Wilson wants to find more funding for schools

David Wilson has served two three-year terms on the Wrangell School Board and is seeking re-election for a third. He is serving as board president during his second term.

Since being elected to the board, Wilson, 67, said he believes the schools are "headed in the right direction," despite the challenges the schools face. When he originally ran for the board, the semi-retired cabinet maker said he was unhappy with how things were being run in the schools.

"I wanted to see our education improve," he said. "I thought we were heading in the wrong direction. I wanted to be a part of trying to inspire or redirect things. Then we changed leadership (the superintendent) and that didn't change things. Then we changed leadership again. Now, we've got a whole new leadership team and we're headed in a much better direction."

Along with his time on the board, Wilson has also been a paraprofessional, a librarian, a football and baseball coach and is married to teacher Arlene Wilson for 41 years.

He would like to see the district work toward getting creative with funding and strengthen its collaborations with other entities such as the Wrangell borough.

"We need to get creative in our funding and try to find more funding," Wilson said. "We've been looking at a few things. What can we do to increase funding? What can we do to ... utilize what we do have to the best degree? We used to have a higher student population, so we had a lot more teachers, a lot more programs. I would like to see us try to bring back some of what we used to have."

Along with funding, Wilson said another focus for the coming year is the curriculum and strategic plan.

"One of the things we're going to be working really hard on this year is going to be our curriculum development. That will be ongoing," he said. "We've had a strategic plan that we're going to be reviewing. We're going to see if it's something we're going to continue with or revising."