Candidates line up for school board

MAT-SU — Mat-Su Borough School Board Member Cheryl Turner will have to fight to keep her seat this fall after Palmer resident Brian Sullivan announced recently he will run against the incumbent.

Sullivan’s announcement of candidacy comes on the heels of board members Turner, Pat Purcell and Myrl Thompson expressing their intent to run for re-election this fall. Candidates can file their campaigns with Alaska Public Offices Commission at any time, but the official filing period for the Borough is July 21-Aug. 1.

Thompson is the only announced candidate who has not filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Filing with APOC allows a candidate to begin fundraising.

Turner said she is running again to continue the work she feels the board has accomplished over the past three years.

“I would like to continue to support the direction that we’re heading in,” Turner said.

She also is concerned some of the programs in the district could be in jeopardy, something she hopes to address with another term on the board. Facilities are of particular concern, Turner said.

“The process is so flawed,” Turner said. “It just needs to be reworked and re-addressed.”

She said the entire process the school district uses concerning facilities needs to be updated, from site selection to maintenance responsibilities to renovation response.

Sullivan said it’s time for Turner to go, and that he is running not only because he has three daughters attending school in the district, but because he sees Turner as unprofessional.

“If she were a reasonable person, I wouldn’t be running,” Sullivan said, adding he feels Turner does not get along well enough with other board members.

Hearing that assessment, Turner said she wouldn’t comment because she doesn’t know Sullivan.

“I don’t know the man to know whether he’s reasonable or not,” Turner said, adding she plans to stay focused on important issues during her campaign — namely education — and will not “beat up” on anybody who runs against her.

Turner is at the end of her first full term on the board. She served one year on the board as an appointee nearly 10 years ago.

Sullivan is a political newcomer to Alaska, but he’s not new to politics.

In his previous home of University Place, Wash., Sullivan served as a two-term state legislator from 1996 to 2001.

He moved to Alaska in 2001 with the military, living in Fairbanks for three years. Sullivan was then sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a year before moving back to Alaska in 2005. He returned last year from a tour in Iraq.

Sullivan now works as a military police officer at Fort Richardson, handling the training and operations for 10 army companies.

His military experience could play a role in his leadership on the board, Sullivan said.

“One of the things I bring to the board, potentially, is security and taking more effective security-type issues for the kids in the district,” he said.

Sullivan is also not a stranger to the school board after he applied for an appointment to Seat G, which was eventually filled by Thompson.

If Sullivan is elected to the board, he will have to get a waiver from Alaska Education and Early Development Commissioner Larry LeDoux because his wife is a teacher at Iditarod Elementary School.

Sullivan makes clear, however, that he’s running to make an impact for the students it the district, including his daughters. He also said he believes the district can do more to facilitate resources for graduates to get financially rewarding jobs after school.

“I just think the Valley needs to expand the programs that get good-paying jobs,” Sullivan said.

Other candidates

For Pat Purcell, who said she has no agenda going into election season, keeping up the board’s pace is important, as well as its teamwork.

“I think I’m doing a good job,” Purcell said. “I think we’re a cohesive board.”

Purcell also said she’ll use her experience as a talking point during the campaign.

“We have a fairly inexperienced school board,” Purcell said. “It takes a while to get up to speed with all the difference language and the acronyms.”

Purcell also said she doesn’t believe in serving many consecutive terms and sees the next three years as a time to make an impact. Then, she hopes there will be enough experienced people to take over.

Because Myrl Thompson was appointed, he has to run for his seat to make the position a full three-year term. He said one of his main goals will be working to prevent the district form losing more classes and to try and be more fiscally responsible.

Thompson brought up the long-debated decision on how to spend a nearly $2.3 million energy supplement grant from the state Legislature as an example of what needs to be changed in the board’s thinking.

“People were pretty gung-ho to spend it, spend it, spend it,” Thompson said.

The board did earmark some items on which to spend the money, but, after working with the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, the remainder of the grant was carried over into fiscal year 2009.

Beyond policy issues, Thompson said the board is meshing well, and he feels confident in future business that comes across the board’s table.

“It’s a pretty fun bunch of people to work for,” Thompson said.

School board elections take place during municipal elections in the Borough on Oct. 7.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersan.com or 352-2252.