Meet the Super

PALMER — Newly appointed Mat-Su Borough School District (MSBSD) superintendent Monica Goyette brings with her not only plenty of energy, she also has almost 20 years of service to Mat-Su schools. In that span, she’s run the gamut from elementary counselor to assistant superintendent.

Goyette was first named the district's interim superintendent following the sudden and unplanned resignation of Gene Stone, who departed one week after a special late March special board meeting. At the district's regular April 5 meeting, trustees gave Goyette the nod for an additional year through the end of the 2017-2018 school year.

Prior to coming to the Mat-Su, Goyette said she arrived in Alaska in 1994 and worked at a counselor for the Alaska Job Corps.

"I went back to school and got my masters in guidance and counseling from University of Alaska Anchorage," Goyette said. "Then I spent a year in rural Alaska."

Goyette began working for MSBSD in 1998.

"I started as counselor at Colony Middle School for two years and went to Teeland (Middle School) for 10 years."

During her tenure at Teeland, Goyette taught seventh grade language arts and moved up to administration as assistant principal, then principal. During that time, she went back to school to work on her doctorate.

"I had an atypical career,” Goyette said. “I moved to Shaw Elementary for two years."

She is currently in her fourth year in the MSBSD administration building. For three of those years, she served as executive director of education. This past school year, she filled the role of superintendent of instruction taking over for Stone, who advanced to the top leadership role for the district. When asked why she agreed to take over a district facing, what many feel is its worse fiscal crisis in years, Goyette offered the following: "I love this district...I love our community and our schools and despite the fact that were in a fiscal crisis, we as district and a community and are not in a crisis. Our doors will open next fall and, no matter what, we're going to do great things for kids."

Goyette said her long tenure in Mat-Su schools is proof of a district-wide philosophy she's proud of.

"We have a relatively low transient rate among our teachers. A majority of our people start their careers at Mat-Su and retire. We really grow our leadership," said Goyette. "I think our schools are really stable because a majority of our positions are filled from within. We're a really strong team with a lot of systems in place. Personnel can change, but we can still offer the same quality of service."

Regarding the district's fiscal condition, she offered the following: "Our district is the leanest in the state. We have the lowest per-pupil funding, and highest number of students in a classroom than any other district in the state. Over past few years, we have been surviving off of reserves. We're at a point where our reserves are getting exhausted. The entire fiscal deficit is being realized for the first time," said Goyette. "Status quo funding for us is an $11 million deficit....we're at a tipping point. We're facing 35-plus students in a high school classroom and 30-plus in kindergarten. More than that is the number of jobs we're going to lose.

"Right now we’re at 90 jobs,” Goyette said, adding that number of jobs lost comes with a big ‘if.’ “If the five percent (matching funds) comes through and we get 100 percent of our requested borough funding. This will have a real impact on our families. (We could ) have 190 families without an income. The things we can all agree on in our district is that it is in need of revenue."

Goyette said she feels her main goal in the position is to celebrate the success of the district's students and staff.

"I think that's a really big part of my job, to make sure the community knows what an asset our school district is," she said. “We hear all the time that people move here for our school district."

Goyette said the administration has yet to look beyond the anticipated 90 positions expected to be cut. If the borough keeps steadfast on its announced education contribution and the state decreases its contribution by five percent as is being considered, the job cuts could total the 190 Goyette referenced.

"We have not gone back in and identified what those additional cuts would be. We're hopeful within the next few weeks have a clearer picture but will certainly will need to make plans at some point for staffing," said Goyette.

One option the school board has asked the borough to consider is a sales tax. Goyette said the process is in its infancy but both a year round and seasonal tax is under the microscope.

"Kenai has a model for seasonal tax of May 31-Sept. 1...looking at that model to see what kind of revenue would bring in," she said, adding it is premature to a set an amount for the tax proposed might be. "Kenai, I think, brings in $31 million in sales tax. We're going to look at a seasonal tax...we believe our community values education but we're at a point where we have to start putting more revenue towards it....I think that we're in the place in the Mat-Su that we need to look at local funding sources...our kids shouldn't be worth less than kids in other boroughs."