“I’m really passionate about education,” said Brittani Robbins. She dreams about adequate state funding for local school district operating budgets and legislation to address the backlog of unfunded school maintenance needs across Alaska.

The state funding formula for school budgets — the per-pupil base student allocation — “is not even close enough to breakeven,” she said of the Wrangell district’s operating costs.

The state Legislature this year overrode Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of the first sizable increase in the state funding formula in a decade, but education advocates said it fell short of classroom needs and was not enough to cover inflation over the years.

Robbins served a term on the school board until 2024, when she lost a reelection bid. She is running this year to return to the board — one of four candidates for two open seats, with the top two vote-getters winning the job.

She also serves on the borough assembly.

“I was able to balance two things,” she said of her time on the assembly and school board 2023-2024. “I would happily do it again.”

She is a strong advocate for more state funding for schools for the additional programs and classes that would be possible.

“We really need … electives and things of that sort.” It’s just a matter of money, she said.

“It’d be great if we brought theater back.” Graphic design is another subject she would like to see added, maybe debate and public speaking.

“What would have been called nerdy when I was in school. … I was a nerd.”

The school district was able to build up its cash reserves with unanticipated federal aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been using those funds to balance its budget which spends more than the state, borough and federal money coming in.

“It’s not going to last forever,” she said of the reserves.

The school board will have to make hard decisions on spending, though she is hopeful a new governor will be more supportive of additional state funding for schools.

And it’s not just uncertain state funding, Robbins said. The borough is squeezed on what it can contribute to the schools after Congress last year failed to reauthorize the 25-year-old Secure Rural Schools program that had been expected to send about $800,000 to Wrangell for schools and roads.

All of which makes it difficult for the school board to make long-term budget plans, she said.

Those hard decisions do not always go over well with the community, she acknowledged. “You have to be willing to have people not like you sometimes.”

She would like to bring students back into the classroom who have left for correspondence or homeschooling, but she knows that will take work. “We have to give them a product that they like.”

Robbins highlighted a couple of school district policy changes adopted during her tenure on the board that she believed were needed.

The board amended its policy to pay per diem for coaches who travel with school teams. That was only fair, she said.

Clarifying the policy that the district would not pay for student travel to state competition was necessary — the money is not available, she said. It spelled out “who is responsible for what funds.” She didn’t love the new policy but felt it was needed.

The community responded by forming the Wrangell Athletic Club to raise funds to cover state travel expenses.

Robbins, who has two kids in the schools, works as the civic engagement coordinator for the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, a statewide nonprofit.