Voters opt to keep school board the same

EOWYN LeMAY IVEY-Frontiersman reporter

The incumbents claimed clear victories on the Mat-Su Borough School Board during Tuesday's election.

The two school board seats that appeared on the ballot will be retained by members Mike Chmielewski and Bob Johnson. Johnson was unopposed in the election for Seat D, but for Seat E Chmielewski faced challenges from two candidates -- Carolyn Enloe and Konstanse Shuey. All school board seats represent the entire Mat-Su Borough.

With all of the 33 precincts reporting Wednesday morning, the unofficial results had both incumbents easily beating out any competition. Johnson claimed more than 4,050 votes compared to 268 write-ins. And while Chmielewski was up against Enloe and Shuey, he still walked away with more than 2,300 votes. Enloe came in second with 1,250, and Shuey had 1,175. Voters turned in about 111 write-ins.

"I was there at the borough when the numbers were being put up, and I could see the pattern definitely developing," Chmielewski said Wednesday morning.

He pointed out that in four precincts he narrowly lost to one or the other of the challengers, including precincts in the Houston and Meadow Lakes areas. He said this could have been due to stronger campaign efforts by his opponents in those areas, and he said he was pleased with the 50 percent support he received boroughwide. During his last election, he said, he garnered about 30 percent of the votes.

During his campaign efforts this year, Chmielewski said he focused on candidate forums and other venues where he could allow voters to hear his opinions.

"This kind of boroughwide election doesn't call for door-to-door," Chmielewski said.

Chmielewski is entering his second three-year term on the board, and he said no two years have been the same. He said the past three years have enabled him to better understand many of the issues facing the nearly 14,000-student school district.

"I'm very much looking forward to continuing the work on some areas that we've begun to address," he said, referring specifically to a districtwide curriculum audit set to begin this weekend.

While the faces of the school board will remain unchanged for now, next month's election could bring a new member. School board member Carl Gatto is running in November's general election for the newly created Greater Palmer area House District 13. If he wins, the remaining six members of the school board would fill the vacant seat by appointment. Gatto has said that if he does win his way to Juneau, he will step down from the school board once the November election is certified.

The school board would then advertise the vacancy, accept applications, interview the candidates and then appoint a new member following a school board vote at a public meeting. The appointee would serve until the next borough election.