Sorted by date Results 501 - 525 of 792
While the role of superintendent is always busy, it has been especially so for Debbe Lancaster this past week. Lancaster, superintendent of the Wrangell Public School District, recently attended the Alaska Superintendents Association conference in Fairbanks, from Sept. 25 to 28. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development also recently released a new website, "The Compass," that lets people more easily compare schools across the state. The ASA Conference was an opportunity for...
The City and Borough Assembly: Three Year Tearm Julie Decker is seeking re-election to the Wrangell Borough Assembly for a three-year term. There are several reasons she wants to sit for another term on the assembly. The current borough assembly has been making some good decisions on behalf of the city, she said, and she would like to see that continue. As a member of the assembly, she said that she has tried to stay informed and lead in a way that benefits the city as a whole. She added that...
The Wrangell School Board met early Monday evening, Sept. 23, to hold a work session on the results of the recent PEAKS tests. The Performance Evaluation for Alaska's Schools is an annual test that, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, is designed to measure a student's understanding of the English language and mathematics. Students are given the PEAKS test from the third to ninth grade. The tests were administered this spring, and according to Superintendent...
September 18, 1919 Improvements which will be of valuable aid to navigation on the Stikine are soon to begin, according to G.B Hull, district engineer, Department of Public Works, who arrived from Prince Rupert a few days ago. Mr. Hull recently made a shipment of dynamite from Rupert to Wrangell, the explosives to be used in clearing the river channel. Glenora riffles will receive special attention. September 15, 1944 A total of 182 pupils have been enrolled in the Wrangell school so far this year, according to Superintendent George Fabriclus,...
Local organization BRAVE (Building Respect and Valuing Everyone) will be hosting their annual Family Resilience Fair at the end of the month, on Sept. 28 from noon to 2 p.m. Last year's fair brought together about 20 different organizations that offered a variety of support and resources for Wrangell families, according to a 2018 article in the Wrangell Sentinel. The main goal of BRAVE, said organizer Kay Larson, is to bring people together in an effort to support one another and strengthen the...
With the new school year comes a wide variety of new opportunities: To make new friends, to get better grades, to try a new sport, the list goes on. The Wrangell School District is helping provide some of these opportunities by providing new classes this year. At the high school level, students can get a jumpstart on their college careers with AP physics. Meanwhile, in Stikine Middle School, "Encore" classes are being provided to let kids explore different avenues of education. According to...
Several new hires and resignations in the school district were a big topic of discussion in the Wrangell School Board's last meeting on Monday, Aug. 19. One such hire was Tawney Crowley, who will start this year as both the new high school art teacher and middle school home economics teacher. The school board approved this hire unanimously, with minimal discussion. Crowley has spent the past year working at the Wrangell Sentinel, and also runs a side business making custom artwork that can be...
August 21, 1919 Major Jack Hamilton, “soldier of fortune” and veteran of the late war, who has been travelling through Alaska for the past ten weeks on a lecture tour, arrived here from Petersburg last evening accompanied by Madame Hamilton. He will lecture in Wrangell tomorrow night. Since coming to Alaska Major Hamilton has received considerable publicity through the press of the Territory, and there is probably not a person in Wrangell who is not already familiar with the story of his life and adventure. “Major Hamilton touched on other...
The Wrangell School District's budget/finance committee held a brief meeting last Wednesday, Aug. 7. One of the topics covered related to infrastructure and capital improvements. Capital improvement projects, or CIP, have been an ongoing discussion for the school district as of late. CIPs generally involve improving or renovating existing infrastructure. The Wrangell School District, with their budget season recently coming to a close, has sought city support for various projects. Back in June,...
July 31, 1919 Those who have had large caches of liquor which they are selling at enormous profits have no just claim for mercy. They are not in the same position as those saloon men who had on hand, when they were out of business, wet goods the possession of which was originally lawful. The latter bought their goods to sell according to the law and they would have gladly sold it before the clock marked the ending of legal liquor traffic in Alaska. There is a spirit of fair play that tells us that these men should have had an opportunity to...
In a special meeting on July 11, the Wrangell School Board adopted various amendments to their FY 2019 budget as well as the recently adopted FY 2020 budget. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said that the 2019 budget needed to be revised to show the actuals for the end of the year, what money was actually made and what was actually spent. Budgets go through various revisions through the school year, she said, and is more or less a constant process of revision to stay as accurate as possible. “It’s a real dynamic process through the year, unt...
After the retirement of Bob Dalrymple earlier this year, Wrangell has been searching for a new ranger for their Forest Service district. As of last Sunday, that search has come to an end. Clint Kolarich, the new ranger, comes to Wrangell with an extensive background with the Forest Service. "I was in the YCC [Youth Conservation Corps] when I was a junior in high school, and from there I went into seasonal firefighting," he said. "That was back in 1986. So I was off and on in seasonal...
