Sorted by date Results 916 - 940 of 3090
Winston Davies is running for an uncontested three-year term on the port commission to give back to his community and support Wrangell's commercial fishing industry. He has no previous experience in public office, but when he heard KSTK's plea for candidates to fill the empty port commission seats, he decided to "step up to the plate." Davies is a teacher during the school year and a commercial fisherman in the summer. He has taught a variety of subjects in his 18 years in education, including...
David Wilson has served two three-year terms on the Wrangell school board and is seeking re-election for a third. He is serving as board president during his second term. Since being elected to the board, Wilson, 67, said he believes the schools are "headed in the right direction," despite the challenges the schools face. When he originally ran for the board, the semi-retired cabinet maker said he was unhappy with how things were being run in the schools. "I wanted to see our education...
Elizabeth Roundtree is running for one of two three-year seats on the Wrangell school board, and her main focus is creating more opportunities for students through funding. One of her main concerns, like many involved with the schools, is the budget. That, and lunches. Roundtree, who went to school for accounting and is now the office administrator for Wrangell IGA, wants to find solutions to keep the school funded. Declining enrollment has reduced state funding for the schools, creating holes i...
Esther Ashton sees an opportunity to strengthen partnerships between the school district and entities such as the borough and U.S. Forest Service. She is running unopposed for a one-year seat on the school board. Ashton, 45, is the tribal administrator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association and had held the position for five years. She's been with the WCA since 2014. She has also served on multiple parent committees and is the chair for the Indian Education Committee. In the past, she was on...
After nine years in public service across four different councils, commissions and committees, Patty Gilbert is running for Wrangell's highest elected office. Gilbert is a retired math and science teacher who left the Wrangell School District in 2018 after 23 years. The mayoral candidate has since served in a wide variety of government organizations, including the borough assembly, where she is vice mayor, and the school board, where she served a two-year term as vice president. She also sits...
Terry Courson, a firearms instructor and retired police officer, is running for borough mayor. Though he declined interviews with KSTK and the Sentinel, he has posted flyers around Wrangell outlining his stances and experience. Courson served on the borough assembly from 2020 to 2021. He is a fiscal conservative and plans to vote no on the bond issues on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot, which would finance repairs at the schools and Public Safety Building. Officials believe that the borough can cover the annual debt payment on the $3.5...
The Wrangell High School boys cross country team ran into a third-place finish last Saturday in Juneau at the Capital City Invitational. Eight runners made up the group, with sophomore Daniel Harrison leading his team, finishing fifth out of 143 competitors. The team finished behind Sitka (first place) and Juneau-Douglas (second place). Harrison finished with a time of 16:59.27. Senior Ethan Blatchley finished 11th at 17:48.17; senior Devlyn Campbell finished 12th at 17:49.11; freshman Boomchain Loucks finished 14th at 17:50.92; senior Elias...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following extracurricular positions for the 2022-2023 school year: - High School Assistant Volleyball Coach - High School Assistant Wrestling Coach - Middle School Boys’ Assistant Basketball Coach - Middle School Assistant Volleyball Coach - Freshmen Class Adviser - Sophomore Class Adviser - Junior Class Adviser - Elementary Student Council Adviser Contact the district office at 907-874-2347 for more information. Positions are open until filled. It is the Wrangell Public S...
Officials believe the borough can cover the entire annual debt payment on $3.5 million in school maintenance bonds by taking advantage of strong sales tax revenues and higher federal aid payments — without turning to property taxes. State lease payments for the community’s jail and investment earnings from Wrangell’s $10 million permanent fund savings account could help reduce the tax cost of the other bond issue on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot — $8.5 million for rebuild and repair to the rot-damaged Public Safety Building — according...
A nine-course lunch in 1965 left an indelible mark on the memory of a young teacher from Denver. Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96, but she left an historical legacy that included a meal with Jacquie Dozier. Though it was just an afternoon in the 70-year reign of Britain's monarch, it profoundly affected Dozier and created a memory to last her lifetime. Dozier, now retired and living in Wrangell, began her teaching career at the age of 19. She was born in Michigan, made her...
Sept. 21, 1922 The Wrangell Parent-Teacher Association held its first meeting for the school year last Thursday night. There was a good attendance. Several matters pertaining to the welfare of the school were discussed. Two musical numbers by an orchestra comprised wholly of members of the W.L. Gross family were greatly appreciated. Charles W. Hawkesworth, superintendent for the Bureau of Education for Southeast Alaska, was present, and upon invitation made a short talk which was full of...
The Wrangell High School cross country boys team placed second at the Ketchikan Invitational at Ward Lake last Saturday. Sophomore Daniel Harrison once again led the Wolves, coming in fourth place overall with a time of 16:44.91. Harrison was outpaced by just over a second by Sitka's Trey Demmert, who placed third at 16:43.20. First and second place went to Sitka's Silas Demmert and Annan Weiland, respectively. Wrangell's Boomchain Loucks placed ninth at 17:40.25 out of 88 runners, followed by...
