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It was a short meeting for the Wrangell School Board last Monday evening, only about 10 minutes. There was a single item on their agenda that evening: A proposal from the Association of Alaska School Boards to conduct Wrangell School District's search for a new superintendent, for the amount of $10,500. This was discussed in a previous school board meeting, on Nov. 16, but the board decided to defer action until Nov. 30. This was partially because board members wanted more time to consider the...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday night, Nov. 16, for a regularly scheduled meeting. During the meeting, the board approved expenses to the City and Borough of Wrangell for new doors for Evergreen Elementary School. According to attachments to the meeting's agenda, the new doors and hardware procurement will cost $32,250. Additionally, there is another $10,125 for key scanning software. This money will come from an NRA School Shield grant, according to Board Member David Wilson. The motion...
The Wrangell School Board held a workshop Monday evening, Nov. 16, with Alaska Public Entity Insurance. APEI is the nonprofit administrator of a joint insurance arrangement between a pool of Alaskan entities that self-insure each other. They provide property, liability, and other forms of coverage for 38 school districts and charter school members, as well as 33 municipalities and other related organizations. The City and Borough of Wrangell also receives coverage from APEI. The workshop was...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday night for a special work session and meeting regarding the district's FY 2020 financial audit. According to the audit, the school district has approximately $3.57 million in total assets across different funds: $2.07 million in assets in its general fund, $1.07 million in its capital improvement projects fund, and $437,786 in other governmental funds. Meanwhile, there are approximately $1.65 million in total liabilities. An income statement of the district's...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday, Nov. 10. During this meeting, among other items, they held a discussion about the borough's CARES Act funding. They reviewed expenses so far, as well as possible future projects. Wrangell received a $3.85 million grant from the CARES Act, to help the city respond to the COVID-19 update, according to a memo from Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen. Between March and October of this year, $2.3 million has been spent on a variety of programs and payroll for...
Starting next Monday, Nov. 2, Evergreen Elementary school will be returning to a full-day schedule. After the district closed down late last school year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wrangell's schools have been following modified schedules and operating plans this year. Thanks to the situation in Wrangell being comparatively safe, and a recent staffing increase, Lead Teacher/Assistant Principal Jenn Miller-Yancey said Evergreen Elementary is ready to get back to their normal schedule....
A meeting between school officials and concerned community members was held in the WHS commons last Thursday evening, Oct. 22 about a then-recent announcement by the Alaska School Activities Association. The announcement, shared on the Wrangell Public Schools' Facebook page on Oct. 19, made it a requirement for high school athletes to wear face masks during competition. Previously, students were not expected to wear masks during activity. The only exception for this new announcement was for...
Representative Dan Ortiz visited Wrangell last week, going door-knocking and speaking with constituents as part of his re-election campaign. He is running again for House District 36, against Leslie Becker. District 36 covers several Southeast Alaskan communities, including Ketchikan, Metlakatla, and Wrangell. This campaign has been a good competition, he said, mentioning that Becker was ahead of him on fundraising. An Oct. 17 article in the Ketchikan Daily News reported that Becker was ahead...
Wrangell's school board met Monday evening, Oct. 12. Among other business they discussed during the meeting, they accepted a letter of resignation from Superintendent Debbe Lancaster. "There are several reasons for my resignation with one being that I would like to pursue a position in education in another district to be with my spouse," Lancaster wrote in her letter, dated Oct. 1. "I will work until the end of my contract and help the Wrangell Public School Board and staff transition another...
The Wrangell School Board held their first meeting since last week's election on Monday, Oct. 12. This was the first meeting for Laura Ballou, recently elected to the school board. The first order of business was to nominate new officers for the board. Other appointments were also made. School Board President Aaron Angerman was nominated back to his position as president. This was unanimously approved by the board. Patty Gilbert was named school board vice-president, and David Wilson was named...
The Wrangell School Board was going to hold a workshop last Monday evening, Oct. 5, for budget training. However, it was rescheduled on short notice. There were three main items on the workshop’s agenda: Where to find the district’s Chart of Accounts, how to read the Chart of Accounts, and examples using the district’s financial reports. These items were to be followed up with a Q&A session, and suggestions for future training. The meeting was originally set to begin at 7 p.m. on Oct. 5. The W...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday night to hold a public hearing on a Community Development Block Grant. In 2018, according to the meeting's agenda packet, the borough received a block grant for the purchase of a new fire truck. The grant was for $337,500, with the total estimated cost of the fire truck at $450,000. Per the requirements of the grant, two public hearings were held about the grant, one for the public to suggest projects and another to serve as a status report on the grant...
