In conversations with Anchorage teachers and parents, one message stands out: Student behavior challenges and inconsistent discipline support are major daily stressors pushing great educators to burnout.
Families frequently share worries about bullying and safety when dropping off their kids. Teacher turnover in the Anchorage School District remains elevated, higher than national averages, with many citing unsupported classrooms as a key factor in the turnover rate. This is something I’ve seen firsthand and heard repeatedly while working in our schools and talking with educators across Anchorage on the campaign trail.
These aren’t just statistics. They’re real teachers burning out and real families wondering if public school is still the best choice for their child.
We can fix this — but only if we stop relying on top-down programs that sound good on paper and start trusting the people closest to our kids: parents, teachers, principals and community leaders.
Here’s what a real Safe Schools plan looks like:
• Fix what we already paid for. During the first two years StopIt was rolled out, no one at the district level was assigned to monitor reports. Principals can’t see districtwide trends, and there is zero accountability when serious tips are ignored. I will push for a dedicated, trained team to triage every report within 24 hours and give principals real-time dashboards.
• Put a school resource officer, or SRO, where they belong. Every middle and high school needs its own full-time, dedicated SRO. Every elementary school should have an SRO on campus at least every other day. These trained officers build relationships with kids and act as an immediate deterrent and responder.
• Bring our military families into the solution. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is full of service members who want to give back. Let’s create a volunteer “Military Mentors in Schools” program — vetted active-duty and retired personnel walking halls, eating lunch with kids, and providing the exact kind of positive adult presence research shows reduces bullying and violence.
• Launch All Pro Dad chapters at every school. Study after study shows the single biggest protective factor against bullying and delinquency is an involved father or father figure. All Pro Dad is a proven, no-cost program that gets dads like me on campus once a month for breakfast and conversation with their kids. Imagine hundreds of Anchorage dads visible and engaged in every building. That alone changes the culture — and the future.
• Return discipline policies to the local level. One-size-fits-all rules written by downtown bureaucrats or teachers’ union lobbyists don’t work in Muldoon the same way they work in Sand Lake. Site-based councils made up of parents, teachers, and the principal should have the final say on discipline matrices, dress codes, and cellphone policies. Parents know their kids best. Community leaders see what’s happening day to day. They must have the authority to act.
Teachers aren’t quitting their students; they’re quitting a system that ties their hands when a classroom spirals out of control. Parents aren’t fleeing to charter or homeschool options because they suddenly dislike public schools; they’re doing it because they no longer feel their children are safe or heard.
Put safety decisions back where they belong: in the hands of parents, teachers and principals — not downtown administrators who never step foot in your child’s classroom.
Together, we can make every Anchorage school a place where kids walk in with pride and purpose — and walk out safer than when they arrived.
Let’s fix this.
Alexander Rosales is a candidate for Anchorage School Board.
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