General Membership
The Association of Alaska School Boards is an organization representing school boards in Alaska. Its membership consists of more than 330 individual board members, responsible for students who attend Alaska’s public schools. Associate members include school superintendents, advisory school boards, the State Board of Education, the Commissioner of Education and the Special Education Service Agency.
AASB's Mission
The mission of the Association of Alaska School Boards is to advocate for children and youth by assisting school boards in providing quality public education, focused on student achievement, through effective local governance.
Watch Do You Know AASB? to learn more about how we advocate for Alaska's youth.
Read about who we are in our latest Annual Report.
AASB Membership Benefits
This brochure is a list of core services provided as a function of your AASB dues.
AASB's Services and Activities brochure
Functions of the association include:
1. Assist school boards in meeting established board standards for performance and accountability and communicating their efforts and progress to the public and policy makers.
2. Increase the influence school boards have on governmental decisions which have implications for public education.
3. Improve the quality of public school governance through school board member education.
4. Preserve and protect lay control of public education by local boards of education.
5. Promote equal educational opportunity for all public school children.
6. Increase member knowledge of educational issues and their implications.
7. Assume a leadership position in advocating good public education in Alaska.
8. Anticipate and promote legislation for future educational needs.
9. Develop and maintain effective relationships with other groups dealing with educational issues.
10. Promote and facilitate cooperation among local boards of education.
11. Provide technical assistance and information to school districts in a variety of management areas.
History of AASB
The Association first formed on November 10, 1954 when four school boards, from Cordova, Nome, Seward and Valdez, gathered in Palmer for the first Annual Conference. Lew Hanks of the Palmer Independent School District was elected as the first AASB President.
AASB joined National School Boards Association in 1957 and appointed Alice Crosby of Juneau as the first NSBA legislative liaison. In 1967 Danny Plotnick of Juneau was appointed as AASB’s first lobbyist during the legislative session.
The State Board of Education was first invited to attend the AASB conferences in 1967. In 1969 membership of the Association was extended to include the advisory school boards for the State-Operated School System and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
AASB’s first paid executive director (then titled Executive Secretary), Dr. C.W. Martin, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Alaska was hired as a temporary part-time employee in 1964. On September 1, 1966, Dr. Don DaFoe, Provost of the Anchorage Regional Center of U of A and former Commissioner of Education, became the first permanent part-time Executive Secretary. He was succeeded in 1969 by Dr. Frank Darnell, head of the Department of Education at the U of A who served until the end of 1971.
Bill Overstreet, Juneau Superintendent, was hired as AASB’s first full time Executive Secretary in 1972 and opened the first office on Franklin St. in Juneau with a part-time secretary as staff. Under his leadership the monthly newsletter, board training and the Legislative Fly-In was established. His successor was Bob Greene, Kodiak Superintendent, who came on board in 1977. During his-tenure the AASB staff grew to four in number and saw the advent of the Leadership Conference, Database Consortium, the formation of the Alaska Schools Insurance Company and the purchase of an office building.
Carl Rose, former school board president from Skagway and past president of AASB, became Executive Director in 1988, and instituted AASB’s first Long Range Plan. Under his direction, current services have been expanded and refined, both the Legislative and Advocacy Networks were formed and the AASB's staff has grown to eleven. Services have been added to include a Lending Library, Policy Development, Labor Relations, and a Legal Assistance Fund.
