Anchorage Assembly member proposes electing School Board members by district

West Anchorage and Chugiak-Eagle River have had no School Board member living in their districts since 2021. Anchorage Assembly Member Donald Handeland wants voters to elect most of the board by district.

His proposal would put a charter amendment, a change to the city's governing charter, on the April 6, 2027 municipal ballot. The board would keep seven members. Voters in each of the six Assembly districts would elect one member. One member would be elected at-large, by voters citywide. Every seat is now elected citywide.

The Assembly is scheduled to introduce the ordinance Tuesday, Oct. 6. A public hearing is set for Nov. 4. Two-thirds of the Assembly's full membership, eight of 12 members, must approve sending the question to voters. The charter change would then need a simple majority of voters.

An Assembly Legal Services analysis attached to Handeland's memo counts where each winner lived on election day. From 2016 to 2026, residents of Midtown, East and South Anchorage won 21 of 26 seats, or 80.8 percent. Over 20 years their share was 62.7 percent. District 2, Handeland's district, covers Chugiak, Eagle River and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. District 2 residents filled two of those 26 seats over that decade. District 3, which covers West Anchorage, filled only one. District 2 also had no resident member from 2012 to 2015. The tables "describe residence and do not measure members' voting behavior," the memo said.

"Electing one member from each district would ensure every part of Anchorage has a member elected by its own voters," Handeland said in a statement announcing the proposal. The ordinance's findings say district races would reduce "the time and resources needed to reach voters." Each district seat would represent about 48,200 residents. Each at-large seat now represents 289,221. Mat-Su and the Kenai Peninsula already elect school boards by Assembly district, with about 16,800 and 6,800 residents per seat, according to the memo.

District candidates would have to live in their district for a year before the election and stay there while serving. Current members would finish their terms. A separate ordinance, required before candidate filing opens, would assign seats to districts. The memo projects district seats phasing in from 2028 through 2032. It projects the at-large seat first elected under the new system in 2030.

The records do not show where the School Board or other Assembly members stand. Residents can testify at the Nov. 4 hearing in person, or by phone after signing up on the Assembly's testimony page by 5 p.m. the day before.