With just days left to vote in the April 1 city election, the four candidates in the race for two Anchorage School Board seats are pushing to get their messages out to voters.
Challenging incumbent Margo Bellamy for Seat A is first-time school board candidate Alexander Rosales. Candidate Mark Anthony Cox is challenging incumbent Kelly Lessens for Seat B in his fourth bid for a school board seat, after three unsuccessful runs for school board in recent years.
The Anchorage School District is facing a massive budget deficit and the school board recently voted to make broad cuts to academic programs, sports and educator positions. The incumbents have advocated for the state Legislature to substantially increase to the state’s per-student funding formula for public schools to alleviate the crisis.
In interviews and candidate surveys, Rosales and Cox have criticized the current school board over the district’s budget problems and student outcomes. And they’ve indicated that increases to the state funding formula should be tied to policy changes or incentives for improvements. Separately, Rosales has drawn public scrutiny over numerous inflammatory social media posts.
Bellamy and Lessens have raised tens of thousands of dollars in financial support for their campaigns, according to reports filed with the state. As of Feb. 28, the end of the most recent reporting period, Rosales and Cox had not seen significant financial support.
A candidate forum held by Chugach Electric Association last week further highlighted differences among the candidates’ visions for the school district.
[Previously: In Anchorage School Board race, candidates confront budget problems and ‘culture wars’]
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On teacher recruitment and retention
The school district has struggled to fill hundreds of vacancies this school year.
During the forum, a Chugach Electric staff member asked the candidates how the school district can retain and attract competent teachers who want to teach, but can’t afford to given the high cost of living in Anchorage and relatively low salaries.
Rosales said teachers do need to be paid more due to the higher cost of living.
For retirement, teachers should have the option to pick between a defined benefit package or defined contribution, he said.
Cox referred to the school district’s plan to shutter some schools.
“The hard answer is that if we are not able to afford something, then we need to look to decrease our output. And so that would be, unfortunately, some teachers would have to go in order for us to actually balance the budget,” Cox said.
“I see a decreased amount of teachers that ASD has on the payroll, but those good teachers preferably being absorbed into the charter school programs and the other optional programs that we can rent out of those (school) buildings that we would eventually have to shut down,” he said.
Lessens said the district needs to improve teachers’ working conditions by reducing class sizes.
When class sizes increase, teachers suddenly have more students with varying needs they must meet, she said.
“Students' learning conditions are teachers' working conditions,” she said.
It’s a bigger workload, and teachers generally aren’t compensated for that increase, she said.
And “it’s harder to build relationships that are meaningful, that sustain you as an educator,” she said.
Bellamy said that compensation is critical to teacher recruitment and retention, along with reducing class sizes and increasing time for planning and collaboration among teachers.
“The state has an obligation for education — to provide an adequate public education to any kid and every kid. Our state has not done that,” Bellamy said.
The city funds the school district to the maximum allowed under state law. The state funding formula for school districts has remained largely unchanged for nearly a decade.
“That, with inflation, has caused us to not offer the salaries that we want to offer,” Bellamy said.
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On a proposed reading incentive grant program
The Alaska Legislature is considering a bill that would permanently increase the per-student state funding formula for schools. A version of the bill under consideration by the state Senate would lay groundwork for providing incentive grants to school districts of $450 per student for those kids in kindergarten through sixth grade who read at grade level or show improvement.
A Chugach employee asked the candidates what they would want to do with the grant money, if the Legislature approves the incentive program.
Lessens said it’s critical for the district to put its dollars toward improving math and reading proficiency.
“The problem is that while all of our students are growing, some of our students are growing faster, and some of our students are not growing fast enough,” she said.
That leaves some pupils — particularly those who are economically disadvantaged — with large gaps in reading proficiency that persist through middle school and into high school, Lessens said.
“We need massive interventions,” she said.
Similarly, Bellamy said the district should put money toward teacher training and targeted interventions for students falling behind.
Rosales said he would support an incentive for teachers.
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“I would just straight give the money to teachers — give them money if they produce results,” he said.
Cox said he’s supportive of the proposal to attach funding to measured improvements in school districts. A portion of the money should go toward teachers and the rest toward paying down the school district’s bond debt, he said.
“It’s necessary that we pay our debt and that we also incentivize,” Cox said.
On inflammatory social media posts
In September, Rosales wrote in post on X: “Ban trans kids. Make the penalty jail time and castration for parents.”
A Chugach Electric employee read the post aloud and asked the candidates whether they think “someone who makes extremist statements like that should be put in a position of trust over our education system.”
Bellamy, Rosales’ opponent, noted that the municipality’s charter only requires a person to be a qualified Anchorage voter for a school board candidacy.
“Basically anyone can be on the school board,” Bellamy said. “It’s up to the voters to do their research, and it’s up to the voters to ask for all of us whatever questions they want to ask. It’s up to you to make the decision as to who you want to represent your values on the school board.”
Rosales, for his part, defended his post, saying it was taken out of context and that he is concerned for the safety and well-being of children.
“It just comes down to, if somebody’s going to harm a child, there should be some kind of consequences,” he said, also claiming that the “school board has been complicit in transitioning kids and not notifying parents.”
“If there’s now a child that has been harmed, who’s at fault? Nobody’s answering that question,” Rosales said. “So, of course I’m going to be abrasive about it. But do I want to castrate anybody? No.”
Cox said that anyone looking to go into public service should be sure to portray themselves online in the way they want to be seen and in a way they’re willing to stand up for.
“In regards to specific comments — yeah, it’s concerning, it’s embarrassing, just depending on the context in which you read it,” Cox said. “When it comes to the overarching topic of the LGBTQ inclusion, when it comes to bathrooms and sports, my stance is against that. I would like ... biological girls to continue being in their sports and also in their bathrooms.”
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Lessens said that her answer to the question is “no.” Voters have an obligation to “do the homework,” she said.
“You get to fill in one bubble for Seat A and one bubble for Seat B,” Lessens said. “It is a referendum, in that way, on the future of public education in Anchorage and the kind of leadership you would like to see in our schools.”