The Wrangell School Board held a meeting last Monday evening, June 17, to review contracts for the next school year. The district holds various contracts with other entities to assist in the day-to-day management of the district, from transporting students to assisting in educating them. One contract is between the school district and the Etolin Bus Company. The company had a three-year contract to pick up and deliver Wrangell students to school and then back home at the end of the day, from...
In last week’s story on the borough assembly agreeing to a $1.3 million contribution to the Wrangell School District, it was reported that an amendment proposed by Assembly Member Patty Gilbert was dropped after discussion. Instead, the amendment was voted on and rejected....
There was a long and, at times, tense meeting over a single issue at city hall last Friday, May 31. The Wrangell Borough Assembly had called a special meeting to make a last-minute decision on how much money to give to the Wrangell School District this year. The assembly had planned to cover the item in their previous meeting on May 28, but opted to table the item to wait for extra financial information from the school. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours the assembly and several school...
Sixteen students from Laura Davies' fifth grade class came together at the Nolan Center last Tuesday evening, May 21, to read persuasive speeches they had spent the past month working on. Communication and learning how to formulate and defend opinions is an important part of her classroom, Davies said in a previous interview. Each of her students were tasked with creating a persuasive speech, on a topic of their choice, and give an in-class presentation. She also allowed the kids to volunteer to...
The local Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee (RAC), which covers the areas of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Kake, held a meeting last Saturday to discuss a variety of projects the Forest Service is considering in the near future. Among these projects is a Kaatslitaan culture camp. The idea for the culture camp was brought before the RAC by Wrangell resident and Alaska Native Virginia Oliver. The camp, she said, would be held in the summer where everybody could come together and learn sustainable harvesting practices, as well as native...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a long meeting last Tuesday evening, May 28. The meeting covered a wide variety of topics, from the city’s water management strategy to budget matters. First there was a workshop on the water management strategy. Wrangell and other communities faced a power crisis recently due to low water levels at Tyee and Swan Lake. Wrangell briefly went on a water watch in early March, as the reservoirs dropped to low levels. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that the majority of Southeast Alaska is currently facing d...
The Wrangell School Board met last Monday night, May 20, for one of their regularly scheduled meetings. One of the first items they covered was the final report of the school year from the student government. They heard updates about student activities, and what the kids have been up to their final few weeks of school before summer, or graduation, came around. The student government elected new leadership in their final meeting, held on May 7. Jing O'Brien was named president for the 2019-2020...
May 22, 1919 “The union fishermen of the Wrangell district have declared a boycott on all local fish buyers. Buyers from Seattle and Ketchikan are already on the grounds, and we will ship fish from here to Prince Rupert direct, if necessary,” said E. R. Sawyer, secretary of the Wrangell, Alaska Labor Union. “Prince Rupert buyers are paying 4c above price paid here for round fish. Fishermen have land donated to them at Ward’s Cove where they will build a cooperative cold storage and mild curing plant, and will have their market in the Middle...
Members of the Wrangell School District and the borough assembly came together for a joint workshop on the school district’s recently adopted budget. As Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said in the past, and repeated in Monday evening’s meeting, this was a “no fat” budget that was operating very close to the district’s bare minimum. The FY 2020 budget is assuming $6.34 million in revenue, and almost the same in expenses. In comparison, this is a decrease from the FY 2019 budget which had expenses set at roughly $6.61 million, but still higher th...
From building flower pots to repairing walls, a group of AmeriCorps volunteers will be spending six weeks volunteering in Wrangell. "Green 3," as the team is called, came to Wrangell at the request of the U.S. Forest Service to help with a wide variety of community service projects in the area. They arrived on April 24, according to a press release from the National Civilian Community Corps, and will be working in the area until June 3. "The team overall is excited to be in Wrangell for the firs...
Lean times are ahead for the Wrangell School District, according to the budget that was adopted on April 30. Funding for the district has been a topic of much concern ever since Governor Mike Dunleavy released his proposals for the state budget. One of his proposals was a major cut to the Base Student Allocation, a program that gives schools money for every student in their district. It has been very challenging to prepare a budget for the new school year without knowing for sure what was going...
May 1, 1919 Among the passengers arriving on the Princess Mary Tuesday morning were C. A. Tervo and two sons Albert and Randolph. Mr. Tervo is the Canadian Customs officer at the Boundary. He came north last July and remained at the Boundary until the close of navigation. Mr. Tervo states that a new customs house is to be built. It will be located a mile and one half further up the river than the house now in use. The new structure will have a concrete foundation and will be 26x30 feet with a six-foot veranda. It will be built with a special...
Several churches from across Wrangell came together to celebrate Easter with a shared "sunrise service" at City Park at 8 a.m. The Salvation Army, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Harbor Light Assembly of God, the Presbyterian Church, and the Wrangell Seventh-Day Adventist Church were a part of the service. After the sunrise service was done, everybody was invited to Harbor Light for an Easter breakfast. Pictured here is Debbe Lancaster, superintendent of the school district, joining in a hymn...