Ketchikan school board directs superintendent to reestablish ELL department

The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District Board of Education on July 23 voted to direct Superintendent Ford Slack to reestablish a district English language learners department, a 6-0 vote that board members and district ELL advocates said is meant to ensure federal compliance and better support multilingual students and staff.

Board member Ally Ginter, chair of the board's ELL committee, told the board the move would restore centralized leadership and resources. "By reestablishing this department, we are directly supporting both students and staff," Ginter said during the meeting. "There's no cost to the district." That assertion prompted questions from the superintendent and other board members about staff capacity.

The ELL committee and Penny Layton, the district's most recent endorsed ELL teacher of record, described the department as organizational and supervisory rather than creating a large new program. "It's organizing and it's structuring the program so that we acknowledge…