Candidate profile: Britteny Cioni-Haywood, school board incumbent

Juneau Board of Education candidate Britteny Cioni-Haywood on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Independent)

By Jasz Garrett

Juneau Independent

Voters will elect two Juneau Board of Education members for three-year terms.

Age: 56

Occupation: Administrative Operations Manager for the Division of Commercial Fisheries; Adjunct professor of economics with the University of Alaska Southeast — Ketchikan

Number of students in the Juneau School District: One student at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé

Years of residency in Juneau: 20 years

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: What is your background? Tell voters about yourself.

“I moved to Juneau in 2006 on a nine-month contract, and then I never left…I have a 14-year-old who attends JD (Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé). We are a Coast Guard family. My husband is retired and a civilian Coast Guard.” 

“I have been on various boards before. I served on the Gold Creek Child Development Center Board when my child attended. I was on the Academic Policy Committee (APC) for the charter school when my child attended, and I was on the APC when I ran for school board last time, and I removed myself from the APC when I was elected.”

“I thought long and hard about running again, but there's a lot of transition going on. I would like to see some of that through and provide some stability that I think is badly needed in the district. I am super excited about some of these changes and very hopeful. If I wasn't I would not have run again.”

Q: What motivated you to run again despite challenges?

“We have this new strategic plan. I think it's important to get that rolling and start that implementation process. I've studied strategic planning in the past, and I really want to make sure that it becomes a living document with at least annual reviews. I'm going to try and push for six-month reviews if I'm reelected.”

“We have essentially an almost new administration, and I think it's important to support them. I'm excited to see some of the changes that have already happened. I think that communication and some transparency are other changes that I'm looking forward to developing with the new administration. So that was another motivator or another transition piece that I'd like to see. I’ve already noticed an improvement.”

“One of the things that I brought forth during the strategic plan — with the prior administration as well — was having a customer service mindset. That's very important to me. In my administrative work my customers in my day job are internal, but that doesn't mean you don't have a customer service attitude. And so I foster that in my day job and I would like to foster that within the district office.”

Q: What are some specific ways that you're planning to implement the new strategic plan?

“There's different pieces that are going to track academic performance — (student) well-being, safety. I feel like the financial piece is going pretty well but working towards having that budget book, and some of those other pieces: having the data to track those.”

 “I do think that transparency is important. One of the things that came out of that strategic plan process that involved representatives of different stakeholder groups is that trust must be rebuilt and I do believe that to be across the district.”

Q: How do you perceive that trust has been eroded in the past few years?

“Unfortunately, I think that lies in that ‘consolidation debris field,’ which David (Noon) was the first one to term that. But I think that was a contentious issue that really fractured the community. The decision was made. And as a board member, I am required to support the decision once it is made by the board. So the decision was made, but obviously different groups of people didn't like the decision. I do think that the trust erosion started with the consolidation.” 

“That was a pretty awful time, and one of the things that I had to think long and hard about, right? That was just a few months after I got elected to the board….Once you lose trust, it's really hard. It takes so much work to rebuild it.”

“The contract negotiations were quite contentious…in the contract negotiations, these are our friends, our neighbors, our family. They are people that we know and respect, and so it was incredibly difficult.”

Q: If you're re-elected, what actions would you take to restore trust?

“There's already been communication going out — even prior administration— through the newsletters. I think having more interactive participation during the budgeting process, for an example, but not just exclusive to that. Some of our past presentations have been very much talking to an audience, and I think it's very important to talk with those participants. Having that site council input, making sure that we're engaging. We've already done a budget survey, but making sure that we're really trying to engage with people…I pushed hard last year to have input from the building administrators and I will continue to do so. I think that those are the people with boots on the ground that should be going to their building staff to get that feedback of what's needed in that building so it can filter up.”

“That includes feedback that principals might be getting from parents and families or students as well. Having the student government be involved; this directly impacts them, and I do think that students should have a voice.”

Q: Do you think the school board should approach contract negotiations differently when they come up again? If so, how?

“There are different types of negotiation styles. The interest-based bargaining worked well with JSAA. That said, JSAA is a much smaller union. And if you have less people, you have lower transaction costs, which I'm an economist by training, and so that's an economics term. You have less people to try and get on board, right? And so you have less transaction costs. If you have a smaller number, it's easier to organize.”

“We'll have a new bargaining team that'll be probably mostly different people, right? Because we've had such a change in district office…It's very much a two-way street. I am hoping that things get off maybe in a better light or are smoother this year. The real sticking point is going to be the amount of money that we have to put forward, which is not governed by the school board.”

“It’s the state, and we are fortunate that CBJ has been able to fund to the cap, and are incredibly grateful to that. But whether or not that continues is a little up in the air…I do still have concerns about the city's revenue. I think that Juneau will fund to the cap if at all possible.”

“The big funder in contract negotiations and having that money is the BSA through the state, which has not kept up with inflation.”

Q: When you said that you've already observed more communication and transparency with this new administration, did you mean between the board and administration, or overall?

“I think, generally, overall there's been an increase in communication and transparency. At the last board meeting we did decide to hold to our PTR, which did reshuffle some teachers mainly at the elementary schools…That has meant that the district office has been working with those building principals. There was a voluntary transfer that occurred between that teaching staff. But I do think that there has been communication.”

“While I think that trust and transparency is improving…there's always the ability to improve.”

Q: What do you see as possible solutions or responses by the school board to address declining student enrollment? 

