Public comments are front and center at school board meeting

Parents showed up in force at last week’s school board meeting to voice their concerns regarding the school district’s response when a student showed up at the Nome-Beltz campus with an unloaded gun, and —addressing a separate issue— expressed frustration over the resignation of the district’s Director of Special Education. 
 
January 6 incident at Nome-Beltz Middle High School
On January 6, school officials notified the Nome Police Department mid-morning that a student brought a firearm to school. NPD officers arrived on scene and took the student into custody. No one was injured. Superintendent Jamie Burgess notified parents and the community via a letter later that afternoon and issued another letter on January 9. 
Parent Krystal Hensley expressed frustration how Nome Public Schools communicated with parents during the hours following the incident on Tuesday. “I was deeply troubled by the statement that no students were in danger. The presence of a firearm creates a dangerous situation and instills fear among students, staff and families,” she said. “Equally concerning was the delay in communication. Parents were notified approximately five hours after the incident occurred. In matters involving student safety, timely communication is critical.” 
In a follow-up interview with the Nugget, Superintendent Jamie Burgess said that once school administration at Beltz heard about the firearm, they had immediately notified Nome Police Department. Burgess said that the news about the firearm was second hand – a student who saw the weapon told another student who told administration – but the district still called the police and instituted a stay-in-place order. “They didn’t do that through the entire school because it was a rumor at that point in time,” she said.
Burgess said that the district’s first priority was to make sure that the situation was stable. That included calling first responders and removing the student from the classroom. NBMHS Principal Teriscovkya Smith sat in on the interviews that NPD conducted with students. After the interviews, Smith sent Burgess a narrative of the incident, which Burgess said she sent out immediately. “I know that parents were just like ‘We wanted to know immediately’,” she said. “However, honestly, one of the last things that we need in a crisis situation is a whole bunch of panicked parents showing up at the school.”
Principal Smith said that once the Nome Police Department determined that the campus was not in danger, the school did not go into any kind of violent intruder protocol or lockdown response.
Smith advocated for holding a town hall meeting with the community as soon as possible, an idea discussed in the January 9 letter that the superintendent sent out. Smith said that an in-person communication and education about the district’s policies and responses would be a good way to garner feedback from the community. “As a district, we need to do a better job of informing the community of what the aftermath looks like when you have an incident at school,” she said.
Parent Jesse Blandford commended the students who had come forward and reported that their friend had a firearm. “They did the hard thing, and they opened themselves to criticism from others by being a snitch,” he said.
Blandford also emphasized the importance of finishing the security upgrades on Nome-Beltz Middle High School. He said that to have the roof go out for bids multiple times but the security upgrades ignored after the initial push is “unacceptable.” He said that the school needs to keep pushing for the upgrades. “Keep bringing it up so it doesn’t get kicked down the road, and we aren’t thinking reactively every time this happens,” he said.
In the superintendent’s report, Burgess noted that the last time the City of Nome had sent out a request for proposals, on the construction of safety doors, the cost came back much higher than expected. “We’re going to put it out again, and that’s another thing that we’re also discussing with the city council, and possibly we may have to reach out to some of our community partners to see if they might be in a position to make some undirected donations,” she said.
Parent Jessica Farley was frustrated about the safety doors not being installed at Beltz. “It’s my understanding that the locks and security equipment is here, sitting away, rotting away, freezing, thawing, and so what I would ask for you to do is to RFP it out so that the doors are locked by the end of the week or so,” she said. “I know that new doors, new concrete, all of the stuff that’s really expensive takes time, but there’s no excuse not to lock these doors now.”
Burgess noted in a follow-up interview with the Nugget that she was surprised at the statement, saying that she wasn’t aware of a pile of supplies intended for the safety doors being here in Nome. “All I’m aware of is that our locksmith came up, brought a bunch of things up, and ticked off a whole bunch of some lock issues that we had had for a while,” she said. “Do we still have a few things that probably need to be addressed? Yes, but I think for the most part, right now at least, that the Beltz exterior doors are at least now secure.”
Burgess said that even if safety doors had been installed at the entrance to the school, it would not have stopped the January 6 incident from occurring. The safety doors are intended to stop external threats. “That doesn’t necessarily prevent a situation such as when a student who’s enrolled in the school and attending on a normal basis shows up with a gun,” she said. “We do not do pat downs. We don’t have metal detectors, so that’s not something that would necessarily prevent that.”
Burgess said that district understands that they need to do a better job of educating families on understanding the timelines and responses to these situations. “It’s like theory versus practice, and then you say, ‘Okay, now we got to go back and change some of our things that we’re learning,’” she said. “We’re very lucky that we’re learning from something that didn’t result in something more serious than what it was.”

