When it comes to sex education, human reproduction and human sexuality education, Juneau’s school superintendent doesn’t foresee any issues stemming from House Bill 156, a parental rights bill that implements extra steps before such topics can be taught in the classroom.
“We do have to formally approve the people who do our human sexuality. From everything I’ve heard what we’ve been doing in the past has been working very well and everybody is very happy with, and so a little bit more formality to that process I really don’t see as being a huge issue for us,” superintendent Mark Miller said Tuesday night during a regular Juneau School Board meeting at Thunder Mountain High School library.
[New restrictions on sex ed become law]
Gov. Bill Walker allowed the bill, sponsored by Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, with amendments from Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, to pass without a signature. It becomes law on Oct. 26.
Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands has partnered with the district for the past four years to provide sexual health education and peer-to-peer education programs, like Teen Council.
“We really value the relationships that we have and have gotten great feedback from teachers, from parents and from the youth that we serve, and we want to continue that,” Juneau’s Planned Parenthood community outreach educator Cori Stennett said to the school board during public comment.
“We want to work with you all in whatever way is going to come about for the vetting process, and continue to engage with you and collaborate in the development of policies that will mean that we can keep coming in when invited and support our peer educators,” she continued.
School board member Emil Mackey wanted to make sure the district’s procedures were in line with Association of Alaska School Board policies.
“I don’t want to lose Planned Parenthood as a partner at all, so I want to be sure we have everything in line,” he said.
[Juneau teens say banning Planned Parenthood is bad for students]
Prior to HB 156, Miller said the board adopted the health curriculum and allowed administration to implement it.
“By adopting the curriculum, the board allowed de facto, if you will, the head of curriculum to decide who the provider would be,” Miller said during an interview after the meeting.
Now, the extra step, which Miller called “redundant and unnecessary,” means the director of teaching and learning support Ted Wilson will present the board with a list of sex education providers, and it’ll be up to the board to approve or not approve. Miller said that will likely occur during the next regular school board meeting Sept. 13.
Miller said the district has already been adhering to other elements of that section of the bill. For instance, the bill states that a sex education provider has to either be a certified teacher or supervised by a certified teacher.
“A certified teacher is always supposed to be in the room regardless of the subject,” Miller said.
HB 156 also states that before any materials related to sex education can be used in a classroom, it has to not only be approved by the board, but it also has to be available for parents to review. The same goes with a provider’s credentials.
“If a parent wants to review a person’s credential, we will make that available, absolutely,” Miller said.
Enrollment projections
This fall’s school enrollment could be about a hundred kids higher than prior estimates.
“We were projecting just under 4,600 students — 4,597 — and it’s looking like we’ll actually be slightly over 4,700, which is pretty good news,” Miller said.
He said the increase is spread throughout the grades. The figure is from the number of students’ names in the district’s system.
“Most of those kids have been rolled over from last year, we’ve had some people move in and they’ve registered their kids, and then we have the kindergartners and pre-K who we never know,” Miller said after the meeting.
The figure doesn’t take into account any students who may have moved out of the district, though, he added.
The increased enrollment could mean more money to the district, which Miller explained would go to hiring more teachers and staff, a “break even” for the budget.
Miller said Auke Bay Elementary School’s kindergarten classes are bigger than the district had anticipated, and other schools are smaller, which “may require some moving around of staff.”
Miller cautioned the board that the numbers are still changeable.
“Until all the high school kids show up, this is at best an estimate and nothing you can bank on, but right now it’s what we’re looking at,” Miller said. “I wanted to give you a heads up, and no doubt they will change tomorrow.”
• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 623-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.
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