Teacher to seek NLR mayor post

Can provide new perspective, Dunbar school’s Kunce says

Little Rock School district middle school teacher Alice Kunce announced Tuesday that she will run for North Little Rock mayor.

Kunce, a teacher at Dunbar Middle School, said she wants to take fresh and new ideas to the mayor’s office.

“There is room for growth in North Little Rock, but you have to have somebody who can see it,” she said. “We have all this construction, but how much of it is carbon neutral? Let’s make sure North Little Rock is around 50 to 70 years from now and just not today.”

Kunce, 36, is the third candidate to announce an intention to run for the position.

North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Director Terry Hartwick, 70, announced his mayoral aspirations in October. Hartwick was North Little Rock’s mayor from 1984-88.

North Little Rock School Board President Tracy Steele, 56, announced his mayoral hopes in November. Steele served in the state House of Representatives and the state Senate. It is Steele’s second run for mayor of North Little Rock.

Joe Smith will not seek a third term as mayor when his term concludes at the end of this year. The mayor’s salary is $128,220.27 annually, after a 2.5% increase went into effect in June.

No candidacy will be official until the July-August filing period for North Little Rock municipal offices, but Smith’s announcement in September that he wouldn’t seek reelection kicked off campaigning for the office.

Kunce said she knows how high profile the other candidates are and that her relatively low profile might be to her advantage.

“I respect both of them very much, and I think they are doing a good job, but I am the alternative,” she said. “Everybody knows every single thing about the other two. We try something new.”

Kunce said she has been inspired by watching how much Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott has achieved in his one year in office. She said seeing someone her age create change gives her high hopes for Central Arkansas.

“We have had the same group of people in charge since the ’70s, which makes everything run smoothly, but we haven’t reached out to the next generation because of it,” she said.

Kunce said her career as a teacher and a mother of two children who are in the North Little Rock School District can help provide the city a new perspective.

“We have to start acknowledging our kids,” she said. “As an educator and mom of two kids in the North Little Rock School District, I know I can.”