• Our Proposal to the school board will be:
    Steller Secondary will become 6th-12th grade, and will incorporate aspects of CCL into our current program.

     

    We had an amazing turn out last night, with over 100 of our Steller community joining us in the MPR! Our vote for the proposal came out to 102 yes, 8 no, and 2 abstains, which means we are officially requesting to ASD that we become a 6th-12th program, and be allowed to use certain aspects of CCL in our program. We are so proud of our Steller community showing up and showing out last night!

  • Hello Steller Community,

     

    I want to start off by sharing how proud I am of our Steller community. Our students have been very involved in Op Group this year and there has been lots of learning and volunteering happening. Overall, this year has been off to a great start. I wanted to take the time to talk to you about some very important changes that will impact the Future of Steller. As you are aware, the Anchorage School District has been making many changes to support students' needs and provide new opportunities for growth.  These changes include moving all 6th graders into Middle Schools, changes to school start times, and the College/Career/Life Ready (CCL) academic model.  With all these changes come many shifts for us in the Steller community.  Our three pillars of Steller: Students, Staff and Parents will be an integral part in guiding the future of our community.

    To ensure that everyone is aware of what all these changes mean, we are going to be holding some forums and meetings in the coming months. Our first initial Fact Sharing Parent Forum was held Thursday, September 21, at Steller. We had Kersten Johnson as an ASD representative from Teaching & Learning to discuss College/Career/Life Ready academy model, and we presented facts around 6th graders moving to middle school and school start times.

     

    To get familiar with these district initiatives, please check out ASD’s link to Q&As and lots of great information: https://www.asdk12.org/HotTopics . 

     

    We have a survey that we would like all our community members -- Steller Staff, Parents, and Students -- to fill out in regards to any questions, concerns, or suggestions you may have about the changes ASD is making, and how they impact our Steller Community. The Questions, Concerns, Suggestions survey will be open from Thursday, September 21 to Friday, September 29. We encourage all our community members to fill out this survey. 

     

    All three pillars will have an opportunity to discuss these topics and the impacts to Steller. We will utilize the information gathered from the original survey to guide our discussions. So, take the time to provide your input. Students will have a chance to have discussions within their Advisory groups starting Monday, September 25. Staff has been discussing and will have a more in-depth meeting held on Tuesday, October 3.

    The Steller Parent Group (SPG) will be holding various discussion meetings for parents and community members. During the SPG Tuesday, October 10 meeting, SPG will provide an overview of the topics and have data from the original survey to share, along with a short discussion. In addition, SPG will hold 2 meetings where they will share key facts and break into smaller groups to further discuss concerns. Meetings will be held Monday, October 16, 7:00-8:30pm via Zoom and Thursday, October 19, 6:00-7:30pm in person at Steller.

    After these meetings and discussions, our goal as a community is to present the district with what we would like Steller’s future to be. All of you are encouraged to vote on what the future will hold through an online survey that will be open from October 11th through October 31st. We will then hold an All-Community Meeting where the results of the vote will be shared along with a proposal to move forward within ASD.

    Our philosophy reads, “Steller is a school devoted to the creation of independent, courageous people capable of dealing with the shifting complexities of the modern world.” As an educational leader, I am committed to our Steller philosophy and as part of that commitment, I encourage all of you to be a part of this process. It is time for Steller’s three pillars to come together and help guide what Steller’s next 50 years will look like. Thank you in advance for taking the time to be involved. See you all at our upcoming meetings.

    Sincerely,

    Maria Hernandez
    Principal | Steller Seconday School