubs.
Boys and Girls Club of Alaska offers homework help to students in after-school “power hours,” and beginning this year will be a state-approved Supplemental Educational Service provider for public schools in the state. Representatives of Boys and Girls Club of Alaska, including Kotzebue Area Manager Stefanie Armstrong, accompanied Sampson on the trip around this region.
In Kotzebue, Superintendent Robert Boyle reviewed the upward trends in recent NWABSD test data with the commissioner at the district office.
Sampson had a school lunch of a chicken patty sandwich and tater tots in Kotzebue’s new cafeteria, while students from Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat sang “The Alaska Flag Song” onstage.
June Nelson Principal Sandy Kowalski and KMHS Principal Norm Eck led Sampson on a tour of the entire school building, stopping into classrooms along the way.
“I think I want to come back to middle school,” the commissioner said, looking around at the bright, spacious new middle school building, built to accommodate a new school design in which each level has its own common area surrounded by three classrooms.
In Kiana, Principal Ken Carr discussed the coming year, and the role the local Boys and Girls Club plays in supporting students’ education. They also talked about the possibility of the Boys and Girls Club sponsoring open gym nights at the school, according to Carr.
Sampson has taken a hands-on approach to working with Selawik Principal Doug Walker on the school’s improvement plans in recent years, and returned to the village to see what the Boys and Girls Club of Selawik is doing to support the school.
Boys and Girls Clubs have become more common in Alaska only within the last six years, according to Boys and Girls Club Vice President Noelle Hardt, giving students a place to meet up after-school for games, dances and other activities. This visit, though, was about what the clubs are doing to support the work of the school district. “We’re definitely raising the bar on our academic accountability,” Hardt said.
