In Haines, five candidates are running for four open seats on the School Board. The race is the first contested election for school board since 2013. Today we hear from Michael Wald, who is running for a second three-year term. 

Michael Wald has lived in Haines for over a decade, and has two children currently attending middle and high school. The 48-year-old has a background in science and environmental education, and runs a wilderness guiding company, Arctic Wild based in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Photo courtesy of Michael Wald

“In the early part of my career, I taught outdoor and environmental ed as a teacher at a small private high school and then later taught ecology courses at the university level,” Wald said. “So it seemed a logical fit. When my kids were in the district, and there was nobody on the school board for me to run and if I could contribute to the community in that way.”

Wald was appointed to the school board in 2017 when there was a vacancy, and is running for a second full term. He says he wants to continue the board’s work, including expanding professional development for staff, vocational and outdoor programs.

“My priorities are to continue the good work that’s already happening in the district. Specifically, that means investing in our staff and investing in their continued development, and in innovative educational approaches, and in making sure that we continue to have great teacher retention in the district by taking care of our staff. And because our teachers are clearly the backbone of the district,” he said.

He says the COVID pandemic has been challenging this past year and a half. He says he is in favor of following medical guidelines, but wants the focus to remain on school and the learning environment.

“Take the mitigations, which are being advised. But really, my priority in terms of that is to keep our eye on the ball and keep continuing to improve our school and continuing to improve the educational environment for our students,” Wald said. “You know, it would be easy to spend all of our time looking at COVID and thinking about COVID and having the conversation be about that. And certainly, we need to keep everybody safe. But we need to do what we can to keep school in person and active and keep our educational environment growing.”

Michael Wald is one of five candidates running for four open seats on the Haines School Board. He will face Brian Clay, Shannon Dryden, Kevin Shove and Jonathan Wray in the election on October 5.

Find out more about the 2021 Haines candidates here.