Sorted by date Results 614 - 638 of 3063
Alaska school districts that are remote and serve mainly students from low-income households need to pay substantially more than they currently do to attract and retain teachers, a study from University of Alaska researchers found. Matthew Berman, a University of Alaska Anchorage economics professor, said the study shows that compensation does matter when it comes to recruitment and retention — and that some districts can and do pay teachers more to offset other disadvantages like a remote location. “Relatively advantaged districts are abl... Full story
As three days of cultural exchanges wrapped up in Wrangell with the departure of the visiting crew from the Polynesian Voyaging Society, another piece of Wrangell history came to light depicting Tlingit life almost 140 years ago. In the late 1800s, artist Theodore J. Richardson painted a watercolor of a village that appears to be in the general vicinity of Reliance Harbor. A photo shows him possibly working on that watercolor while in a boat in Zimovia Strait, with Woronkofski Island in the...
July 5, 1923 The boxing contest between Ralph Prescott and Kid Stokes at the rink on July 4 was the biggest sports attraction of the day. Six rounds were fought and the fight resulted in a draw. Stokes is a Juneau man. Prescott is a home boy. Stokes is 25 years of age and weighs 135 pounds. Prescott is 18 years old and weighs 140. Prescott had not been in the ring but once before. In the first round Stokes was more aggressive, but after that it was about a standoff. All rounds were lively and the last one without doubt the fastest ever seen in...
Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle School are going through an alarming upgrade, quite literally. Both buildings, including the high school gym and the Parks and Recreation's pool facility, are getting a new fire alarm system that will help pinpoint any smoke or fires, helping emergency responders act quicker. Current fire codes dictated replacement of the old system, especially since the schools sometimes house visiting sports teams or other students and teaching staff, according to Josh B...
Nearly a decade after construction started and a month after it was put into service, the 280-foot-long Hubbard was officially christened as the newest ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System’s fleet on June 26 in Juneau. The Hubbard — first envisioned in 2006 as part of a project to shuttle passengers between Juneau, Haines and Skagway — has experienced plenty of rough waters before a couple dozen attendees boarded it for its christening during a stormy day at Juneau’s Auke Bay ferry terminal. Initial construction was completed in 2018, b...
Though the governor vetoed half of the legislatively approved increase in state funding for public schools, it will still be enough to erase the deficit in the budget adopted by the Wrangell school board last week. The budget for the 2023-2024 school year shows a $121,717 deficit, which is covered by drawing on savings, but the district will revise its spending plan in the fall to include the additional state aid and after it has enrollment numbers. The district expects to receive a one-time increase of about $212,500 in state funding for next...
June 28, 1923 Wrangell now has an express office, having been duly established here this week with the mercantile firm of Walker & Russell as agents. For some time there has been an urgent need for an express office to take care of the town’s growing business, especially in the shipment of furs. Recently, the Wrangell Commercial Club took up the matter. A cablegram was sent to the American Railway Express company pointing out the urgent need for an express office here, and recommending the appointment of Walker & Russell as local agents. Two d...
From towering Christmas trees to black light Halloween parties, Wrangell goes hard for the holidays. With the community's most spectacular celebration - the Fourth of July - just around the corner, event organizers are putting the finishing touches on the event schedule. Here are some of the highlights that attendees can look forward to: The festivities kick off with a picnic and pie-eating contest at 1 p.m. Saturday outside the Irene Ingle Public Library. On Sunday, kids will fish at City Dock...
More than two months ago, Gov. Mike Dunleavy told legislators he would introduce a state sales tax as part of a long-term, budget-balancing fiscal plan. Something is needed to end the annual budget battles that have dominated Alaska politics for the past three decades. A sales tax is not the best option, but at least the governor appeared ready to participate. However, he never introduced the bill, nor did he ever say why he failed to do what he said he would do. Later that same month, the governor said he would likely call lawmakers into...
Southeast legislators said they were disappointed that Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of the one-time increase in state money for K-12 public schools, but will try again next year to address education funding needs. “We heard from school districts around the state that needed the money,” Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz said June 21. The $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for the 2023-2024 school year was a compromise between House and Senate members, Democrats, Republicans and independents, he explained. The money, which Dunleavy cut...
Sealaska Heritage Institute has honored 10 educators from throughout Alaska and Washington for their culturally relevant lessons. Among those is Wrangell's Virginia Oliver, who teaches Tlingit language in the Wrangell School District. She was one of seven given the Distinguished Educator Award, "which recognizes educators who intentionally weave cultural knowledge throughout their lessons and classroom and use approaches that reflect Native students' identity and values through place-based and...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday vetoed half of the $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for school districts across Alaska — cutting back the first boost in state funding for K-12 public schools in more than six years. The Wrangell School District had expected to receive an additional $425,000 in state aid for the 2023-2024 school year under the Legislature’s budget plan. The governor’s veto cut that by 50%. State funding covers about 60% of the district’s roughly $5 million operating budget, with the rest from the borough and fed... Full story
It took the community several years of pushing, pleading and politics before it succeeded in convincing the state to restore the Office of Children’s Services caseworker position in town. The job had been eliminated more than a dozen years earlier before it was restored in the 2021-2022 state budget. The caseworker has been on the job since February 2022. But now the borough, which agreed to cover half of the expense of the reopened office, is questioning whether the town is getting its money’s worth in the cost-sharing deal with the sta...
