White resigns from school board

MAT-SU — Citing a family crisis, Mat-Su Borough School Board member Sandra White has resigned.

“My family is currently dealing with an unexpected crisis, and after much introspection I have concluded that I will be unable to devote the personal time needed for the position of school board member,” White says in a statement relayed through school district spokeswoman Catherine Esary.

White was elected in October 2007 to a term due to expire in 2010.

She was unavailable for comment Thursday, as she was out of town on a family vacation, Esary said.

Sarah Welton, president of the board of education, said she liked having White on the board.

“Sandra was prepared, she always asked good questions, she didn’t just take things on the surface, she looked beneath the surface and investigated,” Welton said.

She also noted that White, as a Talkeetna resident, was the only member of the board from outside the Borough’s core population center of Palmer, Wasilla and the surrounding areas. School board members all hold at-large seats.

“It is good to have a perspective of someone who lives much farther away from the centers of government,” she said.

Since the board has wrapped up its budget process, if there was a good time for a member to resign, this would be it, Welton said. But added she feels sorry White won’t be able to attend graduations this spring as a seated board member.

“There’s got to be some reward somewhere and I see the major rewards being going to the concerts, the graduations,” Welton said. “Those are the things that we’re working for by being on the board.”

Welton was herself appointed to a vacant seat after Carl Gatto, now a state representative, resigned his seat in 2003.

She said the interviews, which will be conducted at a special school board meeting April 30, are daunting. But during an election, “It’s always a public interview,” she said.

The district has a team working to create a series of questions to be asked in the interviews, and the board will decide on a final list, Welton said. The way the board works, appointees serve until a school board election, in this case until November.

“I believe two school board positions will come open this fall anyway,” Esary said. White’s seat would add a third.

Following the interviews, the board will choose White’s replacement at the April 30 meeting, she said. That person will be sworn in at the board meeting scheduled for May 7.

Interested candidates can submit a letter of intent and a resume to the district’s office or to Welton, Esary said.

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