- 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)
Myself and my two kids, 8 and 12Occupation
City of Juneau – TransitPrevious government experience or community involvement
Attended UAS in the Early Childhood Education department, I worked for several years at Juneau Montessori School in Douglas in every role including janitor, teacher, office admin, and President of the Board.Highest level of education
College
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 K-12 education is equipping students with the foundational skills and critical thinking abilities they need to succeed in life. This includes not only academic knowledge in subjects like math, science, and literacy but also social and emotional learning that fosters resilience, empathy, and the ability to work collaboratively. K-12 education should prepare students to be informed, adaptable citizens who can navigate the complexities of the modern world with confidence and integrity.
What makes you a good candidate for the Juneau school board?
I would be providing a fresh effort toward the board, and I’m a parent. I have two kids in the system. I’ve been in Juneau for a little over 10 years, in Alaska for a little over 20. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good pulse on kind of our local ebb and flow of finances and general culture. So yeah, I’m excited to do it. I’m ready to put the effort in and bring some fresh energy to the board.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Juneau School District right now?
Basically, in my mind, it’s just the recent turmoil. There’s a couple of angles on it, like there’s kind of just the reality of declining student enrollment. However, there are also ways that we can mitigate some of that, but I think a bigger challenge is the way that it has been handled recently. A big theme for me is just being able to look ahead quite a bit more. I feel like they were put in a bad position. And, on that date, when they had exactly four weeks to figure something out, they probably did the best that they could do, but I feel like there’s no reason they should have got to that point without being able to look ahead a little bit further. So I think some of these are our biggest challenges right now.
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?
So I guess my first thing I need to say here is just that I have a lot of gratitude, and I feel like we all need to have a lot of gratitude for the people that are serving on the board. It’s not a glamorous job other than an election cycle. It’s pretty much nonexistent for most of the population in Juneau. So it’s not glamorous, and I just want to just offer my gratitude for what they’ve done now. And I disagree with the recall. I don’t necessarily agree with the policies of those individuals, but letting them fulfill their terms and letting the democratic process play out I feel is important. What can be done again is just looking forward a little bit further, but my emphasis there is just gratitude. Even if I feel like it’s time for changing the guard, I do have gratitude for what they’ve done.
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?
As we shut down buildings that’s also going to affect future funding, and so it’s kind of a self-fulfilling issue. So if it does need to continue, then again, just looking ahead more than 30 days would be like a kind of a basic first step. However, seeking alternate funding is a big one for me, and I understand that there are some constraints on that, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no way to explore that, even if we have to go talk to some government or somehow we need to be able to pay to teach our kids as a culture. So I think there’s something that can be done.
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?
Well, as a parent, I did get an email from the district that they wanted to squash the idea of a parking garage there. I guess there was a rumor about a parking garage that, according to the email from the district, is not true. But anyway, I mean, it’s a hard one, because there was not much planning ahead. Again, they have a bus that does a park-and-ride from the Valley. Good concept. I don’t have a high school student. I have middle school students in elementary but I didn’t hear anything about alternate options for them until the second week of school. So again, it’s just planning ahead, looking a little bit into the future. What, physically, what can be done? I mean, there could be some improvement in parking, maybe sharing with the university across the highway. I mean, I don’t know, but planning ahead would be the emphasis.
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?
So this brings up a big one for me, that as we get into all the politics and the back and forth about what we did wrong and our anger at some of the people, you know, I have concerns about some of the people running right now, and that they’re coming in with anger, and that’s just not going to be a cohesive group to move forward. So keeping the students first is the big one. It is like we’re getting lost in all the details, but remembering that we’re actually all here to serve the kids and educate our children. So, are we doing well enough? Now, I would always say no – there’s always something that we can do better. However, we are where we are, and I’m excited to move forward.