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Wrangell High School's art program is closer than ever to a $50,000 prize. Teacher Tasha Morse was notified on Monday that the shoes her class entered in the Vans Custom Culture art contest had won a spot in the national top five. Being in the top five schools, Wrangell is guaranteed at least a $15,000 prize. The $50,000 grand prize winner will be announced Friday. Morse said she received an email Monday morning which read, "We will be announcing one school each day this week that is included...
May 11, 1922 The high school students appreciate the aid and cooperation they received from the citizens, merchants and teachers in staging their play. A great part of its success was due to the interest shown by the people of Wrangell. Mr. Palmer accommodated us with lights in the afternoon for the matinee. The St. Michael Trading Co. made frequent loans for stage property and costumes to Mr. Havens, who donated his artwork. Special thanks is due. May 9, 1947 May 24 will be Poppy Day in Wrangell and throughout the United States, Mrs. R. H....
The chamber of commerce is planning a welcome ceremony for the first ship on Wrangell's official cruise calendar, which also happens to be a brand new vessel making its inaugural sailing to Southeast. The 186-passenger Ocean Victory, chartered by American Queen Voyages, is scheduled to arrive at 8 a.m. Thursday at the City Dock. Chamber Executive Director Brittani Robbins on Monday said the ceremony is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday and will feature Tlingit dancers, a presentation of a key to the...
Six teens returned to Wrangell on May 2 after nine days in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The trip is part of the national Close Up program which aims to get kids more engaged in the political process. Along with chaperone Sarah Merritt, seniors Jimmy Baggen, Sophia Hagelman and Tyson Messmer, juniors Paige Baggen and Ashleigh Loomis and sophomore Sierra Hagelman were able to visit sites of historic interest, meet with and hear from various political leaders, and participate in lively...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions. All positions are open until filled. Custodian: This is a full-time, year-round classified position with benefits earning $15.45 to $23.39/hour DOE, 7.5 hours per day, working at Wrangell High School. Job duties include but are not limited to keeping our school complex clean and assisting with setting up rooms for classes, large presentations, and business meetings as needed; and assisting with minor repairs. A High School Diploma or equivalent is desired....
For as long as the Tlingit people have built canoes, they have carved paddles. Just as there are many different sizes and styles of canoes for various purposes, paddles are created to be just as unique to their users. The tradition of carving paddles continues today throughout Southeast for cultural celebrations, dancing, decorations and even paddling canoes. In Wrangell, a workshop held April 22-24 educated about 15 participants on the type of wood to use, how to carve it and properly finish...
High school students were urged to use their smartphones and laptops during an assembly for once. It was announced last Monday that the painted and decorated shoes entered into the Vans Custom Culture design contest had won Wrangell High School a spot in the national top 50 and a chance at $50,000. Staff and students are calling on family, friends, neighbors and the online universe to go to https://customculture.vans.com/, click the "VOTE NOW" button and choose Wrangell. Public voting closes at...
May 11, 1922 The first interschool meet even held in Alaska came to a close on Monday evening. The first basketball game was held Wednesday afternoon, when the all stars of Wrangell defeated the Douglas team, 38-17. This initial victory for the local school was followed by winning the Wrangell versus Juneau High School game that evening 22-17, and the high school debate the following morning when Wrangell had the affirmative against Ketchikan. Other points won by Wrangell pupils were: rapid calculation, John Grant, third place; elementary decla...
Anyone who wants to get a pizza midweek at the Marine Bar or a steak or burger at the Elks Lodge knows that worker shortages have forced employers to reduce their days and cut back on offerings. “This worker shortage is real, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” Dan Robinson, research chief at the Alaska Department of Labor, told legislators last month. “For nine years in a row, more people have left the state than have come here,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. The population has been stable as births have outpaced deaths, but the y...
Probably nothing is more important to the community than its school. Not just for educating students, but as a point of pride and center of activities, and a source of future workers needed to keep the town in business. Good schools also are an attraction to bring new families to town, and to keep them here. It’s a cliché, but good schools cost money. “Doing more with less” is not a sustainable education plan, and the risk of losing more programs from an already limited school district operation is an admission of defeat, not hope, for future s...
"A River Runs Through Us" is the theme chosen for this year's Fourth of July celebration in Wrangell, prompting event organizers to hold a first-ever art contest, with the winner's work being featured on posters and other swag. Plus, there's a chance to win $1,000. Entries can come from anyone and can be hard copies or digital. The piece should capture the theme of the contest, which refers to the Stikine River. The deadline is Friday by 4 p.m. "It's a connection that everybody from here...
In a two-page letter to the community, Schools Superintendent Bill Burr on Friday cautioned that ongoing staffing shortages, particularly aides and substitute teachers, could push the schools into considering a move to distance learning in lieu of in-person instruction. “As we have had a number of unfilled positions over the last month, we need to continue looking at the need to move toward distance learning,” he wrote in his letter Friday. “We have worked very hard to keep our schools open during (COVID) mitigation and adversity, but without o...
Just as other communities, Wrangell is enduring a springtime bloom of COVID-19 cases. As of April 20, the state health department reported 79 new cases in the community in the past 30 days. Most of those were reported to the state in late March and early April, with new infections declining in the past week. The spread of the highly infectious disease is of particular concern at the schools. “We have had an increase in COVID and other illnesses during the past month and the schools have been struggling to find ways to stay open,” Sup...
