 Y/K Charter Application Still Needs To Be Approved By State Education Board December 03, 2003
Yukon/Koyukuk has proposed to operate Alyeska as a charter correspondence school. The Alyeska charter school will operate separately from Yukon/Koyukuk's Raven statewide correspondence school, which enrolls approximately 1,000 students from around Alaska. Raven operates academic centers in Anchorage, Delta Junction, Juneau, Fairbanks and Wasilla that will be used for the academic and assessment activities of students enrolled in Alyeska and their teachers, according to Yukon/Koyukuk's proposal. Yukon/Koyukuk has proposed to target students who historically have enrolled in and succeeded in Alyeska's instructional program. Alyeska will continue to operate year round. Alyeska will retain its name and have its own staff, administrators and maintenance personnel. Yukon/Koyukuk does not plan to replace existing Alyeska staff. The district plans to negotiate with a private firm to keep Alyeska inventories in the school's current Juneau warehouse under the district's own lease. Alyeska staff will remain in Juneau and will be relocated to office space near the Juneau warehouse. Alyeska's traditional print based curriculum produced by Alyeska teachers will continue to be used, but Yukon/Koyukuk will encourage increased use of electronic media such as web based online courses, distance-delivered web television courses from a central location in the district office, contract courses and courses developed by other schools. Yukon/Koyukuk will continue to use two parent advisory committees presently active at Alyeska and, according to the proposal, their roles will become more important as Alyeska expands in Alaska. Alyeska will cease to operate as a state entity on July 1, 2004. On that date, the school will come under the control of the Yukon/Koyukuk School District. The Department of Education & Early Development proposed to eliminate direct correspondence study services to students through Alyeska since a number of school districts began operating statewide correspondence study programs in the past half-dozen years. The legislature gave the department one year to find a school district to operate the school. The next step is for the Yukon/Koyukuk School District and Board of Education to submit a charter school application to the State Board of Education. The State Board by law must approve all charter school applications before they begin operations. Proposals were evaluated by a five-member team composed of the department's procurement officer, a representative from the commissioner's office, a representative from the Division of Teaching & Learning Support, a representative from Alyeska Central School, and a representative from the ACS Parent Advisory Committee. Juneau and Galena school districts
also submitted applications to assume operations of Alyeska.
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