Tech department in good hands, says Matt Gore

Matt Gore has been with the Wrangell School District since 2011, and has been the technology director since 2015. In his time as technology director, Gore said he has worked to give the school district faster and more reliable internet access, to put better technology in students' hands, and help the district use all the tools they had available.

It is time for him to move on, however. Gore has left his Wrangell position to take a new job with the Southeast Island School District, on Prince of Wales Island. While he is leaving, Gore said he is leaving Wrangell in good hands with the new tech director, Katelyn Church.

Church moved to Wrangell from Texas, she said, to pursue a new adventure. Much of her experience with technology and education comes from working in school districts and community colleges across the state. Coming to Wrangell was an exciting opportunity to get out of Texas and try something new, she said.

"I've been in educational technology in Texas now for, combined, probably eight years, the last three and a half [years] in Wilson," Church said.

Church has been hired on a 12-month contract starting in July, she said. She said that she is excited to work in Wrangell, and that Gore has done an excellent job as technology director. Her immediate plans for the future, as new tech director, are simply to help out the school district as much as possible in the areas of education technology.

"Really just continuing to help lead the district to be successful with the kids," Church said, regarding future plans for the technology department.

Gore said he was excited to leave Wrangell in good hands. There were several accomplishments with the district he was proud of, he said. For example, he worked to get the district's internet speed up from 20mb/s to 150mb/s. Students will be expecting new iPads to replace their Chromebooks in the near future, as well. Future projects for the district, he mentioned, include replacing all of the wireless infrastructure. Another accomplishment Gore said he was proud of was helping keep the schools running through the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This last year, before COVID, we did not have a single teacher use Google Meet," Gore said. "During COVID we had over 5,000 Google Meets."

Gore's new job will be based out of Thorne Bay, working at six different schools across Prince of Wales. It is an exciting new opportunity, he said, and while he is sorry to leave Wrangell, he is eager to begin this new adventure.

"For me this is kind of a new adventure," Gore said. "I'm going to sail away from Wrangell. I live on a sailboat, as you know ... I'm kind of excited for the opportunity and challenge to work with six different remote schools."