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The most recent draft of the school district’s 2025-2026 budget shows a deficit of $271,000. With City Hall hamstrung by cuts to federal funding, the school board could need to make sweeping cuts to balance the books. The district is not legally permitted to operate in a deficit and its operating reserve is nearing empty The draft budget assumes that the borough will fund the schools at the maximum amount allowed by state law, around $1.8 million. However, both City Hall and the school district anticipate that number will likely be closer to $...
Amid the widespread uncertainty and mass budget cuts under the new administration of President Donald Trump, Wrangell’s municipal leadership is not particularly concerned about the completion of any of the borough’s ongoing projects. Currently, City Hall awaits two reimbursements from the federal government: one at around $18 million for the water treatment plant and another at $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster recovery costs after the November 2023 landslide. Borough Manager Mason Villarma said City Hall has...
Christine Rose Thomas Jackson passed away peacefully on Jan. 28, 2025, surrounded by her loving family, at the age of 80. Christine was born in Kake on Oct. 17, 1944. She attended elementary and junior high in Kake before spending her freshman high school year at Mt. Edgecumbe. She returned home to finish high school, graduating in 1963. In 1963, Christine welcomed her daughter, Carla. The following year, she married the love of her life, Ben Jackson, and they would go on to have three sons:... Full story
Feb. 26, 1925 Life in Wrangell this winter is very different from what it has been in former years. During the past two decades there has not been enough traffic by dog teams in this region to attract any attention. But this winter Wrangell resembles Nome or Iditarod with its streets congested with dog teams that are leaving here daily for the Cassiar mining district in British Columbia. There are three outfits now on the Stikine en route from Wrangell to Telegraph Creek, B.C., and a dozen more men will leave this week for the Cassiar. Feb. 24,...
The school district and borough share a money problem. And it’s a community problem that needs an answer this spring. The schools need more money to continue even the basic programs for Wrangell’s 260 students. The state funding formula over the past eight years has been flat, which is to say far short of keeping up with inflation, which is to say wholly inadequate. The borough assembly has tried pitching in, but its check-writing ability is limited by two factors: A state law that puts a cap on local contributions to school district budgets, a...
The school district has a separate savings account of nearly $1.2 million, which would more than cover its expected revenue shortfall of $767,016 for the upcoming school year. The fund is reserved for capital improvement projects, but it is within the school board’s purview to reallocate the funds if needed. The district has been building the fund since 1998, with only small withdrawals in recent years. Without major new revenues or spending cuts, the district’s operating budget reserve fund — a separate account from the building impro...
Feb. 19, 1925 During the past week there has been a stream of halibut boats putting into Wrangell for herring for bait. Ten days ago it was reported that the local cold storage plant had the only supply of bait in Southeast Alaska. Later herring was obtainable at Ketchikan and Sitka. A supply of herring was sent to Juneau from Wrangell on the Alameda. Feb. 17, 1950 An encouraging note this week is the quarterly report of sales tax collections for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Although down a little from the first quarter, which included the summer...
After seven years of planning and almost 18 months of construction, Wrangell's state-of-the-art water treatment plant is in the final phases. The $23 million project not only modernizes Wrangell's system but ensures the town is better prepared for future dry spells. The plant will likely go fully online this spring. The current plant started operations in 1999, and many of its pieces are being repurposed into the new plant just next door. While the current plant initially relies on an electrical...
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. FUNDRAISER Fundraiser for Tasha Toombs Peterman. Hand-woven cedar bark hat by Clara Haily. Tickets are on sale through Thursday, Feb. 13. Sellers are Clara Haley, Fern Seimears and Lynn Allen, available at Raymes. Call Clara at 907-305-0874. JOB ANNOUCEMENT Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the 2024-2025 School Year: - Paraprofessional: This is a... Full story
Facing a deficit of $111 million, the Anchorage School District released its draft budget on Jan. 31 calling for massive cuts to programs and positions. The cuts represent about 20% of the district’s spending plan for the 2025-2026 school year. In a letter to Anchorage parents, Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said the deficit is “driven by more than a decade of flat state funding and rising costs due to inflation.” The budget proposal came on the heels of Gov. Mike Dunleavy rejecting a plan by Alaska lawmakers to significantly increase state...
The Wrangell School District could run short of operating funds by 2026 or 2027 if it doesn't receive new revenues or make large cuts to its programs. The school board discussed the first draft of its 2025-2026 budget on Jan. 20. Barring any notable changes between now and when the budget is sent to City Hall for approval by May 1, the district anticipates a deficit of $767,016, requiring a dip deep into the school district's dwindling reserves. This would leave the reserves at an estimated $51,...
A member of the Alaska House majority on Jan. 24 introduced legislation that would increase the state’s public school funding by more than 35%, marking the beginning of what will likely be a lengthy debate over lawmakers’ top priority for the session. The bill would add roughly $464 million to the state’s annual education spending, which currently hovers around $1.2 billion per year to Alaska’s schools. The measure was introduced by Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, a Sitka independent who co-chairs the House Education Committee, and who worked as a publ...