Election Day is just around the corner, on Oct. 6. Wrangell residents have the opportunity to voice their support for several candidates, seeking various leadership positions across the borough. Mayor, one two-year term Stephen Prysunka is seeking re-election to the position of mayor for a two-year term. He has served as Wrangell's mayor since 2018. He is seeking re-election because Wrangell is going through some hard times, he said, and it would be important to keep people with experience...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday, Sept. 21. Two major topics of discussion during this meeting were the high school swim team, and whether or not students could travel for activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several people spoke at the meeting, calling for the school district to fully fund the swim team, to add the coach's position to the schedule of extracurricular activities, as well as to remove the schedule of extracurricular activities from the negotiated agreement process. Jamie...
The Wrangell School Board held a special meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 9, to continue their discussion of a formal reprimand and improvement plan for the superintendent. Late last August, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster and several district staff members went on a trip to Juneau to purchase supplies to prepare the district for the upcoming school year. This was in violation of a district travel ban during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as done without board approval. The planned use of CARES Act...
Wrangell Public School District has opened its new year with in-person classes. The final decision between in-person and online classes was made the Thursday before the first day of school, on Sept. 3. In a school board meeting on Aug. 31, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said Sept. 3 was the soft deadline for a final decision, upon consideration of the district's enrollment numbers and staffing needs. "Taking into account our current staffing model, student enrollment numbers, and mitigation...
During the Wrangell Borough Assembly on Tuesday evening, Sept. 8 they discussed a community risk assessment of Wrangell for COVID-19. This risk assessment was created by Wrangell's Emergency Operations Center, to help determine how at-risk the community might be to the pandemic. The assessment takes into account information like the 7-day and 14-day average case count in Wrangell, the amount of community spread of COVID-19, the average number of close contacts per case, and the number of large...
The Wrangell School Board held a special meeting Monday evening, Aug. 31, to review updated SMART Start plans for the upcoming school year. With the first day of school scheduled for Sept. 8, and the district planning for in-person classes, the SMART start plans are meant to act as a guide for how schools will respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the "medium risk" level the schools will open with, staff and students will be required to wear face masks, non-instructional gathering of more...
Prior to their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 25, the Wrangell Borough Assembly held a workshop to go over several Capital Improvement Projects planned for FY 2021. The city has multiple projects lined up for the near future, across several departments. Last week’s workshop was to review these projects, and their estimated costs. “You approved a handful of items that were already in play, or had critical timelines in the operating budget, and those were attached in the agenda packet,” said Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen. “What is before you tonight...
After deliberation by school administration, the Wrangell School District will be opening the new year with in-person classes. In an announcement by Superintendent Debbe Lancaster, on Aug. 24, all three schools will be operating at the "medium risk" level of their SMART Start plan. The decision comes after consulting with local and state officials on this decision, she said. "Please keep in mind that we will strictly adhere to our mitigation plan, our district has mandated masks on all district...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, Aug. 25. During this meeting, they reviewed an FY 2019 audit of the borough. This item was postponed from their meeting on Aug. 11, to wait for a representative from the auditing firm to be available to answer questions. According to the agenda packet, the fund balance for the city's governmental funds sits at $53.65 million, and approximately $54.31 million in the enterprise funds. Of these, unrestricted funds sit at about $9.16 million and $5....
The Wrangell School Board held a special meeting Monday, Aug. 24, to discuss recent travel and purchases made by the superintendent and school staff. Last week, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster and three other members of the school district traveled to Juneau for a shopping trip. This was to acquire some key items related to reopening the schools and COVID-19 mitigation, she said. There were several reasons this was a topic of discussion for the board, among them being a lack of communication...
For several years, the Wrangell School District has had its transportation needs met by the Etolin Bus Company. However, earlier this year company owner Greg McCormack announced his plans to retire. He sold his bus company to John Taylor, who took over the bus company and plans to keep it running. Now under the name Taylor Transportation, the company is preparing to serve the school district in its upcoming school year. "We bought it the day before COVID," John said, further clarifying that the...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday evening, Aug. 17. During the meeting, the board adopted a mandate requiring face masks be worn on district property. According to the mandate, masks must be worn while indoors, before entering buildings, before entering or leaving enclosed personal work areas, when walking to or from one's vehicle, or in other cases when social distancing of 6 feet cannot be maintained. There are some exceptions to the mandate. Masks will not be necessary, when social...
August 19, 1920 Ted Sterling, the popular purser on the Hazel B, says that in all the time he has been on the Stikine River, he has never seen game so plentiful as at the present time. It is customary to see three or four bears on each trip up and down the river, but on the trip down last Tuesday 14 bears were sighted along the river bank within a few hours travel. August 17, 1945 As soon as peace was announced on Tuesday thanksgiving services were held at the local Catholic church, the Rev. M. Hoch, officiating. The Rosary and other devotions...