Three candidates are challenging the incumbent school board member for a seat on the Anchorage School Board in April’s election. Angela Frank will face incumbent Dora Wilson in Seat F, Chelsea Poland will face incumbent Karl Jacobs in Seat G, and Kay Schuster will face incumbent Pat Higgins in Seat E.
Both Poland and Schuster support a policy proposed by board member Dave Donley last October that would require parents of students who wish to use a different name or pronouns at school to notify school district officials. . Although this policy was not passed in Anchorage, a similar policy was passed by the Massou Borough School Board.
Schuster said school officials shouldn’t spend time trying to make certain people feel accepted.
“I believe that parents have a right to know whether their child identifies as a different gender or wants to be identified with a different pronoun or a different name,” Shu said. Starr said. “I think parents need to be a part of that, too.”
Schuster is running against board member Pat Higgins, who has more than a dozen years of experience on the board. Higgins is a human resources manager who moved to Alaska with his family 40 years ago. He is proud to have reinstated the school board’s audit committee. Higgins said the proposed policy is discriminatory against LGBTQ+ students.
“We need to recognize that they are our students, our neighbors, and our children, and we will treat them professionally, courteously, and cooperatively.” said Higgins. “Targeting them is unacceptable to me.”
Schuster is campaigning with Chelsea Poland, who is running for the G seat. Poland, who owns a hair salon, said she wants teachers to focus on basics such as reading, writing and arithmetic. He said the current members have had enough time to make changes on the board and that new faces are needed.
“I want to bring education back to the basics of just reading, writing and arithmetic, and keep some of the cultural identity battles at home,” Poland said. “My goal is to be on the board to be more transparent and be a little more accountable than we have been in the past.”
Poland also argued that the budget should be more transparent and said the district could do more with the funds available. G seat incumbent Carl Jacobs defended the board’s record, noting that state funding has remained flat, with only 7% of the district budget going to administration. He said politics doesn’t belong in the classroom and he feels the district is being run better because of the current board members who are running for re-election.
“While I was on the board, we focused on being engaged, accountable, and accessible. That’s something I’m really proud of and that work. I want to keep going,” Jacobs said.
Mr. Jacobs is vice chairman of the board and serves as a state regulatory investigator. He said he was proud of the anti-bullying campaign and mental health department established in the district during his tenure.
Poland told the Anchorage Daily News that she is a member of the Anchorage chapter of Moms for Liberty. However, in an interview with Alaska Public Media, Mr. Poland said that although he has spoken to members of the group, he has not received approval and that he is not a member. Ms. Poland said she agrees with the organization’s position on child custody. Civil rights watchdog groups last year labeled Mamas for Liberty an extremist group. While candidates recommended by the group do not have a high national success rate, both of the Mothers of Freedom’s recommended school board candidates, Mats Suh, were re-elected last fall.
Incumbent board member Dora Wilson is defending her seat against challenger Angela Frank.
Ms Wilson, a community support manager, was a first-time candidate when she was elected to the council three years ago. She said she is excited about the changes coming to the district next year, including new start times, moving sixth graders to middle school and a new career academy model at the high school.
“Each time we make a change like this, we have the support of the entire board. So it wasn’t one individual that supported it, it was the entire board that supported it. But the intent, again, is to focus on student performance,” Wilson said.
Angela Frank moved to Alaska four years ago and works as a local government specialist. Frank, she said, joined the race to give voters a choice.
“I think there’s a lot of frustration among parents, teachers and school boards right now,” Frank said. “I think our community has a right to elect someone else to serve on our board.”
Poland’s Frank and Chelsea are the first candidates.
Ballots must be postmarked by April 2nd. If not, he can go to one of his three voting centers located at the Roussac Library, City Hall or Eagle River Town Center. Voters can choose one candidate for every three seats available to him and the winner will serve his three-year term.
Tim Rockey is the producer of Alaska News Nightly and the director of education for Alaska Public Media.please contact him trockey@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8487.Read more about Tim here.