Wade Long For School Board

I'm running for School Board Seat E to be a part of the solution in MatSu education. I will be the voice of families and teachers on the school board. But WHO IS WADE LONG? Wade Long is your neighbor. Coming from Arkansas, I have lived in Alaska for the last 3 years. A job with the Forest Service brought me to Sitka, Alaska, where I lived in the largest national forest in the US, which also happens to be a rain forest. I qualified as a Wildland Fire Fighter there at almost 40 years old. And volunteered as a local Fire Fighter because Sitka depends on community members to protect themselves. My kiddos enrolled in school and my family experienced hands on elementary teaching in Alaska. What an impressive District. Now I live in Wasilla and work as a Fire Fighter and Service Manager for a Motorola Service Partner. My kiddos go to school in the Matsu borough and we are members of Wasilla Christian Church where I teach Sunday School to the preschoolers. Wade Long is a veteran. I was a Navy Air Traffic Controller for 9 years. The highlight of my naval career was walking freely in South Korea where my grandfather fought for freedom. With respect to education, I volunteered in an Adopt-A-School program where military service members mentored at risk elementary students. I was also a Big Brother to a couple of youth. Despite heavy military involvement, there were still kiddos on the waiting list for mentors. Wade Long is a tutor and mentor. While at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, my work study took me to Central High School, an inner city school, where I tutored math to kids that were expected to pass Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II in order to graduate. The School expected them to do this in a high crime area, while parents were dead or incarcerated, the neighborhood plagued with drugs and prostitution. The kids just did not think Geometry mattered. It takes genuine interest to permeate this. Taking empathy and realness coupled with math, the result is a line of inner city kids at your desk interested in solving a quadratic equation. Wade Long wants to be your School Board Member. I care and listen and act. We can predict the future of education if we look at other districts. As we grow and build buildings, if our priorities are not straight, we'll have buildings and kids lost inside them. Funding is not the only thing that is a grave concern for education. Heaviest emphasis on promoting learning at lowest grade level and pouncing on deficiencies then is the key. I will partner with the community and board members to intensely evaluate each item, proposal, contract, etc. to ensure it is what is best for families and teachers. Having 4 kiddos in the District, I'm looking forward to this partnership. It's going to be great. Be a tutor, be a mentor!

Thank you,

Wade Long

907-738-1586