- 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
40
Family (immediate/those you live with)
Partner: Morgan DufsethOccupation
Analytics/Data Governance Manager for the State of AlaskaPrevious government experience or community involvement
KTOO Broadcasting Board of Directors: 2008 – 2014
CoastAlaska Public Broadcasting Board of Directors: 2010 – 2012
CBJ Commission on Aging: 2019 – 2020
CBJ Parks and Recreation Advisory Cmte, Vice Chair: 2018 – 2022
CBJ Aquatics Board, Chair: 2018 – 2022
Alaska State Employees Association Trustee: 2023
Alaska State Employees Association Audit Cmte, Chair: 2024
Juneau Central Labor Council, Vice President: 2023 – Present
Disability Law Center, Clerk: 2022 – Present
Alaska Bar Association Discipline Cmte for the 1st Judicial District, Citizen’s seat: 2022 – PresentHighest level of education
High school Diploma/Some college. Juneau School District alumniDid you attend public school?
The most important aspect of K-12 education, for me, is creating a structured environment where students can explore their curiosity and learn in an engaging way, helping them grow into successful members of our community.Briefly, what do you think is the most important part of K-12 education?
Yes
What makes you a good candidate for the Juneau school board?
So as the current finance chair, you know that’s our number one issue facing us right now. And, I wasn’t initially going to file to run for reelection, but after discussing it with my family and doing some soul-searching, I’m extremely concerned about the complexity and the myriad issues that we face. And I think that now is the time for us to see this through and it would be really hard to onboard for new members, so I’m going to step up and run for reelection.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Juneau School District right now?
So number one is clearly going to be finances. You know, this year is probably the hardest the district has faced. But as we were dealing with that, we were also made aware the first week of December in 2023 that the State Department of Education is looking into Alaska administrative code changes regarding the way we fund activities, RALLY, transportation and all supplemental non-instructional funding. And that, combined with our shared services agreement, which may also be impacted, could see us having to make adjustments similar in size and scale to the ones we just went through. So that is the number one issue that keeps me up and keeps me, takes up my time.
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 that’s obviously our duty as fiduciaries. That is what we sign up to do. It is one of our primary responsibilities. It’s also a requirement in statute. But I’d like to take a quick moment here to address the preamble, which is in regard to the recall effort against our president and vice president. They initially tried to recall all members, except for the two newest members, and just did not have the paperwork in time. And that group is also affiliated with Community Advocates for Responsible Education, whose presiding officer is currently a candidate for school board. They are hosting a forum tonight where they did not invite the incumbents. They have a website savedjuneauschools.com where they’ve been soliciting donations since April, and look to be organizing and influencing this election, but are not in with APOC [Alaska Public Offices Commission]. So, you know, we have roles as members to handle the budget, but I am extremely worried about the way the recall group is behaving.
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?
Necessary is probably the word doing the biggest lift there, and I would say in the immediate term, hopefully not. You know, I am extremely concerned with the Alaska administrative code changes that could be taking effect as early as next March, a week before we pass our budget. And so if we need to find funding for high school activities, we’re going to have to make changes, and I don’t know what that would look like. You know, we are doing our best, but as far as the best way to tackle that, I think it’s fully bringing our budget software online and having a relational database model for all finances and dollars in and dollars out, and then modeling that data for timely and accurate reports and a public-facing dashboard. And that’s, as the Finance Chair, that’s my current workload. That’s my primary task.
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?
So it’s definitely a hot topic item. We’ve received a substantial amount of feedback on this. I also do serve as the liaison to that school right now, and parking is generally managed by the City and Borough [of Juneau] and implemented by the police department. And I just think there was perhaps a misunderstanding or differences in view there. And I think what more we could do is – we’re extremely limited in that role. You know, we don’t dictate to the borough how to implement and follow through on their policies. I think that what the administration did is adequate, where we reached out to the borough immediately, and city leaders – I, myself, also made some phone calls – and I think that that is the appropriate measure. But as far as you know, being able to change parking, that’s it’s a tricky one with where the location is.
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?
This is again a really tricky one to get answered succinctly, but we just received the assessment results, and we’ve seen improvements in some areas to pre-COVID levels. We’ve seen some other areas where we’re struggling. And you know, unfortunately, there isn’t just one reductive quotient that we could say ‘We are at a B and we should be at an A,’ or ‘We’re at an A, and that’s good enough for now.’ I think that we’ve seen these last few years where some areas were doing better than others, and some buildings are doing better than others. And my primary focus is to understand what causes those differences, and how can we minimize them and lift all students and all buildings.