On the City of Dillingham’s ballot, three seats are open for the Dillingham City School District School Board. Cassie MacDonald is running uncontested for one of those seats, and, as she tells KDLG, increasing post-secondary outreach is at the top of her priority list if elected.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Dillingham City Hall on election day. Early absentee voting is available now at City Hall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until Oct. 6.
**This interview has been lightly edited for clarity**
MacDonald: My name is Cassie MacDonald. I am the migrant specialist over at Southwest Regional School District, and I am running for the Dillingham City School District School Board seat A.
Sutherland: Do you have any previous government experience or community involvement, or involvement in this at the school?
MacDonald: Yeah, so I previously was employed at the school district. I was the activities director and assistant principal and a principal. So I'm very well versed in the school, and I know all the kids, which is a lot of fun. And as far as volunteering goes, I help with all the sports and doing all those things, but I've never served on a board, so I'm really excited to serve our community.
Sutherland: What prompted you to run for Dillingham City School Board?
MacDonald: You know, I think it can be challenging to run for a board when you don't understand the school system. And because I have a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in education. You know, I think I understand the school system really well, and I can help out not only our students but our staff.
Sutherland: What things in the district or maybe in education more generally, are you passionate about that you would like to focus on if elected?
MacDonald: The thing I would like to focus on, if I'm elected, is post-secondary outreach for students. You know, we need a lot of skills in our town of Dillingham. I plan on living in Dillingham. I own a home there. I plan on raising a family here. And so I would really like to focus on, what is our youth doing after high school that can help benefit our community? What skills can they go get, either at college or at vocational training to come back to our community and continue to improve it so that we are building our own?
Sutherland: What issues would you like to address if elected to the school board?
MacDonald: So the post-secondary readiness programs that we have, you know, there's a lot of resources that our students have access to that, you know, I think that we need to push more focus on and push them to do things, to really focus on what they're doing after high school.
And another thing that's always been a problem is our teacher retention. In order to have those systems in place, we have to have a staff that has been there for years. So that's another big focus.
Sutherland: And as far as addressing these issues of post-secondary education and staff retention, how do you see approaching those issues?
MacDonald: I think the first thing is like organizing all of the resources that we have in one place. Like, do students know about what opportunities they have during school and after school? I think sometimes with turnover, we drop the ball, and kids don't know about things. And so do our families know what's available to them? And so that's, I guess, like the first one. And then pushing the kids to actually go and do these things and try new things. I know that can be really, really hard for a 16-year-old. And so I think building a relationship and encouraging students to go do those things is a huge part of it as well.
Sutherland: Across the state this last year, with uncertainty from state funding and federal funding, school districts had a big task of balancing the budget. And going into this school year, those conversations of where to allocate new money that's kind of popped back up and how to balance our budget are still in play. Do you have a sense of how you would approach the budget if elected?
MacDonald: Yeah, so luckily, I was a part of that budget process last year, and I think some really good but tough choices were made, and I think that we just need to continue being creative in how we approach the budget. And also, the big thing is like, are we putting our students at the forefront of this? And so we need to do what's best for our students with the resources that we have available to us.
Sutherland: Is there anything else that you would like voters to know about you going into the election?
MacDonald: I guess that I just really want to be student-focused, and I want to help our kids as much as I can, because one day my own children will be going through this school system in Dillingham.
