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Social distancing and masking requirements will continue to stay in place at Wrangell public schools. At the school board meeting on Monday night, Superintendent Bill Burr updated board members on a change in some language in the district’s COVID-19 mitigation plan, but students and staff will still be required to wear masks and stay apart. The board in August agreed to review the mitigation plan and masking requirement monthly. “There were a few additions we had to [the mitigation plan],” Burr said Monday, which will ease the testing requi...
Despite intermittent downpours, the Wrangell High School boys' and girls' cross country teams took on several other runners in the first in-person meet of the season last Saturday. Forty-six girls and 69 boys from around Southeast competed in the soggy conditions, with Wrangell boys placing third as a team against 11 others, and the girls' team placing fifth out of nine in the 5-kilometer event. "The boys stuck together like we have been in practice, and they listened to me as I told them to...
Wrangell school enrollment numbers are a lot better than a year ago. As of last week, 262 students were enrolled in the elementary, middle and high schools. That’s far ahead of the enrollment low of the pandemic in fall 2020, when the student count dipped below 200. Enrollment was sitting at 206 the month before the school year ended in May. Though the district is not back up to its pre-pandemic tally of 306 in fall 2019, this year’s enrollment is “excellent,” said Schools Superintendent Bill Burr. Much of the loss of students last year wa...
The state is talking with the borough about restoring the Alaska Office of Children’s Services staff position in Wrangell, working through the details after the Legislature added funding for the job in this year’s budget. Legislators appropriated enough money to cover half the salary, with the borough agreeing to cover the other half and provide free office space. “The Office of Children’s Services is currently working with the Wrangell Borough to try to solidify details of the position,” Clinton Bennett, spokesman for the Department of Health...
Almost 12,000 COVID-19 cases were reported around the state in August, the most since last fall, with some schools starting to close to in-person learning in only the first week or two of classes. Alaska set a record for hospitalizations on Tuesday, with 152 COVID patients under care. Wrangell also had a record COVID month, with 48 new infections reported in the community, more than one-third of all cases since the pandemic tally started in March 2020. The community is trying to stem the surge....
Sept. 1, 1921 The Zillah May sank off Strait Island on the evening of March 31. It was towed into port Monday night and is lying in the harbor, awaiting further attention from the local men who undertook to raise her. It will not be decided definitely what will be done with her until an examination reveals just what shape she is in. The men who were instrumental in raising her were Chas. Benjamin, Heinie Heinbockel and Charlie Lynch. They had been at work at the scene of the wreck for several weeks and had a diver from Juneau assisting them at...
Amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in town, Wrangell schools opened for classes on Monday with several measures in place to help protect students, staff and the community from further spread of the virus. Those measures include face masks, sanitation cleaning, improved ventilation, distancing between students whenever possible, and policies for students and staff who travel out of town. “It had been our hope that we would have been able to start the year with less restrictions, but the current COVID-19 variants (Delta especially, which i...
Ann Hilburn and her husband had driven from Mississippi to Bellingham, Washington, to catch the ferry for her new job at Wrangell Public Schools. They made the 2,700-mile drive in four days. "It was long days," she said. "The day we pulled off the ferry with our U-Haul and our pickup truck," the schools superintendent, principal and special education coordinator had planned to meet the couple at the terminal. But the ferry was early, and the welcoming committee missed the rendezvous. "They had c...
Classes started this week at Wrangell Public Schools, but there’s still time — and still a need — for people to apply for work as an education aide, and also for adult volunteers to help with a wide range of activities at all three schools. Volunteers could help during the lunch hour, with tutoring or providing one-on-one help with students who need additional assistance at the middle and high schools. It could be an hour a day, or a few hours one day a week, whatever time someone might have available, said Bob Davis, assistant principal at th...
After starting July at 56%, then moving to 58% on Aug. 1, the rate of eligible Alaskans getting at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has now climbed to 60%. Though the rate is improving, Alaska is still far behind the national average of 71%, as reported Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alaska is two-thirds of the way down from the top in rankings of the 50 states. Just like the state’s rising tally, Wrangell’s rate of eligible residents with at least their first shot has climbed from 61% to 64% in the pas...
Forget politics, rumors, social media, accusations from all sides and everything else that has turned the vaccination debate into a circus — but without the fun, excitement and cotton candy. Too many Alaskans are getting sick (about 5,800 cases the past two weeks), too many are ending up in the hospital (121 in beds as of Tuesday), and too many are dying (419 since the start of the pandemic count, as of Tuesday). Though about two-thirds of the deaths have been recorded in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Southeast Alaska c...
The Haines Borough had its largest population decline in history and the largest of any Alaska borough or census area over the past decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Haines’ population fell by 17.1% — from 2,508 in 2010 to 2,080 in 2020 — with much of the decline outside of the townsite that used to be considered the city of Haines. But the census numbers don’t align with the state Labor Department 2020 borough population estimate of 2,520, which was calculated using 2010 census data and Permanent Fund dividend application numbers...
