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High winds, deep snow, below-zero temperatures, frozen pipes, canceled flights and ice-covered everything - it was not a merry Christmas or a happy new year for many Alaskans. Ketchikan endured its coldest-ever Christmas, and the next day, too, shivering to a low of zero degrees on both days, breaking a 57-year-old record for Christmas Day. It was cold enough to freeze saltwater in shoreline areas of Bar Harbor, City Float, Mud Bight and Ward Cove. The 350 residents of Hydaburg, on the...
Anchorage public schools opened the new year with face mask requirements still in place, after the school board reversed a decision by the superintendent that would have made masks optional. Schools Superintendent Deena Bishop decided in mid-December to drop the masking requirement for when students and staff returned to class on Monday, but the Anchorage School Board on Dec. 20 voted 5-1 to reverse the decision. Face masks will be required in the state’s largest school district until at least Jan. 15, when the board will review the policy. B...
There were about 1,000 stories in the Wrangell Sentinel last year, covering state and local budgets, the ailing state ferry system, ongoing pandemic and more — including a new owner for the Sentinel. On Jan. 1, Larry Persily bought the newspaper — for the third time over the past 45 years — with a promise to return the operation to Wrangell, expand the paper and its staff, and focus on more local news. “We plan to add more news from around Southeast and the state, but not at the expense of crowding out news of Wrangell. It’s not one or the ot...
Bob Davis, assistant principal of Wrangell’s high school and middle school, has submitted his resignation and plans to retire at the end of the school year. The resignation was on the agenda for Monday’s school board meeting and will take effect next June. “When I took this job, I made it clear that I had a maximum expiration date of three years,” Davis said. “This is my second. From the time I signed my contract this last spring, I’ve made it clear that this would be my last year.” Davis has been a teacher at the middle school since 1994. He b...
The school district is hiring for a full-time paraprofessional position, which is a change from what it was able to offer a short time ago. Thanks to federal grant funds, the district was able to make the position full-time and offer benefits including state retirement, health insurance for the employee and dependents, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave. Paraprofessionals have been needed at all three Wrangell schools for some time, though the current open position will be based at the elementary school level. They work one-on-one or in...
PUPPIES FOR SALE Petersburg goldendoodles for sale! Great family dogs, highly social and easily trained, low shedding. Available Jan. 20. $1,200, with $200 deposit. Call or text Mandy if you’re interested in pictures, 907-957-6295. JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Accounting Clerk: A full-time, 12-month position with benefits working in the Business Office. Responsibilities include assisting the Business Manager with accounting functions such as a...
PUPPIES FOR SALE Petersburg goldendoodles for sale! Great family dogs, highly social and easily trained, low shedding. Available Jan. 20. $1,200, with $200 deposit. Call or text Mandy if you’re interested in pictures, 907-957-6295. JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Accounting Clerk: A full-time, 12-month position with benefits working in the Business Office. Responsibilities include assisting the Business Manager with accounting functions such as a...
I am not an economist, though I like learning and thinking about economic problems. Nor am I a statistician, human resources manager or director of hiring at a business. But I do think a lot about why so many employers in Wrangell, around the state and across the country are finding it so hard recruiting people to fill vacant jobs. As of October, while there were 7,300 fewer jobs in Alaska than a year ago, there were three times as many people unemployed, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics. Yet, it seems some days there are more...
JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Accounting Clerk: A full-time, 12-month position with benefits working in the Business Office. Responsibilities include assisting the Business Manager with accounting functions such as accounts payable, payroll, etc. This position will also include duties to be determined to assist the district and site administration. This position is paid on Column E of the classified salary schedule. Accounting experience is... Full story
Wrangell has set a pandemic record for the community for the number of COVID-19 cases in a month, reporting on Thursday its 50th and 51st infections in the first 18 days of November. The old record of 48 was set in August. Amid the surge in new cases in town, the borough assembly had called a special meeting for Thursday to consider an emergency ordinance requiring face masks to help limit further spread of the highly infectious disease. “Wrangell is experiencing unprecedented levels of positive COVID-19 cases,” the borough reported Monday eve... Full story
Wrangell Cooperative Association members are eligible for a second round of pandemic assistance grants for food and utility expenses, with applications due by Nov. 30. The assistance payments will be $1,000 per household for groceries and $1,000 for utilities, the same amount as the first round administered by WCA with funds from last year’s federal CARES Act. Tribal members must fill out a certification form “to verify the tribal household applying needs assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there have been no changes to household inf...
The borough assembly has denied the school district’s request for an exemption from Wrangell’s testing and isolation requirements for unvaccinated students who travel. In October, the district had requested students and staff traveling for extracurricular activities, such as sports, be exempt from the borough’s COVID-19 emergency ordinance testing and isolation requirements since it wouldn’t allow students and staff to attend events on back-to-back weekends. The assembly denied the request at its Nov. 9 meeting. “We believed, based on the la...
