Cara Gilbert Q&A
By Lizzy Hahn
Six community members are competing for four seats on the school board this year. They all sat down with reporter Lizzy Hahn to talk more about why they want to run.
Editor’s note: This year the Chilkat Valley News partnered with KHNS on its election coverage in addition to hosting two candidate forums. A playlist of these profiles, as they are posted, can be found here.
Lizzy Hahn: Do you want to start by just telling me a little bit about yourself and why you chose to run this year?
Cara Gilbert: Sure. Well, I’m originally from Haines, I was born here at the clinic. And so I went through the school here, obviously. And when I was there, it was a good school. I really liked it.
And my husband and I have recently brought on two teens into our lives and so I’ve had more interaction with the school lately. And so I thought, why not help? And yeah, some of the things I’d like to see, I guess, would be retention of the teachers. I think that would be really nice. And then some of the things selfishly that I’d like to see for the kids are like dual credit classes, some more of those options. It’s so expensive now to go to college. And so if there’s anything we can do to help with that, that would be really nice.
Have you ever run for school board before? Or is this your first time running for the school board?
This is my first time. I’ve never really been into politics too much, like running myself. But sometimes you just got to help. And so I figured I’d have some time. And I’m attached with the kids, so why not try?
What grade are the two teens in?
They’re in 10th and 11th.
You touched on this, the teacher retention. We’ve seen that a lot in Haines and also just in the state in general, less teachers are staying. There tends to be a high turnover rate. How do you think you as a school board member could help either retain teachers or bring more teachers in?
It’s a good question. I’ve been thinking about that one. I think there’s varying factors. It’s hard to live here if you don’t have family here. It’s expensive to just move here. Finding housing is hard, obviously, childcare as well. And so I’m not sure exactly how to do it. But I think one of the things that made it great when I was in high school is we had the teacher retention. We did have some turnover, but we had some teachers that were there for a long time. And they were really good teachers. I’m not going to go into all the names because I might hurt somebody’s feelings. But I felt prepared when I went to school after high school. And so I would like to see the same thing here. I think part of it is housing. I think figuring out a way where we can house our teachers or maybe offer something where we can give them some kind of housing or reduced housing. I don’t know what the budget looks like exactly.
So I know that’s expensive. One of my ideas, one of the programs that I’d really like to see happen is I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of those programs in the high school where they build houses. I think that would be a wonderful program if we could bring it here. Because I think besides just college track, there’s vocational track. And I think sometimes that doesn’t get enough focus. I mean, just look at going to those apprenticeships, you get paid to go to the apprenticeships. And it’s a good job. You want our kids to have a good job. And so I was kind of thinking if we could somehow bring that in. And maybe we could use those houses for our teachers. That might be some way to do it. I’m not sure.
What do you think are some of the biggest challenges either the school or the district as a whole is facing? Like, is it the teacher retention? Or do you feel like there are other issues that you would like to potentially help fix if you were elected?
I think budgets. There’s never enough money to do what you need to do. I think, again, teacher retention. I do think the staff that is there, they work their hearts out. It’s a hard job. Not something I personally could do. But, yeah. What exactly was the question again?
What are some of the biggest challenges you see for the Haines School District? And if elected, how would you try to eliminate these challenges or try to help solve them if possible? I think part of it’s the budget. I think you have to be creative in how you do it. And I do think they do do their best. Sometimes it helps to have more people look at other options and figure out how you can do it. You have to be creative.
That was actually going to be my next question. Education funding in general has been a complicated topic at both the local level and the statewide level. Schools all over Alaska are facing the challenge of, how do we fund our schools? How do you think that you would address this issue at the school board level? Is it looking into funding from different sources? Or how would you approach the tight budget issue that’s going on?
I think you have to look into funding and to other sources. You have to just be creative in how you go about it. OK, so here’s the story. I had this boss. I used to work for SEARHC in the dental division. And we only had so much money in order to serve all the communities that we served. And so we would, there was this one story where he went with some managers who were at this retreat and they were given three things. They were given like eight paper clips, a piece of paper, and a rubber band. And they were told you had to make it fly.
And the person who went the farthest would win. And so he said all the other managers were making all these really pretty paper airplanes. And they were just making it all nice. He was looking at it and he decided to put his paper clips in the middle of the paper. He scrunched it up and then he put the rubber band around it. So when it was his turn, he took it and he winged it as hard as he could. And so he obviously won. People weren’t very happy because it didn’t look like what they thought it should look like. I think that’s kind of how you have to look at the budget. You’re never going to please everybody. But you need to accomplish what you need to accomplish. And it might not look always pretty but if it gets the kids where they need to go, I think that’s how you kind of have to look at tackling the budget.
