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The Wrangell Public School District held a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday, July 16, where school officials answered submitted questions from families regarding the SMART Start reopening plan for the upcoming school year. The nearly two hour long meeting at one point had 72 participants. Board President Aaron Angerman, who moderated the town hall meeting, asked school officials the submitted questions from the public. Although a plan for how the school district will operate under COVID-19...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening for a special meeting, to consider CARES Act funding for the school district. Wrangell, and many other communities, recently received special funds through the CARES Act to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wrangell has used these funds, or plans to use them, for items like the purchase of a new ambulance, to cover wages for first responders, and to help pay for an alternate isolation site, among other planned expenses. As the Wrangell...
Members of the Policy Committee for the Wrangell School District met last Thursday afternoon to discuss various policies for school board consideration. Among several items on the agenda were two policies covering the topics of professional boundaries between staff and students, and freedom of speech amongst the student body. Board Policy 5141.42, Professional Boundaries of Staff with Students, as it reads, is meant to protect children from inappropriate conduct by staff, volunteers, and other...
The Wrangell Public School District will be hosting an online town hall meeting to discuss the reopening plan for fall 2020, tonight at 6 p.m.. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said that a meeting was tentatively set for July 16 during a policy committee meeting on July 9. The date was confirmed in an email from Kim Powell, with the school district, on July 13. The school district hosted a series of meetings between school staff, administration, and community members on the SMART Start reopening....
The Wrangell School District held another SMART Start meeting last Wednesday, June 24, to continue discussing ways the district can safely reopen and operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Education has come out with recommendations to determine what constitutes different risk levels for operation in Wrangell, according to the meeting's notes, so the group of school board members, district faculty and staff, and parents mostly concentrated their discussion around the possible...
Matt Gore has been with the Wrangell School District since 2011, and has been the technology director since 2015. In his time as technology director, Gore said he has worked to give the school district faster and more reliable internet access, to put better technology in students' hands, and help the district use all the tools they had available. It is time for him to move on, however. Gore has left his Wrangell position to take a new job with the Southeast Island School District, on Prince of...
Wrangell School District staff, school board members, and parents have been holding weekly meetings to discuss the safe reopening of Wrangell schools, under the new Smart Start outline provided by the state. The group held their second meeting Wednesday, June 17, to try and look at some of the bigger questions surrounding getting kids back into school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster explained, back in a May 18 school board meeting, that Smart Start is meant to be a...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday, June 15, to accept a collaboration agreement with the Sealaska Heritage Institute. They also approved of some budget revisions. According to the collaboration agreement, in the meeting's agenda packet, Sealaska has received an Alaska Native Education Program grant, from the Department of Education. The purpose of this grant is to support a three-year project to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in several Southeast...
June 17, 1920 The Diamond C extended its hospitality to twenty of the younger set last Sunday whom they took to Big Bay and for a cruise around Woronofski Island. At Big Bay a bountiful picnic dinner was served aboard the boat. Arriving home, the party was invited to the Hofstad home where a delightful evening was spent. June 15, 1945 Alaska Metals and Power Company have just completed a water power and electric power plant at Mill Creek about ten miles from Wrangell on the back channel. The company also has a complete Corlie saw mill,...
After several years with the Wrangell Public School District, Wrangell resident Drew Larrabee will be leaving town to take a new position as K-12 principal in Tok. Larrabee and his family first moved to Wrangell eight years ago, he said. He has been the fabrication teacher for Wrangell High School for the past eight years. Larrabee said that he and his family are going to miss the Wrangell community and school district a lot, but this move is meant to help him advance his career goals. "I had...
In the last Wrangell School Board meeting, on May 18, several members of the public voiced concerns with how things were running in the school district. Among them were concerns that the technology department was being cut at a bad time, as well as wider concerns that the district has a hostile work environment. The Wrangell Sentinel reached out to Superintendent Debbe Lancaster to seek a response to these concerns. Lancaster said that, after discussing the matter with School Board President...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met this week to begin their workshopping of Wrangell's budget for FY 2021. This first round of workshops looked at various city departments that are funded through the Enterprise Funds which includes the harbor, light and power, sanitation, wastewater, and water departments. There were two workshops over the past week, on May 19 and May 21. According to the meeting's agenda packet for May 19, there were several things for the assembly to keep in mind when looking...
