Sorted by date Results 327 - 351 of 3069
A class of fourth graders and a few third graders from Evergreen Elementary School traveled 10 miles by jet boat up the Stikine River to Cottonwood Island on a chilly, rainy May 14 to learn about nature, fishing techniques, wilderness survival and Tlingit culture as part of an annual field trip. Fourth grade science teacher Brian Merritt, who has been the main organizer of the yearly school outing for over two decades, felt this latest excursion was a great success. "Everything went according to...
Cruise ships have started to make their appearances at the City Dock, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association has geared up for the season by hiring Ed Caum as tourism coordinator. Caum, known by some in town as "Fast Eddy" from his rock and roll radio shows on KSTK in the '70s, started the position at the beginning of May. The tourism branch of WCA is set up to grow exponentially, Caum said. Economic development and bringing new money into town are two of his goals. He emphasized that the...
The 33rd Alaska Legislature came to a shuddering but active end early Thursday morning, May 16, as lawmakers passed the state’s annual budget and several high-profile bills. While legislators met their short-term goals, they didn’t hit some lawmakers’ big targets, including a long-term plan to bring state finances into order, significant changes to the state education system or a revival of a pension program for public employees. While the budget includes a one-time increase in K-12 school funding, legislators didn’t permanently raise the per...
A retirement potluck party for Sandy Churchill will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 1, at the Nolan Center. All residents are welcome to attend and bring prepared food or dessert. "Bring a dish to share and a story to tell," Head Start coworker Dawn Welch said. "This party is to celebrate the years and years of Sandy's commitment and dedication to our Head Start program," Welch said earlier this month in a Facebook post about the party. Churchill will step down at the end of the school year...
Students were recognized for their outstanding achievements at the annual academic and scholarship awards ceremony held the afternoon of May 15 at the high school gym. Faculty, staff, community and business leaders gathered to present ninth through 12th graders with certificates, plaques and checks for their accomplishments at the end of the school year. Awards were presented in the areas of general education, shop class, finance, the arts, student government and others. Scholarships presented...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for a K-12 Intervention Teacher. This grant-funded position works in the Migrant/Title I programs to provide reading and math intervention for grades K-12. An Alaska Type A Teaching Certificate with the appropriate endorsements is required. Contact the district office at 874-2347 for more information. The anticipated start date is Aug. 19, 2024. For more information and detailed job description, please contact the District Office at 907-874-2347. This position is open until filled....
Several of Wrangell’s requests are included in the state capital budget of public works projects that the Legislature approved last week, sending the spending plan to the governor for signature into law or veto. Unless the governor uses his veto powers to eliminate or reduce the appropriations, Wrangell would receive $5 million toward stabilization work at the earthen dams that hold back the community’s water reservoirs; $200,000 to start planning what’s being called an “escape route” for Zimovia Highway residents to drive across the island to...
Next year’s Fourth of July celebration, Wrangell’s most popular holiday, may be in jeopardy – the May 1 deadline to turn in paperwork yielded zero royalty candidates. It takes a village to put on the fireworks and countless other festivities for the Fourth every year. To offset costs, high school students or recent graduates run as royalty contestants – selling tens of thousands of $1 raffle tickets and running food booths downtown to raise money for the chamber of commerce, which organizes the celebration’s events. Royalty candidate...
Wrangell High School will hold its graduation ceremony at 7 p.m. Friday, May 17, in the high school gym. Principal Jackie Hanson will welcome the 10 seniors and teacher Jack Carney will serve as the commencement speaker. This year's valedictorian and salutatorian had not been announced as of the Sentinel's printing deadline on Monday. Each senior has tickets for 10 friends or family for seats on the gym floor, with overflow space in the bleachers. The ceremony can also be viewed online at...
SCHOOL BOARD public hearing to collect input on student performance will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, May 20, with the regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Evergreen Elementary School Room 101. The agenda will be available online four days before the meeting at the school district website. ROLL ON THE ROCK roller skating 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Fridays at the TouchPoint Ministries rink on Bennett Street. Children 9 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Skaters must complete a registration form. NOLAN CENTER THEATER no movie this weekend....
Alisha Seward is Wrangell's new state wildlife trooper - her fifth move in nine years. Wrangell is one of the smaller posts among the 37 locations staffed by the Alaska wildlife troopers division and she is the only officer in town, with no corresponding state trooper. "Right now, my goal is just to learn my patrol area, which is big and vast," she said. "I just spent the last couple days out on a boat patrol with Chadd (Yoder), who was just here, learning my area and all that encompasses it."...
High schoolers crammed a lot of sightseeing, education and history into this year's Close Up trip to the nation's capital and to its largest city. The students were able to view many of the great landmarks and monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and White House in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island in New York City. Instructors held classes at each location. "The whole 10 days we're gone, it's like a...
The seniors graduating this week are Alisha Armstrong, Cody Eastaugh, Keegan Hanson, Sean McDonald, Kayla Meissner, Mindy Meissner, Spencer Petticrew, Nate Rooney, Mia Wiederspohn and Lily Younce. The 10 took time from their final days as high school students to answer questions about what lies ahead for each. Here are their responses. Alisha Armstrong What's your favorite thing about going to school in Wrangell? "The people." What's your advice for next year's seniors? "Do your senior project...
