Meet Kenneth Burnley

PALMER — The Mat-Su School District’s soon-to-be superintendent wasn’t really looking to come back to Alaska or even to hold another superintendent’s position when his new post became available.

“I said, ‘Huh, that’s a very outstanding school district,’” Kenneth Burnley said of his reaction upon hearing of the opening.

Burnley comes to the district from a fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Education in Ann Arbor. Before that he headed up Detroit Public Schools following a stint as superintendent of Colorado Springs School District 11. Before that he led the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

“I’ve been a superintendent for almost a quarter of a century,” Burnley said. “Now I’m ready to give it another chance, and this is a wonderful place to do it.”

A quick Google search of his name turns up some articles showing Burnley’s tenure in Detroit was not without controversy. There were allegations of mismanaged district funds.

School Board President Colleen Vague said Burnley put those concerns to rest when the board interviewed him Saturday.

“They were there when he came in and they existed when he arrived and came to fruition while he was there,” Vauge said. From a legal perspective, she said, the controversy has pretty much been put to rest.

“He has no actions against him and he was sort of absolved of all the stuff he was accused of,” Vauge said.

Burnley said he is proud to stand on his record.

“I actually stayed a year longer than my initial contract,” he said. “When I left, I left the district in pretty good shape.”

It was a very tough time for Detroit schools, he said, with enrollment in steep decline.

Burnley said he had to shutter 71 schools and lay off 4,400 people. The bus system was badly broken. The district had $1.5 billion in bonds it had sold but hadn’t done anything with. The computer system was so badly broken there were huge problems every payday.

“During payday, we’d have 2,000 people wrapped around the administration building trying to get their paychecks because the computer system was so bad they either couldn’t get their paychecks or it was inaccurate,” Burnley said.

He said he worked hard in his tenure and had a lot of problems to fix.

“We fixed most of them. There’s still plenty to do for the next person. We had a huge challenge ahead of us. We met it head on,” he said.

And, he said, between that and the experience he gained working in growing districts in Fairbanks and Colorado Springs, he’s built up a wealth of knowledge.

“I’ve expanded, helped the district grow, and then I managed terrible decline that’s happening to entire cities,” Burnley said.

Vague said the Mat-Su school board had a tough decision to make. There were five highly qualified candidates to select from, but that experience Burnley talked about was what eventually tipped the scale.

“We wanted the experience and we wanted the qualified candidate that had the most experience in varied districts,” she said.

Mary Francis, executive director of the Alaska Association of School Administrators, also had good things to say. She worked with Burnley as an associate superintendent in the Fairbanks school district.

“I was pretty excited when I heard he was coming to the state,” she said. “He was kind of a role model to me. I’m now a retired superintendent. Probably because of him I became a superintendent.”

She described Burnley as a consensus-builder who built very good working relationships with his staff.

George Troxel, the district’s current superintendent, makes about $140,000, Vague said, but the new one will make between $160,000 and $200,000. She said that salary isn’t out of line and puts the district on equal footing with larger school districts in Alaska.

Burnley said his selection is contingent on negotiating a contract, but that a starting point for the negotiations is that he begin work on July 1 — which shouldn’t leave much of a lag time, either for Burnley or for the school district. Troxel plans to retire effective June 30.

Looking ahead, Burnley said the first thing he wants to do when he shows up is to spend a lot of time talking to people about the district’s strengths and its weaknesses. He said he wants to be sure he lays a good groundwork before he starts his job in earnest, “so I don’t come in and act like I know it all.”

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