SPED
The district moved the Director of Special Education’s position to a fully in-person role as opposed to the hybrid job, which allowed for remote work. Due to this change, SPED Director Mary Donaldson resigned and her last day of work will be July 1, 2026. Donaldson works in Nome in person and most of the time remotely from Wisconsin.
Rhonda Sparks was the first parent to speak up during the public comment periods in support of Mary Donaldson. She cited how Donaldson’s tenure as head of the SPED program had significantly benefited kids, saying that before Donaldson took over the program, special education Alaska Native students in the district were suspended at a higher rate than other students. When Donaldson leaves, she is worried that the improvements in the program will go with her. “Perhaps reconsider having that position as a SPED director, to remain remote at a minimum, or at the very least, transition this out,” she said.
Parent Jessica Farley said that since Donaldson took the position, her son has received real care and his needs were met. “For four years, he’s gotten services that he’s entitled to. The other kids in the special ed program are thriving. Their test scores are increasing,” she said. “Yes, Mary’s position is hybrid. Who cares?”
Peggy Simpson, a special education teacher with the district, noted that Donaldson takes care of a lot of behind-the-scenes paperwork and procedure. Simpson said that the district employs a high percentage of international teachers who might be trained on SPED education but are not necessarily familiar with the local paperwork. Donaldson takes care of a lot of that paperwork.  
“We have all these international teachers now, which are wonderful. We have staff, but they do not understand the intricacies of our political work and our legal work,” she said. 
Gracy and Adam Lust wrote a letter to the board that was included in the agenda for the meeting. They said that while they would support an onsite SPED director in the future, they don’t want Donaldson to leave yet. “But also, in 4 years Mrs. Donaldson has taken the program from 3 teachers and 2 paraprofessionals to a staff of over 20 to meet the needs of a rising and demanding population. The SPED team is strong, works well together and feel supported; and Mrs. Donaldson has made herself available 24/7 to SPED students and family,” they wrote.
In a follow-up interview with the Nugget, Burgess said that while Donaldson was not fully remote — she comes to the district for three and four day stretches every few weeks —  the district still wants to hire someone present in person fulltime. “It was just the decision that that was going to be the best when we looked at everything, students, staffing, leadership, everybody as a whole,” she said. 
 
School calendar
In other business, the board voted to approve the school calendar and a later start and end date than the previous cycle. School starts again before Labor Day in mid-August and ends in late May.

Contracts
The board voted to approve the offer of contracts to four administrators for the following year – Teriscovkya Smith and Holly Harlow at NBMHS, Emily Annas at ACSA and Korenek-Johnson, the assistant superintendent. Nome Elementary School Principal Michelle Carton was not on the list of administrators offered a contract.
The Nome Education Association held a vote two weeks ago with certified staff at Nome Elementary School and 82 percent voted “no confidence” in the NES principal. Nome Education Association president Rachel Ventress said that there is a general lack of confidence in the way things are handled at the elementary school.
Burgess, told the Nugget, said that she couldn’t speak to if Carton not being offered a contract this month had anything to do with the NEA vote. She said that in general, the district tries to take teacher’s voices into consideration. “Anytime when we have concerns that are brought to us through the association or even just through an individual, we absolutely try to work through some type of an acceptable solution to all parties,” she said.
Burgess added that there are many reasons why a contract might not be renewed in the first round of renewals. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be offered a contract,” she said.
 
Reduction in force
The board voted in favor of the proposed reduction in force plan, which structures cuts if the district does not receive enough funding for fiscal year 2027. In her report, Superintendent Burgess presented the draft budget for 2027 and indicated that the district has budgeted for a $3.5 million appropriation from the City of Nome – up $800,000 from this year’s appropriation, but only up $70,000 from the 2025 appropriation. “Last year it had dropped significantly, and we let them know that we are not in a position for that type of a reduction for this coming year without some significant cuts,” she said. 
 
Reports 
During NES principal Michelle Carton’s board report, she updated the board on the winter holiday program, the upcoming science fair and spelling bee, and ongoing efforts to introduce more multicultural education in the elementary school. Carton said that the school has reintroduced selling promotional NES gear and hopes to use the profits to send the winner of the science fair to compete at the state level.
She said that some of the feedback she had gotten from the community was that NES is multicultural, and that students should have the opportunity to learn from all the cultures present at NES, instead of just an emphasis on Inuit culture. She acknowledged that she sometimes tries to do too much, too fast.
ACSA Principal Emily Annas showed a video of ACSA students doing a hands-on science experiment and reported on the school’s field trip to the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum and the arrival of four hydroponic garden towers.
Facility Manager Jonathan Duarte noted that the recent shutdowns at NES on January 7 and 8 were caused by sewer issues as the plumbing vents on the outside of the building were plugged. “Two of them had debris in it somehow, like some actual soda cans,” he said. “We’re going to put some side guards on the ramp to kind of eliminate people climbing up there.”
The board will meet for a work session Tuesday, January 27 at 5:30 p.m. in the NES library and their next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the NES library.