Education

6 candidates vie for 3 Anchorage School Board seats

Six candidates have entered the race for the three Anchorage School Board seats up for election April 7.

Four of the candidates have business backgrounds, while two formerly taught for the school district they want to govern. The candidates range from 36 to 59 years old. A majority graduated from the Anchorage school system. Some are parents or grandparents of students currently enrolled. All say they're passionate about education, but they split over issues like bonds and the budget.

In the upcoming election, two candidates will go head-to-head for each School Board seat. School Board members are elected in area-wide, nonpartisan races.

The winning candidates will serve on the seven-person board of one of the 100 largest school districts in the nation. This school year, the district served about 47,600 students on a budget of roughly $766 million. School Board members serve three-year terms and receive an annual salary of nearly $28,000.

Race Snapshots

Seat E:

Kathleen Plunkett, 59, is running for re-election for her final term on the School Board -- term limits hold members to three terms. Plunkett was born in Fairbanks and moved with her family to Juneau, Seward and Whittier before landing in Anchorage in 1966. She graduated from East High School and earned her bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis on accounting from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Plunkett is a senior financial analyst at ConocoPhillips. She has worked for the company and its predecessor, Arco Alaska, for 35 years. Plunkett is involved with a number of community organizations, including Anchorage Realizing Indigenous Student Excellence (ARISE), which focuses on improving education, health and cultural awareness for Alaska Native youths. Plunkett has two sons and one grandchild who have graduated from East High, as well as one grandchild currently enrolled in East and another at Clark Middle School.

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If re-elected to School Board, Plunkett said she would continue to use her accounting background to help the school district navigate future budget shortfalls. She said she would work to change the school district's budget process so that it no longer must submit its budget to the Anchorage Assembly before it knows what funding it will receive from the state. Plunkett said she would continue to focus on school-business partnerships, including fostering those already established. She said she would also work with the school district's internal auditor to find areas where the school district can increase its operational efficiency. Plunkett supports bonds and does not support state-paid vouchers for private schools.

Derrick Slaughter, 36, moved to Alaska at 17 when the U.S. Army stationed his parents at Fort Richardson in Anchorage. Slaughter graduated from Bartlett High School and went straight to trade school. In 2006, he opened Unique Blends barbershop in East Anchorage, where he employs seven barbers and one hairdresser. Slaughter has a 5-year-old son enrolled at Creekside Park Elementary School and another child on the way.

Slaughter said owning a barbershop has made him a good listener and has taught him how to balance a budget. He went back to school in 2009 and received his associate degree in business management. He currently takes online classes through Grand Canyon University in Arizona and is working toward a bachelor's degree in applied management.

As a School Board member, Slaughter said he would increase parental involvement in education and look more closely at the school district's budget. He said he would focus on retaining teachers and would sit down with those already employed by the school district to discuss what would encourage them to stay. The school district could offer incentives, he suggested. When looking to cut back the school district's budget, he said, he would first look at energy bills. Slaughter supports bonds and does not support state-paid vouchers for private schools.

Seat F:

Tam Agosti-Gisler, 57, is seeking re-election to her second term on the School Board because, she said, "there are still some things that I need to do." Agosti-Gisler moved to Alaska with her family in 1959 and graduated from West High School in 1975. She received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University and went on to earn her teacher certification and later her master's in teaching.

During 22 years employed by the Anchorage School District, Agosti-Gisler taught French, social studies and a school business partnership class. Two of her children have graduated from East High and one will graduate this year. Agosti-Gisler retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and was elected to the School Board in 2012. For her, the position is a full-time job.

As a School Board member, Agosti-Gisler said, she is willing to collaborate, listen and apply common sense when faced with tough decisions. If re-elected, she said, she would focus on keeping the school district's literacy readiness program on track. She would continue work expanding the school district's alternative programs as well as career pathways through career and technical education. She said she would also look for more operational efficiencies within the school district by analyzing audits recently completed or currently underway. Agosti-Gisler supports bonds and does not support state-paid vouchers for private schools.

