David Wilson, who is serving his ninth year on the school board, is running for another three-year term. He wants to continue working toward a long-term solution to the district’s financial problems.

And he wants to see more community members attend board meetings to participate in the work.

The school district has been balancing its budget by drawing down its reserves the past several years, as revenues have fallen short of operating expenses.

“Because we’ve been frugal, we have reserves,” Wilson said, adding, “a lot of districts don’t.”

But the reserves will not last beyond a few more years unless the district can find additional cuts to spending or new revenues. The largest sources of money — federal, state and borough funding — are outside of the district’s control, leaving spending cuts as the board’s biggest financial decision.

“We’re struggling like everybody else,” he said of school districts across Alaska caught between uncertain state funding and rising costs.

A 10-member committee of Wrangell district administrators, staff and community members met earlier this year and presented a report to the board, listing possible money-saving actions for the schools.

The top options were consolidating elementary school classes into one building and going to a four-day school week. Neither by itself would totally close the budget gap.

“There are going to be a lot of hard decisions,” Wilson said.

The board held a work session on Monday, Sept. 29, to further discuss the report and budget options.

“Our board meetings can continue to improve on how we run them,” he said of public involvement. “We have received comments that people think we’re not listening.”

The board has been criticized for not responding at meetings when members of the public speak out or ask questions.

If he is reelected to the board, where he currently serves as president, Wilson said the board will work to respond to the public, though not necessarily at the meetings. Members often need to research an issue and gather facts before responding. “I don’t want to have knee-jerk reactions. I want to ponder what we have.”

He strongly encourages more people to attend board meetings.

“People want to yell and scream … but they don’t want to become part of what we do.”

Wilson is one of four candidates running for two school board seats in the Oct. 7 election.

He praised Bill Burr, who served as schools superintendent for four years before leaving the job at the end of the last school year. “The school board has been supportive of the administration we’ve put in place.”

He is particularly proud of the district’s curriculum committee. “When I first came on the board, there was no (active) curriculum committee.”

The curriculum sets out standards for student achievement in grades K-12, he said, adding that he would like to see the curriculum posted on the district’s website for new students and their parents to see.

“I think we’re doing good. We’re building more community.”

Wilson, who is retired, builds custom cabinets and furniture.