Cheezem picked for school board

PALMER — Former Mat-Su Borough planning commissioner, successful campaigner for a smoke-free city, unsuccessful campaigner for the Legislature and now a school board member.

Well, for the next eight months at least.

“We’ve got a fantastic school system here and I just wanted to be a part of that and support that,” David Cheezem said Thursday. “It’s just exciting, and I’m just kind of walking on clouds that I was selected.”

Cheezem, who many may know as the owner of Fireside Books in Palmer, was selected Wednesday to fill a vacant seat on the Mat-Su Borough School Board.

Lynn Gattis created the vacancy when she resigned her seat in order to serve in the Alaska House of Representatives. Because her term doesn’t expire until October, it was up to the school board to select someone to replace her until the election. Ten Valley residents applied for the job, but by the time Wednesday rolled around one had dropped out. Each was asked to fill out a questionnaire detailing his or her thoughts on education.

In Cheezem’s, he mentioned his time spent in high school “in the ‘East End’ barrio in Houston, Texas.”

Cheezem said he was a teacher for five years and, in that time, created a student publication East End Stories that grew to include students from multiple schools reporting and writing stories about their neighbors, then piecing together the magazine.

He said the school district here in the most immediate term is faced with funding problems. That’s what he’s doing his homework on now.

“I’m just trying to learn as much as I can about the finances and to see how we can all work together to fund more stuff,” Cheezem said.

He said he would like to bring some creative funding solutions to the board, but isn’t prepared yet to get into specifics. As for other goals right out of the starting gate, Cheezem says he wants to be an ambassador.

“The other part is just getting the word out because I don’t think people realize how fantastic these schools are, how well they’re doing for their students and how much flexibility and choice they’re able to offer for their students,” he said.

Cheezem has been an active presence in Palmer, serving a term on the planning commission and running unsuccessfully against the late Carl Gatto for a state House seat. He’s also worked on various nonprofit boards.

But the school board, he said, is a big commitment. It’ll likely be eating into his time as a business owner.

“We had a staff meeting at the business today and one of the things we talked about is how I’m going to be around a little bit less often,” he said. “I think we can do both.”

In his questionnaire, Cheezem indicated he could use his experience running a small business in an industry that seems to be squeezing small booksellers ever harder. The district, after all, is also in the middle of a funding pinch. But, he said, he holds no illusions that the experience is exactly analogous.

“Bear in mind that there are lots of differences between running a business and running a school district,” he wrote. “I can take risks as a businessman that would be grossly inappropriate for a school district. If I fail, all I have to do is dust up my résumé and look for another job. If you fail, America loses its soul.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.