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Wrangell’s public library is 100 years old this week and ready to turn the page for its next century. The library’s history includes several chapters, starting with 802 books on the shelves on opening night Oct. 31, 1921, about equal to the 821 residents counted in the 1920 census. It must have been a long wait for popular books back then. Members of the Wrangell Civic Club led the movement to open a library. The town was just 18 years old and ready for a library, which shared the building at the site where the senior center is now loc...
The borough assembly on Tuesday discussed — but took no action — on Wrangell’s COVID-19 testing and isolation policy as it affects unvaccinated students who travel out of town for sports and activities. The school district had requested a waiver of the policy. The district currently allows unvaccinated students who travel for games or other activities to return to school and practice without isolating until their test results come back, so long as the students follow the school district’s weekly testing protocols and mitigation plan. The sch...
A medical equipment loan closet in Wrangell offers items free of charge for anyone who needs assistance on a short-term basis. Alice Rooney, a retired social worker, volunteers with Hospice of Wrangell, also known as Harriet's Helpers. She has been helping run the closet which stocks wheelchairs, walkers, braces, bedpans, hospital beds, grabbers, commodes and other items. The loan closet is located in a corner of the former Wrangell Medical Center next to Evergreen Elementary School on Bennett...
JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Business manager: A 12-month position with benefits paid on the exempt employee salary schedule. Responsibilities include oversight of the school budget using a uniform chart of accounts coding, maintaining financial records, conducting all banking, payroll, accounts payable, annual audit preparation and advising the superintendent in all matters that are financially relevant for the district. Degree in business...
The Wrangell High School volleyball team traveled to Metlakatla last weekend for six matches. They won all but one match during three days of play. In best-three-out-of-five match sets, the Lady Wolves played against Petersburg, Craig, Metlakatla, Haines, Skagway and Klawock, which was the only team to defeat them. Thursday’s match against Petersburg resulted in Wrangell winning three sets in a row, 28-26, 25-16 and 25-19. Friday’s matches were against Skagway, Metlakatla and Haines. Wrangell took all three matches against Metlakatla, 25-19, 25...
Imagine performing in a band or choir but not being able to practice with the other performers on the stage. That's how students from Southeast high schools have to approach Honors Fest. Each year, high schoolers from across the region audition for the event, and this year two students from Wrangell were scheduled to perform on Tuesday with 73 other musicians in Ketchikan. The event was supposed to be held at Wrangell High School last year. Normally, about 120 students perform during Honors...
It gets so heavy, sometimes you just want to put it down is how Virginia Oliver describes preserving the Tlingit language. "You want to cry," she said, "because it feels like your brain is going to explode. But then, your Elders just tell you, 'It's too heavy right now, just put it down for a little while and pick it back up.'" The international Endangered Languages Project and a U.N. agency estimate there are 200 fluent Tlingit speakers left, but the majority of the sources for that data are a...
Rather than grumbling about face masks or grousing about politics, many of Wrangell’s students are working to improve the school, the community and the world. They are thinking about their life in the future and the life of others today. Good for them, and good for everyone. The high school students in BASE — Building a Supportive Environment — are working to help feed other students, recognize staff for their good work, support students who are having trouble, and even contribute to a microloan program that helps people in need around the w...
Skagway’s borough assembly has voted unanimously to work with the Skagway Traditional Council to authorize ground-penetrating radar — and some shovel work — at the former Pious X Mission School site, which operated from 1932 to 1959 and served about 60 Indigenous children. The property is now owned by the municipality, which uses it as a seasonal RV park. The borough in recent years has considered redeveloping the property as a housing subdivision or making utility improvements and continuing RV services for independent travelers. The Skagw...
The borough will be asking for “archaeological proposals” for a ground survey of the former Wrangell Institute property, consulting with state and federal agencies and the Wrangell Cooperative Association on the process before any work begins. The borough had been waiting on guidance from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which has pledged that surveys will be conducted of former Alaska Native and American Indian boarding school sites nationwide. But the department “really doesn’t have any guidance on this,” said Carol Rushmore, Wrangell...
Fourteen personal bests, five first-place finishes and four qualifying performances highlighted last weekend's swim meet for Wrangell High School swimmers in Juneau. Senior Renée Roberts upped her game by finishing first in every one of her competitions, and Roberts, along with junior Nikolai Siekawitch, sophomore Jack Roberts and senior Jimmy Baggen, qualified for the Alaska Senior Championship in Sitka in January. According to head coach Jamie Roberts, freshman Max Lloyd swam a personal best in all four of his events, Tyson Messmer swam perso...
The borough is moving forward with a much-needed elevator project at the high school. After researching options, it was determined that the entire elevator needs to be replaced rather than repaired. School district staff hopes that, if all goes smoothly, the project will be finished by the start of the 2022/2023 school year. Josh Blatchley, head of the school district maintenance department, said an oil leak was discovered at the bottom of the elevator's hydraulic ram in March of 2020. Any resea...
