Voters could revamp school board

PALMER — There are arguments on both sides, but ultimately it may be voters who decide how school board members are elected.

Currently, the seven members of the Mat-Su Borough Board of Education are picked at-large, meaning that every registered Mat-Su voter gets a say in electing every member. Contrast that with the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, which divides the borough into seven districts with each area selecting a representative.

A resolution from Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine would put to a vote whether to make the school board more like the assembly, with members selected from the districts.

“We have a 23,000-square-mile borough and seven districts with equal amounts of residents. It is my opinion the public and the students would be better serviced if each district had a school board member,” Bettine says in an email.

Assemblyman Jim Colver, formerly president of the school board, pointed out in a voicemail message that there are a number of current school board members who share a district. That means members who want to stay on the board would have to run against each other if Bettine’s plan goes through.

Reached by cellphone as he traveled out of state, school board vice president Erick Cordero said he didn’t want to speak at length about the issue until he was able to sit down and read the proposal, but did offer a few general comments.

“I think the good part of it is that it allows local people to get more involved in school board issues,” he said. “At the same time, it might create a whole new set of problems with people fighting for resources with one community versus another community.”

That last statement is Cordero’s version of a pretty well-used argument at the school board against electing members by district. With all seven members elected at-large, the board is tasked with looking at the district as a whole.

But borough schools in outlying areas are simply more expensive to run than those in Palmer and Wasilla. Members elected from districts, the theory goes, would wind up fighting for equal treatment of their own set of local schools in a system that is, at least in terms of dollars per student heading to a school, inherently unequal.

Assemblyman Mark Ewing usually doesn’t agree with Bettine, but he said this time they agree. School board members now, he said, are spread very thin.

“I really think it’s a smart move,” Ewing said. “Look at the school board members, how far they have to travel from Talkeetna clear out to Glacier View.”

The breakdown of who represents what district would go like this:

• Seat A, where the incumbent is board president Mike Dunleavy, would be assigned to District 1, representing Sutton and Chickaloon.

• Seat B, held by longtime school board member Sarah Welton, would be assigned to District 2, representing Palmer.

• Seat C, currently occupied by Susan Pougher, would go to District 3, representing the area between Trunk Road and Seward Meridian Parkway.

• Seat D, currently belonging to Ole Larson, would represent District 4, Wasilla.

• Seat E, which Cordero holds, would represent Big Lake/Knik in District 5.

• Seat F, in which the incumbent is Neal Lacy, would go to District 6, representing Hatcher Pass.

• Seat G, currently occupied by Lynn Gattis, would be assigned to District 7, Willow/Talkeetna/Houston.

Three of the newly elected members would get initial three-year terms, two would have two-year terms and two of them one-year terms. After that first term, all would become three-year terms.

The assembly will vote on whether or not to put the measure on the ballot at its meeting Aug. 2. If approved, the measure would go before voters in the Oct. 4 election. There are a number of propositions on that ballot, many of them bond propositions in which the borough is asking to borrow money for construction projects.

“It’s probably the only thing on the ballot that’s going to pass,” Ewing said of the school board proposition.

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