Interview for Anchorage School Board Seat A: Alaska Public Media

Alexander Rosales Speaking to Eagle River Valley Community Council

Sit Down with Alaska Public Media

Had a great opportunity to sit down with Tim Rocker with Alaska Public Media and got to answer 5 questions with zero prep time and a 90 second timer.

Here are my answers from https://alaskapublic.org/2025-anchorage-elections/2025-03-10/alexander-rosales-anchorage-school-board-seat-a

Alexander Rosales is running for Anchorage School Board’s Seat A against incumbent Margo Bellamy. We asked each candidate the same five questions and gave them 90 seconds to answer each one. Read the transcript of Bellamy’s answers below and click the play button above to listen to where she stands. Find the rest of the Anchorage municipal election candidates’ Q&A’s here

1. Why should people vote for you?

All right, so where we're sitting right now, in the state, we're 49th in results nearly last, and there's a lot of change that needs to happen, so I feel like I am a much better candidate to make that happen. So sitting on the school board, there's a lot of different things that go into each issue, and I've been keeping track of all of them for well over the past year and seeing how things are going. I do have two daughters within the school district, so I am very much invested. I volunteer with the schools and give feedback to my principals at both schools. So the vote for me is making sure that a parent's voice is on the, on the school board and not some other outside interest.

2. What is the single biggest issue facing the Anchorage School District and how would you address it as a school board member?

The single biggest issue is student safety. So the one line that the school district does say consistently is ‘school safety is our top priority’, but they don't show those actions afterwards. So what I would want to do is make sure that parents are more involved in the school district, especially dads. So one program that I was involved with was All Pro Dads, and we would meet with the kids before school once a month, have breakfast, answer tough questions, be open, communication-wise with the kids, but then just being there at the school, walking around, you know telling kids to spit out their gum, pull up their pants, you know, be respectful members of society. So I think it's parents being directly involved. The communication from the district to the parents needs to be a lot better as well. So when incidents do happen, we should know about it. The community should know about it as well. So yesterday, I heard about there was a big fight over at East High School, and not too much is being said out on the airwaves about it, you know, because the district wants to, you know, control the situation, control the narrative. Make sure everybody's fine. No kids are being hurt outside of that. And then maybe they'll do a statement. But in this time frame, parents could be involved talking with other parents, handling it on their end as well. So it's not just up to the school district. It needs to be parents as well.

3. Is the level of state funding for public schools adequate? Why or why not?

So it depends on which school you're actually looking at. So every single school is different and require a different level of funding. So right now, the current budget for ASD is $900 million with a $100 million deficit that they currently just voted on last week or this week. So that funding is absolutely not adequate if we cannot fund all of our teachers and our school sports. School sports is one of the most important things to our kids’ mental health. We're seeing a huge rise in teen depression, suicide and all that stuff, and that is at a higher level than even veterans with PTSD. So we do need to fund a little bit better for schools, especially the ones out in our rural communities, but we don't have that problem here in Anchorage. What we do have is a spending problem here in Anchorage that is then slighting the rest of the schools around the state. So there is a balance that needs to be figured out. So I would say no to the funding is not good at the, the state level at all.

4. The district proposed and made massive budget cuts. As a board member, what type of cuts would you be in favor of? Please be specific.

Let’s see here. The cuts that I would be most in favor of are the spending that is most further away from the classroom. So our spending should be targeted directly at the student first, and then work outwards from there. So student, teacher, parent, you know school, community, and every single school should know what they need funding wise. And if they're not being forthcoming with that information, if they're trying to just spend so they don't lose the money, then that's what I would be looking at directly. So anybody who doesn't have any direct connection to a student in a classroom would be most at risk for being cut. Yeah, the current cuts of what they're, what they're looking at, is not gonna, not gonna fly at all, like I mentioned with the sports that has to stay. And let's see, I don't know, I don't know what else I would have to look at the budget and then see how things go with every single school. But it would be a case by case basis. It's not just one big, sweeping thing.

5. What initiatives would you support to improve student outcomes?

I mentioned before with the All Pro Dads program , that's just one idea to get parents involved and in every single school, I think the PTAs, PTOs are crucial in every school. If they are not being supported properly, then that's what we need to look at. Reading is extremely important with the Alaska Reads Act that was passed in 2022 and then funding was finally passed in June of 2024. Reading is extremely important with our kids, almost all of them are grade behind in reading. That is one thing that I feel like we can improve on overnight. One main thing in that whole act or bill was that if a kid is not reading up to grade level by fourth grade, they should be held back until they meet standard or at least go to summer school, but that is absolutely not happening. There are teachers around the district that are frustrated because they have students that don't even show up to school, but they can't fail them for any reason. So say, if a student shows up and tries to turn or forgets to turn something in, the teacher is then forced to give them a 50% grade on it instead of a zero, which is then watering down the A's that the students that are actually trying to get done. So teachers need to be supported in their grading. Parents need to be involved and, yeah.