Money's going to be tight, but a permanent education funding increase rather than another one-time boost is among the essential tasks facing lawmakers this session, state Senate leaders said as the Alaska Legislature gaveled to work on Jan. 21. Energy and development issues also dominated conversations with lawmakers during the first day of the session, which came the day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order seeking to vastly expand oil and other natural resources production...
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. FUNDRAISER Fundraiser for Tasha Toombs Peterman. Hand-woven cedar bark hat by Clara Haily. Tickets are on sale through Feb. 13. Sellers are Clara Haley Fern Seimears and Lynn Allen, at Raymes. Call Clara at 907-305-0874. HOME FOR SALE Spacious 2-bedroom, 1½-bathroom, fully furnished 1,695-square-foot home near the airport, with 1-car garage, RV parking, gated backyard,... Full story
The Wrangell School District — its students, staff and parents — will need to practice deep-breathing exercises to relieve the stress as they wait to see if the state Legislature and governor can agree on adequate funding for public education while at the same time waiting on Congress to reauthorize a quarter-century-old federal aid program for rural schools. These are significant and serious stress issues, particularly for Wrangell. State funding, based on a per-pupil formula, and the federal Secure Rural Schools money that comes through the...
Alaska education advocates are gearing up for another attempt to substantially increase state funding for public schools, but they say it’s unclear how a looming legislative stalemate will be broken. Last year, the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy failed to approve an expansive education package after protracted negotiations. Legislators fell one vote short of overriding Dunleavy’s veto of a historic school funding increase. The Legislature later approved a major $176 million one-year funding boost for schools as a compromise. School adm...
The failure of the U.S. House to reauthorize federal funding to assist rural communities with a lot of non-taxable federal land — such as the Tongass National Forest — presents a $550,000 challenge for the Wrangell School District and borough. If the new Congress doesn’t fix the problem, the district could have to further draw on its reserves, or the borough could have to take from its reserves to plug the gap, or a combination of the two. Or cut spending at the schools — the federal money represents about 10% of this year’s school district...
The Box Tops for Education program has been around for more than 25 years, raising money for schools across the country. But people no longer have to literally cut off the tops from food boxes and household products and turn them in to raise money. Like so many other things in life, it’s now an app. The program, started by General Mills in 1996, had raised almost $1 billion as of last year. Wrangell’s Evergreen Elementary School wants to remind residents of the digital opportunity to help raise a little extra cash for classrooms. It all depends...
In the 2022-2023 school year, over 70% of Wrangell students were chronically absent. That's nearly double the state average and nearly three times the national average. The Alaska Department of Education, which posts school district absenteeism numbers every year, defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the school year. In Alaska, that amounts to 18 days of missed classes. "If a student misses those 18 days every year from kindergarten to 12th grade, that will add up to them being absent...
Wrangell students’ filmmaking efforts are going global — at least to Vancouver, British Columbia. This February, Wrangell high schoolers Jackson Pearson and Silje Morse will travel to the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival alongside teacher Laura Davies. The trio was invited to attend the festival by See Stories — an Alaska nonprofit dedicated to building “inclusive communities with film and story.” See Stories and Wrangell’s high school documentary film club, Stikine Stories (whose program is modeled after See Stories), have collab...
Wrangell, like much of Alaska and the country, relies on fundraising for all sorts of good causes. Many of those causes look pretty similar to public services that are covered by taxes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that elected officials and the public should keep in mind as they increasingly talk about cutting government spending and relying on donors to pick up the tab. In Wrangell’s case, the borough assembly decision last year to reduce financial support for the Senior Center, school district and public radio sta... Full story
The Wrangell Athletic Club succeeded in raising enough money in its first full year to repay the school district for the cost of sending students to state competition in the 2023-2024 school year. The all-volunteer nonprofit organization was created in late 2023 after the school district determined it could not afford to pay the expenses of students traveling to state competition and needed community fundraising to cover the bills. The costs totaled $25,042 for the 2023-2024 school year, which...
Five, four, three, two, one - wooooooooooo. And just like that, the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was alit. Adorned with 10,000 Alaskan-made ornaments and glistening with the power of 5,000 LED bulbs, the 80-foot-tall spruce will remain lit from dusk to 11 p.m. through Jan. 1. While the tree obviously headlined its own lighting ceremony, the Dec. 3 event was equally a celebration of Wrangell and the state. Members of Alaska's congressional delegation, Rep. Mary Peltola and Sens. Lisa Murkowski...
Dec. 4, 1924 A second cold storage plant for Wrangell is scheduled to be in operation within three months after the beginning of the year. E. A. Albright, representing F. Klevenhusen, arrived in Wrangell on Tuesday evening for the purpose of putting the Columbia & Northern cold storage plant into shape to operate again after being shut down for six years. Mr. Albright is the engineer who constructed the Columbia & Northern plant at Wrangell more than 12 years ago. He will make a thorough inspection of the plant and dock and will make an estimat...
The Wrangell school district will not purchase an electric school bus this year. Business Manager Kristy Andrew informed the Environmental Protection Agency that the district would return the $370,000 federal grant it received in 2023. After the school board voted down the purchase on Sept. 9, the district had until Nov. 22 to inform the EPA of its decision, which it did ahead of the extended deadline. This concludes a four-month long saga in which the school board initially expressed optimism about the bus purchase before flipping on the...