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 just jump right into it and explain why you chose to run this year?
Carlos Jimenez: Sure. My work has always been really busy. I own a construction company. I’ve had two sons in the school system since kindergarten. One graduated two years ago. And I’ve got time to try to help, maybe sit on a board and collaboratively make decisions that help the school. Yeah, I want to give back.
What grade is your current student in?
He’s a freshman.
I saw that you were recently appointed onto the school board. How do you feel like these past few, I don’t know, have you attended any school board meetings yet?
I attended the meeting where they voted me in. And then one more since then. It was interesting and I liked it.
Do you feel like you’re learning things that if you were elected you would try to continue bringing to the table or?
Definitely. I think it’s a good group they’ve got now and I’m interested to see who else gets voted in.
What are some of the biggest challenges that you see for the Haines Borough School District right now and how do you hope to address them if elected or re-elected?
If elected, well, either way, I think it’s too early for me to just jump in and say what all the problems I think are. Typically, I know just in the past it’s been enrollment, budget, building maintenance, things like that. But without sitting on the board, I don’t know currently what’s going on. But ready to jump in.
What are some of the issues that you’ve been talking about so far in the school board meetings?
Really, the only meeting that I went to, we talked mainly about the capital improvement project budget and projects that are funded, vehicles, building maintenance, but nothing too major.
A common topic that we’re currently seeing is education funding and who should fund schools at what level. Where do you sit on this issue and how do you think that you could respond to it as a school board member?
I’m going to have a pretty boring answer because until I have some time on the board, I don’t feel like I’m educated enough to answer that. Yeah, but I think collaboratively talking with other board members, parents, teachers, I’ll be more apt to make decisions.
Do you use AI yourself and if so, how? And how would you like to see students learn how to use it or would you like to see students use it in schools?
I don’t know. When my kids first told me about AI a couple of years ago, I hated the idea of it. I’m kind of a purist, but I have used it with my business for doing material takeoffs for projects and some simple things like that. But I don’t want it to take away from free thinking for sure. It’s a little scary.
Since you run a construction company, I would imagine that you’re pretty busy juggling that. How do you fit the ideas of thinking about the school into working?
I think with my business, I deal with clients, I deal with architects, engineers, crew, and there’s always issues with construction. So it’s just remaining calm and finding the best solution.
How long have you been running your business?
About six years.
Are you operating mainly in Haines?
Only in Haines.
What does a successful term look like for you, like either a year from now or in three years?
A successful term? Being present and just doing what I can, keeping a positive attitude and listening to people.
Did you attend school here in Haines yourself?
No, I grew up in California. I moved to Alaska the day after high school.
Have you been in Haines since leaving high school?
No, I lived in Juneau. And then we had my first son, Hayden. We decided to move here about 19 years ago, 18 years ago.
So both your children have grown up here in the Haines school district?
Yeah.
Do you feel like that has shaped them in any sort of way?
I do. I mean, I think for anybody growing up in Haines, it’s pretty special. They love to get out. We travel, love to visit cities and other places. But they’re always happy to come back here. Pretty simple pleasures here.
Do you feel like your freshman school has particular interests in the school that you’re also like, is he more on the vocational track or more on the college track?
I think Asher’s probably more on the vocational track. He’s a pretty solid wrestler. He loves wrestling. He’s excited to be in high school. And I know he’s excited for it to be over too.
Another common topic that we always hear about is teacher turnover in Alaska in general. And then also here in Haines, we’ve seen it a little bit. How do you hope to address this if elected?
I think getting all the information we can that I don’t know through the existing board and the superintendent. I know that Haines has posed problems for many people aside from just teachers for the cost of living, housing availability. I think people are pretty ambitious to come here sometimes, young families. It’s kind of like paradise but there’s some challenges, I think, with pay scales for certain jobs, for housing, accessibility, ferries, planes. It’s not easy.
Have you seen any struggles working on the construction side of it? Is it getting harder to build housing in any way?
Prices continue to rise every year. Materials, labor, it’s a challenge for sure.
What do you think is, like, because I know housing is one of the main stipulations, right? Is there a way to, like, if you were to build housing for teachers, what would that look like? Is it apartment-style housing or single unit? Like, think even more constructionally?
I personally think that Haines could stand some apartments or condos, townhomes. Costs of construction is not cheap, but I think there’s ways to reduce the cost, too. You know, they don’t have to be custom homes. I think there’s a lack of solid apartments and availability. For instance, with the hospital project going on right now, there’s going to be sometimes 40 to 60 out-of-town people here needing housing as well. So that’s a tough one.
What are some of the main projects that you work on? Like, is it mainly housing or?
We do custom homes and sometimes remodels. We just built the quick shop, built a couple shops in town, some search work and, yeah, anything. Commercial and residential.
Maybe this is not the easiest way to put this into a metric, but what’s, like, the average cost right now to build a home or an apartment?
I usually tell people $350 a square foot to get started. It could certainly be a little bit less and it could certainly be a lot more. And commercial can be $400, $600 a square foot, depending on what it is.
Are there any other issues that you see posing a potential problem for prospective teachers coming in or teacher retention?
I don’t know, except for what I’ve already mentioned, you know, the cost of living, the difficulty in accessing Haines or leaving Haines. I think those are the big ones.
Is there anything else you want to mention about the school as a whole, now that you have your kids going through school?
Sure. I think it’s a great school system. I’ve loved that it’s been there for my kids and I’m glad to be able to give back now. I think it’s important that the teachers feel supported, the kids feel safe and we challenge them for their futures, but I think it’s just a stellar place to attend school. I wish I attended [school] here.
Looking at the ballot, there’s six people running for school board and I believe it’s only four spots. Why did you choose to run this year and like over other years previous?
Just with my workload and looking at it this year and my son’s a freshman and I’ve got some time and I thought, let’s do it.
Are there any other questions that maybe I didn’t ask that you would like to address about running or being on the school board?
Not really. I think it’s a good board right now. I think it’s a good team and I’m looking forward to the opportunity of working with them for a few years.
Thank you so much, Carlos, for joining me today.
Thank you.