And here are Margaret Bellamy's responses:

1. Why should people vote for you?

Well, that's a great question to start. I think I am the champion for kids. I really think that whoever is on the school board needs to be for all kids, and need to provide the policies and the guidance, the leadership to make sure that our kids and our staff have what they need. That's it.

So, and I think so, uh, being kid-focused and making sure that we have, our students have everything that they need, that's primary it because we have to take every student where they are every day and give them what they need. And that sounds really easy, but it's really pretty complex. So I think I'm the best person for the job. I have the experience, I have the commitment, and I absolutely do have the, the drive and the energy to do the job.

2. What is the single biggest issue facing the Anchorage School District and how would you address it as a board member?

All right. Thank you. Well, I think the single thing facing, the single issue facing the school district, really is our budget, and that is a complex issue, because it impacts our ability to provide resources, to retain and recruit teachers, I mean, to keep our programs, to keep our promise to our families for the programs that they value. And so what would I do? I mean, I’d do what I've always done. I make decisions that are focused on students and what they need, and I also make decisions that are primarily focused on our goals and our guardrails. So, so, yeah, I think that once we, once we figure, once we get a budget to the assembly, we have to balance our budget earlier than most people, and that's not at that timeline really does strain us, because we don't know what we're getting from the from the state, but I do think we've we've got a ways to go to right size our district and to work with our community to make sure that, that we can afford everything that we've promised them, and that is not going to be easy.

3. Is the level of state funding for public schools adequate? Why or why not?

No, it's not adequate, and I think we all agree that it's not adequate. I think we disagree on some things, but I think one of the, one of the way, one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that, as you know, the cost of everything has gone up, and we have not seen a statutory increase in our BSA for since the 2016-17 school year. So what this means is that we have been on, we have just been flat funded, and we have not and there's been no adjustment for inflation. And so when you look at now, have we gotten one time funds? One time funds, hey, I welcome them, but they are not the answer to, to guarantee that we can build a budget and a timely budget and, and have it reflect, you know, all the things that are needed. So no, we do not have an adequate budget, and I am I, one of the things that I continue to do is to work with our legislators to make sure they understand our needs and to make sure they, we tell our story as to what, what, what, and it's not just anchorage in this. Situation. I mean, you know, if we so the budget that we passed the other night is really a stop gap.

4. The district proposed and made massive budget cuts. As a board member, what type of cuts would you be in favor of? Please be specific.

Well, I'm not in favor of any budget cut, because every cut, every item in that budget is, is a promise that we've made to a kid, to a parent, to a family, to this community. However, in light of our fiscal situation, we can't continue to do business as usual, and so what that looks like will require lots more communication with, with our, with our community, with our parents, with our staff. Nothing is, everything is on the table, and I but for me to be to tell you that I'm in favor of cuts, I am absolutely not in favor of cuts because of the value that they bring to our kids and to our students, I am in favor of working with the legislature to continue to tell our story about what we need, what what our families value, because that's the only way that we're going to get the kind of resource we need. Now, when we, when, when we have to, when we have to cut, it's painful, as you would have seen in this last budget. While we are hopeful that we'll bring a lot of things back, it will be very difficult if the legislature does not act in a timely way.

5. What initiatives would you support to improve student outcomes?

Well, I believe in our goals and our guardrails. They resulted from conversations with our community, and you know, we didn't, so we didn't just randomly come up with reading, math and, you know, college life, career and college readiness. We didn't, we did not just come up with that that came from the community. So those are our, our goals really provide the direction for education in the Anchorage School District, we do go back and look at them from time to time and we revise them, so that's part of our strategic plan, and I believe in strategic planning, and I believe that if we are able to get fully resourced, and if we are able to give our staff, maintain our staff, and I think our kids are going to do just fantastic. So I do think that the initiatives that we need to support are those that are directly correlated with our goals and our guardrails. So when I look at the academies of Anchorage, I look at that as we already know that 60% of our students are not going to go to college, so we have got to figure out, how do we make them ready, not just for graduation, but for, for life. Thank you.