The Juneau School District Board of Education appointed Steve Whitney to the board on Saturday. Whitney will fill a seat held by Will Muldoon until his sudden resignation from the board last month.
Whitney is a former school board member and works for the National Marine Fisheries Service. He served a three-year term from 2016 to 2019 and decided not to run for reelection in order to care for a family member.
In his interview, Whitney said he plans to focus on maintaining the public process at board meetings.
“My mindset going forward would be to focus much more on healing community and collaboration while we deal with difficult decisions, because I believe that is what this time calls for, and that is also what would best serve our children,” he said.
Whitney said he wants to balance ensuring teachers in the district get fair contracts with the district’s budget constraints.
Whitney will serve until the board elections in October, when a new member will be elected to serve the two remaining years of the term.
