School board names clerk

Welton unanimously voted in to fill Devilbiss' position

By BECKY STOPPA-Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- Shortly after swearing in recently re-elected school board members Robert Wells and Sarah Welton at the Nov. 5 school board meeting, the board elected Welton to serve as clerk. The board voted by unanimous acclamation to keep board members Mike Chmielewski and Linda Menard at the helm as president and vice president respectively. Welton, also elected by unanimous acclamation, will fill the position formerly held by Larry Devilbiss.

Chmielewski thanked Devilbiss for his work over the past year as school board clerk.

"[The position] requires dedication and hard work, and he has performed admirably," Chmielewski said.

Once official business had been dealt with and public comments were heard, the board began debating issues that the Alaska Association of School Boards will lobby for at the Legislative Fly-in in Juneau in February 2004. The first matter up for discussion was a resolution put forth by the Delta Greely school board. This resolution supports the state as the sole authority in waiving requirements for high school graduation.

Wells cautioned that granting individual school districts the power to waive state-mandated requirements for graduation might lead to a lack of continuity in standards throughout the state.

Devilbiss said he supports local control, but he is leery of efforts to waive standards.

"I see the concept of waivers as the beginning of a process to get around higher standards," he said.

The board voted 6-1 to support the high-school-graduation-qualifying exam and to oppose moves that would water down its effectiveness.

The board also passed a motion to support a compulsory attendance law. If enough school boards support this resolution, AASB will lobby for a law that would require students under 18 to either be enrolled in school or to have graduated from high school in order to obtain a driver's license. A student's license would be revoked if he or she dropped out of high school before turning 18.

The last matter the board passed was a motion to support binding arbitration. Under current state law, a union can vote to strike if it disagrees with the recommendations of advisory arbitration. But under binding arbitration, both sides in a labor dispute would have to accept the terms set forth by the arbitrator. Binding arbitration is not a measure that has won the support of AASB in the past. But board members Robert Johnson and Devilbiss argued that just as a judge has the final say in a court of law, an arbitrator should have the final say when labor negotiations break down. The board voted 4-3 to support binding arbitration.