Two school board seats are open in the April 7 election.
2026 Anchorage School Board candidates, clockwise from top left, Rachel Blakeslee, Dustin Thomas House Darden, Alexander Rosales and Paul McDonogh. Not pictured is Sharon Gibbons. Anchorage School Board candidates weighed in on the district’s budget, student safety, data and student performance during a recent candidate forum.
Current members Dave Donley and Andy Holleman have termed out and are ineligible to run again, leaving two open seats on the board. Three candidates — Dustin Darden, Sharon Gibbons and Paul McDonogh — are running to replace Holleman in Seat D. Two candidates — Rachel Blakeslee and Alexander Rosales — are running to replace Donley in Seat C. School board seats are nonpartisan and at-large. The March 5 forum, hosted at the Alaska Zoo by the Hillside Area Landowners Organization, was the first of several where candidates will share their platform with Anchorage voters. The forum briefly escalated into a shouting match between an audience member and organizers after the audience member took issue with the way organizers filtered and combined questions submitted for Rosales. Audience members sought to ask Rosales about online statements made against marginalized groups, which the moderator altered.A pair of second-time candidates seek Seat C, currently held by Donley, who is making a run for Anchorage Assembly. Blakesleefor School Board Seat E in 2021, coming in third place for a seat won by Pat Higgins. Rosales last yearelementary students in Colorado and Texas for three years. Currently, she runs a nonprofit that works on outdoor education programs and said she supports data-informed decision making., Blakeslee says she was galvanized to get involved after her child’s school was slated for closure in 2024. At the forum, she was critical of how the district chose to close schools last month, and hopes to see more nuanced analysis applied to major district decisions in the future.“Fire Lake and Lake Otis were voted to not be closed, and then the board basically went back on their word and ended up closing those schools,” Blakeslee said. “If you’re going to go back on your word, then ultimately the public isn’t going to trust what you say.” Blakeslee is endorsed by five school board members, two legislators, one Assembly member and seven different organizations. She has alsoBlakeslee supports increased input from teachers regarding curriculum decisions and said she has direct experience engaging in district policy by advocating against school closures two years ago.“There’s a lot of opportunity to give teachers back the flexibility and the trust and respect that comes with their profession,” Blakeslee said.“Teachers are trying to say that they are having a hard time in classrooms and kids aren’t being held accountable for things, so they’re not feeling safe,” Rosales said. “We need to better support our teachers, give them what they need and hold those kids accountable that are disrupting the classrooms.”shows he has raised just over $2,300. In his opening statement last week, Rosales equated his relatively low fundraising support during his prior campaign with fiscal responsibility. In a post on his website, Rosales said “aRosales homeschools one of his children and argued that increasing the number of homeschool students in Anchorage would decrease class sizes. Rosales touted his classroom experience after serving 20 years in the Air Force. State records show Rosales was certified as a student-teacher but never worked as a full-time teacher in the Anchorage School District.Rosales distanced himself from current school board members and referenced his previous campaign, saying he had “unfinished business.” “I am not like a single other person on the board currently, so if you want some kind of change with the last-in-the-nation results, we need to make a change, so that’s what I’m bringing to the board is 100% change.” Audience member Ivan Hodes disrupted the forum after organizers announced they had finished asking questions from the audience. Hodes and other attendees submitted dozens of questions about prejudicialby Rosales that they felt were unfairly filtered, and the format allowed Rosales to evade answering for his inflammatory posts. An account run by Rosales used a slur against people with cognitive disabilities two years ago. Rosales’ account has also made untrue and disparaging comments about faith-based and marginalized groups and LGBTQ+ communities. Moderator Pete Nolan said the forum’s limited timeframe prevented him from asking lengthy questions. The forum agenda stated that duplicative questions would be merged and language may be edited. Nolan said many similar questions were submitted in identical handwriting, and he wanted to address other topics with candidates. “There are too many questions,” Nolan said. “This is a forum. They are asked questions, they answer them, if you have a problem with that afterwards you can ask them.”“It should just be between the parents and the kid,” Rosales said. “ASD should not be involved whatsoever.”Hodes, a frequent Rosales critic, stood up and disrupted the event in an attempt to directly address Rosales’ statements.In the running for Seat D are two candidates who have run before as well as a tribal educator making his first bid for public office. Dustin Darden is a journeyman carpenter and school bus driver who has run for public office 10 separate times. Sharon Gibbons is a former student-teacher who ran unsuccessfully for Assembly in, and Paul McDonogh is a first-time candidate and former Anchorage School District teacher who currently works as the tribal education director for the Chugachmiut Tribe. McDonogh spoke in detail about school district policies, cost-drivers and student performance measurements during his responses at the HALO forum. “As a nonprofit leader, as a former classroom teacher, I know what it takes to both make a lesson plan and balance a budget in the boardroom,” McDonogh said. McDonogh has been endorsed by four current school board members, Seat C candidate Blakeslee, three Assembly members, five legislators and nine other organizations, including the Anchorage teachers union. Alaska Public Offices CommissionGibbons’ work history shows she spent time at several government departments. According to state records, Gibbons earned a student-teaching certificate, and said she taught social studies in Anchorage schools. Student-teachers can substitute for host teachers, but they are not full-time employees of the district. Gibbons emphasized she would like to see Alaska become the first-ranked state for education. “I believe that reading, writing and arithmetic should be the foundation of where we’re going with education to bring our status, our ranking back up to where it should be at No. 1,” Gibbons said. Gibbons supports adding security guards in schools, improving teacher retirement benefits and paying stipends to parents who volunteer in classrooms. In 2014, she lost a bid for an Assembly seat by more than 1,400 votes. Perennial candidate Darden did not answer questions about school safety or school district policies in detail at last week’s forum, but broadly argued the district should spend less money. “Focus on the children and the educators. We don’t need piles and piles of cash for piles and piles of programs that are not necessary,” Darden said. Darden spoke during the forum about court cases he’s filed against elected officials, which he also referenced in a handout and on his campaign website. Additional candidate forums will be held by the Justice Organizing Interfaith Network at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Central Lutheran Church, and the Alaska Black Caucus will host a forum on Zoom on March 15 at 7 p.m.You can opt in to receive texted updates from us about the city election. Text MUNI to 907-891-8889 to sign up.Tim Rockey is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News focusing on education and general assignments. He has worked in journalism in Alaska for more than a decade, including at Alaska Public Media, Alaska’s News Source and the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. Contact him at trockey@adn.com.
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