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A free creative writing workshop will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at the Irene Ingle Public Library. Children's book author and artist Michael Bania will help participants create "micro-stories." "The idea is to get a prompt of some sort, which I'll provide," Bania said. "You have to, in 50 words, tell a story." The author found inspiration for her 50-word story challenge through her membership with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, a nonprofit organization t...
The U.S. Forest Service is working with the high school tech club on a five-year project to install and operate three cameras to provide livestreaming from the Anan Wildlife Observatory. “The goal is to have more access and be able to share this amazing place with more people,” said Claire Froelich, a conservation education specialist with the Forest Service. Thus far, the plan involves placing cameras at the upper and lower falls, even one underwater, for livestreaming to a display at the observation deck to allow for better monitoring and...
The Wrangell district has hired a new elementary school principal. Jamie Wollman, principal at the Hooper Bay Charter School in the western Alaska coastal community, is moving to Wrangell for the 2024-2025 school year. "I like to go to places that present a different challenge," Wollman said. "I love when people share that want to do exciting things for students." She was hired in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to start up the charter school. It's open to students in grades 4 through 8 in the...
Amid the rigors of state testing and preparations for prom, members of the Wrangell Wolves girls softball team turned out for informal practice after school with head coach Marsha Ballou at the baseball field near Volunteer Park on Thursday, April 18. While softball season officially started for Southeast high schools on March 4, the Wolves won't start their season until May 9-13 when they travel to Juneau for games. They will return to Juneau near the end of May to play regionals. There are no...
Julie Williams will step down as school counselor for the district at the end of the school term, after two years in the job. It's the latest in several recent high-profile turnovers of key school district personnel. Secondary school principal Jackie Hanson announced her decision in February not to renew her contract for the new school year, after one year on the job. She was the district's third middle/high school principal in the past three years. Elementary school principal Ann Hilburn...
The school district is requesting $1.75 million from the borough for the 2024-2025 school year budget, an increase from the $1.6 million contribution of the past two years. Even with the increase, the budget will draw down more than half of the school district’s reserves to balance revenues with expenses. The uncertainty of any increase in state funding is adding to the budget stress at Wrangell schools and districts across the state. The state funding formula has increased little more than a few dollars in the past seven years. The annual b...
Young swimmers from Wrangell joined others from across Southeast, winning some top spots and with most of the team setting personal bests at a regional swim meet in Juneau. Eight members of the Wrangell Swim Club competed with almost 200 swimmers from across the region April 5-7 at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center in Juneau for the 2024 Savanna Cayce Southeast Championship. The team swam a total of 45 individual events and two relays, out of which 41 individual swims and relays featured personal-b...
The U.S. Forest Service is adding a dozen new positions in Wrangell, plus changing two jobs from seasonal to permanent. Most of the new hires are on the job, with a couple still in the hiring process. District Ranger Tory Houser estimated it's a 15% to 20% gain in staff. "Many of the positions are recreation positions," she said. "In our case, the influx is more a management decision to transition from having seasonal, temporary employees to having permanent employees that work a seasonal...
A high school organization founded by students several years ago aimed at inclusivity and students helping each other has expanded its focus, and its store in the school's commons area is selling an assortment of sandwiches, beverages and other snacks during lunchtime. BASE, founded by a group of Wrangell High School students in 2019, has grown over the years from decorating the halls to providing needed food to students, arranging teacher appreciations, working with school staff to learn how to...
One of Wrangell's two teams placed second in the Stikine Middle School Invitational Volleyball Tournament, losing to Klawock in the final, while a Petersburg team took first place in the other bracket after defeating a different squad from Klawock. The two-bracket competition of 13 teams from middle schools across Southeast was held at the Wrangell high school and community center gyms on Friday and Saturday, April 12-13. The teams included two from Wrangell, one from Craig, one from...
The community's medical equipment loan closet that has been in a number of locations over the years will likely have to look for a new home once more. With the forthcoming sale of the former hospital next to Evergreen Elementary School later this month to Georgia-based real estate developer Wayne Johnson, the Wrangell Community Loan Closet will have to move its reserve of medical equipment to a new location. Don McConachie Sr., who runs the service, talked on April 4 with borough manager Mason...
The Island of Faith Lutheran Church will host a free monthly movie for their Faith and Film Ministry at the Nolan Center over the next two and a half years, thanks to a $3,000 grant from the Alaska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. “We’re trying to do lots of genres, from ‘Galaxy Quest’ to ‘Magnificent Seven’ (the 1960 version),” said the church’s pastor, Sue Bahleda. The next movie will be “The Princess Bride” on Tuesday, April, 16 at 6 p.m. The concession stand will be open. Movies that have already been shown as part of th...
Kevin McCallister is the new facilities and maintenance director for the school district. He arrived with his family on March 25 and started work April 1. Outgoing maintenance director Josh Blatchley will stay on until the end of April to help with training his replacement. While McCallister is just getting started, he hasn't "really dug into the meat and potatoes of everything yet." He's already been made aware of some of the larger projects coming over the next few years, such as the...
