Ann Hegney, with her black lab, is moving from Upstate New York for her new job as Wrangell schools counselor, but her arrival will be delayed until later this month while she waits for car space on the state ferry out of Bellingham, Washington.
Ann Hegney will be the school district's new counselor this year, but not until she can catch a state ferry to town.
The school board approved her hire on Aug. 19, but due to a lack of car deck space on the weekly ferry from Bellingham, Washington, she will not arrive in Wrangell until Sept. 15. From there, she will have a quick turnaround: Her first day of work is the very next morning.
She is driving cross country from upstate New York and plans to stop in Wyoming and Montana for some sightseeing if she has the time.
Hegney's hire comes after some disagreement regarding the counselor position. The school board in the spring considered a $70,000 contract for a remote counselor. But after backlash from teachers, parents and even some members of the board, it decided to stick with past practice of an in-person guidance counselor.
The district has one counselor for all three schools.
Hegney brings with her 36 years of experience, both as a teacher and as a counselor. She grew up on Solomons Island in Maryland and bounced around several naval yards during her childhood, as her father worked as a naval architect (though now he has settled down in midcoast Maine).
This experience of relocating to different schools and towns helps her relate to students feeling out of place, Hegney said. She likes to remind herself how stressful school can be for the students she works with.
The constant moving around also helped her understand that sometimes the best way to help a student is to do the small things, and that baby steps are the best approach for long-term improvements.
"I'm not afraid to go find a student and sit with them at lunch if I think they need some help - or greet them at the door when they walk in to school to make sure they're doing everything they need to be doing," she said.
After getting her undergraduate degree at West Virginia University and working in New York City for a couple years, Hegney and her late husband decided they had enough of the city life and opted to move to Albany, New York. There, she received her master's degree in education from Sage College and began her career as a guidance counselor.
For 36 years she worked as a guidance counselor in the Albany area. She worked with at-risk students, in English as a second language programs, and even taught general education inside classrooms. For Hegney, her time in the classroom was an indispensable experience for her mindset as a guidance counselor.
She hopes to pair this experience with her desire to serve the students.
"The most important thing for a guidance counselor is to be an advocate for students," Hegney said. "And it's great to advocate, but to do so, you need to understand classroom dynamics. I've been a classroom teacher! I know how difficult it is!"
During the school day, students should expect to see Hegney giving presentations to students, visiting classrooms and spending time outside the office.
"There is a lot of paperwork for guidance counselors. I don't want to get too bogged down in that," she joked.
She said a move to Alaska has been a long time coming. Four years ago, Hegney and her late husband identified Alaska as the next place they wanted to live, but when he got sick the couple decided to remain in Albany. So, when Hegney lost her husband over the summer, she decided, "Well, I might as well."
Hegney and Emma, her 5-year-old black lab, will arrive in Wrangell on Sept. 15.
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