A school consolidation plan announced by the Juneau School District (JSD) has drawn fire from a dissident group calling themselves Community Advocates for Responsible Education (CARE). They are sponsoring petitions to recall two JSD board members and mounting a full-blown campaign blitz urging the board to reverse its decision to merge the two high schools.
As the extent of the financial difficulties facing the Juneau School District (JSD) unfolds, it’s clear that their situation did not develop overnight. For years, previous school administrators and Board of Education leadership ignored their own demographic projections and painted an unrealistic picture of future student populations.
While the City Clerk’s office has done a creditable job conducting Juneau’s recent municipal election, many residents are expressing dissatisfaction with the current vote-by-mail (VBM) system.
In a previous column I described several Assembly meetings where actions taken were less than transparent. That column discussed (1) an ordinance appropriating $50,000 to be used to advocate for the new City Hall; (2) the non-disclosure of emails that constitute public testimony; and (3) the surprise selection of former Assembly member Loren Jones to fill the position of resigning member Carole Triem.