Should school board members have term limits? That’s a question the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members are asking – again.
An ordinance going before the assembly Tuesday would cap school board terms to two consecutive full terms – the same limit put on assembly members and the borough mayor. Once reaching their term limit, a school board member could serve a potential additional term after waiting 180 days.
Right now, the assembly doesn’t technically have the authority to put term limits on school board members. But state lawmakers passed a bill this year that would change that. A bill on the governor’s desk would give a municipality’s governing body the authority to alter terms by passing an ordinance.
It’s not the first time the subject has come up on the Kenai Peninsula.
In 2007, voters passed an initiative that would have subjected the school board to term limits, according to an assembly memo. A year later, a Superior Court judge found the corresponding ballot proposition invalid.
The ruling was issued after a group called the Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers sued the borough and school district, arguing that the newly approved term limits should apply to incumbent candidates reelected during the same election. The superior court ruling was appealed all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, which agreed with the lower court’s ruling. which it said didn’t permit term limits for school board members.
In 2023, assembly members passed a nonbinding resolution that asked the Alaska Legislature to change that law.
The ordinance is being sponsored by Assembly Member Dale Eicher, who represents Sterling and Funny River. In a memo, he says term limits create more opportunities for new candidates, bring in new perspectives and prevent the concentration of power.
“(Term limits) can also encourage elected officials to remain responsive to the public, knowing that public office is service for a season, not a permanent parking spot,” Eicher wrote.
Local elections often see low participation rates – by candidates and voters. Of the six school board seats that have gone on the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s municipal ballots in the last two years, only half were contested races.
Senate Bill 143 passed the legislature in May and was sent to Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week. Now that the bill is on his desk, he could either sign it, veto it or let it pass into law without his signature. He has until Aug. 12 to act.
Assembly members will only decide whether to introduce the ordinance Tuesday. If it’s introduced, a final vote and public hearing would be held in September.
