JUNEAU — Gov. Mike Dunleavy has filled three spots on Alaska’s state board of education.
In an email Friday afternoon, the governor’s press secretary confirmed that Sally Stockhausen of Ketchikan and Bob Griffin of Anchorage were named to fill two spots on the State of Alaska Board of Education and Early Development.
Tiffany Scott of Kotzebue was reappointed to another five-year term on the nine-member board that regulates the state education system.
The email did not say which seats Stockhausen and Griffin will fill, but the board’s website no longer lists board members Barbara Thompson of Douglas or Rebecca Himschoot of Sitka. Thompson had filled a seat reserved for a public member, and Himschoot had filled one reserved for a resident of Judicial District 1, which covers Southeast Alaska.
That would leave Griffin filling the public seat and Stockhausen filling the Southeast seat.
Thompson’s term had been scheduled to expire this year; Himschoot’s was not scheduled to expire until 2021, and press secretary Matt Shuckerow confirmed that the governor chose to replace Himschoot.
“As you know, the board serves at the pleasure of the governor,” Shuckerow said. “He kept the vast majority of the board and chose one individual to go in a different direction.”
Himschoot is an elementary school science teacher in Sitka, according to information published online by the Sitka school district, and she has received multiple national awards. Stockhausen is a special services teacher at Ketchikan High School, according to online information from her school district.
Thompson lived in Douglas, the island community within the City and Borough of Juneau.
Bob Griffin is an education staffer for the Alaska Policy Forum, whose stated mission is to grow prosperity in Alaska by “maximizing individual opportunities and freedom.” During the 2018 election, Griffin served as treasurer of Dunleavy for Alaska, an independent expenditure group that spent millions to encourage the election of the governor.