The school board has decided to continue with its COVID-19 mitigation plan that requires students, staff and visitors to wear face masks in the buildings, though the policy will be reviewed again two weeks after classes begin. The plan approved at the board meeting Monday evening calls for review of the masking protocols on a monthly basis. Classes start Aug. 31. The next school board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 13. "Masks will be required for students, staff and guests while in school or at school events," the plan now reads. "During...
Aug. 25, 1921 The Wrangell Pulp and Paper Co., composed of local people with eastern connections, is busy with plans for the establishment of a pulp and paper mill in the Wrangell District. This company has made application to the Federal Power Commission for a preliminary permit for power development on certain unnamed streams and lakes discharging into the head of McHenry Inlet on Etolin Island. The Wrangell Pulp and Paper Co. has had reports made on the multiple water power sites by Donald G Campbell of the well known engineering firm of...
As the new school year gets closer, the Wrangell School District is looking for community volunteers to serve on several committees to help inform and guide school leadership. The district is seeking applicants for seven committees: Budget/finance, calendar, curriculum, career and technical education, facilities, policy and technology. “Ideally, we’d have five to seven members at a minimum, on each,” said Kim Powell, district administrative assistant. “It’s open, and anyone who is interested is encouraged to serve.” The committees can include...
The Wrangell School District plans to start classes Aug. 30 with face masks required when staff and students are indoors — same as last year. The district is working under its COVID-19 mitigation plan, released in June, and will adapt it as needed, said Bill Burr, who took over as schools superintendent July 1. Burr said he has met with borough officials and the community’s health care provider, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, “to try to get a cohesive plan all together.” Advance planning for how to respond as COVID case co...
Registration for the new school year will open online Wednesday. In-person registration will be offered 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 17 at the high school gym. Classes start Aug. 30. Teachers start back at work Aug. 25. Families registering their kids for school should not expect any big changes from last year, said Megan Powell, high school secretary. “It’s the same as last year, other than last year we didn’t do an in-person (registration) due to COVID,” she said. “It should be really easy for parents. I did it last year for my daughter and it wa...
Wrangell’s new schools superintendent wants to provide students as many choices as possible for learning, though he acknowledges it’s hard for the small district to provide in-person teaching for every subject students may want. Over time, that may mean more online classes, led by instructors outside Wrangell, said Bill Burr, who took over as schools superintendent on July 1, moving to Wrangell from the Delta/Greely School District in the Interior. Burr sees the potential for additional class subjects as a positive. “We want to give our student...
Practice starts next week for the Wrangell High School swim team, which had its season cut short last year by pandemic restrictions. After a month of five-day-a-week practice, the team’s first swim meet is tentatively planned for the first weekend of September, in Ketchikan. And although the team has put 13 or 14 swimmers into the pool in past years, “this year I might have only eight swimmers,” said coach Jamie Roberts. Fewer students this coming school year is part of the reason, Roberts said. In addition, some swimmers also compete in cross...
Even while Bill Burr, Wrangell's new schools superintendent, is still unpacking, he already is looking toward challenges the district will face in the coming school year. One area of improvement he is optimistic about is bringing enrollment numbers back to previous levels. Last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment in Wrangell schools dropped to about 200 from their typical number around 300 - the largest percentage decrease in any school district in Alaska. Many families chose to...
Legislative efforts to restore an Office of Children’s Services caseworker in Wrangell and fund a commercial fisheries staffer in town survived the governor’s budget vetoes. Wrangell lost its Department of Fish and Game position last year due to the governor’s budget cuts, and has been without a children’s services caseworker for several years. The borough and school district both had spoken in support of restoring the caseworker job in town, with the borough offering to provide free rent and help with the salary to entice state funding. Though...
Wrangell businesses did better than those in Skagway but worse than their counterparts in the larger and more diversified economies of Juneau and Sitka during the economic shutdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an online survey of business owners and managers throughout the region. “On average, reporting businesses in the region lost 42% of their revenue due to COVID-19, while Wrangell businesses were down 48% overall,” the third highest for any community in the area, said the report issued by the Southeast Conference, com...
For the third year in a row, the borough will provide $1.3 million in funding for Wrangell schools, the largest spending category in the municipal budget. About $700,000 of the local contribution to next year’s school district budget will come from Wrangell’s general fund revenues of sales and property taxes, with about $600,000 in federal financial assistance directed to Wrangell under a U.S. Forest Service nationwide program of payments to rural communities. The borough assembly approved the $1.3 million appropriation without opposition May...
The Wrangell teachers union and school board have agreed on a new three-year contract that starts this summer and includes a 1% raise each year and higher out-of-pocket deductibles for teachers enrolled in the district’s insurance plan. The contract also includes an optional insurance plan with even higher deductibles that would reduce the share of premiums paid by the Wrangell Teachers’ Association. Employers have been increasingly switching in recent years to high-deductible plans in an effort to stem the rising cost of health insurance. The...
Wrangell High School graduating class wanted to do something different this year and the students were looking forward to staging the ceremonies on the city dock. But an unkind weather forecast pushed them back into the community gym, where graduation is set for 7 p.m. Friday. “The weather forecast was not so favorable,” Megan Powell, adviser to the class of 2021, said Monday. Though attendance will be restricted only to graduates and limited guests per student, the event will be livestreamed on the school district YouTube channel. The 7 p.m...