While Wrangell has counted 11 new COVID-19 infections in the past week, Petersburg was at 69 active cases as of late Monday, with a mandatory face mask order in place and public buildings closed. Almost 20% of COVID tests administered in Petersburg in the past seven days had come back positive, the borough reported on its website Monday. The active case count set a pandemic record for the community, going past the old record of 68 from March 3. Petersburg was hit with 85 cases from mid-February to the first week of March, its highest numbers...
Wrangell has work, but the workforce is lacking. Since the end of September, the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce has been posting its members’ job openings to help get companies staffed and people working. In the five weeks, three people have come in to fill out applications. Chamber Executive Director Brittani Robbins said despite efforts help get jobs filled, staffing shortages remain due to anything from lower starting wages to unqualified applicants. But Robbins believes businesses can take steps to make positions more attractive. “I thi...
With approval from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinations against COVID-19 for children ages 5 through 11 could be available in Wrangell next week. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week approved the vaccine for children, and the CDC late Tuesday also approved the shots. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which was waiting on that decision, will soon start opening appointments to administer Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, Maegan Bosak, a senior SEARHC official in Sitka, s...
Bob Russell recently returned to Alaska to continue his career pursuits in the technology arena. He started the next leg of his journey on July 2 as the school district's tech director, overseeing all computer equipment, internet connectivity, networking and learning devices. In short, if it's technology-related, Russell is in charge. Before coming to Wrangell, Russell and his wife, Kimberly, and Great Pyrenees dog, Yukon, lived in Tennessee. He had lived and worked in Fort Yukon some time...
The borough assembly on Tuesday discussed — but took no action — on Wrangell’s COVID-19 testing and isolation policy as it affects unvaccinated students who travel out of town for sports and activities. The school district had requested a waiver of the policy. The district currently allows unvaccinated students who travel for games or other activities to return to school and practice without isolating until their test results come back, so long as the students follow the school district’s weekly testing protocols and mitigation plan. The sch...
JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Business manager: A 12-month position with benefits paid on the exempt employee salary schedule. Responsibilities include oversight of the school budget using a uniform chart of accounts coding, maintaining financial records, conducting all banking, payroll, accounts payable, annual audit preparation and advising the superintendent in all matters that are financially relevant for the district. Degree in business...
The borough is moving forward with a much-needed elevator project at the high school. After researching options, it was determined that the entire elevator needs to be replaced rather than repaired. School district staff hopes that, if all goes smoothly, the project will be finished by the start of the 2022/2023 school year. Josh Blatchley, head of the school district maintenance department, said an oil leak was discovered at the bottom of the elevator's hydraulic ram in March of 2020. Any resea...
The school board on Monday night reviewed an updated COVID-19 mitigation plan which now allows student-athletes to go mask-free during training and while competing against other schools. Mask-wearing and social-distancing guidelines remain in place if athletes are sitting on the sidelines or not actively engaged in play. The updated policy does not change the requirement for face masks in classrooms and elsewhere in school buildings. “The mitigation plan … we are looking at it and making adjustments as we move forward as situations cha...
JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Business manager: A 12-month position with benefits paid on the exempt employee salary schedule. Responsibilities include oversight of the school budget using a uniform chart of accounts coding, maintaining financial records, conducting all banking, payroll, accounts payable, annual audit preparation and advising the superintendent in all matters that are financially relevant for the district. Degree in business...
Ann Hilburn began learning American Sign Language for an elective course in college, thinking it would benefit her aspirations of becoming a nurse. That class led her to change her career field entirely. "I had just fallen in love with sign language," she said. She's passing that love on to a dozen Wrangell High School students taking her class for their foreign language requirement. Hilburn is new to the district this year. It is a language unto itself, 17-year-old senior Caleb Garcia-Rangel...
There’s been an increase in rude, violent behavior in Anchorage schools, and the superintendent wants parents to help address it with their children. The bad behavior has included a fight at a high school that prompted a large police response, along with a TikTok challenge where students caused thousands of dollars in damage to school bathrooms, KTUU-TV reported. “Wrangell schools got off lightly” in September’s bout of TikTok-inspired vandalism, Bob Davis, assistant principal at the middle and high schools, said in a letter to parents last we...
Filling out an election ballot isn’t very hard. Ink in the ovals, being careful to stay within the lines, and then turn in the single-sided piece of stiff paper for counting. It’s not much to ask of residents once a year. Wrangell holds its municipal elections next Tuesday. And while several races are uncontested, three school board seats and a borough assembly seat will be decided by voters. This is a chance for residents to have a say in the direction of the borough and the school district, which combined spend more than $10 million a yea...
From building smokehouses and gardens to assisting with utility and food bills, the Wrangell Cooperative Association has been working to help its tribal citizens make it through the financial and emotional stress of the pandemic. "We took a hard look at what the WCA citizens were facing with the pandemic," said Esther Ashton, tribal administrator. That included financial needs and helping to build food self-sufficiency, she said. The eight-member elected tribal council last year considered how...
