Mat-Su ordinance would ask November voters to extend school board terms to four years

Mat-Su voters would decide in November whether school board members serve four-year terms instead of three, under an ordinance headed to public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Borough Assembly Chambers, 350 E. Dahlia Ave., in Palmer.

The measure also sets transitory terms to align school board terms with assembly district terms. Under the borough's election notice, the two school board seats on this year's ballot, Districts 3 and 6, would be cut to two-year terms if voters approve the change. Four assembly seats, Districts 1, 2, 4 and 5, are up this year for four-year terms.

Assembly members Dmitri Fonov, Dee McKee and Ron Bernier sponsor the ordinance. Mat-Su school board members currently serve three-year terms.

The school district has asked for the same change. Its legislative priorities document asks the Alaska Legislature to "allow municipalities and boroughs the ability to align board member terms with other elected officials," and says the district "would similarly like to support the increased efficiency by allowing board members to serve a four-year term." The same document identifies a barrier: "However, AS 14.12.050 does not allow for this adjustment." State law governs school board term length, and the district's document says a local change is not permitted without legislative action. The agenda does not state how the ordinance would take effect if voters approve it, and nothing in the borough's materials indicates that state law has changed. Whether a favorable vote could take effect without legislative action remains unresolved.

A 2021 school board resolution on term and salary limits reflects the opposing argument, that shorter terms let voters replace members more often when public confidence erodes.

The question also sits inside a broader Alaska pattern of disputes over local control of school governance, in which boroughs seek more flexibility over election structure and board terms while that authority rests with the state.

The people most directly affected have not weighed in on the record. Borough voters would decide the question if it reaches the Nov. 3 ballot. Sitting board members and candidates would either gain longer terms or, under the transition rules, serve shortened ones. Among this year's filers is Kathryn G. McCollum, who submitted a letter of intent to run for the school board on July 9.

Alaska News previously covered a separate school board tenure proposal on the Kenai Peninsula, where that borough's assembly weighed asking voters to cap the number of terms a member may serve, a different question from the length of each term. Alaska News also covered the Mat-Su Assembly's Aug. 4 decision to place an areawide road powers question on the same Nov. 3 ballot.