The filing period for the municipal election is 5 p.m. this Friday (08-05-16) and includes two seats on the Assembly, one seat on the school board, and the mayoral seat.
The filing period for Sitka’s municipal election is open. And so far, two Sitkans have tossed their names in the ring for the single open seat on the school board. Jennifer McNichol filed on July 25th, 2016 and Ed Gray on July 29th, 2016.
McNichol was appointed to the school board last September. She was chosen out of seven applicants to fill the seat of former board president Lon Garrison. McNichol wasn’t sure at first whether to run for the full three-year term on the school board, given the time commitment. But reconsidered out a desire to build off what’s she’s learned.
“There was a pretty steep learning curve in the year since I started and it seemed kind of like a waste to spend all that time on this steep learning curve to jump off and leave it to someone else to figure out. Because there’s a lot of complexities and big issues,” McNichol said.
For McNichol, the biggest challenges facing the district is the budget and the unpredictable status of external funding, whether from the state or the federal government. If elected, she hopes to continue work on the school activities committee and hear ideas from staff.
On the topic of standardized testing, McNichol wants to find a curriculum that suits Sitka. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have some common precepts and some baseline curriculum that we feel is important for all students to have access to, as they’re being educated. But we obviously need to consider everything that’s provided to us and not just accept by rote every detail that’s handed down. We need to find a balance between local education and what’s needed in the big wide world.”
McNichol is a pediatrician at SEARHC. She called KCAW from the road as her eldest son, entering his senior year at Sitka High School, was touring colleges.
Ed Gray also filed for the open seat on the school board. Gray was one of five candidates running for two open seats last fall. He’s running out of a desire to reform the Sitka school system, putting a greater emphasis on local control.
Over the phone with KCAW, he said, “I believe that parents, local school boards and teachers create policies depending on their values and overseeing the education of their children.”
The phone connection affected the quality of our recording with Gray, who was to depart for a fishing trip. But he told KCAW that mounting skepticism around the performance-based testing will resonate with voters.
The Alaska Measures of Progress test, which debuted last fall, was eliminated by the state after technical issues hampered the testing process. A new federal policy, called the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” requires states to develop a plan for implementing the new law. In June, Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development held webinars to gather public input on that process.
The filing period for the municipal election is 5 p.m. this Friday (08-05-16) and includes two seats on the Assembly, one seat on the school board, and the mayoral seat.
