Running for borough assembly, school board or port commission — as 10 people are doing this month — is the easy part of the job.

That’s not to dismiss the hours that the winners will spend at meetings, hearings, work sessions and listening and talking with the public — plus the homework in between meetings. All that adds up to a lot of volunteer time. Elected officials in Wrangell, unlike many other towns in Alaska that pay a small stipend, receive nothing but water and maybe coffee.

The real hard work lies ahead for the winners who will need to confront Wrangell’s financial challenges and make decisions that will affect the community for years into the future, all the while hoping they are making the right decisions.

The school board has been plugging holes in its budget for several years by withdrawing money from its operating reserves. Short term, that’s OK, that’s what reserves are for. But long term, that’s unsustainable. The board knows it, the school district administration knows it, but the answers are not easy.

State funding, which covers more than half of the school district operating budget, is caught up in annual political battles between most of the state Legislature and the governor, who wants to see major changes in education policy before he will support any more money for public schools.

That standoff could change in the 2026 election, when Alaskans will select a new governor, but it may not change the way school districts across the state want.

That uncertainty makes it hard to build a sustainable school budget.

Uncertainty also extends to the borough, the second-biggest funding source for Wrangell schools.

Federal aid for schools and roads provided much of the money that the assembly would appropriate each year toward the school budget, but a dysfunctional and divided U.S. House failed to extend the Secure Rural Schools program last year, costing Wrangell an estimated $800,000. No one knows what Congress will do this year.

The assembly has its own big-money decisions coming up: What kind of deal can it strike with freight barge operators to share the cost of moving the barge landing to a new site at 6-Mile; what kind of cost-sharing deal can it strike with a cruise line that wants to see a new dock built for its ships to stay overnight; and what’s the cost of improvements that will be required to meet federal permit requirements for discharge from the wastewater treatment plant.

All of those decisions are in the millions of dollars.

All of the above awaits the winners of the Oct. 7 municipal election.