First school board forum with fifth candidate in 3-seat race shows gaps among incumbents, challengers
- Mark Sabbatini
- Sep 27
- 5 min read
Current members say district is mostly coping well during difficult times, outsiders are seeking some bigger changes that may be elusive
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
The two incumbents say the school board is generally handling difficult times well, but there are adjustments worth considering. The three challengers aren’t as satisfied and thus are seeking larger-scale changes, although in some instances they aren’t practical or possible.
That general — and perhaps expected — pattern has emerged in a series of forums for candidates seeking three open seats on the Juneau Board of Education in the Oct. 7 municipal election. The most recent forum on Thursday before the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce was the first to feature all five current candidates, including school board President Deedie Sorensen who filed as a write-in candidate this week.
Thursday’s hour-long forum offered a packed room of business leaders a chance to hear changes to the status quo being sought by challengers Jenny Thomas, Melissa Cullum and Jeremy Johnson — and why Sorensen changed her mind about retiring after getting a "full-court press" from people to join Steve Whitney as an incumbent candidate.
"I have decided, because I had a reasonably good health advisory, that I am well enough and have the energy to run for another term on the school board," Sorensen said during her opening remarks made remotely at the forum the other candidates attended in person.
Whitney, appointed to the board earlier in May to temporarily fill a vacancy, also served three years on the board before stepping down in 2019. Thomas was an unsuccessful candidate in last year’s election, and she and Cullum both applied for the temporary vacancy this spring.
Candidates were provided the questions the day before Thursday’s forum. The split between incumbents and challengers was evident in their responses to the first question of "are current structures and facilities adequate" in the Juneau School District. Both incumbents answered with a qualified "yes"; the challengers disagreed.
Whitney noted the district has just gone through a huge transformation, with a consolidation of schools last year to resolve a huge budget shortfall, and "there will be hiccups and there will be fine-tuning, probably for years and years." He also said years of state funding that failed to keep up with inflation is causing many of the district’s problems — and to some degree hopes for the future depend on more supportive officials getting elected to state office during the next two years.
Sorensen said the district has worked during the past year to provide more support for the HomeBRIDGE homeschooling program, including starting a site council to address issues raised by participants. She said she also believes the adjustment to the consolidation is going relatively well, but is awaiting test scores from sixth-grade students in particular since "I would like to see us focus on the academic environment in our middle schools, and decide if they are providing the maximal opportunities for seventh and eighth graders."
Cullum, who along with Thomas opposed the consolidation while it was being considered, said planning for it was inadequate and shortsighted, especially since a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker set to homeport in Juneau within a few years will bring several hundred new residents including kids. But with the consolidation in place, she said her recommendation now is to monitor the student population closely and reallocate resources accordingly — such as shifting money from elementary to middle schools, for instance, if that’s where a larger ratio of students are going in future years.
Thomas said she has multiple issues with district programs including class sizes that are too large, flaws in the curriculum and the inability to provide a playground this year at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus (now tentatively set to be installed next summer). She said she’d like to see several new programs and partnerships such as peer advocates to help with special needs students and an apprentice program to give high schoolers more electives.
Johnson said he believes the community is "willing to support schools in as many ways as is financially feasible." But the state limits how much local funding can be given to schools, and Johnson said "I’m not sure anything but staunch advocacy to the Legislature will be the way that we will be bringing more funds to the board's hands."
An ongoing shortage of teachers and a declared impasse in current contract negotiations served to illustrate how challengers may be seeking big changes to help fix big problems — but that those ideas may not be possible.
Thomas, reiterating previous comments during her campaign, said board members should be directly involved in contract talks, even though it’s been pointed out by Whitney and other officials that such participation isn’t legal under district policy. Union contract talks are between the employees (teachers) and employer (the district’s administration), with the board as elected representatives approving the contracts and funding for them. Thomas said a change allowing board member participation is possible under state law.
"Whether it's never been done before shouldn't really matter," Thomas said after Whitney again described the current collective bargaining process Thursday. "We can do something new."
Whitney said that given current circumstances he would prioritize higher compensation for teachers over hiring enough of them to allow smaller class sizes. Cullum said negotiations need to occur quicker so teachers have the security of working under a contract, rather than going months without one, as is the case now and during the last round of negotiations a few years ago.
Sorensen noted Alaska is the only state where teachers don’t have a traditional pension system, which is part of the larger problem of inadequate state funding. Johnson said he agrees reviving a pension system is worthwhile, as is a career technical education program that encourages participants to become teachers.
The range of ideas candidates have was shown when asked how the school district should be preparing to welcome and support students in families arriving when the icebreaker is homeported here.
Johnson said Purple Star School program, launched by the state in 2022, is being used in some communities such as Anchorage and Ketchikan because it’s intended to offer programs to aid military families that move and switch schools every few years. Sorensen said it appears the district’s existing spaces can accommodate the extra students, so one of her priorities is examining graduation requirements so that "students who are moving here aren't penalized based on the number of high school credits they have."
Cullum said a more complete curriculum — stating, for instance, sixth-graders only get "snippets of history and science" — and offering more programs such as internships for upper grade levels will give students in Coast Guard families more useful opportunities. Thomas said she wants to see the typical level of interest among Coast Guard families in traditional vs. home schools, and increase support for the latter if that is their preference. Whitney said he favors establishing a district liaison with the Coast Guard to discuss needs.
A question asked at multiple forums this year about nationwide efforts to restrict materials available to students saw general support again on Thursday for the district’s current policy of allowing members to raise concerns to the board for evaluation, while trusting teachers and librarians to determine what material is suitable. Thomas differed somewhat by saying parents should be able to approve what materials their children see and alternatives should be provided to items considered unacceptable.
Early voting has started in the election that also includes three Assembly races (featuring one two-candidate race and two incumbents who are unopposed), and three tax-related ballot propositions. The school board race has all of the candidates in the same pool for the same seats — the two candidates with the most votes will each get full three-year terms, the third-place finisher will fill the remaining two years of the seat temporarily occupied by Whitney.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
