Education

Want to be the next Anchorage School Board member? Here’s how you can apply.

The Anchorage School Board is searching for a new board member after Bettye Davis resigned from the job this week. Interested? The board is taking applications until 5 p.m. Oct. 10.

The new board member will be sworn in Oct. 22 and serve through April 2019, when Davis' three-year term would have expired.

You can find the school board application at asdk12.org. Completed applications go to Katy Grant, school board secretary. Grant said people can send an application by email to grant_katy@asdk12.org or deliver it in person to the Anchorage School District Education Center at 5530 E. Northern Lights Blvd.

Here are the eligibility requirements for school board members, according to board policy:

— U.S. citizen
— Age 18 or older
— Registered voter in Alaska
— Resident of the school district for the 30 days immediately before appointment or election to the board
— Not disqualified from voting due to a felony conviction involving moral turpitude or "a court finding of incompetency, unless the disability no longer exists"

The school board will interview the candidates at a public meeting Oct. 20 at 10 a.m., Grant said. The board will then select the new board member by a majority vote.

The seven-member Anchorage School Board governs the state's largest school district. Board members are paid monthly, Grant said. Board members earn $27,977 a year, while the board president earns $31,810. Those totals include a $6,500 medical allowance.

The school board last appointed a board member in 2013, after Gretchen Guess resigned for a job move to Florida, according to a Daily News article. There were 32 official candidates that year, plus 11 more who either didn't complete the application process or removed their names from the pool, Grant said. The board selected Kameron Perez-Verdia to fill the board seat.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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