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December 5, 1918 British Day, December 7, will be properly celebrated in Wrangell on Saturday evening by entertainment and a dance. On Wednesday evening of last week Mayor Matheson called a special meeting on the town council to consider the matter of a local observance of British day. The council were in favor of the day being observed in Wrangell, and did not believe that its celebration would be inconsistent with the public health. There will be three patriotic songs by a young ladies’ quartet. There will be several other numbers by pupils o...
The Wrangell school board met last Thursday, Nov. 15 to discuss various policy updates and to hear reports from various board members and staff about a school health and wellbeing summit in Anchorage, which was held this past September. The conference covered the topics of health, safety, and wellness in Alaskan schools, and brought together educators, board members, and policy makers from across the state. Some of the attendees took the opportunity to share some of their thoughts on what was covered in the conference. Josh Blatchley,...
Students at Evergreen Elementary School have spent the past few days making Christmas ornaments. Some students drew pictures of Alaskan wildlife, others made miniature wreaths, and another class made poinsettias. All these ornaments are not only fun projects for students to work on. They will be travelling up to Juneau in the coming weeks to hang on the governor's Christmas tree. Tory Houser, with the Forest Service, said that the Wrangell district of the Tongass National Forest has also been...
According to a press release from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), new designations and grades have been given to schools across the state. This is meant to provide information to parents about the quality of their schools, and to help school officials know where they are succeeding and where there is room for improvement. This new rating system is a part of the ESSA, or Every Student Succeeds Act, which was passed in December 2015. “There are three types of school designations: Comprehensive Support and I...
Trevor Shaw moved to Alaska with his parents in 2001. He said that his father had always wanted to live in Alaska, and when his mother found a nursing job with the hospital in Ketchikan, they made a move. He integrated into life in Southeast Alaska quickly, and graduated from high school in 2014. While still a senior in high school, he was elected to the Ketchikan school board. He served there for five years, he said, with two terms as the school board president. He has also served on the...
October 31, 1918 The Common Council shall appoint a health officer, who will hold office during the pleasure of the Common Council. The health officer may, whenever he deems it necessary, examine all persons entering the Town of Wrangell, from any place when said officer has reason to believe there are any cases of cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, or other contagious or infectious diseases. The health officer shall make it his duty to investigate all cases where it is alleged that cases of communicable, infections, or contagious diseases are sa...
Beyond giving students as good an education as possible, one of the highest priorities for many schools is safety. This is especially true at the Wrangell Public School District, where a new crisis strategy is being prepared for implementation. According to Superintendent Debbe Lancaster, preparing students and teachers for an emergency is the best way to keep everyone safe. "The committee has gone over the crisis plan that's in place and made some changes," she said. The school district's...
BRAVE, the Wrangell organization advocating for stronger community relationships, will be hosting a Family Resilience Fair on Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Nolan Center. According to volunteer Maleah Wenzel, the fair is meant to provide Wrangell families with information about what resources are available to them. She added that the event was originally going to be held at the high school commons, but it has outgrown the space and was moved to the Nolan Center. “Basically the purpose of this is to make sure people in town know what resources t...
The Wrangell school board met Monday evening. The board recently began a new program where “pages” from different classrooms would attend the board meetings to lead everyone in the pledge of allegiance, and a reading of the district’s mission and vision. This was the first evening of this program, and the pages were fifth-graders Reese Corn, Andrew Guggenbickler, Ben Houser, and Shailyn Nelson. The school board took time to recognize Tammy Groshong for six years of service on the board. Groshong is not seeking reelection this year, and Monday’s...
With the October election just around the corner, there are many residents of Wrangell seeking office. One of the most hotly contested races this year is for two open positions on the Wrangell school board. Eight members of the community are running for a seat on the school board, each with their own reasons to run. They are Aleisha Mollen, Aaron Angerman, Annya Ritchie, Brian Ashton, David Powell, Jennifer Bates, Karey Losinski, and Leeann Wiggins-Martin. Aleisha Mollen is an incumbent...
September 12, 1918 School opened Monday with a total enrollment of 73 pupils. Only two of the teachers engaged for the year were on hand to begin work, Miss Armstrong being ill with quinsy, and Miss Allender having missed boat connections. Miss Armstrong has recovered so far as to be able to take up her work this morning. During her absence, Mrs. J. W. Pritchett took charge of the intermediate grades. A plan is being worked out by which the work in the school will be more equally divided than heretofore. The high school program will be...
James P Haley, 60, of Wrangell, Alaska, passed away on Sept. 1, 2018 at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. He was born on July 22, 1958 in Pasadena, California, to the late Bernard and Marie Haley. Jim graduated from Verdugo Hills High School, located in the Tujunga community of Los Angeles, in 1977. He was a self-employed contractor, but he came to Wrangell to visit his brother Jerry, and fell in love with Alaska. He worked at the Wrangell Saw Mill until it closed in 1992 and recently retired...
The sounds of finding classrooms, opening lockers, and seeing friends filled the middle school and high school in Wrangell last Thursday morning. Another school year has started and both students and teachers were excited. David Macri, recently brought on as the new principal of the middle and high school, took the opportunity to introduce himself in a student assembly. He also took some time to lay out a few of his expectations of the student body for the year. Macri told the students that he...
