Candidate still very much in the race

Spectrum, by Larry DeVilbiss

For weeks, I have been hearing rumors that I am dropping out of the election process for the school board. Like Mark Twain responding to the rumor of his death, I would like to report that such rumors are greatly exaggerated!

I seriously considered withdrawing from the borough election before the deadline and even contacted one of the other candidates to see if we had enough in common to justify my dropping out. However, there was one issue where we have significant disagreement -- enough so that I thought it merited the exposure of the election process.

Both of my opponents for school board seat F have appeared in public testimony before the school board, expressing displeasure with our administration and, more particularly, our chief school administrator.

One of the major concerns I had when I came to this board three years ago was the instability and lack of continuity and direction in the district following a long series of short-term superintendents. This is detrimental to education.

I believe we have broken this cycle with a chief school administrator who has set us on a course of curriculum alignment (which has been ignored for years) and a curriculum-oriented budget process that is starting to bring cohesion to the district.

I will not step out of this race to hand a seat to disgruntled employees or employees' relatives. I am quite willing, however, to let you, the voters, decide this issue. Thank you for the past three years of serving you on the school board. I would appreciate your vote Oct. 5.

Larry DeVilbiss is currently a member of the Mat-Su Borough School Board and is seeking re-election.