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O’Brien Ousts School Board Incumbent; Pledges ‘Transparency’ in Wake of Scandal

In the two contested races for Fairbanks North Star Borough School District board, newcomer Michael O’Brien convincingly upset incumbent John Howard Thies by 18 percentage points. And incumbent Wendy Dominique handily won re-election to her seat over challenger Denis Gardella.

O’Brien attributes his win largely to his pledge to bring “transparency” to the district, to help parents understand how the district makes decisions and sets policies. And to respond to concerns raised in the wake of a sex scandal last year involving a district substitute teacher and a high school student that led to the firing of former district superintendent Pete Lewis.

“I really pledged to voters that I would address that and make sure that all decisions are made out in the open,” he said, “and (that) people can have confidence in that decision because they know the basis of it.”

Dominique says the district strongly responded to the scandal by overhauling its personnel policies and department at the direction of the school board. And putting into place additional safeguards for students.

“We’re doing a complete overhaul of our HR department,” she said. “We’re bringing in a bunch of security implementation.”

O’Brien says says the district must now focus its energies on solving budget problems caused by a slowly shrinking enrollment and steady decreases in state funding. He says that’s going to be especially challenging as the district tries to keep class sizes as small as possible to maintain a better student-to-teacher ratio and a high level of quality education .

“Between a smaller state budget and a smaller number of kids in the district, budget is going to a priority for everyone on the school board.”

Tim has worked in the news business for over three decades, mainly as a newspaper reporter and editor in southern Arizona. Tim first came to Alaska with his family in 1967, and grew up in Delta Junction before emigrating to the Lower 48 in 1977 to get a college education and see the world.