Fourteen Wrangell High School students will participate in the annual three-day Southeast Regional Music Festival this week at Sitka High School. The event will feature morning and evening performances that will be livestreamed on the Sitka Fine Arts Camp YouTube channel and via links on the Music Fest website. Music teacher Tasha Morse, who will accompany her students, described the April 11-13 event as a showcase. High school music groups from across the region, including orchestral, jazz and choir, will perform in various concerts, along...
This year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas tree will come from the Tongass National Forest, only the second time an Alaska tree will light up the official spot. Known as “The People's Tree” (reflecting the nickname for the U.S. House of Representatives, “The People's House”), it will stand on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The only previous Alaska tree, a spruce, came from the Chugach National Forest in 2015. The tree has been selected each year since 1970 from a different national forest. Brandon Raile, the project’s Forest Service spokesman i...
An experienced Fairbanks educator who has dreamed of moving to Southeast for years will finally achieve his goal when he starts work in August as the new secondary school principal in Wrangell. Greg Clark will be the new principal for the high school and middle school. He was among 16 applicants and chosen from three finalists. The school board approved the contract and Schools Superintendent Bill Burr hired Clark on March 18. He will replace Jackie Hanson, who is leaving at the end of the...
The time is coming once again for residents to help clean up the town, with Wrangell’s annual community cleanup scheduled for Saturday, April 20. The spring cleanup includes volunteers picking up as much trash around town as possible. The event will start at the Evergreen Elementary gym at 8 a.m. and continue until noon, when there will be a free lunch. Free trash bags and disposable gloves will be provided and there will be drawings and cash prizes for volunteers. After the bags and gloves are handed out, volunteers can head out and clean u...
The 6-month-old Wrangell Athletic Club has raised more than $10,000 toward its mission of paying for student travel to state competition, with plans to raise a lot more. Meanwhile, the school district has advanced more than $40,000 for student travel to state competition in the 2023-2024 school year. The school board last year appropriated $46,000 to cover a deficit in the travel account for the 2022-2023 school year, with the cautionary advice that it did not plan to repeat the spending this year — and would look to the new fundraising g...
Problems with dog waste in town, in parks and ballfields are ongoing. While there has been some improvement in recent years, people not picking up after their dogs continues to be a recurring issue, especially with the coming of spring. “With everything thawing, it’s one of the more gross times of the year,” said recreation director Devyn Johnson of Parks and Recreation. “And it’s a bit of a roller coaster. Sometimes people do better than other times.” Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson and her staff have been working hard to clear pa...
The district’s electric school bus, originally scheduled to arrive in late spring through the federal Clean School Bus program, has been delayed until March 2025 due to a backlog of orders at the bus manufacturer, which could be too late for the terms of the grant’s fall deadline. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr explained the reasons for the delay at a school board meeting on March 18. The delay could pose a problem, as the grant deadline requires the bus to be on the job by October. Burr doesn’t know yet whether the grant can be salvaged. “We...
Almost half of the students enrolled at the school district are counted as Alaska Native. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that out of a total of 270 students enrolled in the district, 122 are registered as Alaska Native, while 13 are American Indian. “We’re 50% or really close,” he said. “Some of those might be mixed, depending on which parent filled it out.” Burr added that while Kim Powell, the district’s administrative assistant, had told him that the ratio has always been around that percentage, statistics from the state and f...
Ann Hilburn is leaving her job as elementary school principal in Wrangell at the end of the school year when she will move to Tok in Alaska’s Interior to serve as special education director. This was Hilburn’s second year as principal after serving a year as special education teacher at the high school and middle school. The new job with the Alaska Gateway School District in Tok “will provide the opportunity to combine what I enjoy most, serving in special education, with the administrative piece of my educational tenure,” she said in an emai...
The weights and exercise areas at the swimming pool and community recreation facility have expanded, with more equipment stationed in the converted racquetball court. Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson said the facility has seen an increase in use of weight-lifting and cardio equipment like treadmills and stationary bikes over the past several years, so they wanted to expand to satisfy the demand and encourage people to keep coming back. "We've hustled our little tails off to make sure...
In addition to his duties as activities director, Mike Hoyt will now also serve as the new Indian Education Act director for the school district after the resignation of DaNika Smalley on Feb. 29. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that Hoyt started on March 11. Working in cultural education has been Hoyt’s focus since 2011. He worked as a teacher in Nome for five years, and before that worked at culture camps operated by Goldbelt and Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. “He’s got background in writing grants,” Burr said. “And he...
High school student Cody Eastaugh has worked part time for almost two years at the Bay Company, known as BayCo, which specializes in marine sales and service at its Front Street location. While trying to decide on his senior project, his boss Dave Powell came up with the idea that Eastaugh could assist him with volunteer efforts for two fundraisers and cleanup and repairs at the shooting range. "I thought, that's a terrific idea and I should do that," Eastaugh said. First, he helped Powell with...