A sitting school board member filed to run for reelection last week. Paul Rioux first served on the Sitka School Board from 2019 to 2022, and he’s about to wrap up a one-year term on the board. KCAW spoke with Rioux about his priorities if he’s re-elected. Listen to the conversation here:
KCAW: You’re running for re election. You’ve just wrapped a one year term. You’ve previously served a full term on the school board, so this would be your second full term. Why have you decided to run for re-election on the school board?
Rioux: Well, I think it’s a really important role, to start with. I think that I bring some some good experience to the board. I feel like I represent a good cross section of our community, and I don’t think it’s going to be an easy time. People don’t want to step forward in times, especially when, you know, things are uncertain, and specifically funding. We’ve been fighting a lot of funding uncertainty for, oh gosh, at least probably a decade now or longer. When funding is uncertain and you stand the chance of having to cut things, it’s really difficult and it’s really uncomfortable.
KCAW: That was going to be my next question is, what do you see as sort of the biggest challenge the school board is facing? But I don’t think it’s any secret that that’s been kind of central to many of the conversations at the school board table in the last few years.
Rioux: Yeah, it’s been really central. I would love to have a solid foundation moving forward, so that we can come up with a plan with community input of what the next few years are going to look like, where we’re going to build, and having had the BSA raised at the state level really helps a lot. There’s still some uncertainty going on with some other things at the state, which I’m really hopeful are going to get cleared up in the next few months, so that we have a more of a clear picture of what the next, at least, what the next year or two is going to look like.
KCAW: By that are you referring to the conversations around changing the funding formula?
Rioux: The rules that they have put out aren’t 100% clear, but the conversations around local contributions and how that affects the foundation formula from the state, and the proposed ruling would essentially back out what the state would be contributing to the districts based on what the municipalities have already provided. The depth and breadth of that rule those rules is not clear, and whether or not they’re going to move forward with those rules is not clear, so and that’s going to be have a strong effect on the coming year and beyond, if that rule is what [the Alaska Board of Education] decide[s] to put forward.
KCAW: Moving forward, again, knowing that there are still some unknowns. What are your priorities going to be if you’re elected, and how are you going to kind of navigate that?
Rioux: Well, continuing the advocacy of showing up to those meetings, letting the public, doing our best to gather all the information and get it out to the public so that they understand the effects that it may have on their district, so that they can weigh in through us, and also directly to the State Board of Education. So this, the advocacy component, has become very important. You know, essentially, I think school boards exist to serve as a liaison between the school system and the community, and in reverse, between the community and the school system. And so as things progress, where rule changes and stuff will have very much a local effect, it’s our role and our responsibility to make sure that we get that information disseminated so that the public can weigh in. And we can have some good governance, good public debate, good public process, and things aren’t, you know, a surprise.
KCAW: Why should Sitkans vote for you?
Rioux: I think over the four plus years that I’ve served now, you know, I hope that I’ve earned people’s trust, and as someone who is thoughtful, and is going to show up and do the work. I believe I have a pretty good track record there, and I feel like I represent the entire community. I don’t feel like I represent any one aspect of the community. I want to hear from everyone. I definitely want everyone to feel heard.
KCAW: That’s all I wanted to touch on for today. But is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything else you want folks to know about you or your campaign?
Rioux: I just I encourage anyone who has any interest to in serving to step forward. If you have questions about what kind of time commitment that is, feel free to reach out to me. I’m sure that anyone else on the board or the superintendent would also love to take the time. It’s a tough but rewarding role. You get to impact a lot of students, a lot of families and the entire community’s lives. So it’s something that is really important, but you have a lot of support stepping forward if you do it.
Editor’s Note:
Paul Rioux is the first to file for one of two open seats on the Sitka School Board. Four Sitkans are vying for two open seats on the Sitka Assembly. Austin Cranford, Thor Christianson, and Katie Riley filed to run last week, and on Tuesday, a fourth candidate, Tracie Castle, threw her hat in the ring.
