Fundraising bricks with ‘disparaging comments’ about city leaders set to be part of DZ playground

Former school board member Emil Mackey says he’s expressing unhappiness about Assembly not fully funding project; CBJ attorney says excluding bricks may violate free speech protections

A conceptual rendering of a portion of the planned playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus playground, which was shared in email replies to people buying fundraising bricks for the project. (Juneau School District image)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

A long-awaited playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus may teach students about municipal politics and the First Amendment, since a few commemorative bricks sold as fundraisers for the project are engraved with messages criticizing Juneau Assembly and school board members.

The messages are from Emil Mackey, a former Juneau Board of Education member, who said in an interview Wednesday he made the donations for the bricks — after his departure from office last fall — to criticize local leaders’ reluctance to fully fund the playground.

"When they chose not to fully fund it, but instead to rely on fundraising, I exercised my First Amendment right to merely point out, using these bricks, that other priorities were chosen over the park to be funded by the Assembly," he said.

Mackey said the Assembly in the past has promised to fund a park at the site, but instead has withheld some money while spending on other projects including a downtown park, moving City Hall and the gondola at Eaglecrest Ski Ara.

Messages on four bricks purchased by Mackey for $250 each raised concerns among officials: "The City Prioritized A New City Hall Over a New Playground," "The City Funded a Gondola Over Fully Funding this Project," "The Assembly Fully Funded the Downtown Park. Not this one," and "Jenny Thomas voted against funding this park on 1-15-2026." He also purchased additional bricks with the name of his business and family members.

District and city officials say while they consider the statements inappropriate — and not entirely accurate — the bricks will likely be part of the playground since Mackey could challenge their exclusion on free speech grounds.

"I can't believe that we are forced to place these bricks at a playground, but that's where we’re at," Elizabeth Siddon, the board’s vice president, said in an interview Wednesday.

Thomas, a school board member elected last October, said the brick describing her vote isn’t fully accurate and in context, but she’s not particularly concerned.

"It's not the first time he's publicly attacked me," she said. "I'm sure it's not going to be the last."

Mayor Beth Weldon, in a text message to the Independent on Wednesday, stated "It shows poor character to make a playground fundraiser a political platform."

"We will not try and halt it," she wrote. "As Emil is no longer on the board I don’t think we will react in any way other than to possibly call him out."

Municipal Attorney Emily Wright, in an email to the Juneau Independent on Wednesday, stated that general guidance offered to the school board "advised that any response must be consistent with the US and Alaska Constitution as well as JSD School Board policies."

"We noted that courts have allowed schools to limit speech that is threatening, lewd, vulgar, promotes drug use, is obscene, or is speech that causes ‘substantial disruption,’" she wrote. "However, statements that are passive, non-disruptive, and political speech generally cannot be limited. The First Amendment does not require statements to be true in order to be protected."

Deciding what to do is ultimately up to the school board, according to Wright. But Mackey said he will indeed challenge a decision that excludes only his bricks.

"If I am approached with legal action or if the bricks are not put down I plan to defend myself and to assert my First Amendment rights," he said.

A playground at Dzantik’i Heeni has been a priority of many local officials who say Lemon Creek is a neglected neighborhood for public recreational facilities, and the campus is the only one in Juneau with elementary students that lacks a proper playground.

The Assembly on Monday approved $493,000 for the project, bringing total funding from all sources to about $1.3 million — short of a higher total project cost Mackey said he expected city leaders to provide. Among the other major sources of existing funds is a $250,000 matching grant from the Benito and Frances C. Gaguine Foundation, with the "Buy a Brick" campaign raising more than $70,000 and the school board agreeing to provide up to $180,000 to secure the rest of matching funds.

The fundraising website for the brick campaign is no longer active, which Siddon said she believes is due to concerns resulting from the bricks purchased by Mackey.

"There's no reason we couldn't still be fundraising to offset the cost of that playground," she said.

Concern about public reaction to the bricks if they are installed at the playground has been expressed at recent school board meetings.

"Since this is a school playground it needs to be an environment that is safe and welcoming to all of our students," Melissa Cullum, another board member elected last fall, said during a Feb. 10 meeting. "And I just wonder, if you call it a First Amendment speech issue, where that line is to where we're keeping our kids safe from these kinds of adult pettiness in a space that's supposed to be really safe and welcoming."

Siddon, who during a board meeting Tuesday night said "I just want to make sure the public knows we are aware there are four bricks with disparaging comments on them," expressed concern Wednesday the bricks will be quickly vandalized. Mackey said he expects if that happens they will be repaired or replaced as any other bricks would be.

When asked about concerns about unfavorable reactions to the messages on his bricks Mackey said "my purpose wasn't to gain a reaction or to get revenge or anything like that."

"We have a problem here where people don't listen to traditional media," he said. "They don't even know how their schools are funded. They don't listen to traditional media. And a lot of politicians are let off the hook — and when I say politicians, I mean good politicians and bad politicians — and not held accountable for their votes and prioritizations. I wanted to leave a record since they were allowing us to leave a record, a memoiral of how this park was happening by buying a brick."

Wright stated that while similar brick fundraisers have occurred in Juneau, "we are not aware of an issue such as this coming up before." Siddon said future campaigns will have "more guardrails" defining what type of language donors can use, since a lack of such guidelines is largely responsible for the current situation.

Mackey said he has his own thoughts about what officials should learn from the incident.

"The lesson is if you don't want to empower people to use their voice don't privatize what should be a publicly funded project through First Amendment brick sales," he said.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.