The Wrangell High School swim team competed in two meets at the Ketchikan Invitational competition last weekend, with junior Jack Roberts leading the team with a first-, second- and fifth-place finish. Competing against eight other high schools from throughout Southeast, Wrangell's swimmers had many personal bests and cut down their times significantly, coach Jamie Roberts said. "I'm proud of their performances," she said. "They posted some nice times for an early season meet. They are excited to see what they can do with nine more days of work...
Alex Angerman, CARES Act coordinator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association, is running for borough assembly to improve community outreach and foster youth engagement in municipal government. "The community oftentimes feels like they aren't heard," she said, and she hopes to use her assembly seat to provide a voice for the rising generation. She believes that the borough should increase its social media presence to better connect with the community, and has been actively fielding questions...
Brittani Robbins is running for borough assembly to bolster Wrangell's economic development and stem the out-migration of families and youth from the island. Robbins, 37, is executive director of the chamber of commerce. She has one year of experience in public office as a member of the school board. She was elected to the board last October and intends to keep her seat if elected to the assembly. As a school board member, Robbins said she advocates for students and for non-certified staff,...
After seven years on the borough assembly, Bay Co. manager David Powell is running for another three-year term. Powell's desire to get land out of the borough's hands was what first motivated him to pursue an assembly seat, and he is running again in hopes of seeing his goals completed. If elected, his primary focuses will be selling or leasing the 6-Mile mill property, which the borough purchased this summer, and the former Wrangell Institute property, which was the site of a federally...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following extracurricular positions: - High School Head Wrestling Coach - Middle School Boys’ Assistant Basketball Coach - Middle School Assistant Volleyball Coach - Freshmen Class Adviser - Sophomore Class Adviser - Junior Class Adviser - Elementary Student Council Adviser Contact the district office at 907-874-2347 for more information. Positions are open until filled. It is the Wrangell Public School District’s policy to not discriminate on the basis of age, race, col...
Young Alaskans seeking to break into commercial fishing face a lot of the same barriers that confront young farmers in the Lower 48 states, but they have far fewer resources to help overcome those barriers, according to newly published research. A study by Alaska experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration argues that the fishing industry and the communities that depend on fishing should have support similar to that offered to young farmers. "The sheer scale, depth, and...
Sept. 14, 1922 At the Wrangell Commercial Club weekly luncheon at the Wrangell Hotel last Monday, officers of the Civic Improvement Club were present as guests. A number of worthy projects were discussed, but the one which was taken most seriously was the proposal to utilize the unused patches of soil on Front Street for little flower gardens. It was proposed that the Commercial Club attend to the fencing of these small parcels of ground, and that the ladies of the Civic Improvement Club...
Now that in-person school is available, the Wrangell homeschool community has shrunk to roughly pre-pandemic levels, though community awareness of alternative education options has increased. Homeschool education, which has been growing steadily nationwide since the 1970s, experienced a massive popularity boost in 2020, as families who were dissatisfied with their children’s Zoom classes explored other possibilities. While the percentage of homeschooled children nationwide was holding steady at around 3% before the pandemic, that number rose t...
Alaskans this week will start receiving their $3,284 payout from the state treasury, a combination of a large Permanent Fund dividend ($2,622) and a one-time bonus ($662) to help people pay higher energy costs. The payment is almost triple the size of last year’s dividend. Two reasons for the generosity: This is an election year, and oil prices for the state fiscal year that ended June 30 were almost 70% higher than the previous year, generating more than $2 billion in additional dollars for the state general fund. That fund pays for schools, r...
Starting this week, I will be working as a policy adviser to Mary Peltola, Alaska’s newly elected congresswoman. I hadn’t planned on it, but she asked and I accepted. Fortunately, I saved my suits from when I worked in Washington, D.C., for the state and federal governments a decade ago. I’ll be advising Peltola on oil and gas and other energy issues, natural resources, tax, fiscal, transportation, federal agency issues and whatever else is on the work list for Alaska as she fills out the rest of the late Rep. Don Young’s House term until J...
Last Saturday at the Sharing Our Knowledge Conference, a “Break the Silence” panel discussion highlighted a wide range of perspectives on and experiences with Alaska Native boarding schools. Some panelists identified with the term “boarding school survivor;” others did not. Some lost their language while attending a church- or government-run institution; others did not. Even the act of recounting boarding school experiences, while healing for some, was exhausting for others. “We have different experiences. We’re different people,” sa...
Dylan Wyatt Kirschner, 26, passed away on Aug. 26 "after a brief but courageous battle with cancer," his family wrote. Dylan was born on Feb. 16, 1996, in Wrangell and moved to the Yakima, Washington, area with his parents and younger brother Dawson in 2001. Dylan was an avid video gamer and music lover who played the guitar and ukulele. He played as much as his free time allowed. "We will all miss hearing him play," his family wrote. "Though Dylan moved from Alaska when he was very young, he re... Full story
With 14 players on the roster, this season's high school girls volleyball team is one of the largest that Alyssa Allen has led in the four years she's been head coach. A few key players were lost with this year's graduating class, but she has six returning players to get the squad geared up for the coming months of competition. Allen has a lot of younger players coming from middle school and a few older players who have either never played or haven't played since middle school. Among the...