Share This

RALLY for Juneau’s Kids!

RALLY for Juneau's Kids!

The Juneau School District has decided on a rather odd way to wish its youngest students a happy new year.

RALLY, the district’s in-school child care program, is being decimated with cuts. Most morning programs are slated for closure as of January 3, and the entire RALLY program at Mendenhall River Community School (which currently serves over 50 kids) is being eliminated on February 4.

In addition to the harm done to a vital service from which many of today’s adults in the area benefitted when they were young children, the proposed cuts are also devastating to RALLY employees. Most site managers throughout the program will now be forced to become part-timers and to pay more for their health care coverage.

Half of the RALLY managers have degrees in the field of early education, the remainder of completed CDAs in the field, and the staff goes out of its way to coordinate its educational and cultural learning components to support what kids are learning in their academic classes.

“If they’re learning about, say, China, or medieval history during their school day, we’ll coordinate with the teacher and develop programming to support what they’re learning in class,” says RALLY site manager Cheryl Glen. “The idea is to build interest in and reinforce what they’re learning in class by way of fun activities related to the subject.”

Individual RALLY sites at the district’s elementary schools have also lost the independence that allows for such customized approaches. The sites no longer have their own budgets and can longer plan their own programs. Whereas they once did their own purchasing, and in fact used such transactions as educational opportunities in and of themselves for kids, they are now forced to buy things like food from the district’s centralized vendors.

Christina Ackmann once worked here as a high school intern, and found the work to be so meaningful to herself and the students that she has made it a career and has risen to the position of site manager.

“It’s been such a popular and effective program for so many throughout our area over the years,” Ackmann explains. “It makes no sense that hours are being cut, sites are being cut, staff is facing cuts, and we’ve lost the localized control and independence that have made it so successful. It feels like the district is setting us up to fail, and I don’t understand why.”

APEA’s Pete Ford may have an explanation, and it has to do with a connection to the community—or lack thereof—among the administration’s top brass.

“I don’t think Superintendent Gelbrich understands how important this program is to our community, and how many residents of Juneau have relied on it over the years,” explains Ford. “He’s not from here, as only been at the job for 3 years, still maintains his home in Portland, and has assembled most of his staff from out of state, so there’s minimal history or long-term investment within the administration.”

This is why the superintendent, as well as the school board, need to hear from us. Call Superintendent Gelbrich at (907) 523-1702 and remind him how important RALLY has been to our community. To save RALLY and our kids from these damaging cuts, you can also email the superintendent and school board here. (*See original article via the link for the hyperlink to email the superintendent and school board.)

Instead of only wishing Juneau’s kids a happy new year, we can actually help deliver them one.


Additional Resources