Three incumbents running unchallenged to reclaim their seats on the Haines Borough school board said declining enrollment, budget woes and hiring a permanent superintendent are among the most pressing issues facing the district.

Four school board seats are open, three three-year terms and one one-year term, with only three candidates up for election: board president Anne Marie Palmieri and members Sara Chapell and Brian Clay.

Palmieri said she is in her eighth year on the board, and ran again to be a part of the superintendent hiring process, as well as to help the district “come up with a vision” for the next several years.

Palmieri said declining enrollment, and thus reduced funding from the state, is the single biggest issue facing the school district.

“We need figure out how to contract our services in the future in a way that still allows us to meet the needs of all of our kids whether they are college bound, going into the work force or into technical training,” Palmieri said.

The school board took $200,000 from savings for the coming year, reducing the balance in the district’s general fund to about $243,000. Although Palmieri didn’t offer any ideas for specific cuts, she said she didn’t want to cut vocational education, arts, music or other afterschool activities.

The district recently received results of a standardized test on which students scored high compared to other Alaskan districts, but board members voiced concerns about achievement.

Palmieri said although the administration has data, the information needs to be put together and analyzed before an achievable goal can be set.

“I think that all of that information needs to be pulled together so that we know where we are and where the holes are, where we need to do better,” Palmieri said.

Sara Chapell has been on the school board for five years and put her name in again to complete “unfinished business” on the board, mainly the hire of a long-term superintendent.

“I’m really looking forward to being a part of that process,” Chapell said. “I’d like to see someone who has not just experience with school administration, but success with school administration. Another really important thing is someone who understands the complexity of our budget and can help us be really vigilant about remaining in budget.”

She agreed with Palmieri that declining enrollment is “a thorn in our side” for the school district. “Without the student body, we don’t have the dollars to do the work we want to do,” Chapell said.

She said the board “still has room to do some belt tightening” in the budget without making drastic cuts that affect students. Chapell said she wants to work on the budget not just for the upcoming fiscal year, but looking several years into the future “to see what can we do to rein in our spending.”

Brian Clay has spent nearly 18 years on the school board and said he decided to run again because it’s a job he enjoys.

He said the biggest issue facing the school district is meeting board goals, which include hiring a new superintendent, managing the budget and tackling student achievement, as well as updating the strategic plan. The board decided at its most recent meeting to postpone revamping the district’s strategic plan until October of next year.

Clay said he doesn’t support cutting any programs, teachers or staff to curb the budget deficit.

“It’s like throwing a rock in the pond, sooner or later the ripple you made could cause an effect someplace else,” Clay said.

He said he’d like a newly hired superintendent to have knowledge and experience with managing budgets as well as have good foresight.

Clay said student achievement and learning should be focused less on tests and more on practical skills, so students leave school as viable, healthy citizens.

If no write-in candidates put their names in for the election, one school board seat will be open and the district will accept applications for the position. school board member Jeanne Kitayama, who was in a temporary seat, is not running for a permanent position.