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Wrangell schools online student registration will begin on Wednesday, Aug. 7, for grades K-12 at wrg.powerschool.com/public/. For those who need assistance, in-person registration will be held Monday, Aug. 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the elementary school gym. The first day of school for students is Thursday, Aug. 22, with teachers starting earlier in the week. This year’s holiday break will start after classes end on Friday, Dec. 20, with school reopening on Monday, Jan. 6. Student fees remain unchanged from last year and are due at the t...
Wrangell is in a Goldilocks situation when it comes to tourists. Too many is no good. It would leave the town feeling stuffed. Too few is what we have, leaving the town hungry to fill its economic bowl. Just enough more visitors to warm up the economy would be the right amount. Too bad it’s not as easy a choice as Goldilocks picking which porridge to bear down on. Wrangell is not a tourism-dominated community like Skagway or Juneau. Nor does it want to be. But a little more sales tax revenue would be a good thing, particularly if those sales t...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Chamber of Commerce is accepting applicants for executive officer who plans, organizes, coordinates and directs chamber business as well as oversees the daily operation of the chamber. Posting open until filled. Full job description and applications are available by emailing Chamber President bburr@wrangellchamber.com. HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following positions for the 2024-2025 school year: - Special Education Paraprofessional: This is a part-time, 9-month classified position,...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed more than $230 million in spending from the state budget but left intact $6.5 million for repairs to Wrangell school buildings, along with $5 million for stabilization work at the community’s water reservoir earthen dams and $200,000 for the borough to start planning an emergency access route from the southern end of Zimovia Highway. In addition to covering state-provided public services, construction projects and community grants, the budget bills signed by Dunleavy on June 27 also will provide an estimated $1,650 t...
Wrangell is on a financial winning streak these days. It has received multiple state and federal grants to pay for construction, repairs, rebuilds and improvements. But that does not help pay the operating costs of public services and local support for the schools. It’s a distinction people need to keep in mind. Money in one pocket does not automatically transfer to another pocket. The borough has received notice of a $25 million federal grant to rebuild most of the downtown harbors floats. It will receive $6.5 million from the state to go t...
Wrangell is facing a network of aging underground utilities. Some pipes are up to 70 years old, said Tom Wetor, public works director. Since the first of the year, at least five water and sewer line leaks have sprung up around town. Wetor explained that a lot of the underground utility work was done in the 1980s and is beginning to age out. He explained that the environment in Wrangell is particularly harsh and causes pipes to degrade faster than they should. A lot of the pipes in town are made of ductile iron, which he said were estimated to...
The school district is readvertising for a full-time, in-person counselor to serve Wrangell’s 260 students starting in August. Amid pushback from faculty and at least one board member at last month’s school board meeting, the previously selected out-of-town applicant withdrew her bid to work as a remote K-12 counselor for the coming school year. The district administration last month proposed a contract for remote services with Lindsay Pinkelman, who runs Find a Way Consulting, based in Delta Junction, 95 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Tho...
Wrangell has a lot of positives. It’s a caring community that can pull together a potluck and fill the tables to overflow. Residents support each other in times of loss without needing to be asked. People truly believe in helping their neighbors, regardless of their neighbors’ politics. Fundraisers are a way of life in Wrangell — and a necessity. School sports teams, youth groups, student activities, nonprofit organizations and others are always in need of money, frequently asking businesses to donate goods, services or cash to worthy causes. A...
An apology for the bombardment that destroyed Angoon in 1882 will be offered by the U.S. Navy, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said while appearing with a dance group from the Tlingit village at Celebration in Juneau on Friday. The attack burned the village, leaving few structures intact, resulting in the death of at least six children and "countless" more due to its impact during the winter, according to the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Historical narratives by Natives in Angoon and the Navy...
The assembly’s decision to take away any benefit to the school district of the Legislature’s one-year increase in state education funding for next year makes sense from the perspective of the borough’s own finances. However, there are more perspectives to consider. Long term, the community needs a plan to adequately fund its schools. The school board had asked the borough to contribute $1.75 million — the maximum amount allowed under state law — to the school district’s $6 million spending plan for the 2024-2025 school year. That would have...
Rep. Dan Ortiz, the Ketchikan independent who has represented southern Southeast communities since January 2015, including Wrangell, has decided to withdraw as a candidate for reelection, citing health and family considerations. Ortiz had filed in July as a candidate for reelection to House District 1, representing Ketchikan, Saxman, Metlakatla, Wrangell, Hyder, Coffman Cove and Whale Pass. However, a “more definitive” health concern caused him to reconsider, he told the Ketchikan Daily News on May 28. “It’s been within the last week that I...
The school board has tabled until next month a proposal to contract for remote counseling services for Wrangell students next year, instead of hiring a full-time counselor to work in the schools. The board voted May 20 to table the motion after hearing concerns from faculty and a board member. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said the decision to contract for a remote K-12 counselor wasn’t an intentional change of direction. “We posted the position and then we looked at the applicants,” he said. “The hiring committee looked at the best all aro...