“Providing that support from the board to the district office, right? We do governance, we do policy, we do budget. So support from the board to district office, district office to those buildings, those building administrators down to their staff. I think if people feel supported, that they do feel positive, then that filters into the classroom, right?”

“If families are happy with their schools they're more likely to stay, so I think there is that piece. That said, we know the demographics — the trend is smaller cohorts are coming into the schools. People had less babies, now there's less children, and so this is not a Juneau problem, this is across the nation.”

“And we know that Juneau has had outmigration. You can see that in the Juneau Economic Development Council data. So some of that is no, we don’t control outmigration — we don’t control demographics.”

“Making sure that we're having the best schools possible, within that governance, policy, budget, direction that the board gives administration is where the role of the board lies.”

Q: What are ways to address recruitment and retention? 

“Salary is important. I’ve seen this at the state, and then the state just did a big class study on analysts and programmers doing IT work. And they changed job titles, job classifications and the pay. And it went up for most of our analyst programmers.”

“Hiring has gotten easier. Hands down. We are getting larger recruitment pools, more qualified candidates. So salary is important. Again, we don't have the ability though to raise revenue, right? We are confined within that state funding formula and the local contribution. So with that out of our control, even though it's incredibly important, then we look at, ‘Can we grow our own?’ And so we've got some alternative pathways what we highlighted at the last meeting. Paras who think they want to become teachers have a pathway in making that happen…We have some international hires this year. So we know that there is a teacher and staffing shortage that is nationwide.”

“I really appreciate some of those alternative pathways and trying to be really innovative about how we find teachers.”

Q: Can you talk about the vacancies in paraeducators and what you think can be done to support special needs students and their families?

“My preference is to have teachers in a classroom with students. That said, in talking to Dr. (Elizabeth) Siddon, there are times when sometimes a remote type of situation will work better for a particular student, and if that is the case, then we absolutely should be supporting that student with that mechanism.”

“I think it is important to have people here in the community, and to be our community members. But we have to provide students with the services that they are due, and so we have to figure that out one way or another.”

“It is federal law that we provide those services…and so I expect that the district in its operations will do that.”

“It tends to be a bit more of an operational piece, and if we're talking SpEd, it's going to be that director of student services. If we're talking about something more general ed, then maybe that director of teaching and learning and the superintendent figuring those pieces out.”

“The board's role is to make sure that we have that funding allocated across the various funding sources so that then they can go figure out how to make these decisions.”

Q: Your challenger (Christine Johnson) has been expressing concerns around school safety and wanting to improve that. From your perspective, can you talk about school safety districtwide? Do you have concerns around the safety of schools, and in what ways do you address that?

“Safety is a system. The school district generally has protocols and processes in place for student safety. I think overall they are created by subject matter experts and I think generally sufficient.”

“If there's an incident, a school goes on, ‘Stay put,’ which can escalate, but we do have those types of policies…We have those processes that students are supposed to be monitored, right? So we do have them in place. But a process and a system is only as good as those people that are there implementing it. And we are human and mistakes unfortunately happen.”

“I think that schools are really good advocates. When I was on the (Juneau) Montessori (School) Site Council, they were advocating for a fence around basically what was a dirt lot because there was no playground at that point.”

“Because they have a Pre-K program, they have very young children, who don’t understand that wandering off into the woods might not be safe. And so they were advocating for trying to get the fencing structure in place, and we're very grateful that is now in place and with some playground equipment.”

Q: When there is an incident regarding a student’s safety, what steps should be taken communication-wise?

“I think as much information that can possibly be transmitted, particularly to the involved parent, is important and should occur. There can be personnel rules, contract requirements, FERPA, the student’s privacy, that can limit what can be shared.”

Q: How can the school district and board support students in their mental health? Do you see areas where the district can strengthen this?

“I have concerns about student well-being and mental health…The rate of suicidal attempts in Alaska is high. I think we’re one of the highest in the nation. So I do have concerns about that. I have a teenager, so it's personal as well.”

“I do think that it is important that we really facilitate collaboratively. I think that mental health in this country is not well supported overall for most people, and so really trying to pool resources — working with nonprofits in town, the school district, CBJ, tribal entities to really make sure that we're not duplicating efforts — that we do have a focus and implementation, and are providing as much support as we possibly can to our students. Recent events are heartbreaking. And so making sure that students have somebody that they can go to and feel safe with as a preventative measure.”

“Making sure also that not just our teachers have relevant professional development, but our counselors, too. Do they have the training and the supports that they need to provide that to our students?”

Q: What sets you apart from the other candidates?

“David and I are not always aligned, but fairly aligned. I have taken on, I feel like, a lot of different roles…I spent my first year as a member — my next year I was the board clerk, and then this year I'm board president.”

“Additionally, I will do the work that I think I need to be prepared. And I'm not going to say that the board hasn't got wrapped around the axle, because we have…But I have done a parliamentary procedures course (last summer) just to try and be better prepared as a board member. So I will always put in the work. I'm a lifelong learner. I love to new learn new things. Parliamentary procedure doesn't sound very exciting. But there's a lot to it, actually. And I do think it has strengthened and made things easier as the board president. I do a meeting script for all meetings that I facilitate, just to try and make sure that I keep myself on track.”

“I think one of the other things that helps me as a board member is that I do have pretty deep knowledge in the legislative process, and incredibly deep knowledge in administrative functions.” 

“While the state and school district do vary in many aspects, there is also a lot of crossover in finances, budgeting, procurement, facilities, and those other pieces…I've already done some of that initial work and can provide a bit of stability.”

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.