Homer Alaska - News

Students at Kachemak Selo, Voznesenka, Razdolna and Nikolaevsk schools can take qualifying exams during the week of March 29-April 2, Erik McCormick, assessment director for DEED, said in a letter to Sean Dusek, director of secondary education for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. Students will have to sign confidentiality waivers to take the tests.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska sent a request dated Feb. 9 to Commissioner of Education Larry LeDoux asking for alternative testing dates. Voznesenka families had asked ACLU Alaska to represent them, said Jeffrey Mittman, ACLU executive director. Thomas Stenson, staff attorney for ACLU Alaska, cited federal and state rulings in his request to the state as to why the state should grant a religious exemption to the Old Believer students.

"The Alaska Constitution guarantees all children the right to an education, and its Free Exercise Clause ensures that the sincere and deeply held religious beliefs of these families are protected from state rules that impinge on their religious freedom," Mittman said.

The waiver came in response to Dusek's request for alternate testing dates, said Eric Fry, an information officer for DEED. Fry said DEED officials and staff had been thinking about the issue and made the decision to grant alternate dates on its own and not in response to the ACLU.

Old Believer families had appealed to the KPBSD Board of Education to accommodate students. Stan White, a Voznesenka teacher and resident, had raised the issue at the board's October meeting in Homer.

"We're a pretty small community out here, and sometimes it's hard to get agencies and the government to respond to our needs," White said. "I think the ACLU of Alaska made a big difference in how the state responded to this situation."

Last fall, the state had denied an appeal by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. No exceptions could be made, Erik McCormick, assessment director for DEED, said last October.

"If we were to allow kids to take it at a different time, we could violate our own contract," he said in October. "We have contractual obligations, we have federal law responsibilities. It's unfortunate."

More recently, DEED had been in discussions with Dusek, director of secondary education for the KPBSD, McCormick said in its letter to Dusek granting his more recent request.

About 12 high school sophomores, four juniors and one senior from the Old Believer community schools were scheduled to take the fall test. Depending on how those students did on the qualifying exams, some of them may have been denied a chance to take the test again this school year. For the senior, he or she would have had to wait until fall 2010 to take the test again.

DEED will work with Data Recognition Corporation, the company that creates the test, to make sure students have the test earlier, McCormick wrote the KPBSD.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.