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September 7, 1923 – The Petersburg schools, with the exception of the first and second grades, opened for the winter term on Tuesday. The two lower grades are closed for a time on account of whooping cough, which has been going the rounds of the younger children this summer. To limit as much as possible the further dissemination of whooping cough, the School Board, in consultation with the Health Officer, has ordered Principal Earl Shaeffer to issue the following edict: – “The contagious disease known as whooping cough is a serious disea...
The Petersburg School District approved the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) six-year plan at the first meeting of the academic year August 15. It is a long term plan that is vital to secure state funding for major maintenance and building capital projects. The facility committee met with Borough Building Official and Code Enforcement Officer Ray Wesebaum, Southeast Regional Resource Center representative David Landis, and school board member Jay Lister to review and discern priorities for a six-year plan. So far, there are five projects on the...
The filing window for candidacy in the 2023 Petersburg Borough Municipal Election officially closed Tuesday afternoon. Thirty candidates filed for the 20 seats up for election, and there will be 11 contested positions on this year’s ballot. The two contested seats on the assembly are now a race between Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Rob Schwartz, Rick Perkins, and incumbent Jeff Meucci. Both positions will be three-year terms. Dave Kensinger will not run for reelection in this year’s race. Both of the three-year terms on the hospital board are a con...
At the first board meeting of the academic year last week, the Petersburg School District board decided that school meal prices will increase by at least $0.25 this school year. This decision was approved in order to maintain the financial sustainability of the school food service program and comply with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Paid Lunch Equity Policy. The policy says that schools serving lunch need to have enough money to pay for meals that students buy at the regular price, not the discounted price; some s...
A Man for All Seasons To the Editor: Mr. Paul Bowen was a man for all seasons: the fishing season, the election season, the basketball season, the hunting season, the climbing season, and along with all of these, the high school year. We knew him as our physical science and biology teacher in the 1960s at Petersburg High. His irrepressible optimism and powerful zest for the task at hand made us engage with the subject with uncommon attention. I remember going on a spring field trip to the beach that featured a surprise snowstorm. He led the...
"I'm very happy to be here - it's pretty exciting for me," said Petersburg's new Middle and High School Principal Brad King during a lighthearted administrative report at the first school board meeting of the 2023–24 academic year Aug. 16. King said he "put away all my red clothing and got all my blue clothing out" and is excited to be working with staff to "support the kids, support the teachers and make sure that this is a really successful year."...
Petersburg residents will have one ballot proposition to decide on when they go to vote in this year's municipal election on Oct. 3. Proposition #1 will ask if the borough charter should be amended to allow borough employees to serve on boards or commissions, except for those that directly administer their employment. The change, for instance, would allow a Petersburg School District employee to run for borough assembly or the hospital board but not the school board. The proposed amendment was...
At the end of July Megan Smith loaded her car, a U-Haul truck, her nine and twelve year old daughters, and Charles Puddles Kittenworth, a.k.a. Charlie the cat, onto the ferry in Metlakatla for the move to Petersburg where she'll be teaching Pre-algebra, Algebra I, Geometry and Statistics at Petersburg High School. Smith earned her bachelor's degree from Montana State University, Bozeman, in English, with a teaching emphasis. She took her first job on the Kenai Peninsula in Nanwalek, Alaska, in...
Petersburg residents can now file for candidacy in this year’s municipal election, which will be held on Oct. 3, 2023. 20 seats will be up for election this year, including two on the Petersburg Borough Assembly currently held by Dave Kensinger and Jeff Meucci. Both seats on the assembly are three-year terms. Katie Holmlund is the lone incumbent on the Petersburg School District Board up for election this year—also for a three-year term. The Petersburg Medical Center Board will have three seats on the ballot this fall. The seats that are cur...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board discussed holding future board meetings in the Petersburg Borough Assembly chambers last week in an effort to make their meetings more accessible to the public as the new facility project progresses. The board typically holds its meetings on the last Thursday of each month at 5 p.m. in the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room, located on the first floor of the hospital. Though hospital board meetings are open to the public, both in person and over Zoom, they are not broadcast by KFSK like the assembly and school...
