There were two Anchorage School Board seats on Tuesday’s Election ballot. Bettye Davis and Eric Croft won them.
Former State Legislator Bettye Davis beat out incumbent Don Smith for seat A on the School Board. Davis said the Board needs to put children first.
“First of all, we need to do what’s best for the children. They’re our greatest resources. If we educate them early, we keep them from getting in trouble later — that’s why we have high dropouts. So those are the areas that I’m going to be working on. I don’t have a concern about looking for efficiencies in the school district that they might be able to save money, but I’ll do what I can to make sure we get what we can for our children.”
Davis says she believes her experience in the legislature will assist the board in securing funding for the district. Smith had held seat A since 2010. Attorney and former legislator Eric Croft beat out two other candidates for Seat B. He says his first priority will be rearranging the school board chambers.
“You know, my first priority — it sounds funny but, the administration’s back is to the public in the actual meeting room. And, while it’s a small point, I want to change that. I want to have it so they’re looking at us. I think listening to people is a big message of this night on the assembly races and on this. And then really diving into the budget numbers and figuring out how we focus all that energy on the classroom.”
Davis beat Smith by more than 3-thousand votes. She served on the School board during the 80’s and 90’s. Croft garnered nearly 60 percent of votes in his race. Another new board member joined the school board this week to replace Gretchen Guess. Kameron Perez-Verdia, who heads an education non-profit was appointed and sworn in Monday. Board members represent the entire city.
Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
