Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Linda Menard spent the better part of the 1980s and early 1990s helping out in local schools.

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Linda Menard

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From classroom volunteer to substitute teacher to president of the Parent Teacher Organization in her children's elementary school, Tanaina, she did it all.

Yet Menard says she never imagined herself serving on the School Board, a role her husband, Curt Menard, filled from 1984 to 1986.

She ran almost on a whim in 1995, when "the teachers' union thought it would be great if Curt came back," she said. "He said, 'no, but ask Linda.' "

Now 12 years later, many in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough say they can't imagine her not serving.

"For as long as I've been aware of the School Board, you've been on it," said assistant borough manager Marian Romano at a joint meeting Sept. 11 of the School Board and borough Assembly.

But the meeting was Menard's last. She says she decided in October 2006, shortly after Curt Menard was elected borough mayor, not to seek another term in next month's election. The decision was "the right thing to do," since the borough holds the School District purse strings, she said.

She'll devote her energy now to her husband, who has been battling cancer since December 2006, and to children and the community through two nonprofits that she helped form, the Mat-Su Health Foundation and the Mat-Su Schools Foundation.

We sat down with Menard on Friday in her Wasilla home, where she reflected on her School Board experiences.

Q. Looking back, are there things that you are particularly proud of accomplishing while on the board or things that you would count as successes?

A. Some of our successes were we were able to lower the (pupil-teacher ratio). And I was sort of known as the board member that always bird-dogged the co-curricular (activities), so I felt I was successful in the funding for co-curricular and keeping that whole. And I made the good argument that for private schools versus public schools, that's the one thing that we offer is a lot of co-curricular where there's team spirit and, you know, a camaraderie for students that makes it worthwhile and keeps up their interests. And you know these are all good things.

...I've seen probably like 12 or 13 new schools come on line, plus a new nutrition center, and finally our first Mat-Su Career and Technical (High School). So you know, I feel those are successes that I can't say were all my doing, but I was happy to be a part of that.

Q. I know you fought hard for school uniforms. Why do you think the idea never went over?

A. I think there was this misconception out there that I was trying to promote that the whole district went to school uniforms, which wasn't the case.

I was looking for a pilot program of one elementary school. And we did have meetings with parents at the school sites and did surveys. At Finger Lake (Elementary School) we got sort of close, and we also presented it out at the Butte. We were very close but it didn't come.

I think Alaskans are very unique and they don't want all the regulations. ... And there's the stereotype that most people have that I was thinking of plaid jumpers or plaid skirts with the white blouses, and that isn't what I had in mind at all. It could be as simple as a dark pair of pants with a polo shirt.

Q. Were there other disappointments?

A. I worked really diligently for year-round schools and that has been a disappointment because there's been no variation to that at all. I've also not been able to advocate the way I wanted to with having high school students (start school) a little later because the research proves that, you know, they need that sleep time in the mornings. And the elementary kids, as you know, they're up and bustling and ready to have something to do.

But as you know on a seven-member board you need four other board members to feel the same way you do.

Q. Why did you decide not to seek re-election?

A. Because I feel with Curt as borough mayor, my husband as borough mayor, there's a conflict. I didn't want to leave after he was elected because I never quit anything and I knew my term would be up this fall and so that would be a good departing time.

... The way Curt and I have run our marriage and our life, I know in my heart it hasn't been a conflict, but I want that transparency and I just don't want the perception of that.

Q. What advice would you give your successor?

A. Whenever anyone is deciding to run as an elected official for the School Board, I hope they think seriously and plan to be committed and not drop out -- you know, make sure that that's going to be three years and that you're going to be dedicated to it and attend all the meetings.

I think your heart should be in the right place where you're not using it as a stepping-stone to some other office. Because I don't think there's anything volunteering that you can do in a community that is more important than working for the students.

Q. Any other thoughts.

A. I think this is a dynamite School District. I really believe that with all my heart and I'm just glad that I had a small role to play in seeing that the funding is there for our staff to continue.

Find Becky Stoppa online at adn.com/contact/bstoppa or call 352-6708.