Peters offers managerial experience
Three school board candidates compete for two open seats
Bill Peters is making his second run for the Juneau School Board, having lost last year by a handful of votes.
Three candidates are competing for two open School Board seats. The seven-member School Board's terms are three years.
Peters, a credit union executive, is running for the same reason as last year: to be involved in the community.
"This is something I want to do," he said. "I've wanted to do it for a long time. I want to be engaged in the decision-making process. I want to make a positive impact on education for youth."
Peters is on the Juneau-Douglas High School site council and has served on the Mendenhall River Community School's site council. He is board president of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Alaska and past president of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce.
Bill Peters
Age: 38
Family in Juneau: Wife, Lisa, and children, Sam at Juneau-Douglas High School, and Lauren and Earl at Floyd Dryden Middle School.
Occupation: Regional vice president for Alaska USA Federal Credit Union.
Education: West Anchorage High School.
He helped lead the citizens group that advocated in the May special election for constructing a high school at Dimond Park. And Peters was on Mayor Bruce Botelho's focus group that made recommendations on high school facilities after the election killed the planned 1,080-student school.
Like the other School Board candidates, Peters supports the ballot measure to build a high school at Dimond Park. The School Board is asking voters to approve $54 million in bonds to build an 840-student school.
"I truly think that having a second high school will improve education in Juneau and help our dropout rate," he said.
To alleviate the dropout rate, the high schools also need to have creative offerings such as career-track courses.
"We need to be sure that we're offering a variety of courses to meet their needs," he said.
"I don't know that it necessarily needs to be a different kind of high school," he said of the Dimond Park school. "Certainly it needs solid offerings."
The issue of racial antagonism surfaced at JDHS last school year after a part-Native student in a school bus held up a sign that was derogatory toward Natives. The issue intensified when several students of various ethnicities spray-painted on the school's exterior initials widely interpreted as anti-Native. The events stirred up memories by Natives of mistreatment in the schools.
Peters said it's "important to look at diversity and find ways to use that diversity to educate. There are a lot of values in different cultures that have great benefit. Just being sure we educate people on those cultural differences - it brings about better understanding."
The reporting requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act have re-emphasized a long-standing problem - higher dropout rates and lower test scores on average by Native students.
Peters said that for Native and non-Native students alike, "the success of every child requires parents to be involved. We have to find ways to keep parents engaged after elementary school and middle school. We have to find ways to keep the parents involved, Native or non-Native. I think that makes a huge difference."
Peters said that as a parent he thinks the school district "is doing a great job."
"I see there is a lot of opportunity for them based on what their interests are," he said. "The teachers my kids have had have been very encouraging. They push the kids appropriately."
For students who need help, the answer is partly tied to course offerings and partly tied to funding for smaller class sizes, Peters said.
But he knows that until there are more state funds, the School Board has tough decisions to make when it prepares budgets.
"I wouldn't be afraid of making the tough decisions," Peters said.