Members of the Juneau Alaska Music Matters program perform for the Juneau School District Board of Education meeting at Juneau Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. (Peter Segall | Juneau Empire)

Members of the Juneau Alaska Music Matters program perform for the Juneau School District Board of Education meeting at Juneau Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. (Peter Segall | Juneau Empire)

District makes changes to computer-monitoring program

Board discusses technology and school security

After concerns from parents and students, Juneau School District is reworking the way it’s using a controversial new monitoring program.

During Tuesday’s regular school board meeting, Superintendent Bridget Weiss addressed Bark, a software program used to monitor student communications on school servers. When that program was implemented in September, parents and students raised concerns about privacy and data collection.

Weiss said a Frequently Asked Questions sheet was sent out to parents, and district representatives had spent time working with the company to try and assuage concerns about the software.

User data will now only be held by the company for 15 days, rather than the previous 30, and language filters had been altered to be less sensitive, resulting in fewer false positives, Weiss said.

Weiss said the next step is creating collaborative work groups with community members in pursuit of that goal.

Weiss also talked about the ways the school district addresses safety and security in schools. Staff recently completed the mandatory Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate school-shooter training for the year.

“Age and developmentally appropriate” school shooter drills were held in all school buildings, Weiss told the school board. Additionally, Weiss said the Juneau Police Department recently contacted the district with the idea of creating a kind of collaborative team of individuals trained in threat assessment.

The idea is still in its infancy, Weiss said, but the goal was to be “proactive rather than reactive, and provide support for people who might need that.”

JAMMing out, language

The board received a musical reprieve from its routine business.

To open the meeting, members of Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) performed two songs for the school board using violins, cellos, ukuleles and drums.

JAMM Executive Director Megan Johnson told the audience there were now instructors working for the tuition-free music program who had begun their own musical education with JAMM.

“It’s a beautiful representation of our success,” Johnson said.

After the young musicians left the School Board got back to its regular business. The bulk of the meeting began with Weiss giving her regular report to the board.

Weiss said that she had recently returned from a meeting with the Native Education Advisory Council, which focused on how school districts can support indigenous language learning.

Earlier this year, the Juneau School District formed a Tlingit Language Revitalization Task Force which began looking at ways the schools could integrate Tlingit language instruction into curriculum.

‘A’ is for audit

The school board also got a run-down of the district’s financial situation. JSD Director of Administrative Services Sarah Jahn walked board members through the highlights of a nearly 200-page report on district accounts. Jahn was joined by independent financial auditor Karen Tarver, who works for the accounting firm of Elgee Rehfeld.

“As a result of the audit,” Tarver told the school board, “we issued an unmodified opinion. That basically means you got an A.”

That’s not to say the school district has no financial worries, Tarver said, just that everything on the books appears as it should.

Jahn told the board the district has a fund balance of roughly $4.8 million and gave the members an overview of where the district’s money was coming and going.

The financial report will ultimately be submitted to the state Department of Education and Early Development as well as the city Assembly.

The report is available from the school board’s website.


• Contact reporter Peter Segall at 523-2228 or psegall@juneauempire.com.


More in News

The Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Encore docks in Juneau in October, 2022. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Ships in Port for the Week of May 28

Here’s what to expect this week.

The Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding area is seen under an overcast sky on May 12. A federal order published Friday bans mineral extraction activities such as mining in an expanded area of land surrounding the glacier for the next 20 years. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)
Feds expand ban on mineral extraction near Mendenhall Glacier

20-year prohibition on mining, oil drilling applies to newly exposed land as ice continues retreat

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Police calls for Thursday, June 1, 2023

This report contains information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Bulk food in Food Bank of Alaska’s Anchorage warehouse on April 21. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
State roughly halves the number of Alaskans waiting on food aid, but more than 8,000 remain

By Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon Mary Wood has been waiting for food… Continue reading

Photos by Lee House / Sitka Conservation Society
Aliyah Merculief focuses on her run while snowboarding at Snow Camp.
Resilient Peoples & Place: Bringing up a new generation of Indigenous snow shredders

“Yak’éi i yaada xwalgeiní” (“it is good to see your face”) reads… Continue reading

A polar bear feeds near a pile of whale bones north of Utqiaġvik. (Courtesy Photo /Ned Rozell)
Alaska Science Forum: Polar bears of the past survived warmth

In a recent paper, scientists wrote that a small population of polar… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Police calls for Wednesday, May 31, 2023

This report contains information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Writer Jane Hale smiles for a photo as the wind blows a newly raised LGBTQ+ flag at the Hurff A. Saunders Federal Building downtown. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)
Faces of Pride: Jane Hale

This is the first story in a four-part series spotlighting Pride Month in Juneau.

Michael Ruppert inspects percussion instrumentation that’s part of the setup for the 1928 Kimball Theatre Pipe Organ in the State Office Building. Ruppert, co-owner of Rose City Organ Builders in Oregon, spent two days this with with fellow co-owner Christopher Nordwall tuning and restoring the organ to playable condition. The instrument has not been played since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but local officials and musicians are hoping to schedule a lunchtime concert during the next couple of weeks. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Clearing the old pipes in the Kimball organ at the State Office Building

Tuners revive 1928 organ that’s been idle for three years; lunchtime concerts may resume next week

Most Read