This week, KUCB is profiling candidates running in the October 7 municipal election. This profile focuses on Fernando Barrera, who is running unopposed to keep school board seat E. He and several other candidates will appear live on KUCB and Channel 8 on Thursday at 7 p.m. to answer your questions.

When Fernando Barrera won his election last fall for an open seat on the Unalaska school board, he had a clear vision for the one-year term that lay ahead of him.

Barrera wanted to improve STEM education -- science, technology, engineering and math. But he says he had some misconceptions about how to get there from his position on the board.

"We don’t micromanage," Barrera says. "We can propose things, but you don’t decide as a person what to do. It’s a team."

Barrera saw that firsthand when he signed up for the district’s budget committee. He learned how the state calculates the amount of funding it will give to schools, based on the number of students enrolled. The committee had to work together on an estimate.

"We saw the worst scenarios, the best scenarios and we came up with what we consider a happy medium," Barrera says. "We still are more than a dozen kids short."

And it’s not the first time: Enrollment dropped last year, too. That’s worrisome for Barrera as a candidate for a full term on the school board and as an 18-year resident of Unalaska. He's worked for UniSea ever since he moved to town. 

"In the early '90s, there was a magazine that cited the school district as one of the best in the country and that is really what encouraged me to bring my daughter here to this island," Barrera says.

Barrera’s not sure why enrollment is down. Unalaska’s schools still have a solid reputation, with the high school earning five out of five stars on the state’s performance index. Eagle’s View Elementary is officially a four-star school.

Barrera says that wouldn’t be possible without quality teachers. But they’re not easy to get.

"It is always tough to compete with bigger schools which offer more money and it’s less expensive to live there," Barrera says. "It is always tough to get someone that is outstanding here."

Barrera says that’s why he and the rest of the school board came out against a plan last year to make the state administer health insurance for teachers. It was supposed to save school districts some money.

But Unalaska teachers get a generous insurance plan through local government. And Barrera says the board didn’t want to lose that bargaining chip. They lobbied to make the change optional -- and eventually, the bill stalled out altogether.

With no challengers in the upcoming city election, Barrera’s guaranteed another three years on the school board. He’s already planning to volunteer for the next budget committee.

But while Barrera says he’s gotten used to collaborating with fellow board members, there are some things he’s not willing to consider.

"We can’t afford to cut anywhere," Barrera says. "We don’t want to go back. That is why we as a school board have to keep on being informed. We have to be reading the fine print."

Barrera says that’s the best hope for protecting schools from fluctuations in funding down the road -- and hopefully, making room for them to grow.

Fernando Barrera is running for school board seat E. He'll participate in KUCB's Candidates Forum this Thursday at 7 p.m.