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church may be a small building, but it played a large role in Wrangell’s history. Founded in 1903, the unassuming structure tells the story of the Klondike gold rush and the fight for Alaska Native rights. On June 29, historian and podcaster Ronan Rooney will share his research on this nationally recognized historic landmark with the Wrangell community. Though he will be speaking at the church, the talk won’t be a sermon — history buffs of all denominations or no denomination at all can enjoy the story of St. Philip...
WASHINGTON — The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has advanced a bill to establish a federal “truth and healing” commission to examine Indian boarding school policies. The bill is part of an effort to reckon with the United States’ history of government-run boarding schools that forcibly removed Native children from their homes. The schools subjected Indigenous youths to physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and last year a federal study identified hundreds of deaths of Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians associated with th...
In 2022, after years of community advocacy for the position, the state Office of Children’s Services (OCS) put a caseworker in Wrangell. However, borough officials will reconsider covering half the cost of the state position, citing budgetary concerns and questions about whether the position meets the community’s needs. OCS seeks to protect and advocate for minors in unsafe living situations. Before caseworker Jennifer Ridgeway transferred to Wrangell from Petersburg last year, the borough had not had an OCS caseworker in the community sin...
June 7, 1923 A much needed improvement at the school house is the storeroom that has been built in the basement, at the front of the building, by Supt. Gross. Since the re-arrangement of the interior of the building about five years ago, the school has had no place to store such things as costumes used for entertainment and programs, extra books, Christmas tree trimmings and many other articles. The result has been that many things have been lost or so scattered that they had to be replaced. Considerable damage by mice has been done to...
A few months ago, passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight trying to get to Wrangell were stranded in Petersburg due to a mechanical problem. Thanks to a local tour operator, the castaways were picked up and brought back to Wrangell in less than an hour. For many years, Wrangell skippers have been offering shuttle services as a quick and affordable means of traveling between the two communities. Last Saturday, Zach Taylor, owner of Muddy Water Adventures, teamed up with Summit Charters and took...
May 31, 1923 The first aerial mail ever received through the Wrangell post office came from Lake Bay Wednesday morning, having been brought by the seaplane Northbird piloted by Roy Jones with Glen Day as engineer. Mr. Jones stated that the flight from Ketchikan to Lake Bay was made in 55 minutes. Arriving here, it soon became known that the Northbird had brought mail and there were many visits to the post office with the result that about a dozen persons received letters within 45 minutes from the time they had left Lake Bay. While the...
Sharpen your pencils, dip your paintbrushes and don your smocks, because Parks and Recreation is offering art classes to youth this summer. There will be two art camps, one in June and one in July. Each will be held on Fridays from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the community center multi-purpose room. There will be space for 15 K-5 students in each class. The camp costs $25 per student and participants should wear clothes they won’t regret splattering paint on. Tawney Crowley, the art teacher at Evergreen Elementary School, will lead the classes. This i...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following positions: - Custodian: This is a full-time, year-round classified position with benefits, 7.5 hours per day. Salary placement is on Column B of the Classified Salary Schedule. Job duties include but are not limited to keeping our school complex clean and assisting with setting up rooms for classes, large presentations and business meetings as needed; and assisting with minor repairs. A High School Diploma or equivalent is desired. Start date: as soon as possible.... Full story
Myra Arlene Sarber passed with her family by her side April 14 in Sunnyside, Oregon. Myra was born the sixth child of seven in Spokane, Washington, to Thelma Irene and Faber Sebastian Wondzell. In 1951, her family moved by steamship to Wrangell in the territory of Alaska. 1955 brought a consistent and loving stepfather, Albert Ronning. She married her lifelong love, Homer Sarber, in Petersburg in 1962, and they settled down in Ketchikan to raise their family. Myra and Homer lived in Ketchikan...
Alaska school administrators are welcoming the $175 million in additional one-time funding in this year’s state budget, but warn that they’ll again face large deficits next year. Permanently increasing the base student allocation — the state’s per-student funding formula — was a top priority for many legislators this year. School districts across the state reported being in crisis after six years of essentially flat funding, high inflation and the end of federal COVID-19 relief aid. “The legislature has offered a spring bonus rather than...
With a quiet demeanor and a head for mathematics and physics, one teacher has helped Wrangell's students understand all those calculations for a quarter of a century. After 25 years, teacher Donna Massin has decided X plus Y equals retirement. Last Thursday, she dismissed class for the last time at Wrangell High School and began a new chapter in life. Born in Mount Edgecumbe, she has lived in Anchorage, Ketchikan, Seward and Gulf Port, Mississippi. "I kind of bounced around," she said. Massin's...
May 31, 1923 During the past few days, several trappers have come down the Stikine with good catches of fur which they sold to local buyers. Seven huge bales of furs were included in the cargo of the Hazel B No. 4 which arrived last week from Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. The fur was placed in the bonded warehouse and reshipped on the Princess Mary on Monday, being consigned to the Hudson’s Bay Co. in Victoria. Yesterday afternoon the Hazel B No. 4 arrived from her second trip to Telegraph Creek. This time her cargo included two large bale...