Anchorage Assembly weighs asking voters to elect most School Board members by district

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 17, continues its public hearing on Assembly member Donald Handeland's proposal to elect six of seven Anchorage School Board members by Assembly district. Handeland, who represents Chugiak, Eagle River and JBER, proposed the charter amendment in late September. If the Assembly approves it, voters would decide the question on the April 6, 2027, municipal ballot.

The hearing was carried over from Nov. 4 and starts no earlier than 6 pm, according to the agenda.

All seven board members are now elected citywide. The ordinance would keep one at-large seat and tie six to Assembly districts of about 48,200 residents each, according to Handeland's memo. The measure needs approval from two-thirds of the Assembly's full membership to reach the ballot. Sitting board members would serve out their terms, and district elections would phase in as those terms expire.

Handeland's memo says residents of Assembly Districts 4, 5 and 6 filled 21 of the 26 board seats up for election from 2016 to 2026, counting each reelection separately. The memo says its tables describe where members live and do not measure how they voted.

"You can have it where members of the school board are elected and could completely ignore a particular area of Anchorage, and there's really nothing that that area can do," Handeland said at an Assembly work session Oct. 8, adding he was not suggesting that is happening.

The School Board voted 6-1 on Oct. 20 to oppose the measure. President Carl Jacobs and five other board members then signed an Oct. 30 letter saying students cross the city every day for language immersion, charter, and career and technical programs. "A student does not become someone else's responsibility because they cross an Assembly district line to attend school," the letter said. It also warns the district would be governed under two election models during the phase-in.

The Northeast Community Council sent a letter urging passage. Council President Pamela Raygor and two other officers reported that 12 of 16 respondents favored the district model in an informal poll they said was not scientific. They asked the Assembly to continue the hearing past November so community councils can weigh in.

Handeland and Sandra Graham also filed an initiative petition using the ordinance's language with the municipal clerk on Oct. 9. The clerk certified it Nov. 9, and sponsors have until Feb. 8, 2027, to gather signatures from 7,225 qualified voters. The municipal attorney's office advised the clerk that the petition becomes void if the Assembly first approves the ordinance and places it on the April ballot.