Anchorage School Board asks Assembly to reject electing most members by district

The Anchorage School Board voted 6-1 Tuesday to direct board President Carl Jacobs to draft a letter urging the Anchorage Assembly to vote down a proposal to elect most board members by district.

Assembly member Donald Handeland of Chugiak-Eagle River sponsored the ordinance. If the Assembly approves it, a charter amendment would go on the April 6, 2027, ballot. It would elect six members by Assembly district and one at large. All seven seats are elected citywide now.

In a press release, Handeland said each district member would represent about 48,000 residents instead of nearly 288,000. Assembly members questioned the plan at an Oct. 8 work session.

The debate drew on board members' own histories. Board member Margo Bellamy said she grew up in a school system that was "separate and unequal," where "affluence and the political affiliation totally decided who got what and who got it when." Reading from an op-ed she had started, she said district elections could deepen competition between communities with unequal wealth. "We know who those communities are in Anchorage," she said.

Board member Pat Higgins, who cast the only vote against the letter, said he went to school in Louisiana "when it was separate but not equal." "I don't view this as associated with that at all," he said. "And I take objection to that."

Higgins argued the public should decide. He said one community council of 25 or 30 people backed the change unanimously, while another did not support it. He said most people don't know who their board members are, and he tied the issue to the board's school closure decisions. "We paid a price," he said. "I'm not going to support trying to say don't let the public decide anything else again."

Bellamy, who seconded the motion, said the ordinance does not mention students and that district seats risk "creating pockets of haves and have-nots."

Board member Kelly Lessens said 35% to 40% of students are mobile within the district's school choice system. For a family living in one district with a child enrolled in another, she asked, "Who's your phone-a-friend?" She also said that during the years seats would be phased in, giving some parts of town a dedicated representative before others would be "profoundly unfair."

Jacobs said he would have preferred the board not weigh in, and noted that some members' own seats could in theory be affected. He cited a 2014 Fordham Institute study that tied at-large boards to better academic outcomes, while saying one study wasn't enough to settle it. He said he worried about "haves and have-nots in a quasi-Hunger Games model" if parts of town compete for resources.

Board member Paul McDonogh, who made the motion, said waiting until the board's Nov. 2 meeting would leave the Assembly only one day to weigh the board's view. He cited a 2023 Journal of Politics study linking district elections to reduced housing approvals. He also cited research finding district seats can elect more officials of color where neighborhoods are segregated, but said that "entrenches segregation."

Board member Rachel Blakeslee said she could see both sides and asked whether the letter opposes the change itself or putting it on the ballot. Jacobs said the letter asks the Assembly to vote the ordinance down, which would keep it off the ballot. Blakeslee voted for the letter but said she had seen board biases "play out" in "ways that are geographic," and asked the board to examine its own norms. Board member Dora Wilson said members should advocate for all students, not only those in one part of town.

The Assembly holds a public hearing on the ordinance Nov. 4.