August 29, 1918 School will open September ninth, a week later than usual this year owing to the repairs that are being made to the interior of the school building. These repairs were very necessary from a sanitary standpoint and will improve the arrangement greatly besides eliminating considerable wasted space. Besides the alterations, two rooms have been painted and new blackboards will be installed throughout the school. August 27, 1943 The Coast Guard’s widely heralded 35-piece band will play a concert in the ANB hall here on September 7...
Legal representation for the Wrangell school district was discussed in Monday night’s school board meeting. With the new school year beginning August 23, the board had several policy items to discuss. Among them was the potential hiring the law firm Sedor, Wendlandt, Evans, and Filippi for legal representation. The contract presented to the school, according to board member Aleisha Mollen, was fairly standard. Board member Dave Wilson, however, said that there was some wording in the contract he was concerned about. The portion of the c...
As summer draws to a close, Wrangell's schools prpare for another year of education. Families across the island are also preparing for the year by purchasing school supplies, getting new clothes, and registering their kids for school. Wrangell High School was open last Thursday for families to get their kids registered for the new school year. Representatives of Evergreen Elementary, Wrangell Middle School, and Wrangell High School were present to help people get through the registration...
The Wrangell School Board met last Friday for a short meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to accept the resignation of school board president Georgianna Buhler. Buhler has been on the school board for almost 10 years, she said, from 2002 to 2010, and again from 2016 to 2018. She decided to resign her position so she could pursue a new position as the school district’s business manager. “There are a number of things that are going on, I did not take this lightly,” Buhler said. “But at the end of the day I have a responsibility to be a finan...
Registration for Evergreen Elementary, Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High School will be held Thurs., Aug. 16, 10:30 am - 1:30 pm and 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm. at Wrangell High School Gym/Commons. New students will need to come in to complete a paper registration packet. Returning students can complete registration online via Powerschool which will be available Mon., Aug. 13. Contact the following to reset a Powerschool login or to schedule a different time for registration: WHS - 874-3395; SMS - 874-3393; EES - 8741-2321. Credit cards can be...
In his 32nd year of teaching, David Macri has a lot of experience behind him. He said that he has worked as an industrial arts teacher, a 5th-12th grade principal, a school business manager, and district business manager. He also said he has worked as a superintendent for schools in the Middle East and Asia. Before coming to Wrangell, he worked for two years in Tuluksak as a principal. Macri said that part of the reason he came to work as the principal of the middle school and high school in...
July 8, 1918 D.Y. Yelf who has been Canadian Customs Collector at the Boundary for the past two months was a southbound passenger on the Spokane Monday. Mr. Yelf was succeeded by C. A. Tervo, who will be remembered by Wrangell people as having held the same position at the Boundary a number of years ago. Mr. Tervo was accompanied by his son, Albert, when he went through Wrangell on his way up the river. July 2, 1943 Old phonograph records are being sought for use of the armed forces. The American Legion Post has taken charge of the roundup...
After 30 years on the bench, Wrangell's district magistrate will conclude her legal career today. Chris Ellis has served as a magistrate judge for First District Court in Wrangell for 14 of those years, with most of her preceding tenure spent in Craig. When she graduated with her bachelor's degree in 1973, law hadn't been on her mind, but Alaska was. "Basically I studied anthropology with a specialty in archaeology, and my goal was to come to Alaska," she said. Ellis found herself drawn to the V...
Legislative session has ended, and now that I’m back in the district, I’d like to give you a brief overview of this year’s legislative actions that will impact Wrangell. As your state representative, I sponsored and passed three bills – “Commercial Fishing Loans,” “Mari-culture Revolving Loan Fund,” and “Dive Fishery Assessments” – that will support and enhance our fishing and mari-culture industries. HB 128, “Shellfish Enhancement Projects” was a fourth mari-culture industry related bill. It passed the House 37-2 and made it through Senate Fi...
With the legislative season at an end and no special sessions left in sight, candidates for Alaska’s primaries and general elections have already put themselves forward for voters’ consideration. By the end of the June 1 filing deadline, House District 36 – an area of representation encompassing Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, Saxman and other outlying communities – had three candidates for voters to choose between in the coming election. Two of them will be running unopposed in their prospective primaries against the incumbent, the politic...
Next week the Wrangell Assembly is scheduled to parse over its line items and budget figures for the coming fiscal year. Bound drafts were handed out to members at their Tuesday evening meeting, to digest before a pair of sessions set for May 1 and 2. As it stands now, the biggest change to come from the upcoming budget effective July 1 will be consolidation of maintenance and facilities services under a new capital facilities department. Separated from Public Works, the new department would also manage major projects and grant implementation....
Wrangell Public School District learned last week its secondary school principal, Bill Schwan, will be departing after the current academic year ends. His departure is the latest among the district’s top administrators. At Evergreen Elementary, school principal Gail Taylor tendered notice in January. She took off for Oklahoma earlier than expected, departing this week on Tuesday. Faculty member Therese Pempek will helm the school through the year’s end. After a search for Taylor’s replacement, the district announced it will be hiring Virgi...