Margo Bellamy is running for reelection to the Anchorage School Board’s Seat A against challenger Alexander Rosales. 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?
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, 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 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, 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 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, 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 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 our, with our community, with our parents, with our staff. Nothing is... everything is on the table. 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 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, 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 life. Thank you.
Read the candidate Q&A with Bellamy's competitor: Alexander Rosales.