The Wrangell Athletic Club expects to have raised about $22,000 in donations by the end of June to reimburse the school district, which advanced about $34,000 this past school year to cover the cost of student travel to state competition. Volunteers created the nonprofit organization last year to raise money for state travel after the school board said it could not afford to cover the expenses. Club president Chris Johnson said they will send the district whatever funds it has raised by next month. In her latest financial report to the school...
It’s no surprise that the applicant pool was limited when the Wrangell School District advertised for a new counselor to serve elementary, middle and high school students. It’s a big job for one person to work with 260 students. That includes providing career guidance, making health and psychological referrals, helping to manage student testing and assessments, and building relationships with staff, parents and the community. That’s a lot to ask of one person, but that’s the reality of the district’s tight finances. A small pool of applicant...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Cooperative Association Transportation (WCAT) is seeking two road/trail maintenance laborers. Complete job descriptions and applications are available outside the Wrangell Cooperative Association office at 1002 Zimovia Highway. Positions are open until filled. Contact Lizzy Romane at 907-874-3077 with any questions. HELP WANTED Johnson’s Building Supply is accepting applications for the following positions: Customer Service: Duties include counter sales, freight handling, customer deliveries, stocking and inventory. F...
The borough assembly has approved a local contribution to the school district that could cancel out a pending increase in state funding. The assembly on May 14 approved a local contribution of $1.3 million to the school district for the 2024-2025 school year, down from this year’s level, based on the assumption that the state increases its funding to Wrangell schools by $440,000. The amount of state funding is pending the governor’s decision on the budget passed by legislators last week. The school board had asked for $1.75 million from the bor...
The 33rd Alaska Legislature came to a shuddering but active end early Thursday morning, May 16, as lawmakers passed the state’s annual budget and several high-profile bills. While legislators met their short-term goals, they didn’t hit some lawmakers’ big targets, including a long-term plan to bring state finances into order, significant changes to the state education system or a revival of a pension program for public employees. While the budget includes a one-time increase in K-12 school funding, legislators didn’t permanently raise the per...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for a K-12 Intervention Teacher. This grant-funded position works in the Migrant/Title I programs to provide reading and math intervention for grades K-12. An Alaska Type A Teaching Certificate with the appropriate endorsements is required. Contact the district office at 874-2347 for more information. The anticipated start date is Aug. 19, 2024. For more information and detailed job description, please contact the District Office at 907-874-2347. This position is open until filled....
SCHOOL BOARD public hearing to collect input on student performance will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, May 20, with the regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Evergreen Elementary School Room 101. The agenda will be available online four days before the meeting at the school district website. ROLL ON THE ROCK roller skating 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Fridays at the TouchPoint Ministries rink on Bennett Street. Children 9 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Skaters must complete a registration form. NOLAN CENTER THEATER no movie this weekend....
HELP WANTED Wrangell Cooperative Association Transportation (WCAT) is seeking two road/trail maintenance laborers. Complete job descriptions and applications are available outside the Wrangell Cooperative Association office at 1002 Zimovia Highway. Positions are open until filled. Contact Lizzy Romane at 907-874-3077 with any questions. HELP WANTED Johnson’s Building Supply is accepting applications for the following positions: Customer Service: Duties include counter sales, freight handling, customer deliveries, stocking and inventory. Full-ti...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has indicated he is willing to accept a one-year increase in state money for schools as legislators work toward a $175 million addition to the funding formula before their scheduled adjournment deadline May 15. The increase would cover almost two-thirds of the projected revenue gap in the Wrangell School District operating budget for the 2024-2025 school year. Districts statewide face significant budget deficits after more than seven years without an increase in the state’s per-student funding formula. Though both the H...
The borough assembly and school board met April 23 in a joint work session to discuss local funding for the school district for the 2024-2025 school year. The school district has requested $1.75 million from the borough, which is the maximum local contribution allowed under state law and an increase from the $1.6 million that the borough contributed each of the past two years. The minimum local contribution required by the borough is $862,086. The state sets a minimum and a maximum in an effort to reduce budget and school program inequalities...
The Wrangell district has hired a new elementary school principal. Jamie Wollman, principal at the Hooper Bay Charter School in the western Alaska coastal community, is moving to Wrangell for the 2024-2025 school year. "I like to go to places that present a different challenge," Wollman said. "I love when people share that want to do exciting things for students." She was hired in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to start up the charter school. It's open to students in grades 4 through 8 in the...
Wrangell parents of homeschooled children enrolled in correspondence programs said they were caught by surprise when an Alaska judge ruled unconstitutional the use of state funds for such programs. The law allowed parents of correspondence students to spend their share of state education money, labeled an allotment, on “nonsectarian services and materials from a public, private or religious organization.” The judge on April 12 ruled the law unconstitutional because it allowed public funding to go to private and religious organizations. The jud...
Julie Williams will step down as school counselor for the district at the end of the school term, after two years in the job. It's the latest in several recent high-profile turnovers of key school district personnel. Secondary school principal Jackie Hanson announced her decision in February not to renew her contract for the new school year, after one year on the job. She was the district's third middle/high school principal in the past three years. Elementary school principal Ann Hilburn...
