Handeland proposes electing most Anchorage School Board members by district

Anchorage Assembly Member Donald Handeland of Chugiak-Eagle River wants voters to decide whether to elect most of the Anchorage School 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, and 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, with a public hearing set for Nov. 4. Eight of the Assembly's 12 members, two-thirds of the full body, must approve sending the question to voters. The charter change would then need a simple majority of voters.

Handeland's memo says West Anchorage and Chugiak-Eagle River have had no School Board member living in their areas since 2021. An Assembly Legal Services analysis attached to the 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. Residents of Handeland's district, which covers Chugiak, Eagle River and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, won two of those 26 seats over that decade, and West Anchorage residents won one. Chugiak-Eagle River 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, compared with all 289,221 residents for each seat now. Mat-Su and the Kenai Peninsula already elect school boards by 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, with 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 pm the day before.