- School Board
- Amber Frommherz
- Jenny Thomas
- Michele Stuart Morgan
- Will Muldoon
- Jeff Redmond
- Elizabeth (Ebett) Siddon
- District 2 Assembly
- Dorene Lorenz
- Emily Mesch
- Nano Brooks
- Mary Marks
- Maureen Hall
- District 1 Assembly
- Neil Steininger
- Connor Ulmer
- Mayor
- Beth Weldon
- Angela Rodell
Age on Oct. 1, 2024
43
Family (immediate/those you live with)
Nanibah Frommherz and Shandiin FrommherzOccupation
Outreach & Development Program Manager, SEARHC–help develop grow-your-own career opportunities for SE AK residents, promote and recruit as well.Previous government experience or community involvement
I bring a diverse experience obtained from life and professional realms. In short, my life experience allows me to share the experience of a border town school experience where I attended school with students from in-town and students who rode the bus into town from the neighboring Navajo Nation. I am a first-generation college graduate and was only able to do so by enlisting in the US Navy. I am a mom of three JSD students (daughters) who have grown to love Juneau since our orders here ten years ago. Most relevant, I am currently on the school board wrapping up the first three-year term. I believe experience provided an in-depth knowledge of the district’s financial condition funding streams. While on the Board, I chaired the Program Evaluation Committee and participated in the Policy Committee. These committees enabled me to get an understanding of the momentum that started with the new superintendent and cabinet members. I believe that I bring a different perspective and have grown into speaking up and sharing the different perspective. Additionally, I bring my professional experience from early education as a Head Start Director with Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) to Outreach and Development Program Manager with Southeast Alaska Regional Healthcare Consortium (SEARHC). In between both jobs, I worked as the Tribal Outreach Director with Tlingit and Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) and Indigenizing Education Alaska (IEA) Program Manager with Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI). During these years, specialized in developing relationships with SE Tribes, assisting schools with the teacher shortage across Alaska, and, now, developing job shadowing experiences for high school students at SEARHC. All of these experiences helped me learn and appreciate the different experiences of all sectors of our community, region, and statewide. I believe this knowledge and appreciation can help JSD extend partnerships and/or advocacy partnerships to address education funding challenges.Highest level of education
Masters of Arts in Educational Studies from Tufts University (2014).Did you attend public school?
Yes
Briefly, what do you think is the most important part of K-12 education?
The most important part of the K-12 PUBLIC education is the possibility of economic upward mobility; in the best scenario, a K-12 education can level the playing field for students not born into wealth.
What makes you a good candidate for the Juneau school board?
I feel like I’m a good candidate for the Juneau school board because this will be my second term. I have one term under my belt, and I feel like I have been a part of a board where we’ve created momentum, and I would be able to continue that momentum. I’ve been on the program evaluation committee and policy committee and so I feel like I’ve learned enough, I still have enough newness that I can incorporate change and bring my perspective that I feel is new and unique to the board, and I’m looking forward to this election.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Juneau School District right now?
The biggest challenge facing Juneau School District right now is the same challenge, the biggest challenge that all Alaska public schools are facing right now – it’s the lack of state funding and the long-term lack of state funding. Underfunding public education is a challenge for the entire state, and I think this coming school year will be another challenging year for the school board, with an administration at the governor’s office just being very unpredictable, but with a tendency and a pattern of lack of support financially for the school and predictable support for the school district.
Last year, the district had to solve an abrupt multimillion-dollar deficit in a matter of months. Not all residents were happy with the decisions made and it prompted a recall effort this election for two of its current members. Moving forward, what role does each school board member play in ensuring that the district remains on firm financial footing?
Moving forward, each school board member will have to get acquainted with our financial systems right away. This past school year, we, the school board and the financial officer have incorporated a new financial system and so there’s going to be a new era of reporting. And so learning what those reports are, learning the funding formula and all the channels of revenue and expenses will be everybody’s job.
The school board voted to consolidate Juneau’s high schools and middle schools this past winter. And, with the uncertainty about education funding in the state and the district’s declining enrollment, do you think more school consolidation will be necessary in the future? If so, how will you tackle that situation?
I foresee that the school district will have to consolidate some more, provided that the state funding stays the same. If it’s continued flat funding, all the expenses are increasing every year. So if that’s going to be the case again, there’s going to be another way to mitigate that would be consolidation. And I believe it’ll be at the other end of the spectrum, which would be at the elementary level. And we’re looking for areas where there are multiple geographic consolidations, so it’d most likely be in the Valley area is what I would predict.
With hundreds of more students at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé this year, issues with the lack of parking have been a hot topic. What more could the district be doing to mitigate that?
I think this parking challenge for the high school is very important. Any barrier for school is a barrier. And I think the Juneau School District could be working with CBJ more and possibly the state and the state’s transportation department to identify more areas for students to park, and maybe even implementing a parking system and permit system for our students. Thinking on the fly here, maybe prioritizing the senior class and then working the way down or alternating parking days for students. It’s very unfortunate for them. I feel for them, but this is a problem that everybody needs to come to the table to solve for our students.
Is student achievement where it should be in Juneau? What can the district do to improve reading and math scores as students grapple with major shifts in their school environments?
I’m prior Navy and anytime we’re in the Navy, there’s a saying that there’s always room for improvement. So be that as it may, I do think there’s always room for improvement, including reading and math scores can be improved. And students do have a two-pronged challenge here. They have to grapple with the school environment shift, and then also our hopes for them to bring up scores. I think the district can help our students by ensuring that we’re mitigating turnover for teachers. Teachers build relationships with students, and students learn in relationships. So ensuring that our students have the same teachers coming back year after year, especially in reading and math, will be helpful. And this is a negotiation year, so the goal is to keep our staff here.