Community “Wears Red for Ed” to support teacher negotiations

The Nome Public School Board met for its regular meeting last week, with an unusually large audience in attendance. Community members and faculty piled into the Nome Elementary School Library, wearing red to show their support for teachers who have been working without negotiated contracts since the school year began.
The display was a sea of red, but tides haven’t changed for teachers who are advocating for increased wages.
The board meeting ended without any public updates regarding negotiations, according to Superintendent Jamie Burgess, and the next meeting with the teacher negotiating team has not been set.
A group of teachers held a protest on October 31 in front of the Nome Elementary School before the workday began, with the goal of raising awareness in the community about the lack of a collective bargaining agreement in place.
A few weeks later dozens of supporters sat silently in the meeting “Wear Red for Ed” brandished on many t-shirts. A few teachers were hunched over stacks of papers, grading away.  A handful of students were in the audience, also in red.
Nome Public Schools and the Nome Education Association 2023-2024 negotiated agreement ended in June, and this year’s would typically be complete by now, as negotiations began in early spring.
Teachers are fighting for an increase to their salary that matches the rate of inflation, which many said hasn’t been provided in years.
When it came time for public comment at the meeting, Board President Darlene Trigg acknowledged the influx of visitors and gave a guideline of 30 minutes for both comment periods, asking people to stick to three minutes for their testimony.
“Nome’s future is in my classroom today. Our future is in all of those classrooms today, and it’s really important that you understand that,” Middle School Science Teacher Jennifer Berry said, kicking off the comments.  “And I know the parents and families that are here, they understand that, and we’re fighting for a way of life.”
Anvil City Science Academy teacher Keane Richards spoke about his dual income household; he said if his wife wasn’t employed by the hospital, he wouldn’t be able to afford to live in Nome. He acknowledged not everyone has that option. “Last year, when I was helping search for a potential new staff member at our school who would have been great, the candidate in mind looked at our salaries and looked at our housing and there was no way that they were going to make the jump to move here.”
New music teacher at Nome-Beltz Richard Sargent stepped up to say since starting to work at Nome Public Schools he’s been in the best mental state of his life, but he notices colleagues, employed with the district for many years, who don’t feel the same way.
“Finding ways to help invest in them and retaining, I think that’s the best that we can have for the students,” Sargent said.
A need for more paraprofessionals, more support when it comes to housing and increased efforts to retain the teachers already in the district, were all brought up to the board, sometimes with criticism, other times in the form of a plea.
As the community made their thoughts known, a common theme shone through: Teachers deserve to be paid more.
“We should not have to be here begging to be paid what we deserve,” Rosa Wright said.
In total 18 people spoke to the board.
Board member Nancy Mendenhall said she was grateful people were able to speak so directly and heartfelt to the board. “And we got criticized a lot tonight, but I welcome the criticism because I thought it was all sincere. I don’t agree with every single thing, but it was sincere. It was concerned people that really care about the students and about the teachers, and I know that we do too,” Mendenhall said.
The other board members echoed similar sentiments in their board comments.
In total 18 people spoke directly to the board.
“I think the last time I saw that was when we had a book list to discuss,” Principal of Nome-Beltz Teriscovkya Smith commented later in the meeting.

Other Business
This was board member Bob Metcalf’s final meeting after serving on the board for over three years. Metcalf announced his resignation at last month’s meeting, the school board is currently taking applicants to replace the vacancy.
Two students were awarded student of the month by Principal Smith: Sixth grader Teegan Oleson and Junior Kaya Kent.
Nome Elementary School has exited Comprehensive Support and Improvement status, after exceeding the threshold of 5 percent in the ranking of Title 1 schools in the state. Through improved AK Star testing scores, they rose above the bottom 5 percent designation but will continue to work with the Alaska Department of Early Education Community leadership team for the remainder of the school year.
“Congratulations to Mrs. KJ, Mr. Settle and all of the teachers and staff at the elementary school, they’ve been working for a very long time under that designation, and they’re officially out,” Burgess said.
The board voted to approve the yearly audit that was presented to them.
They tabled a resolution to request the legislature increase the Base Student Allocation, or BSA which is the primary source of state funding for the district. Last year a bill was almost passed to increase the BSA permanently for the first time in over a decade, but Governor Mike Dunleavy vetoed it, and the legislature failed to overturn the veto.
The board moved to hold off on passing the resolution to recommend the legislature increases the BSA because they didn’t have a specific number to increase it to and wanted to use the number the Association of Alaska School Boards is advocating for. They will vote on the updated resolution at the December 10 regular meeting.