Sitka School Board President Phil Burdick filed to run for a second term last week. Burdick worked as a teacher in the Sitka School District for 15 years and an administrator for a decade. He says consistency on the school board will ultimately lead to better outcomes for kids. Listen to our interview with Burdick here:

KCAW: If you’re reelected, this would be your second term on the school board. Why have you decided to throw your hat in the ring again, Phil?

Burdick: I think last time I threw my hat in the ring because there were some very specific tasks. We needed to hire a superintendent. We needed to get ahead of the budget. Those things have been taken care of. I’m throwing my hat in the ring for consistency. We all know that everything in education is about consistency, and so to have a consistent school board for a number of years is really beneficial to kids ultimately because we set policy, we set budget priorities, and if that continually turns over, you know, staff don’t really know what’s coming down the pike, and that causes stress, and then that rolls downhill to the kids. So I think a consistent school board ultimately leads to better outcomes for children.

KCAW: What experiences on the board shape your decision making the most, and and how do they shape it?

Burdick: I think for me, my experience as an educator, so 25 years, 15 as a teacher, 10 as an administrator, all in Sitka, and so I’m very committed to this community. I’m very committed to our schools and our children and our families, and I come to the school board table with that experience and that that relationship, the relationship that I built with families in my schools. So, so for me, being on the school board is just extending that relationship that I’ve been able to build for the last 30 years.

KCAW: Should you be reelected, you talk about consistency and and maintaining those relationships that you’ve already built. What other goals are are rising to the top for you, you know, for your for your next term?

Burdick: For the next three years, what I want to focus on is we had a board goal last year of improving external communication, and I want to continue that goal because I want to hear from the community what it is that they want our students to know and be able to do, and where those priorities are. Then the board should budget those priorities. And so I’m really hoping that we can create those priorities from community input, and be able to budget strategically instead of budgeting chaotically, which is what it is with educational funding and the way that the system is set up and the way the timelines are set up, and, you know, all of the stress that goes around budgeting for a school district. If we can be strategic about how we do that, I think we could take some of that stress, again, off of staff, off of teachers, off of kids.

KCAW: The last time you ran, you stepped in kind of in the 11th hour as a write-in candidate, and and the school board, oftentimes you have about the same number of candidates as there are seats, maybe one more in a really good year. What would you say to folks who are considering running for the for the board to to encourage them to to try their hand at it?

Burdick: It’s difficult to run for public office. It takes time. It takes energy, but I think what I would remind people is that we’re in it together and we’ll support you. I think that we can have differing opinions and viewpoints and still come at the work in a collaborative way. I think some people shy away from the fact that ‘I’m not this enough, I’m not that enough, I don’t have enough time.’ I would say you are enough, and you could do enough. I think anybody who’s got an interest in community and family and schools would be a perfect candidate, and that’s probably everybody who’s listening.

KCAW: Anything else that you think the voters should know about you or about the work that the school board’s been doing over the last three years?

Burdick: I think less about me and more about the school board because this group, Mr. Rioux has a bunch of experience, and…this is really only my third year of experience on a board, while I have educational experience. Ms. Amundson is new, Mr. Potter is new, Ms. Richards is new, and that seems to be the trend over the last five or 10 years, is that we keep struggling to to build when it’s always refreshed every year and sometimes mid-year. I think it’s important for people to know that there’s a learning curve when you get on that board. Even though I had 25 years of experience in education, when I got to the school board, I knew nothing, and so I’m learning as I go. If we can remember to come to that, you know, we’re learning and growing in our positions and our roles on the school board, then I believe that we can really do great things for kids, which is the ultimate goal.

Burdick is the first to file for one of three open school board seats. Two assembly seats and the mayor’s chair are also up for grabs this year. The deadline to file to run for local office is Friday, August 7.  KCAW will interview candidates as they file. Then, in September, we’ll host several candidate forums, and publish a local election guide which will include interviews and questionnaires, so voters can learn where candidates stand on local issues.