KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | James LaBelle, School Board Seat D

James LaBelle, School Board Seat D

Website: www.jameslabelle.com 

Education: I have attended the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University majoring in Business Administration.

Experience: I have a lot of life and work experience that has provided me with very rich experiences.  For the past 15 years I have worked in areas that improve the lives of young people and communities.  For the last 3 years I've served as the Child Welfare Liaison for Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC); I am currently the President of the Alaska Native Indian Child Welfare Association.  In these roles I've helped create productive relationships with other child welfare leaders and key stakeholders that lead to improved outcomes for children and families involved in the foster care system.  2 years prior to that, I was an Employment Specialist and Regional Coordinator, for CITC, implementing the statewide Youth Opportunity Grant to link young people to education and training opportunities.

For many years before my time at CITC, I worked in the Chugach region developing leadership activities for young people, managing a Spirit Camp and administering a scholarship program.

Separate from my work in the non-profit arena, for the last 10 years I've been a Board Member of the Port Graham Corporation and for the last 3 years a Board Member of Chugach Industries, Inc., a Chugach Alaska Corporation subsidiary, setting policy, budget approval and oversight for business operations.

Family: I am the son of Jim and Susan LaBelle, married to Rhonda Wulf-LaBelle and raising our 3 children, Cody age 16, Anthony age 13 and Suzanne age 8, all of whom attend Anchorage schools.

What qualifies you for the position? : Having been raised in both Anchorage and rural Alaska, I bring a perspective and insight regarding the challenges that Native people and people of color in general experience that will be useful in determining policy and practice.  Because of my experiences I can help to facilitate communication between the Native community and the education system.  Due to my work in the child welfare system, I am experienced in bringing people together around common goals and priorities.  I will utilize these same skills in my approach in improving the education system.

What issues motivate you to take on this position? : The high drop-out rates, low test scores and the need to maintain a diverse group of individuals who have the task of ensuring young people receive the best education we can deliver.  With 50% of the students coming from multi-ethnic backgrounds, other than Caucasian, and with over 90 different languages spoken in Anchorage schools clearly the system needs to be innovative and competent in its approach.

What do you feel is the largest issue facing the school board for the next term and what would you do to tackle it? : The largest issue, that I see, is the underachievement of our students with low-test scores and the high dropout rate being the negative outcomes.  The way I would like to approach it is to track each and every student's progress, give them more alternatives and build in community supports that will help them succeed.

I believe many of the disparities are also because our education system is out-dated and does not take into account student's individual strengths and the fact that students learn better and can attain proficiency through an increase in active, hands-on and experiential approaches to learning that include:

• - Utilizing "best practice" approaches in education that utilizes technology, Individual Education Plans and using techniques that get students outside of the four walls of the classroom.
• - Increase partnership with vocational trades to steer students who learn better outside of classrooms to trades that pay well and that ensure they ambitions beyond high school.
• - Smaller class-sizes are important to these types of approaches, but that requires a long-term funding formula, as well as quality teachers who are paid competitive salaries with good benefits that will keep them here a long time. That requires cooperation of all those involved and I will help bring vision and people together.

Why should you be elected? : Because as and individual, I am representative of different aspects of the community and I bring different skill sets.  Diversity, varying experiences and healthy dialogue are all assets that should be a part of the public process.  I speak of common goals and priorities, and those should be to make sound decisions that will lead all students to academic success that empower them to enter adult life with skills and abilities to continue their education, better their lives and enrich our community.