Reasons why we should have our own school district…

1.  Smaller and more manageable school district - ASD has over 90 schools and over 41,000 students as of 2025/26 school year.  Our new District would be 12 schools with under 11,000 students.

2.  Local control of curriculum - Each public charter school in the district will be able to put forth their own curriculum that fulfills the requirements of the Education portion of the Borough Charter.  No more will schools be forced to use curriculum that goes against the values of our community.

3.  Variety of charter schools. - We have the opportunity as a community to hand design the types of schools we believe will be best for our area students! These focuses could include career and technical programs, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), immersion or arts programs, academic, homeschool , or other specialized approaches.  It will be up to the community to decide!

4.  Schools manage their own budget. - Instead of budgets where schools have been forced to spend all of their budgets each year, or have next year’s budget cut, our schools will be run like a business, or a home runs their budget. Each school will develop the mentality of saving money for projects and rainy days form year to year.

5.  Higher standards in education. - The ASD has for many years been listed in the bottom of the state listings for test scores, and as one of the highest in the nation for how much money is spent pre child.  In a November 2023 Harvard Journal of School Choice Study article entitled… The Nation’s Charter School Report Card:  A New Ranking of States by Charter Student Performance… Alaska has the highest ranking charter schools in the nation!  And the highest ranking public school in the state of Alaska is.. Eagle Academy public charter school, here in Eagle River!  So, we took that model and designed our new district around a model that works!

6.  Fostering strong community and parental engagement. - Each school will be designed by the  community out here.  Each school will have a board of parents, and staff that will run the school as per the charter they set up.  With the parents and staff working together we can create schools where parents feel like they finally have a voice in their children’s education and community participation is actually written into the Borough Charter

7.  Strong and consistent core curriculum. - While each school will have an academic focus based upon what they community has decided to set up, each school will be required, by Borough Charter, to include each day, Math, English Language Arts (ELA), Science/Health, Social Studies/History/Civic Education (Civics), and Physical Education as per State Requirements.

8.  School Board members elected from our community with ties to their local neighborhoods. - The ASD School Board is elected from all across the MOA, and the values of this community are always under represented.  With our own District, each School Board member is elected from the 7 different voting districts made up of our area,  Each member has closer ties to their neighborhood, and none are at-large.

9.  Transparency - Each school will be required to keep information on a public website such as, showing semesterly grade level class sizes, waitlist numbers, finances - income, costs and savings.  Parents will have access to information on their children more easily than today.  Parents will know more about what is going on in their schools as well as who is presenting in their schools to their children.

10.  Bus service across the district. - We have already had discussions with the local bus company out here, and they believe with some slight alterations to start times of schools, we can offer the ability of students to be able to go to any school in the district by bus if they desire.

True School Choice!

 

 IF … you’re wanting to know why we need a new education model for our schools.

​IF… you’re wondering how we can afford to run our own school district.

​IF… you’d like to understand better what a charter school is

​and what a district of charter schools can look like.

​ You’ve come to the right place!

 

Listen to this podcast regarding Eaglexit and Schools

(Click the play button below)

 Why Change?

A smaller school district means local control – complete transparency with spending

and a strong education system encourages students how to think rather than what to

think. Our goal is to build a generation of smart, intelligent citizens who will want to

return to a strong community for the opportunities for themselves and their children.

 

Where is the other $62 million going?

How can we afford not to separate from the MOA and ASD?

Per state law, our community is required to contribute almost 3 mills towards education; which would be a reduction of $21 million from our current situation with the MOA and ASD. Even with the reduced AD2 contributions, Eaglexit’s proposed budget would increase the amount of funding being used in benefit of AD2 teachers, students, and facilities. In step with the larger borough plan, Eaglexit plans to award  competitive contracts with local businesses to the maximum extend practicable to incentivize cost efficiency and quality performance so that the district administrative staff remains at a minimum.

Here are some of the highlights we anticipate with Eaglexit’s proposed education plan and budget:​

  • Increasing teacher wages suitable for independent retirement planning;

  • Long-term planning & saving for facility maintenance/repair;

  • Allow carry-over budgeting from one fiscal year to the next;

  • Contract with Reliant for bussing services; and etc.

*If you are a numbers person and would like to see the financial charts/spreadsheets prepared for Eaglexit, you may access them in the Education Folder on the Documents Tab.

 
 
 

Letter of Intent

It is our intent with this charter to above all else limit the powers of the School Board, the district Superintendent, and district administration in their duties and reach. The charter gives the greatest authority to the community of the CRB to control the direction of their school district, and the authority to decide the best educational models, and curricula for the students. The entire premise of the new district is to allow authority to flow up through the schools and community, to the Superintendent, and finally to the School Board.

This district will be based upon the idea that parents have a choice to ensure their children the best possible chance to succeed in their education, and thus their future. With that, each school within the CSD will be a charter school, where the community will come together to decide upon what each individual school’s educational focus shall be. The district will have an open enrollment, with no boundaries. This will ensure that every child, no matter their socio-economic status, physical location, or family situation, can attend the school that is best suited to their needs. Each school’s focus will be to exceed the State Standards and Expectations. Our goal is to set the standards for districts across the country!

The CSD will utilize contracted services wherever and whenever possible to streamline and run the district more efficiently. The CSD will be a district run by a School Board that will exist only for the benefit of the students, not for the betterment of its members. This will be done through a lifetime term limit of one, four-year term. The seats will be staggered every two years. . The Superintendent’s authority will be derived from the community. The School Board will hire a Superintendent who will not have the authority, or autonomy of a traditional public-school Superintendent. Each charter school within the CSD will be a school founded by the stakeholders of the community (parents, school staff, and AD2 residents). Each school will have an Academic Policy Committee (APC) to see that the charter of the school is strictly followed. Each APC will hire the principal of their school, who will then in turn, hire the staff. The principal will continue to carry out the protection of the charter with their staff. It is our intent with the budget the CSD will have that we will pay our teachers a wage that will attract excellent teachers. With higher wages, we believe the teachers can then set up a better retirement for themselves because the State no longer is offering a worthwhile retirement plan. Along with the backing of a Faculty Senate, a collaborative teaching environment, the higher wages, the ability to set up a better retirement option, it is our hope that teachers will not feel the need to invite a union into the district.

Full transparency is vital to this model for parents, collaboration, and competition. Each school will report through a district wide website, information vital to support full transparency to the community of the CRB. This information could include Standardized Test scores, class sizes, waitlist numbers, current disclosure of the school’s finances, including income, costs and savings, etc. Each school of the CSD will adhere to Federal, and State laws/regulations concerning the education of students with special needs, and/or highly gifted students as per the ADA and IDEA Acts.

This document, like the Constitution of the United States, limits the responsibilities and duties of the participants. The regulations and procedures that individual schools decide, or regulations that the School Board deem necessary, are beyond our purview. The charter frames out a district that will reflect the wants and needs of a majority of the families of the CRB. We, the members of the CRB Education Committee looked at the world today and saw that there are many things that we could have addressed to curtail today’s social issues. By framing the charter the way we have, we have left it up to the community to continually decide in the future what current social issues they want to take on, or to vote upon. We cannot know what the future will hold for this community in the years ahead, so we cannot weigh the document down with social issues that in several years may no longer be relevant.

If we address those within the charter, we are not allowing the residents of the CRB the opportunity to decide for themselves what is truly important for them.