Rob Holston 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 and four candidates are running.
KRBD’s Hunter Morrison spoke with Holston about his goals and priorities if elected to office.
Morrison: What are you running for, and why are you running?
Holston: I’m running for the school board three-year term. I will challenge the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District status quo of current graduation requirements and curriculum offerings to ensure that each student has their best interest in academic achievement, health and longevity, career and technical, and industrial as well as the arts, and that these subjects will be balanced in their approach, thus ensuring each student’s best chance at enjoying a long, healthy, and productive life. A vote for me is a vote in support of this statement.
Morrison: And could you elaborate a little bit more on some of your priorities?
Holston: I certainly could. Let me first give you a bit of background on myself. My formal education consists of a PhD – public high school diploma, from Polson, Montana, where I was an honorary graduate. An associate of arts degree from Flathead Valley Community College, where I served as the student body president. A bachelor of music, P.E., and health education degree from the University of Montana. After that, I’ve earned over 100 credits in continuing education units and professional development hours, mostly in school administration from the University of Alaska. I hold a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master Captain’s license, and I recently completed a Cleveland Clinic course on diabesity entitled “Improving Patient Outcomes in Diagnosis and Management: Obesity and Diabetes Masterclass.” I’m a Vietnam veteran of six years, a graduate of the Montana Military Academy. My highest rank was second lieutenant, and I was then the RedEye Missile Commander there in Montana. My employment in Ketchikan began in 1981 as a teacher, and I drove a school bus for one year. Currently, I’m employed as a guest speaker aboard cruise ships, and tomorrow I’ll be in Juneau. They fly me up there to jump on a cruise ship, and the following day I’ll be in Skagway, then Glacier Bay National Park.
And you ask about the focus of why I’m running. I think the school district has failed in a lot of ways, besides what everybody knows about their adeptness of balancing the budget, their fiscal responsibilities falling by the wayside over the past three decades. We really can’t blame the current school board. Matter of fact, they’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting by closing two schools. I hate to see them go. I had two children that were in the first year’s opening of Point Higgins School. So, what’s to become of those two schools? That’s part of our priority list, but I also see we are failing in health and physical education offerings. It’s just one semester each, and the reason I say we’re failing Alaska-wide, 23-25% of our graduating seniors can’t even qualify to join the army because of their inability to be physically in shape. Most of that problem is obesity. So I’d like to see a curriculum that addresses that.
Morrison: Gotcha. If you’re elected, what is something that you would like to do on the school board?
Holston: Well, like I mentioned earlier, I will challenge the current curriculum. I see in looking at the curriculum that we have four years of English required in high school. That’s after they have had nine years of English. We start English in kindergarten, and so I don’t see why we have to have that much literature – Renaissance European literature, like Shakespeare, is taught in two or three of the four years. I’m not against Shakespeare. I’m just saying there are other things, and I will be offering the school board a bibliography of things that have to do with health and longevity.
I also think, like any business, the school should be run like a business. I have owned and operated several businesses here in Ketchikan: Alaska Home Fishing Bed and Breakfast Lodge, operated that very profitably for about 18 years. Then my wife and I started the Lighthouse Totems and Eagles excursion, which we operated for 18 years and sold successfully to an entrepreneur here in Ketchikan, a young man who’s doing very well. And then we started Ketchikan Photo Safari, which we ran for two years prior to COVID; two years during COVID, one year after COVID. Then we sold it. These businesses are sold at a profit. I’m also the founder and current secretary of the Guard Island Heritage, the local lighthouse organization, and we have $55,000 or more in the bank, and most lighthouse organizations are struggling with bake sales and car washes. So, I feel like I have fiscal responsibility and a business background that the school board could use.
Morrison: Gotcha. Could you elaborate a little bit more on like prior leadership roles, community engagement roles that make you equipped for this role?
Holston: Oh, absolutely. I’m a lifetime member of the Tongass Historical Society, a 30 plus year director of the Singing Christmas Tree. I’ve been a health and longevity advocate most of my tenure here in Ketchikan, and I’m a member of the Assembly of God Church. I’m the Alaska State Director of Gideon’s International, and I’m a weekly volunteer at the Ketchikan Pioneer Home for the last two and a half years. I play live music there for their ice cream socials.
Morrison: Aside from what you’ve already mentioned, what is something that you’d like listeners to know about you?
Holston: I’d like them to know that if a person doesn’t have their health, what else really matters? What’s more important to a 50-year-old graduate of Kayhi, knowing Shakespeare or being healthy? And I trust that 90%, maybe 95% of people quizzed about that, if they’re 40, 50, 60 years old, will say being healthy. Now you can ask AI that question, and it will say this: “Survival comes first. A person must be alive and healthy to experience the world. Foundation of daily life. Good health allows a person to work, spend time with family, and enjoy hobbies. No replacement. No amount of literary knowledge can substitute for physical well-being and life itself.” Literature and learning, AI says this: “Optimal enrichment. Knowing Shakespeare adds cultural and intellectual value to a person’s life, but can be learned at any time during a person’s life. They can study literature at any age, but they need their health to do so.” Thank you, AI.
Editor’s note: Rob Holston does not hold a PhD, or Doctor of Philosophy.
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.
