New superintendent sums up school district

WASILLA — Ken Burnley, just a few months into his tenure as Mat-Su Borough Schools superintendent, said he’s seeing signs telling him he made the right decision coming back to Alaska.

There’s the woman he called about a house he was thinking of moving into, who happened to be one of many students he handed a diploma to in his years as an administrator.

There’s Bert Hall, who introduced Burnley at an appearance before the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. Hall’s son was honored for his work as a substitute teacher in Colorado Springs when Burnley was superintendent there.

“I asked the Lord to send me some signs,” Burnley said, and he believes the Lord has done that. “I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Burnley came to the Valley from a stint as a fellow at the University of Michigan and has headed up districts in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Colorado Springs and Detroit.

He said so far he likes what he sees at the district, but there’s work to be done here, most notably in the realm of math instruction, where he says the failure rate in algebra is way too high. That is an issue, he said, with broader implications than just producing kids who don’t know how to solve a quadratic equation. It has implications for graduation rates.

“Algebra is the gatekeeper,” Burnley said. “Nearly all dropouts haven’t passed algebra.”

He said the graduation rate for local schools is 69 percent.

“We can do better than that. We should do better than that,” he said.

In an interview earlier this week, school board president Colleen Vague agreed with Burnley that algebra needs reinforcement.

“I think where we’re going to see our next big step up is with math,” Vague said, adding she believes shoring up instruction there will lead to “a huge improvement in the drop-out rate.”

Burnley said that now, as teachers prepare for students to arrive next week, math instructors are being trained on a new way to teach algebra. Burnley said this method focuses on mastery of the concept rather than repetitive drills on topics. He said homework won’t be assigned until students have mastered certain concepts.

Math and literacy, he said, are the key to producing successful students.

“If you can do those parts, you can do the other subjects,” he said.

In addition to talking about instruction, Burnley made some remarks about staff changes at the district. He said that since he took the helm in May he has assembled his team without adding any new positions to the district — and he believes that team has talent.

“The kind of talent that makes you stand up and cheer,” he said.

Burnley also made a promise to candidates for the school board and to incumbents on the board. “I will not be in politics. I will not play that game.”

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