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The Wrangell Borough Assembly met last week, Jan. 14, to discuss the potential establishment of critical habitat areas for humpback whales in Southeast Alaska. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is proposing these habitat areas be set up all along the Pacific coastline, from Alaska to southern California. NOAA officials held a meeting in Petersburg on Jan. 6 to discuss this proposal. According to a report by the Sentinel's sister-paper, the Petersburg Pilot, these habitat areas...
While not originally on the agenda for the night, the Wrangell School Board discussed the potential future of their contract with Etolin Bus Company during their meeting Monday, Jan. 20. The item was brought up by School Board Member Patty Gilbert, who requested an amendment to the agenda. Etolin Bus Company is contracted by the school district to deliver Wrangell's children to school in the mornings, and take them home again in the evenings. They had a three-year contract with the district,...
The borough assembly and other city officials met Saturday morning, Jan. 11, to workshop future priorities for the city and to look at the upcoming budget process. A long list of state and federal legislative priorities was laid out for attendees to review and talk about. For state priorities for Wrangell, the first and foremost was the reinstatement of several state positions to the city. Over the past decade, according to the priority list, Wrangell has seen several state jobs taken away that...
Below is the second half of The Wrangell Sentinel's review of 2019, covering the months of July to December: July July 4 - Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey was recognized for his service to the community at last week's borough assembly meeting. With his retirement at the end of June, McCloskey has closed out 38 years of police work. July 11 - The Fourth of July was a hot and sunny day in Wrangell, but that did not stop many people from getting out and having a good time. Like all previous...
Following is the Wrangell Sentinel's news review for January through June of 2019. Next week the review will include events from July through December. January Jan. 13 - The Fairbanks Arts Association opened their 24th annual statewide poetry contest for submissions this December. Each year, the association picks a new judge for the contest. This year will be judged by Wrangell resident Vivian Faith Prescott. Prescott is the author of numerous works, including The Hide of My Tongue and The Dead...
The Wrangell School Board met last Monday evening, Dec. 16, for several important topics. Two of the topics covered in the meeting were a look at the district's 2021 budget assumptions, and a formative evaluation of Superintendent Debbe Lancaster. The FY 2021 budget will be based on 316 students, according to information attached to the meeting's agenda. For the next budget the district is expecting flat funding from the state, as well as the same local contribution from the city as FY 2020....
Mayor Steve Prysunka travelled to Washington D.C. last week to speak before the Senate Committee on Energy and National Resources. He was invited to speak on behalf of the National Association of Counties, an organization that works to advocate county priorities in federal policymaking. Prysunka spoke last Thursday, Nov. 21, on the importance of the Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funds. "We're somewhat unique because we're actually the third largest city...
Wrangell Public School's policy committee met last Thursday afternoon to review several proposed policies for the school district. One such policy refers to volunteers helping out around the school. According to Kim Powell, with the school district, the policy would require anyone wishing to volunteer with the school undergo a background check, if that volunteer will be interacting with students. The policy goes on to state that anyone acting as a volunteer in a classroom, media center,...
Georgianna Buhler has resigned as the business manager for the Wrangell Public School District this past week. Buhler has worked with the school district for many years. She served on the school board from 2001 to 2010, and again from 2016 to 2018. She resigned from her seat on the school board in August of 2018 to pursue the position of business manager. "I tendered my 90 day resignation effective 2/28/2020," she wrote in an email to the Sentinel. "The Superintendent chose to enact it...
The Wrangell School Board, still getting settled with new members from the election on Oct. 2, held a work session on the evening of Oct. 28 to begin a review of the district's strategic plan. The strategic plan was adopted in June of 2018, and sets a series of goals for the school district to aim for through to the year 2023. There are five main goals outlined in the plan, each with their own set of strategies and actions to be taken to accomplish them. The goals are: Student Learning,...
The Wrangell School Board met last Tuesday, Oct. 8, to reorganize after the borough's Oct. 1 election. The election saw three new people take positions on the board, Patty Gilbert, Jeanie Arnold, and Beth Heller, and also saw the re-election of Board Member David Wilson. After holding an early orientation session for the new members, the regular meeting was called to order. Board Member Aaron Angerman was elected to the position of school board president. Later in the meeting, he was also made...
PACE, the statewide homeschool program, held a meet and greet at the Stikine Inn last Wednesday, Sept. 25. Jen Whicker, a contact teacher for PACE, said that the program has been around since 2001 and is one of 15 homeschool providers in the state. Currently, she said they serve about 310 students across Alaska. About 22 of those kids live in Wrangell. There are several reasons a family might consider homeschooling, she said. "Sometimes the schools have overcrowding, or kids feel bullied, or...
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...