Cordero picked to fill school board slot

PALMER — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board decided Thursday evening to appoint Erick Cordero Giorgana to a vacant board seat.

The school board seat in question, Seat E, was vacated earlier this month when Brian Sullivan resigned, saying his duties as an active duty Army officer had changed, requiring more of his time.

Cordero’s competitors for the seat were:

• Bernadette Rupright — a bus driver, former pre-school teacher and onetime volunteer at Iditarod Elementary.

• David Anderton — an employee of Nana Management, which holds the contract to do custodial work at the school. He planned to resign from NANA if appointed.

• Jamey Duhamel — a counselor who works with children and is president of the board of directors of Mat-Su LINKS, which provides assistance to parents of disabled children.

• William Tull — a Palmer attorney who withdrew his name after a scheduling snafu left him unavailable to attend the candidate interviews Wednesday.

Cordero — the surname he prefers — directs volunteer and community support for the Alaska Services Corporation. Though not a lawyer, his job is to convince local attorneys to take on pro-bono work to help disadvantaged clients.

He has been active in local politics as well, most recently running last year as the Democratic candidate for the state Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Lyda Green. He eventually lost that race to the current senator, Linda Menard.

Asked at Wednesday’s meeting what he felt was the role of a board member, Cordero cited teamwork.

“An individual board member itself has to work in conjunction with the rest of the board members,” he said.

Cordero said his priority on the board would be to make sure the district is making the most of its always limited funding.

Asked about the district’s drop-out rate — the reduction of which is often cited as among the highest priorities of the board — Cordero said the board has to make sure students are engaged and so are their parents.

In the same vein, he said he supported vocational schooling as a way to keep students in school.

“Not every single person is meant to go to college,” he said. On the school board, all seats are at-large, meaning no member represents any specific area of the borough. School District Spokeswoman Catherine Esary said Seat E will be on the ballot again in October.

That means if Cordero wants to keep his seat for longer than five and a half months he’ll have to run for it.

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