By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO
The Chugach Regional Borough School District would be the new public education system for the Chugach Regional Borough, created under Article V of the charter as “the foundation for future generations to thrive and succeed.” Its stated focus is to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to meet their goals in a competitive workplace and to contribute meaningfully to society.
Across Anchorage Assembly District 2, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development 2024–2025 assessment data show a mixed academic picture. At the elementary level, roughly half of students in grades 3–5 are “prepared” in English Language Arts, math and science under Alaska’s own AKSTAR standards.
This is stronger than many parts of Anchorage but still leaving a large share of children entering middle school without solid reading, writing, and computational fluency.
By middle school and high school, those gaps widen. Even in relatively higher-performing Chugiak and Eagle River secondary schools, fewer than half of 9th graders meet the state’s bar for being on track in core subjects, with math especially fragile. The result is a pattern where many students move up each year without the skills and confidence that make high school coursework, career exploration, and civic engagement feel accessible instead of overwhelming.
Based on the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development 2024–2025 assessments for Eagle River and Chugiak High Schools, the results show a consistent gap between the combined higher-performance band, Advanced/Proficient (A/P), and the combined lower-performance band, Approaching Proficient/Needs Support (A/N).
Combining the two schools, English Language Arts (ELA) is essentially even across campuses at roughly ~41% A/P vs. ~59% A/N, meaning fewer than one out of two 9th graders meet ELA proficiency.
The most concerning combined pattern is in Mathematics, where the two-school aggregate drops to about ~28% A/P vs. ~72% Approaching/Needs Support, meaning fewer than one out of three 9th graders meet math proficiency, with Chugiak driving a notably larger share of students needing support. Science appears stronger and more balanced than math at both schools, with an aggregated result of roughly ~46% Advanced/Proficient vs. ~54% Approaching/Needs Support, meaning fewer than one out of two 9th graders meet science proficiency.
Taken together, these aggregated outcomes suggest that ELA and Science are broadly comparable across the two schools, but math is the clearest shared weakness and the sharpest equity and performance pressure point, especially at Chugiak, making it the most strategic target for focused instructional improvement.
In other words, thousands of Eagle River/Chugiak children may not be prepared for future employment opportunities as well as a susceptibility to prevailing mental and health dysfunctions which are associated with poor education.
The Chugach Regional Borough School District is designed to confront this reality directly as a local responsibility. With a focused board and administration, it can build a coherent K–12 strategy for Chugiak–Eagle River; strengthening early literacy and numeracy, aligning curriculum and supports through middle school, and targeting early high school interventions to prevent the 9th-grade decline.
Because the new district would be community-sized, it can better connect schools with local assets, JBER, youth programs, trades, and employers, and invest in supports tailored to this region. The academic goal is to increase readiness at every transition point, while the social goal is to create schools where students feel known, safe, and families can see a clear link between their involvement and school governance.
Governance rests with a seven-member elected School Board, one from each Assembly district, serving staggered three-year terms after an initial transition. Members are unpaid (except expenses) and cannot hold other compensated Borough offices, reinforcing independence. The Board hires the Superintendent, sets policy, ensures compliance with state standards, allocates funding, caps central administrative overhead at 5% of revenues, and establishes a Faculty Senate to give teachers a formal voice in policy and accountability.
CRBSD is designed as a full charter-school district, with every school operating under a charter model. Each school is governed by an Academic Policy Committee of parents, staff, and community members hires the principal, who then hires and manages staff. Schools control their budgets, staffing, operations, curriculum, and discipline standards, with open enrollment up to capacity and lotteries when needed. Regular reporting of class sizes, waitlists, and finances to the School Board embeds transparency and healthy competition.
Article V sets clear academic expectations: core curricula must exceed state standards with strong civics on living in a constitutional republic, mastery-based math, inquiry-driven science, and ELA grounded in quality literature, writing, logic, and persuasion. It also protects teachers’ freedom to discuss scientific theories on origins and affirms that staff cannot be required to participate in activities that violate their religious or moral beliefs.
Parents are treated as primary decision-makers, with schools assisting rather than replacing them. They may observe classes, opt their child out of objectionable activities, and review curricula and materials at any time. Schools must obtain written consent before offering medical or therapeutic guidance and must notify parents about sex-ed, safety programs, and disciplinary policies. Parents have full access to their child’s records, and written permission is required before changing a child’s name in school records.
Student safety and privacy are codified: schools must protect privacy in biologically sex-specific facilities, and athletics and gender-regulated activities are organized by biological sex under Board procedures. Students are not excluded from athletics solely based on sex and participate on sex-specific teams where those exist.
Operationally, CRBSD would inherit 15 schools totaling over 1.313 million square feet, about 263 acres, and 476 classrooms; capacity for roughly 9,200 students versus current enrollment near 7,200 (about 78% utilization). Funding would rely on Alaska’s existing formula, with an estimated FY24 baseline of about $90.3 million in general-fund revenue, including roughly $11.3 million in required local property tax, $65.1 million in state foundation aid, $9.1 million in other state funds, about $4.7 million in federal Impact Aid, and a small share of Education Raffle proceeds.
The Transition Plan allows up to two years to launch CRBSD with DEED coordination. An Eaglexit Education Task Force prepares budgets and charter applications before the detachment vote; in year one the elected School Board adopts an initial budget, hires a Superintendent, and advances elementary charters for approval. Elementary charters open first, followed by middle and high school charters, with a Faculty Senate formed and all ASD facilities transferred within 18–24 months. The goal is to maintain stable daily schooling while gradually shifting governance, funding, and culture to the charter-driven, parent-centered model in Article V.
Michael Tavoliero: The case for detaching Chugiak–Eagle River, creating Chugach Regional Borough
Michael Tavoliero: The case for detaching Chugiak–Eagle River, creating Chugach Regional Borough
2 thoughts on “Michael Tavoliero: Eagle River, how would you like your own school district?”
Once our neighbors succeed in this endeavor (demonstrating that they can grow better grass than us), we can learn from them too and grow better grass ourselves! Unless(!!!), of course, our Mayor & Assembly are involved, as they continue their May Day march towards udder failure and destruction, at the cost of Anchorage Taxpayers!
Ideally, ASD ought to be broken into multiple districts centered on each high school. Allow $$$ to follow the kid from school to school (made legal by SCOTUS Espinoza v Montana Department of Revenue) and we will have a powerful restorative force on the awfulness that is the current ASD. Cheers –