Mat-su School District

School superintendent in Mat-Su dies after surgery

Kenneth Burnley, 69, was an energetic, forward-thinking school administrator who came to the district a year ago and pushed improvements on a number of fronts, according to board president Mike Dunleavy.

School board members and school officials were in shock over his sudden death.

Burnley underwent knee surgery Wednesday and by midday Thursday was talking and joking with visitors. But at 4 a.m. Saturday, board members started getting calls that he was dead. None of the school leaders knew what had gone wrong.

Acting superintendent Deena Paramo said Burnley was in such good spirits, he teased that he was younger than she is, because his doctors said he had the bones of a 40-year-old. She's 41. He had tapped Paramo, the district's assistant superintendent for instruction, to take the superintendent's job during his surgery and recovery. She will continue in that role, officials said.

From his hospital bed, he asked how Mat-Su school projects fared under the state capital budget. Gov. Sean Parnell announced his vetoes Wednesday afternoon.

"He asked, 'Did we get money for our kids? Did it come through?' " Paramo said. He especially was concerned about a state grant for a technology upgrade. The project made it past the vetoes. At Burnley's direction, the district hired a Juneau lobbyist and it paid off, she said.

Burnley was in the top echelon of superintendents nationwide and Mat-Su was lucky to land him after a nationwide search, Dunleavy said. Burnley had a doctorate in education and served as chief executive of Detroit public schools as well as superintendent in Colorado Springs and Fairbanks. He was named national superintendent of the year in 1993, when he was in Colorado.

Burnley was hard-charging and shook things up but he went about it in a way that made people buy in, board members said.

He negotiated contracts with four unions with the help of a mediator and community input. He invited unions to his weekly meetings with top staff. He brought in an expert who examined school buses and found safety issues that needed to be addressed. He directed that the district's home-school center be expanded to better serve the many Mat-Su children who are taught by their parents, Paramo said.

Mat-Su School Board Legislates a Tobacco Free Campus | Alaska ...

On March 2nd, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board passed changes to school district policy that creates a tobacco free campus for all students, district employees, contractors and visitors as well as alternative to suspension options for student tobacco violations.  This success demonstrates the importance of school tobacco prevention grants and the far reaching impact they can have to positively impact a community.  In the Mat-Su School district,  that translates to almost 17,000 students, 2,200 staff (the Borough’s 2ndlargest employer!) and numerous families, community members and visitors to our schools. These policy changes will go a long way in helping promote a social norm of wellness in our community and will create a healthier future for Mat-Su residents.

Insiders' Guide to Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska, Including the Kenai Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and Denali National Park

Mat-Su Borough School District overcrowding report, October 1993

School food service journal

The Bush Pilot's Daughters

ASBO's journal