Though it lacked the in-person fanfare of a typical graduation, the Wrangell High School Class of 2020 officially graduated last Friday evening, May 15. A small graduation ceremony was held on May 12, with seniors receiving their diplomas. A video stream was shown publicly on the 15th including slideshows of students, speeches from the faculty and student body. A parade through town was also organized after the video aired, where people could drive by the homes of the graduating students to...
Graduating students of Wrangell High School, school staff, and other community members came together via web conference last week for senior awards night. During the web conference, graduating seniors were informed of scholarships they had won. "I'm excited to see who wins the awards today, and I want to remind you guys that even if you haven't applied for any scholarships yet there's still millions of dollars out there," Interim Principal Jack Carney said. "So if you don't win anything tonight...
The Wrangell School Board met via web conference last Monday, May 18 and heard of several unethical and potentially illegal things happening in the district. Another person said the district had a hostile work environment. David Macri was one of the speakers that evening. Macri was the district's former secondary school principal, before his resignation and being put on administrative leave in March of this year. Macri spoke in the meeting to say that there were several problems in the school...
May signals the end of the school year for the Wrangell School District. For 25 students, this May signals the end of their high school careers. The COVID-19 pandemic has created several challenges and changes this year. Three students of the class of 2020 shared their opinions on this closing chapter of their lives. In general, all three students agree that the pandemic is a disappointing way to end high school, but they are understanding of the situation and grateful to the community for...
This has been a unique school year in Wrangell. With the COVID-19 pandemic, not only was the basketball season cut short, but districts across the state have closed their doors. The Wrangell School District is no different, having closed down the schools to protect staff and students from the virus. While the buildings are not in use currently, the district is still providing education remotely, through online classrooms. Not only that, but the district is working to make sure students are...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a special meeting Thursday, April 16, to consider their local contribution to the Wrangell School District's budget. According to the meeting's agenda packet, the city can provide the district anywhere between $583,830 and about $1.6 million. The district's current budget for FY 2021, which was adopted on March 19, has revenues set at about $5.68 million and expenditures at about $6.08 million. The school district was requesting the same contribution as the...
The Wrangell School Board met last Monday evening, April 20, via web conference. The first item on the agenda was a temporary suspension of the policy requiring that the school board hold in-person meetings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is safer to hold all meetings via phone or web conference. With this out of the way, the board got down to the business of accepting a contract for school psychology services. The contract is with SERRC, the Southeast Regional Resource Center. This contract...
With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, many events and traditions in the Wrangell community have been cancelled. The Wrangell School District has closed its doors for the remainder of the academic year, hosting classes virtually. While this rather unique school year is drawing to a close, school staff are working to make sure the graduating class has a memorable end to their high school careers. Jack Carney, interim principal for Wrangell's secondary schools, said that plans are in the works for a...
David Macri was brought on as the new principal of Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High School in August of 2018. One year and seven months later, however, he has resigned from the position. Teacher Jack Carney has taken over the role as interim principal for the remainder of the school year. "Effective immediately, Jack Carney will be the principal for Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High School," Superintendent Debbe Lancaster wrote in an email on March 25. "This arrangement will end on...
Due to the spread of COVID-19 through Alaska, many people and organizations have had to suddenly alter their schedules and day-to-day operations. The Wrangell School District, for example, is looking at an extended closure right at the tail end of the school year. All schools in Alaska are to remain closed until May 1, according to an announcement by Governor Mike Dunleavy, to help mitigate the spread of the virus. This is especially important in Wrangell, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster wrote...
With the ongoing spread of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, many communities across the nation are doing their best to be prepared. This is also true in Alaska. There are only a few confirmed cases of the virus in Anchorage and Fairbanks as of March 17. All across the state, however, communities are taking precautionary measures to keep the virus from spreading further. In Wrangell, many events and facilities have been postponed for the sake of caution. "As a preventative measure to...
The Wrangell School board held a somewhat unique meeting Monday evening, March 16. Due to concerns about the coronavirus, though there have been no confirmed cases in Southeast Alaska as of this date, the board limited attendance to the meeting to a maximum of 10 people. Others interested in attending could sit in nearby rooms and watch the proceedings via livestream. Other than the limitation on how many people could be in the room, the meeting went on much like any other. During this meeting,...
With one loss, two wins, and one forfeit, the Wrangell Lady Wolves ended their season at Regionals this past week. The Lady Wolves went into Regionals with a second place seed, after a strong performance all season. Coach Laurie Brown said she was proud of how her team did in Regionals, and all year long. The team went up against third-place seed Petersburg first. It was a tough game, Brown said, losing badly to the Lady Vikings. While they did not win, she said that it was a good wake up call...