Graduation regalia policy, Riverbend rename up for introduction at School Board meeting

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Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 7:39am

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Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The Juneau Board of Education is set to meet tonight and up for introduction is a policy protecting the use of native regalia during graduation.

It was authored by School Board member Martin Stepetin, who said he was spurred to introduce the policy after introducing a resolution about the matter while he attended a conference of Alaska school boards, or AASB.

"It has to do with allowing students to wear their regalia at graduation ceremonies and other events in the school districts and it's a great resolution. There is no state law in this, protecting students rights to choice of whether they can use their regalia or not. There's been a couple of high-profile incidences throughout Alaska where students wanted to wear their regalia and couldn't or actually put the regalia on and had it taken off of them right before they're going to graduate. Those are few and far between, but there is no single law on this, and so this resolution helped to resolve that."

He said the Juneau school district does not currently stop students from wearing cultural regalia during graduation, but he introduced the measure to put such protections in district policy.

"If it passes then we will have a policy in place that will protect the use of Regalia," he said. "Whether we're here or not, that will always be protected, and if they wanted to remove it, a future board would have to remove it."

That policy will be introduced in first reading at the meeting.

Also introduced in first reading will be the renaming of Riverbend Elementry after the school was gifted the Tlingit A’akw name Kax̱digoowu Héen.

The name translates to “Going Back to Clear Water”.

The district administration is recommending that the board accept the name and rename Riverbend.

The board will take up in first reading an alignment of High School World Languages Curriculum, the goal is to align it with State and National Standards while integrating culturally-relevant, place-based instruction.

Approval of the 2023 contract for the Juneau Community Charter School is up in first reading. The contract is taken up annually. The administration recommends renewal.

The meeting is scheduled for tonight at 6pm.

The board will convene an hour and a half earlier at 4:30 to hold an executive session on collective bargaining.

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