Dolores Gard
Short Bio:
My husband, Chuck, our 2 sons, and I moved to Valdez in 1975. Steven - 1988 VHS graduate and William – 1992 VHS graduate. Both of our sons continued their education and have college degrees. I retired from Valdez City Schools in 2001 completing 22 years of service.
My public service includes: 4 years as a classroom volunteer; 17 years with Valdez Little League, including being honored as the Alaska State Little League Volunteer in 1993; 9 years coordinating Valdez Little Dribblers with my husband; 14 years in P.T.A. including 4 years as President; 25 years in Parish Ministry at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church which include Religious Education, Parish Council, and Finance Council; 25 years as a Basketball Scorekeeper including coordinating many Elks Tournament’s scorers and timers; 10 years as a Reading/Math Tutor at Hermon Hutchens Elementary School, and a member of the School Board for 9 years.
I believe that community service is how to best show appreciation for the community that I live in.
My hobbies are reading, fishing, walking, cross-country skiing, tutoring elementary students, and basketball scorekeeping.
During my past School Board service, I studied the packets and maintained excellent attendance at Board Meetings, Work Sessions, Special Meetings, and joint sessions with City Council. As a School Board Member, I have agreed to accept the responsibility to invest the time to prepare for Board meetings, work sessions, and city council meetings, to best represent the people of Valdez in the community and when advocating for education with Legislators.
My service as an employee and a volunteer demonstrates that I am accountable, dedicated and committed to the job I have accepted. I look forward to continuing this service when I am elected on October 2, 2012.
Thank you to the community for your past support and your vote on October 2, 2012.
1. What are three main challenges for Valdez City Schools in the next five years? As a potential school board member, how do you plan to address them?
Student Enrollment and how do we provide the high quality educational program to prepare the students for the next phases of their lives. Seeing that our Enrollment is again dropping, it may be possible that decisions regarding the priority of programs we want to continue will need to be made. My priority is to keep the public informed by requesting public hearings whenever Valdez City Schools is asking to change our offerings. The Public will then have more opportunity to give their input during the budget process.
2. Both candidates have served prior terms on the school board, what will you do differently this term?
As one Board Member, I will continue to work on communication with the public. It seems that the community does not believe that the School Board and Administration have communicated openly with the public. Discussions after Presentations can clear the way for better understanding of the need for the decision. One method of communication is to ask questions for clarification and purpose of a project and request of Administration to bring that information to the Board in writing prior to a final decision. Answers to questions then need to be given. I am available to listen to the questions and comments from the public and to bring those concerns to the Board Meetings for both the Board and Administration’s information and to work to resolution. We as Board Members need to model behaviors that we expect from the students—honesty, integrity, responsibility, and always with courtesy and respect.
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