Gatto to leave vacancy on school board

MAT-SU -- With Carl Gatto heading to Juneau later this winter, the Mat-Su Borough School Board will soon be looking for someone to appoint to fill the vacancy he leaves behind.

At least two potential candidates have already come forward -- former board member Helene Antel Brooks and Carolyn Enloe, who unsuccessfully ran for the school board in the October election.

Gatto said after last week's school board meeting that he expects to officially resign from the board Jan. 1, as he takes up his work as the Republican representative for the newly created House District 13 in Greater Palmer. Gatto still had a year left of his school board term when he won the Nov. 5 election for the House seat, and so he will leave his colleagues to choose his replacement.

According to school board policy, the board must appoint a replacement within 30 days of a vacancy. The board will accept applications following Gatto's resignation, will announce the names of the candidates, offer an opportunity for the people to comment both in writing and at a public hearing, and will interview the final candidates before voting on the appointment at a public meeting.

Because he will have already stepped down, Gatto will not have a say in his replacement.

District officials anticipate officially opening the application process in January, with advertisements to appear in the Frontiersman. Whoever is appointed will serve on the school board until next October's local election, when the seat will appear on the ballot.

The names of several potential candidates had been thrown around prior to the Nov. 5 election, including that of Brooks. Last week she said she is considering applying for the vacancy.

"I am interested … I think I'm ready to return to service on the school board if my colleagues would have me," Brooks said. Brooks was appointed to the board for a year and then was elected to a three-year term. Last year, she declined to run again, saying she wanted to take some time off to pursue other public service opportunities.

Now that she has done that, serving on the United Way board among other work, she said she

believes she could return to the school board with more diverse

experience.

Brooks is bound to have at least one competitor, however. Enloe unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Mike Chmielewski for his seat on the board in the October election and at last Wednesday's school board meeting said she was still interested in the job.

"I'm very interested. My commitment hasn't changed," Enloe said. As soon as the board officially announces that it is accepting applications, Enloe said she will throw her name into the hat.

Gatto will continue to occupy the school board seat for four more meetings, however, even as he prepares to head to Juneau to tackle statewide issues.

At his first meeting following the Nov. 5 election, he received some gentle ribbing from his colleagues on the board. Board member and Palmer Fire Chief Dan Contini requested that when Gatto goes to the capital, he stay on the look out for some new fire trucks for Palmer. Board member Bob Johnson added his request to the list, reminding Gatto that without properly maintained roads, the fire trucks won't be able to make to the fires.

Member Linda Menard commended Gatto for his diligence as a representative on the Mat-Su School Board and wished him good luck in his new endeavors in the state's capital.

"I'm confident we'll get the same kind of hard work out of Carl there as well," Menard said.

In his final comments, board president Chmielewski encouraged anyone interested serving on the school board to consider applying for the soon-to-be vacant seat.