Vicki O’Brien has filed to run for a three-year term on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School Board. There are two seats up for grabs in the upcoming municipal election.
School board members are responsible for overseeing the district’s budget and adopting policies.
KRBD’s Hunter Morrison spoke with O’Brien about her goals and priorities if elected to office.
Vicki O’Brien: Hi, my name is Vicky O’Brien. I am a candidate for Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District.
Hunter Morrison: And why are you running?
O’Brien: Why am I running? Well, you know, one of those things where people say ‘Somebody good ought to run, somebody needs to throw their hat in the ring, somebody oughta, somebody oughta.’ After a certain point, you start saying, ‘Well, maybe I oughta.’ You know, I’ve gotten involved in a lot of different organizations because I oughta, and that’s pretty much the reasoning behind it. This district and this community deserve to have some people who are willing and able to step up and do the job, and I think that I can do that.
Morrison: And if elected, what are your priorities?
O’Brien: Well, first and foremost, to help get things back onto an even keel. I mean, it’s no big secret that this district has just been in a tailspin for the past couple of years, and I’m not going to pretend to know that I’ve got the magic bullet. But I have been involved in several organizations who have dealt with quite a bit of financial turmoil, and it’s really about making some tough decisions and coming up with what the group’s priorities are. You know, we’ve got things that we are mandated by the state to do as far as what a district has to accomplish. And then we’ve got all of the various needs and wants of the people who use the school system, and not everyone’s needs are being met right now. Those are hard conversations that need to be had, and they need to be balanced. And we need to think about, what can we do as far as coming to a consensus, and how can we grow again and build things to move forward to make Ketchikan a place where it’s desirable to have a family?
Morrison: And could you elaborate a bit more? If you’re elected, what is something that you’d like to do on the school board?
O’Brien: I think that I would really like to see the roles and responsibilities of the school board and district personnel get defined, and be something that everyone can live with moving forward. I think that when you’re in a time of crisis, people in various leadership positions can sometimes take off more than they can chew, or reprioritize where maybe that wasn’t the best thing. And no shade on anybody for what they’ve done in the past, because things needed to happen in the way that they did. But I think sometimes taking a step back, assessing where you’re at and what needs to happen to move forward – I think that that is crucial when you’re at this kind of a place. And so, yeah, I mean, what would I like to accomplish on the school board? Getting to a place of being solid. I feel like this past outgoing board members and the board in general has been making a lot of progress in that, and I really like to tip my hat to them. They were given a really, really hard job to do, and in some cases, did they always make the right decisions? I mean, I don’t know. It’s hard to be in those shoes. It’s hard to sit and listen to all the things that are coming your way. So yeah, I would like to see stability happen.
Morrison: And you know, what leadership roles or community engagement roles make you equipped for this role?
O’Brien: Well, among other things. So here’s the disclaimer: I am a current board member of KRBD. I’ve been involved with the KRBD board for about 10 years, and I’ve been both the president and the vice president. Currently sitting as the vice president, and in that role, I have been here while federal, both federal and state monies have gone away, and we have gone from being relatively fiscally robust to cobbling things together in ways that we never imagined before. So being able to lean on some of that experience and thinking of ways to pull things together when we’ve had some real financial struggles, I think that’s something that I can lean on. I’m also on the board of CoastAlaska, which is an umbrella organization for public media stations in the Southeast. And so again, we’ve had some really difficult conversations that I think have equipped me to have that transferable skill set. I’m currently part of my union at work as well. I work for the state of Alaska, and I’m a supervisor, and I am the Southeast Alaska chapter vice chair. I’m also part of the Alaska Public Employees Association statewide board of directors. And again, things have been tight, and we’ve had to think of ways to do more with less, and so having all these different fingers in all these different organizations makes it so that I can come to the table with some different ideas that not everybody necessarily may have thought of.
Morrison: And aside from what you’ve already mentioned, what is something that you’d like listeners to know about you?
O’Brien: Well, though I’m not born and raised in Ketchikan, I might as well have been. I moved here right out of college. I have chosen to live here. I’ve raised three kids here. My youngest is still in Kayhi, and my other two graduated. This is my home. I’m part of the Wearable Art Show committee. I’m part of a lot of other organizations throughout the years in Ketchikan, and I just want this to be the kind of place where, when somebody says, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of moving to Alaska. What town would be a great place for me to raise my kids?’ I want Ketchikan to be that place.
Editor’s Note: Vicki O’Brien serves on KRBD’s board of directors and is a volunteer deejay, neither of which are involved in newsroom decisions. She also serves on the board of CoastAlaska, a nonprofit collaborative of Alaska public media stations, including KRBD.
Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