April 27, 1922 The high school students appreciate the aid and cooperation they received from the citizens, merchants and teachers in staging their play. A great part of its success was due to the interest shown by the people of the town. Mr. Palmer accommodated us with lights in the afternoon for the matinee. The St. Michael Trading Co. made frequent loans for stage property and costumes. To Mr. Havens who donated his artwork, special thanks is due. April 25, 1947 Twenty-six hundred bundles of cedar shingles from the Wrangell Cedar Products Co...
The borough assembly has started work on its budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1 and will need to decide on a school district request for more funding in addition to paying higher fuel and property insurance costs and spending on necessary maintenance of public facilities. Revenues are up, however, with more money coming in from sales taxes and federal payments in lieu of property taxes on national forest lands. Borough staff and assembly members started their budget review during a work session April 20. The borough’s annual c...
With just a few weeks left in the legislative session, House and Senate budget writers appear to agree that $2,600 is a good number to put into the hands of Alaskans this fall. But how they get there is different. The House-passed version of the state budget appropriates enough money to send every eligible Alaskan about $2,600 — half would be the annual Permanent Fund dividend, and half would be called “energy relief” to help people pay the higher prices for gasoline, diesel and heating fuel. Those same high prices have generated a lot of mo...
School board members voted unanimously on April 18 to adopt the district’s budget for the 2022-23 school year, which is balanced on the assumption of $432,000 in additional state and borough funding. The school district submitted a letter along with the adopted $5 million budget to the borough, requesting an additional $292,000 on top of the $1.3 million the borough has paid the district in past annual appropriations. The district also is counting on an additional $140,000 in state funding for next year. The borough funds its local c...
The borough could receive about $300,000 under a Senate Finance Committee plan to pay back municipalities across Alaska for years of short-funding of the state’s share of local school construction bond debt. The committee version of the state budget includes $221 million to pay back municipalities for incomplete state reimbursement payments going back five years. Years of low oil prices and large state budget deficits prompted governors to short-fund the reimbursements, with legislators lacking enough votes to override budget vetoes. This y...
The school board on April 18 voted to hire a former Alaskan as the new principal for Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle school. Robert Burkhart will begin as principal for the secondary schools on Aug. 8. He applied for the position after another candidate was chosen and had withdrawn her application. The district received more than 30 applications for the position, which is a one-year contract. It will be paid with federal funds from an American Rescue Plan Act grant. The school board approved the contract for a new principal at...
April 20, 1922 Messrs. Hansen and Lystad arrived here from Seattle recently and will enter the mild-curing seafood business. They will be located where the Ripley Fish Co. formerly had its station, and they will also have a scow near Shakes Island where the shrimp cannery was recently in operation. This firm will ship salmon and trout. Both members of the firm are old-timers in Alaska, and are by no means new in the fish business. Wrangell welcomes this new firm and there is every reason to believe that their venture will be a success. April...
Amid all the legislative debate over the size of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend, the amount of state support for schools and loud pleas from communities across Alaska for more money for docks, sewage treatment plants, roads and building repairs, there is a bill that draws only a few people to its hearings. Senate Bill 45, sponsored by Kodiak Senator Gary Stevens, would bring vaping products, also known as e-cigarettes, under the state’s tobacco tax and regulation statutes. Stevens and other supporters have been trying for years to win legi...
Finding a home or business in the modern age is made easier with apps like Google Maps, but what happens when an address doesn't appear in those digital location services? The problem can be made worse if the place doesn't have an address nailed or posted on the building. Such was the case when high school senior Tyson Messmer was trying to find someone's home at Panhandle Trailer Court. It helped him decide on his senior project. "I couldn't find it anywhere," Messmer said. That experience and...
The annual Stikine River Birding Festival has a busy first weekend planned. It starts up Friday with a 1 p.m. virtual storytime at the Irene Ingle Public Library, then continuing the educational fun agenda with a Birding 101 class at 6 p.m. Friday at the Nolan Center, led by Bonnie Demerjian. The library event will present an Earth Day theme, with activity kits available for pickup at the library. The meeting ID for the Zoom event is 935 4298 0052, passcode 8743535. There are three events on Saturday’s calendar. A community cleanup is p...
A full house at the Nolan Center listened as the chamber of commerce honored Mia Wiederspohn as Wrangell’s youth leader of the year, Barbara Neyman as educator of the year, and Sarah Merritt as citizen of the year. The chamber presentation described Merritt, who has worked at the legislative information office in town since 1996, as “an outstanding citizen … understated, kind, solution focused, and devoted to the democratic process.” Merritt said she returned to Juneau after earning a degree in political science in South Dakota, later decidin...
In a special session last Saturday, the school board approved the contract for a new elementary school principal. Board members unanimously accepted the contract for Ann Hilburn as Evergreen Elementary School principal beginning the 2022-23 school year. Hilburn is in her first year as the special education teacher at the high school and middle school, having moved to Wrangell from Mississippi last fall. Hilburn was part of an applicant pool of more than 30 people, which was narrowed down to eight to 10 applicants. Schools Superintendent Bill...