The borough has reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 since Saturday -- the majority of which are community spread. Wrangell had just two COVID cases in the first 22 days of October, The first announcement came Saturday with three cases, all Wrangell residents. The borough reported six more cases on Sunday and one more on Monday, "a close contact of a previously identified case." Then one more on Tuesday, also a close contact of a previous case. All of the individuals went into isolation after their positive test results, the borough reported....
The school board on Monday night reviewed an updated COVID-19 mitigation plan which now allows student-athletes to go mask-free during training and while competing against other schools. Mask-wearing and social-distancing guidelines remain in place if athletes are sitting on the sidelines or not actively engaged in play. The updated policy does not change the requirement for face masks in classrooms and elsewhere in school buildings. “The mitigation plan … we are looking at it and making adjustments as we move forward as situations cha...
A group of Wrangell High School students saw a problem and decided to do something about it. Those students wanted to make the school warmer and more inviting. They created BASE - Building A Supportive Environment - a program aimed at inclusivity and helping each other. It's grown from decorating the halls to making sure other students get needed food, recognizing staff, and even securing money to make microloans on a global scale. The year before COVID-19 hit, several students attempted or...
None of the four contested races in last week’s municipal election were close, though the number of voters who cast ballots compared to last year was about as close as it can get. Last year’s municipal election tallied 485 voters. This year’s total was 486. “Yes, you are reading that correctly, we had one more voter this year than we had last year,” Borough Clerk Kim Lane reported to the assembly this week. The assembly certified the results Oct. 7, after the canvass board had counted early and absentee votes and resolved several questione...
Wrangell’s Tent City Days start Friday and run through Sunday, with 20 events scheduled for the fall festivities that come a day before Alaska Day on Monday, which celebrates the U.S. purchase of the territory from Russia in 1867. In keeping with the historical theme, there are some gold rush-named activities among the varied three-day schedule. And in keeping with COVID-19 safety, organizers advise on the event’s Facebook page: “Please mask up. Follow state/local health mandates. Don’t feel well? Stay home and call your medical provide...
JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Business manager: A 12-month position with benefits paid on the exempt employee salary schedule. Responsibilities include oversight of the school budget using a uniform chart of accounts coding, maintaining financial records, conducting all banking, payroll, accounts payable, annual audit preparation and advising the superintendent in all matters that are financially relevant for the district. Degree in business...
Devyn Johnson grew up playing sports in Wrangell. She didn't think about fitness until she was an adult – who, like a lot of people, gained the "Freshman 15" after high school, that bit of extra weight which comes after college starts, the responsibilities of adulthood creep in and high school gym class and sports are in the rearview mirror. So, she started to jog. A half mile at first, and then it stretched out from there into longer distances. Jogging turned into a love of working out. "I l...
Ann Hilburn began learning American Sign Language for an elective course in college, thinking it would benefit her aspirations of becoming a nurse. That class led her to change her career field entirely. "I had just fallen in love with sign language," she said. She's passing that love on to a dozen Wrangell High School students taking her class for their foreign language requirement. Hilburn is new to the district this year. It is a language unto itself, 17-year-old senior Caleb Garcia-Rangel...
Two nights of volleyball at Wrangell High School had spectators cheering, groaning and cheering some more as the Lady Wolves gave their all against the Craig Panthers. The two-day action saw wins and losses, with the Wolves coming out victorious in Saturday's sets. In the first game of Friday night, Wrangell came back from a 10-point deficit, coming within four points of Craig toward the end. The Panthers proved formidable as the team surged forward with scoring. In the end, the Lady Wolves...
There’s been an increase in rude, violent behavior in Anchorage schools, and the superintendent wants parents to help address it with their children. The bad behavior has included a fight at a high school that prompted a large police response, along with a TikTok challenge where students caused thousands of dollars in damage to school bathrooms, KTUU-TV reported. “Wrangell schools got off lightly” in September’s bout of TikTok-inspired vandalism, Bob Davis, assistant principal at the middle and high schools, said in a letter to parents last we...
Though 87 absentee and early votes and questioned ballots will not be tallied until Thursday, the leaders after Tuesday’s municipal election appear likely to win on the final count. Borough assembly candidate David Powell led Don McConachie Sr. by 47 votes after Tuesday’s election. School board candidates Brittani Robbins and Angela Allen were ahead of their challengers by about 100 votes for two open seats. And Jessica Whitaker led Julia Ostrander by 44 votes — 215 to 171 — for a one-year school board term. Races for two other assembl...
The first rule of Tech Club is talk about Tech Club. Science teacher Heather Howe wants the students who attend Wrangell High's newly formed program to share what they're learning and doing to interest more kids in attending. The T3 Alliance -often referred to as Tech Club - is a program designed to supplement the U.S. Department of Education's Upward Bound program, which helps students increase their ability to complete a secondary education, whether college or a technical school. Not all membe...
Wrangell Medical Center this week welcomed eight temporary out-of-state health care workers assigned to the hospital under a state-financed program to bring as many as 473 professionals to help relieve staffing pressures across Alaska. The state is spending $87 million in federal money to bring in the workers, allocating them to 14 hospitals and care centers around the state, as many of the facilities are at or near capacity amid a surge in COVID-19 patients the past month. Some school districts also are included in the program for nurses. The...
