To the Editor:
The real news is that Family Partnership Charter School (FPCS), an Anchorage School District alternative program for home based education, is opening up a new and unique option in Girdwood. This is not, however, a school in the traditional sense. There will be no new building. Next Fall, Family Partnership will be helping families and students set up a home-based educational program individually with certified Anchorage School District teachers, including one core study group classroom in Girdwood.
For the last eleven years, Family Partnership Charter School has served as an Anchorage School District alternative program that supports a wide range of opportunities for students. The program centers on parental involvement. Families choose a path for their children that must meet the approval of the school district, state certified teachers and the administration. The program offers families the ability to create and tailor unique educational plans for their children. In so doing, families bear the primary responsibility for the management of their children’s education.
The program distributes an allotment per student for families to use under state, district, and school rules for educational purposes. All students partner with a sponsor teacher that will help plan, communicate, monitor progress and transcribe home school grades. The “school” is actually is non-sectarian partnership between students, parents, professional educators and community members. The program takes many forms; a school without walls, small groups and individualized instruction, correspondence, on-line and hands-on learning.
In some cases, families have chosen to organize with teachers to meet in small groups twice a week for a mixture of group, individual and home school instruction. Core subjects, such as Science, Social Studies, Math and Language Arts are taught in these small group settings, while electives and other work is done at home the rest of the week with parental support.
Girdwood families have been participating individually in this program since the inception of our school. The new development is the desire on the part of some in Girdwood to set up a small group class scenario. They are hoping to find other 7-12th grade students who might be interested in participating in morning classes two or three days a week in Girdwood. Students would enroll in the Family Partnership program and use part of their allotted funds to purchase correspondence curriculum, teacher/monitor time, and meeting space. Families would still play a pivotal role in designing and monitoring their child’s education, while the group classes would offer additional support, providing a structured workspace with minimal distractions.
Again, this is not a new school for Girdwood in the traditional sense; it’s actually something better, a new option to customize an individual program for your child’s educational success.
For more information please call Family Partnership at 742-3700.
Reed Whitmore
Family Partnership Charter School Principal
Anchorage, AK
Girdwood Road Improvements
To the Editor:
As many of you have noticed, several of the planned road improvements have been completed. The intersections of Timberline and Alyeska Hwy, Donnors Loop and Alyeska Highway and Alyeska Way and Alyeska Highway have be paved. The roads of Timberline, Alpine Meadow, Okemo, Alyeska Way, Davos, Mt. Hood and Donnors Loop to Alyeska Highway have been re-contoured, additional RAP applied, the roads shaped with industry standard crowning and the ditches pulled for proper drainage.
The GBOS, the Roads Supervisor, Jim Henderson and the paid full-time Road, Fire & Facility Manager, Nick Danger are waiting for several new culverts to be delivered so that damaged cross road culverts can be replaced before completing the planned road work. The culverts were ordered about seven weeks ago through the Muni public bid and purchasing program. We have been advised that they have finally been delivered to the muni this week. The planned application of asphalt emulsion has not been completed due to the necessity of completing the road repairs. The asphalt emulsion application will be completed hopefully in the next week or so immediately after the culverts repair and replacement is completed.
The quality and thoroughness of the work being completed recently has not been seen by the resident of Girdwood in years, unfortunately. As a consequence of this preventive and upgrade maintenance not having been completed for years, the cost of just getting the roads back in shape has exceeded forecasted and budgeted costs. The budget forecasts were based on past years work activities and our current reduced maintenance hourly rates. Sadly, we could not and did not foresee the level of degradation in the roads nor the vast difference and improvement in quality of work demonstrated by our present road maintenance contractor McKenna Bros paving.
These two issues have caused the GBOS to need to increase the budget for this year’s roads maintenance. The ‘08 budget plus this increase is still less than that budgeted for ‘07 under our past contractor and certainly less than would have been necessary to budget for ‘08 had we retained our past contractor and the demanded cost increases. The increase we now see necessary is fully funded by excess moneys accumulated in the GBOS fund balance. The GBOS fund balance still exceeds Municipal mandated levels and is fully funded. No additional funds will be needed nor sought from the residents and taxpayers of Girdwood or the Muni to fund these increased needs.
A vast majority of the community has expressed shear glee in the quality, friendliness and promptness of the roadwork performed so far this year. Unfortunately, there have been a few nagging nabobs of negativism complaining about the inconveniences caused but the road work and the delays caused by the communities inability to get some of the supplies and materials necessary for completing this planned and announced maintenance, upgrade and improvement road work.
The GBOS, the Roads Supervisor and paid full time Road, Fire & Facility Manager would like to thank everyone for their patience and expressions of appreciation for the road maintenance completed and planned, and soon to be completed. It is our plan to budget and complete the same type of maintenance and improvements on another 2.5 mile of Girdwood streets next year. It is hoped that the residents of Girdwood will become actively involved in this fall’s budget discussions and attendant road care planning.
Please contact Nick Danger or the Girdwood Roads Office at 783-8147 any time
Jim Henderson, GBOS Road Supervisor and Nick Danger, Road & Facility Manager