David Nees, 58, was born in England, graduated from high school in Oregon and four years later earned a degree in history from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. He moved to Anchorage in 1979 and later graduated from the teaching program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Nees worked as a substitute teacher briefly before the Anchorage School District hired him as a middle school teacher.

Nees taught math for 28 years and retired in 2011. He is married to an Anchorage teacher. They have two children who graduated from Service High School. Currently, Nees works as a ramp supervisor at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Nees has run unsuccessfully for School Board twice within the past four years. He served on the Sustainable Education Task Force created by a House resolution in 2013 to perform a statewide education review.

If elected to School Board, Nees said, he would bring a "different philosophical mindset" to the current board. If he was on the School Board this year, he said, he would not have voted to put the $17 million in reserves toward next school year's budget, which the board did to avoid cuts. Instead, he said, he would have made the cuts to "reflect reality" and would have reduced spending everywhere except in the classroom. If elected, Nees said, he would bring charter schools into school district buildings, which he said would save the school district money. He said he would expand charter school programs. He would also focus on underachieving students -- identifying which students do not show a year's progress and providing them with intervention and support. Nees does not support bonds. He said that since he could not create a school voucher program as a School Board member, he did not think the issue was pertinent to his candidacy. However, at a recent public forum he said he supports state-paid vouchers for private schools.

Seat G:

Starr Marsett, 59, was born on an Air Force base in Illinois. Her family moved frequently between bases before she graduated from high school in Oklahoma. Marsett met her husband during her brief enlistment in the Air Force. In 1977, the two arrived at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. They later traveled between bases in the Lower 48 before her husband was stationed in Alaska again in 1984. This time, the family relocated to the Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks. Marsett has two children who graduated from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. In 1993, she and her husband moved to Anchorage. They have an adopted grandchild enrolled in East High and another grandchild enrolled at Bear Valley Elementary School.

At age 40, Marsett went back to school and earned her bachelor's degree in business management from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. She has has held jobs within the banking industry, substituted in the Anchorage School District and currently works as a real estate agent with Dwell Realty. She sits on several school district committees including the capital improvement advisory committee and special education advisory committee.

Marsett said she has served as an advocate for education since her first child was born 36 years ago. She ran for School Board in 2012 and lost. If elected this year, Marsett said, she would create a strategic planning committee to prioritize all of the school district's programs as part of the process to decide what gets cut. Each month, she said, she would have coffee with groups of teachers to discuss issues and solutions. She would also look at which schools were not used to full capacity and see if an alternative program could fill the space. Marsett supports bonds and does not support state-paid vouchers for private schools.

Elisa Snelling, 36, was born and raised in Anchorage. She graduated from Bartlett High in 1996. At 18, she started working for Hanna Auto Wash. There, she rose through the ranks from cashier to general manager. In 2004, she moved to Eagle River with her husband and took time off from employment to raise three children.

Currently, Snelling works as an accounting manager for Brews Brothers LLC, the company that owns Glacier Brewhouse and Orso restaurant in Anchorage. Her three children attend Rilke Schule German School of Arts and Sciences, a charter school within the Anchorage School District. Snelling currently serves as the president of the Eagle River Valley Community Council and is the former chair and treasurer of Rilke Schule's Academic Policy Committee, the charter school's governing board.

Snelling describes herself as a business person and "numbers junkie." She said she is passionate about giving back to the community that raised her. As a School Board member, she said, she would look at expanding charter school and alternative programs into neighborhood schools to "bring the program to the student." Snelling said she would also increase the school district's transparency and accountability by posting more financial documents online. To cut back the school district's budget, Snelling said, she would first look at administrative, infrastructure, overhead and maintenance costs. Snelling does not support bonds during the current fiscal climate. She said she would support a conversation around state-paid vouchers for private schools.

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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