- District 1 Assembly
- Troy Wuyts-Smith
- Barbara 'Wáahlaal Gíidaak Blake
- Paul Kelly
- District 2 Assembly
- Kelly Fishler
- Michelle Bonnet Hale
- Mayor
- Beth Weldon
- School Board
- Kyle Scholl*
- Thom Buzard
- Will Muldoon*
- Ibn Bailey
- Aaron Spratt
- Elizabeth Siddon
- Amber Frommherz
Age
40
Family
My spouse is an active duty Coast Guard member. That’s how we came to Juneau was through his orders. And I have three daughters. One is Kira, 19, Nanibaa’, 13, and Shandiin is 11. We have a dog. Her name is Boston. Golden doodle.
Politically, how do you identify?
Democrat
How do you earn a living?
I’m the Director of Tribal Services and Outreach for Tlingit and Haida Regional Housing Authority.
What are some topics you’re an expert on?
I’d say early childhood education as it relates to Head Start. I’m also aware of military active duty dependents and education. I’m also very in tuned with culturally relevant ways of knowing; my master’s degree is in educational studies grounded in learning the different kinds of pedagogies. I’m also witness to I guess you would say, the benefits of vocational education.
Why are you running for office?
The reason why I’m running for school board is because I’m passionate about education. Much of my adult journey has been rooted in obtaining education or serving in education realms. I have a new job, children who are older and there are three seats available. So I think timing is everything. And for me, this is the right time to serve my community and give back.
Education policy
What’s something in Juneau’s standardized test data that informs an education policy you want to implement or action you want to take?
So in terms of school data, student data, as a school board member, if I were elected, I would like to ensure that our teaching staff and our administration staff have proper professional development that helps them conduct or facilitate the student assessment tests. And in addition, how that dovetails with teaching the Marzano teacher assessment data.
COVID-19
What do you think of how the district has handled COVID-19 in schools so far? Would you like to change anything?
In terms of COVID-19, I just want to give a big appreciation and shout out to the school board members to pull us through that school, this past school year, and still currently we are dealing with it. Not the school board only but the teachers and the students and the families. And in terms of what we would change, I would look to our experts, I would look to our to Emergency Operations Center experts to inform our lessons learned.
Working together
What’s your approach for dealing with colleagues you disagree with on a policy matter?
My approach would be to actively listen. We are all a part of a bigger team, rooted in what’s best for our students and also staff. So my first approach would be to listen, to find where we can make some solutions. At the end of the day, we still need to make decisions and our school still needs to function. And so, I am grounded in solution oriented conversations.
School involvement
What is your relationship to Juneau’s schools? Are you a parent?
My relation to Juneau schools, I am a parent. I have three daughters. I have a Thunder Mountain High School 2020 graduate and two daughters who attend Floyd Dryden Middle School. My other relation was professionally my previous job, I was a Head Start director for Tlingit and Haida and worked with Bridget Weiss to help design the current kinder-ready program.
Serving Juneau
Which parts of Juneau do you think are underserved by the school district, and what will you do about it?
I think one sector of underserved folks would be looking at and ensuring that we are identifying students who are experiencing homelessness and if we are serving them to the best of our ability as a school district. In addition, I also am a firm believer in early childhood education, and so I’m pretty sure there are some three and four-year-olds out there that could be experiencing some early childhood programs by JSD.