New superintendent starts in August

PALMER — Beginning with the 2019 school year, the 46 school and 19,000 students within the Mat-Su Borough School District will be entering a new era for education in the Valley. Dr. Randy Trani was hired by the MSBSD School Board by a 7-0 vote in May to succeed Dr. Monica Goyette as the new superintendent overseeing MSBSD. Between Goyette’s last day as Superintendent and Trani’s first official day on August 3, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Luke Fulp has been Acting Superintendent for MSBSD that plans to open schools on a ‘green’ status for in-person instruction on August 19.

“We’re trying to prepare for all eventualities. That blended learning model with the week on week off, we were trying to get our infrastructure up and ready in case we have to use that. I want to emphasize again that we are planning on operating under green, so in person instruction next year but if something were to change like it did in the spring like if the governor or the health services were to change basically what level our communities are at and make us go into more of a yellow situation, we wanted to have our plans and infrastructure ready to go,” said Trani in late June. “If they are not ready for that at this time we want to make sure we’re meeting each family where they’re at and give them the best educational experience that they can have.”

Trani was born and raised in Cordova and originally began his postsecondary education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks before taking his first job with the Lake and Peninsula School District. Trani was one of 23 applicants who applied for the vacant superintendent position but the only candidate who remained after others were unable to travel to the Mat-Su. While at his previous job as superintendent of Corbett Schools in Oregon, students ranked in the top 1 percent of Advanced Placement test takers.

“If you look at what we did in Corbett, I’ve described to people like we decided to do this one thing really well and we were trying to produce college prep experience for kids,” said Trani. “Alaskans and all the other kids I’ve ever met in my life, when they form strong relationships with a mentor or teacher that they like, they do great things and I think that's super critical. So if you read my books you’ll see that one of the things I think is important for students is to try to maintain those relationships with adults who are helping mentor them and foster their intellectual growth and emotional growth for as long as possible.”

Trani has already been working inside the MSBSD headquarters building and learning from district staff prior to his official start in August. In an interview in May, Trani was grateful for the opportunity to provide innovative education in Alaska.

““Because of the size of Mat-Su, I have this chance to impact more students than I would in well, every other district but one and it’s my chance to give back to this state that really launched my whole career,” said Trani. “It was the state of Alaska that gave me the teacher scholarship loan that got me into college, that paid for my college and now this is a chance for me to give back to the kids in Alaska and this is how I can impact the most students.”