I am running for reelection to the school board because I believe in the Unalaska City School District’s vision - “to provide an exemplary education”. I believe that ALL students deserve to have the experience of an exemplary education. While I believe our school district is doing an excellent job, I still believe we have work to do.
I have had the pleasure of serving for three years on the current school board. I currently work for the City of Unalaska as the City Engineer. My family moved to Unalaska in 2016 and we currently have children in 4th and 5th grade. We moved to Unalaska from Montana, but I was born and raised in Wisconsin. I am passionate about education and have undergraduate and master’s degrees in engineering. Before my election to the school board, I volunteered for the finance committee for two years and was a substitute teacher for the district.
Our district is blessed with dedicated, diligent and inspiring administrators, teachers, staff, parents and students. We live in a community that invests in our future through education of our children and prioritizes it by supporting our school district financially to the maximum extent possible and in a myriad of other ways. Our community is filled with hard-working and talented individuals that come from all corners of the world to play a key role in our global food supply. Your fellow community members provide excellent role models for our students, demonstrating how learning and acquiring new skills and experiences can contribute to improving themselves, their families, community and nation.
The past few years have been challenging due to Covid. And while we did not always completely agree on how to proceed during the pandemic, I was impressed that the school district was able to work with concerned parents, other community members and entities in a civil and organized manner to provide the best educational opportunities possible given our situation. However, I believe there have been significant effects to the education of our students and their mental health from their experiences throughout the pandemic. I would like to work with administration to investigate these effects and find ways to address them. I believe this is the most pressing issue for the district. In the longer term, our district faces many challenges; essentially flat state educational funding, a nationwide teacher shortage, inflation, increasing local airfare prices, teacher recruitment and retention challenges and declining enrollment. We are going to be asked to do more with less. I believe as a school district and community we are up to the challenge. We will use creativity, cooperation, ingenuity and determination to rise above these challenges to make our vision a reality - providing an exemplary education for ALL students within the Unalaska City School District.
It would be an honor to represent this community as we strive to overcome our challenges, learn from the past and move forward together to provide an exemplary education to each and every student in our school district.
Statements were submitted by candidates and have not been edited.