The school board approved a one-year contract with a Juneau-based educational nonprofit on May 18 to help provide and manage special education services for the upcoming school year.

The loss of the district’s two special education teachers at the end of the school year — with 31 years of experience between them — created a situation where the administration decided to contract for coordinating services for the 2026-2027 school year.

Board Member Angela Allen cast the sole dissenting vote among the five-member board against the services agreement with SERRC, Alaska’s Educational Resource Center.

“I don’t think that the school should be using an out-of-town company to do special education services for our district,” Allen said in an interview on Monday. “I believe that they need to hire someone who can be here in person.”

Under the contract, the district will pay $68,849 for 100 days of special education teacher services, mostly remote. The district also will pay travel costs when SERRC personnel come to Wrangell.

Schools Superintendent Joshua Garrett explained the district has lost two veteran special education teachers: Ryan Howe resigned after 17 years, and Mikki Angerman left after 14 years. Beyond the teaching vacancies, Howe’s departure leaves a gap in leadership because he also served as the district’s special education coordinator.

Previously, the coordinator role was handled through a stipend on top of a teacher’s regular salary. For the upcoming school year, Garrett wants a separate party to handle those administrative duties instead of placing them on the new hires.

“By having a separate coordinator, the two special education teachers that we are able to hire will be able to focus specifically on their jobs as educators without having the additional administrative burden,” Garrett said.

SERRC provides school psychologists, speech-language pathologists and education specialists who can work with students, manage paperwork and assist with state reporting requirements.

“This is important because it will help the new teachers adjust and transition more smoothly into our system,” Garrett said.

The education services organization started in 1976 as the Southeast Regional Resource Center, later expanding to serve schools across the state.

Garrett emphasized that the immediate goal is ensuring continuity for students during this staff transition.

“We’re prioritizing taking care of our special-needs students,” he said.

“We need to do everything that we can to make sure that they get the best quality education and this is one of the ways that we can do it. I can’t speak beyond this next school year because I don’t know how that is going to work, so I can’t say whether or not we will pursue another contract. Right now, our focus can only be on where we are now and the upcoming school year.”