School Board candidates participate in virtual debate

PALMER — Ahead of the Nov. 3 general election that will include races for the Mat-Su Borough School Board, local nonpartisan group Valley Interfaith Action hosted a virtual candidate debate between the four candidates for school board on Sunday, Oct. 18.

VIA did not endorse any candidate and moderate Katherine Bishop said that “The organization is composed of 13 faith communities in the Mat-Su Valley that are actively involved in the quality of life issues in our communities.”

The full hour-long virtual candidate forum can be found on VIA’s Facebook page. Candidates responded to questions posed from local church community members and gave their vision for how they would represent their district on the School Board. District 3 is currently represented by Ole Larson on the School Board and covers a district in between Palmer and Wasilla south of the Parks Highway and stretching up above Bogard Road. Larson is running for reelection against Jeanne Troshynski, a teacher for 25 years at Big Lake Elementary who also worked as an administrator at Midnight Sun Family Learning Center. District 6 covers much of north Wasilla and is currently represented on the School Board by Kelsey Trimmer, who is not seeking reelection. Running for the School Board seat in District are and Dwight Probasco.

Larson spent 29 years working for the Alaska Department of Corrections, including six years at McLaughlin Youth Center. Larson has represented District 3 on the School Board since 2008.

“My priorities have always been kids. Kids are first. We need to educate our kids both in voc-ed and extended learning or high learning in order to prepare them,” said Larson. “We are the only big five school [district] that has over 75 to 80 percent of the money going into the classroom and that’s a priority of mine and that will always be a priority of mine.”

Troshynski retired after a 36-year career as a teacher in Elementary and Middle School and a school administrator. Troshynski was also proud to help get the Wasilla Public Library built after she was elected President of the Friends of the Wasilla Public Library in 2002.

“As an administrator I was responsible for the budget at the school, I managed the staff, have worked quite a bit with the school board, the Assembly, I’ve been to Juneau to advocate for the charter school so I’m very familiar with those levels of government,” said Troshynski. “One of the interesting things with diversity and cultural training is it needs to be ongoing and I do believe that it needs to be for everyone because it’s impossible for us to tell in our schools where students will come from or what new students we might get. Students move around in our district quite a bit and they bring all kinds of diversity with them, they’re different people.”

Running for Trimmer’s vacant seat, Leland Baugus grew up in Delta and moved to the Lower 48 to attend school and serve in the military. Baugus moved back to Delta 10 years ago with his wife and five children, three of whom are still in school.

“l think that the school board as it is, in moving forward to a higher level of graduation excellence or academic level as they leave high school is right on track with what I believe. The other goal that I have or feeling that I have is having within the school district there is an even across the board non indoctrination of certain political views or ideological aspirations, just what is reading, writing arithmetic and that is what they should be focusing on,” said Baugus.

Also running in District 6, Dwight Probasco retired after 31 years as an educator, 18 of which he spent as the Principal at Wasilla High School. Dwight and Brenda Probasco’s three children all graduated from Valley schools and Probasco said that over 40 of his extended family members graduated from, are currently attending or were employed by MSBSD.

“My priority is to protect and enhance the purpose of public education which I see as the student and teacher education either in the classroom or at home doing it under the current conditions. I want to support the district administration, teachers, support personnel, parents and students during this pandemic covid 19 and work with our district covid mitigation plan,” said Probasco.

General Election day is Nov. 3 and early voting is open at the Wasilla Public Library.