A group of high school students who participated in an environmental research program won third place in Southeast competition for their work comparing the amount of microplastics in the water at Wrangell harbors. The science fair, sponsored by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), was held virtually on April 30. The students were presented with awards for their work, including third place overall. The University of Alaska Southeast has been running the Rural Alaska...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Cooperative Association Transportation (WCAT) is seeking two road/trail maintenance laborers. Complete job descriptions and applications are available outside the Wrangell Cooperative Association office at 1002 Zimovia Highway. Positions are open until filled. Contact Lizzy Romane at 907-874-3077 with any questions. HELP WANTED Johnson’s Building Supply is accepting applications for the following positions: Customer Service: Duties include counter sales, freight handling, customer deliveries, stocking and inventory. Full-ti...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has indicated he is willing to accept a one-year increase in state money for schools as legislators work toward a $175 million addition to the funding formula before their scheduled adjournment deadline May 15. The increase would cover almost two-thirds of the projected revenue gap in the Wrangell School District operating budget for the 2024-2025 school year. Districts statewide face significant budget deficits after more than seven years without an increase in the state’s per-student funding formula. Though both the H...
May 8, 1924 It is with considerable pleasure that the Sentinel is able to report that the ice making department of the Wrangell Ice and Storage Co.’s new plant will soon be in operation, and Oliver D. Leet, the manager, says the fish freezing department will be complete within another week. This new plant, from a standpoint of efficiency and economy of operation, cannot be surpassed by any plant of equal capacity. The power is furnished by Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines of the latest type, and a 256-kilovolt generator furnishes the e...
A film festival featuring student-created documentaries about different facets of Wrangell life will be held at the Nolan Center at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14. Admission is free. Middle school science teacher Laura Davies said the documentaries were created during the school year after two weeks of intense training with mentors from the nonprofit program See Stories. "(We're) aiming for about 10 (documentaries), but it depends on how many finish their films in time," she said. Based in Juneau,...
The only member of the Wrangell Swim Club to qualify, senior Jack Roberts competed and set several personal bests at the Alaska Swimming State Championship, a four-day meet held at the Bartlett High School pool in Anchorage on April 25-28. Twenty-two teams from around the state competed in this end-of-season swim club tournament. Roberts swam preliminaries and advanced to the finals in all of his events. In the 50-yard freestyle, he placed fifth with a time of 22.17 seconds. In the 100-yard...
Declaring the crisis with fentanyl and other deadly drugs its highest priority and accepting Portland as a new tribal community were among the highlights at the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s 89th annual tribal assembly in Juneau. Resolutions approved at the assembly that concluded on April 19 also included calls for a permanent increase in the state’s base funding formula for public schools and supporting non-discrimination in student sports. Among the resolutions singled out for discussion was one ref...
Arnold "Arnie" R. Sandness, 89, passed away on March 23, 2024. His celebration of life was held April 25 in Sun City West Christian Church, Sun City West, Arizona. Arnie was born on Aug. 28, 1934, in Bellingham, Washington, to John and Randi Sandness. He graduated from Bellingham High School in 1952, while serving in the Army reserves before attending Western Washington State College of Education. He served in the Naval Reserve Combat Battalion in Bremerton from 1953-1957. He was a mechanical...
IRENE INGLE PUBLIC LIBRARY summer reading program now open for registration. Open to children entering kindergarten through ninth grade in the fall. Register at the library. The reading program runs May 28 through Aug. 3. More than 100 prize drawings and a pool/pizza party for everyone who completes the program. Call 907-874-3535 for more information. KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT is now open for the 2024-2025 school year to any child who will be 5 years old by Sept. 1. Kindergarten screening will take place Thursday and Friday, May 2-3. Call Kendra...
The borough assembly and school board met April 23 in a joint work session to discuss local funding for the school district for the 2024-2025 school year. The school district has requested $1.75 million from the borough, which is the maximum local contribution allowed under state law and an increase from the $1.6 million that the borough contributed each of the past two years. The minimum local contribution required by the borough is $862,086. The state sets a minimum and a maximum in an effort to reduce budget and school program inequalities...
Kyle Hopkins, an award-winning journalist for his reporting work on sexual assault in Alaska, will be the keynote speaker at an event for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Awareness Day at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at Shakes Tribal House. Hopkins was the lead reporter on the 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lawless” series published by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica. The project explored sexual assault in Alaska and why the problem was getting worse. Though his work is not focused directly on MMIP, he hopes to share the parts of...
It began with a bottle, not in the usual way as a tragedy, but a mystery. Tinted blue and clearly old, the heavy glass bottle is imperfect with numerous bubbles frozen forever in the medium. It had an embossed brand on its body: Zarembo Springs Mineral Co., Seattle. After an impulse purchase, I still wondered, what was its story? Here is the answer. Zarembo Island is west, southwest of Wrangell. Its Tlingít name is Shtax-Noow, and before the arrival of settlers, the area Shtax héen wáan, or St...