Another issue that has been kind of rising to the top is the use of AI. Do you use AI personally? And if so, how? And how do you think that students should learn to use it? Should they learn to use it? What are your thoughts on this?
Oh, I haven’t actually thought about that. Because I’ve hit the age where I feel like one of those dinosaurs. I have started to use AI at work because they’ve opened the door. A little caveat is the two teens that are at my house, they actually don’t like AI because of the way it uses water. So they’re very against it. I think that’s an interesting little tidbit. I think it’s a tool, I think it’s something they should learn to use. I don’t know how you manage it for the kids so that they’re not abusing it. That’s above what I would know. But I don’t think we should hinder the kids in not knowing how to use certain technologies. I think it’s good for them to know how to use it. I would let the IT people figure out how to manage it.
Since you have the two teens – were they the main reason to prompt you to go for school board this year?
They were. Seeing them in school, yeah, they were. I’ve had a lot of interaction with the school now with them. I’ve been really impressed with the staff and working with them, with the kids. Biologically, they’re not my children. So I’ve been like a nervous mom, like every little question I call them. And they always answer, and they’re always very gracious. To the ninth degree, I just constantly, ‘oh, I’m really nervous about so-and-so doing this and this’ and they always take my questions and they’re always helpful. And so I just have appreciated them.
Now that you have teens in school, do you feel like you see any difference in the school since you’ve gone to school? Do you feel like the school has ebbed and flowed in any way?
I feel like, again, teacher retention, I think that seems to be one of the bigger things to me. And then I think their budget might be a little bit less when I was in school, is what I’ve noticed.
You mentioned dual credit classes earlier. Did you take any dual credit classes when you were in school? Was that a thing?
I didn’t. And so I didn’t even realize that was an option when I was going to school. I always just thought, OK, if I have kids, I really would like them to get as much, if they want to go to college, if that’s their path, then if they can get those stuff done while they’re in high school, then that’s just less money that they have to pay for later. Because if you think about it, if you’re going for that four-year degree, the first two years are just extras, but it’s expensive extras.
Did you yourself go to school in-state after high school?
Ok, I probably shouldn’t say this, but when I was done, I was like, I need out of Alaska. I went to school in Oregon.
But then you moved back to Haines after school?
I did, and then I was in Juneau for like, I don’t know, 15 or 20 years.
What does a successful term look like for you if you were elected? What do you hope to have accomplished in either a year from now or three years from now if you were elected?
Sure. I think sometimes a year or two sounds like a long time, but it’s not always long. I think if you can start planting the seeds. Like I said, I would really like to see the school class where they can build a house. I think that would be wonderful. Working on teacher retention and just being creative in those areas, I think that would be. And then also, I know the dual credits, they cost money. Figuring out a way where we could offer that without breaking the bank, if that makes sense. I know right now you can. The school does offer in your senior year where you can take, I think, up to $1,000 worth of dual credit classes. But if you think about it, that’s maybe two classes.
Do you feel like you have any other goals currently besides teacher retention and looking into the budget? Is there anything else that you would go into the term focusing on?
I think it would be helpful. And I’m not sure what the school currently does, I will say. They might already have a program, but it would be nice to do something with suicide awareness. It’s just one of those things that happens. I think if we can bring awareness, there’s this first aid, CPR. Have you ever heard of mental health first aid? They have a program where you can take something very similar. And it will teach you the steps and all that kind of stuff. Just flat out asking somebody if they’re thinking, are you suicidal, which is very uncomfortable for people. But that class kind of helps you and coaches you. I think that would be really nice, if we could bring that to the school. Life isn’t easy and we don’t always know what the kids are going through. And I think sometimes they just need to hear somebody is there for them. So I think that would be another one.
Is there anything else you want to mention about why you’re running, why you chose to run now? It’s a pretty full ballot this year with six people running for four seats. Is there anything else that you want to add about this election?
Well, I have to think about that one. I’m good either way. I feel like even if I don’t get elected, I’m still going to be in the school helping, if that makes sense. They probably can’t get rid of me. So I’m good either way. I would like to, like I said, help bring in some of those programs. But if not, I’m ok with that too.