Four candidates are vying for two open seats on the Anchorage School Board. Board members are elected on an areawide basis, so candidates are running to represent the whole city. This year, two relatively inexperienced challengers are facing sitting board members seeking reelection in the state’s largest school district.
Incumbent Margo Bellamy is running for her third term to fill Seat A on the school board. If she wins, it will be her final term, as school board members may only serve three terms consecutively. Bellamy retired from the Anchorage School District in 2016 after a long career beginning as a clerk and librarian before working as an administrator in each ASD middle school, and at the district office. Bellamy said her top priority is improving student outcomes.
“There's just so much work to be done,” Bellamy said. “I feel like I've started it. I've lived it as an employee, but as a board member, I've started that work, and I kind of want to see it through.”
First-time candidate Alexander Rosales is running against Bellamy. Rosales spent 20 years in the Air Force and currently owns a rental business. He previously worked as a substitute teacher and cafeteria manager in the district.
Rosales has come under scrutiny for his comments on social media that disparage transgender people and promote conspiracy theories, among other hot-button political issues.
In a since-deleted post on X, Rosales wrote “Ban trans kids. Make the penalty jail time and castration for parents.” He said his post was taken out of context and that’s why he deleted it. He said trans and nonbinary people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity make other students “unsafe” and said he agrees with President Trump’s views on the issue.
“Essentially he [Trump] was telling Congress to ban trans kids, that it's not a possibility for a child to understand what it means to transition to another gender,” Rosales said. “That is not something that we need to be putting in our kids’ heads, especially not within the school district.”
Rosales was endorsed by the local chapter of national conservative group Moms for Liberty, but he said he no longer accepts the endorsement and is not attached to any political group.
“I am extremely independent. I am not political on either side, even though people might want to say that I'm extreme right or alt right or a white nationalist, or any of that, I'm not, I'm right in the middle. I'm not bought by anybody.”
Bellamy wouldn’t comment on her opponent, but said she’s proud of the work she’s done on the board that includes passing policies promoting anti-racism and educational equity.
“I'm focused on my own campaign. I'm focused on my values. I'm focused on the values that I believe this community holds dear,” Bellamy said. “When it comes to anything that's negative or hateful, it won't come out of my mouth.”
According to 30-day reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, Bellamy has vastly outraised Rosales. Of the six donations to Rosales’ campaign, three are from himself.
In the race for school board Seat B, incumbent school board member Kelly Lessens also carries a significant fundraising advantage. Lessens’ cash on hand is over 50 times what her opponent, Mark Anthony Cox, has to spend.
Lessens is seeking reelection to Seat B for her second full term on the school board. She defeated Mark Anthony Cox in a four-way race in 2021. Lessens said she wants to continue the work she’s done on the board that includes passing a cell phone policy, replacing the district’s reading curriculum and a budget amendment from last month that details how the district would reinsert funds to the classroom if a $1,000 increase to the BSA passes the legislature.
“Whether they are on the hillside or in east Anchorage or on the westside, I have been serving all of those students in our community,” Lessens said. “I believe that there's more to do, and there's more I can do to ensure that public education in Anchorage really serves as a foundation of our community for years to come.”
Cox is running for school board for the fourth time in five years. Cox spent time as a medic in the Army, and currently runs a restaurant. He said if elected, he’d like to hire a new superintendent, and doesn’t support an increase to the state’s per-student funding formula, the Base Student Allocation.
“Where I see the board kind of falling short in those is, you know, every year it seems there's like a weaponization of children and parents desires that happen in the form of, ‘we need more for BSA,’” Cox said. “But what's not being said is we're spending more than what we can have, and that's essentially what a deficit means.”
Along with a $64 million bond for safety upgrades and snow removal equipment for the district, Anchorage voters will choose whether they want new representation on the Anchorage School Board when they cast their ballots this year.