Sharon Paulson moved her family from Juneau to Petersburg in July and will teach fourth grade at Stedman Elementary School this fall as one of several new additions to the Petersburg School District's roster of educators. This will be her fourth teaching position in Alaska, where her entire career as an educator has taken place. Paulson attended undergrad at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia before moving back to her home town of Wakarusa, Indiana, where she wrote for the local...
The K-5th grade library program at Stedman Elementary School will welcome home a former Petersburg resident and long-time friend to the community, Debi Tice. One of several new hires to Petersburg School District, Tice now holds the title of Elementary Librarian and Intervention - the latter half reflecting a measure of the Alaska Reads Act. Tice started teaching in Petersburg in 1998, leaving and returning a few times, then ultimately taking her teaching career abroad to Brazil, China, and...
The Petersburg Medical Center Foundation is inviting all members of the community to bike or kayak as part of the annual Pedal/Paddle Battle this year on Saturday, July 29. The course will take participants from Scow Bay to Sandy Beach while contributions raised by the event will support continuing education for PMC staff and go toward scholarships for Petersburg High School seniors. "We were really successful last year, we had about 75 participants, and a lot of families participated. Anybody...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly recognized Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department staff and volunteers during its meeting on Monday for their efforts to fight the fire that ravaged the St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church on July 6. The fire, which was ruled an accident and was the result of maintenance work, raged for 10 hours, covering Petersburg in smoke and warranting response efforts from the PVFD, EMS, Search and Rescue, the Petersburg Police Department, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S....
The U.S. Coast Guard held a Change of Command Ceremony for the new officer in charge of the USCGC Pike at the Sons of Norway Hall Monday morning. Command of the Pike was transferred from Lt. Jak Loewenstein to Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Kay Jones in a formal reading of orders in front of the crew and Capt. Darwin Jensen, the Commander of Sector Juneau. The ceremony was attended by the crew of the Pike, their families, Coast Guard personnel, Petersburg Borough staff, representatives of Sens....
The Petersburg School Board approved the district's FY24 budget at its last meeting of the school year on Tuesday. The uncertainties surrounding education funding in Alaska as well as rising inflation and utility costs have made the budget's development a long and winding road, but advocacy efforts by school officials on both the local and state level have helped ensure stability in the district for another year. "Honestly this is a much better scenario than what I had...predicted, so I mean...
The day after Petersburg Middle School let out for summer, 7th grader Ari Warmack boarded a plane bound for New York City to perform with his guitar at the invitation of Kids Rock For Kids (KRFK), a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that raises money for kid-related charities by producing rock benefit shows featuring outstanding teen musicians from around the world. In March, Ari received a direct message on Instagram from KRFK inviting him to a zoom interview. He discussed it with his parents, Eliza...
Beulah Eleanor Luhr passed away on Sunday, June 11, 2023, at her home in Petersburg surrounded by her children. Beulah was born in Chester, Montana on October 12, 1934, to Robert T. Reid and Vena (Ward) Reid. Her family moved to Petersburg, Alaska in 1939 and she resided there for the last 84 years. Beulah grew up in Scow Bay, graduated from Petersburg High School and married the love of her life, Donald Luhr, on May 31, 1952. In high school Beulah worked for the telephone company, back in the... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously passed the borough's budget for the next year in its final reading during Monday's meeting. The final version of the FY24 budget fulfills the Petersburg School District's request to increase local funding to $3 million, up $1 million from last year. The district has been advocating for a bump in funding at the local level and from the state as it faces inflation, higher utility costs, and the implementation of the Alaska Reads Act next school year. "I...
June 1, 1923 – The Petersburg telephone system was cut in on Friday morning and is now working with twenty subscribers already connected up and more to be connected as rapidly as possible. Lilly Larsen is acting as central girl. Service is from eight a.m. to midnight, but within a short time the service will be from 5 in the morning until midnight. May 28, 1948 – A gift to Alaska from Seattle businessmen commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Gold Rush will sail from Seattle June 10. The gift will be the University of Washington Gle...
The Petersburg High School baseball team played its final series of the regular season in Ketchikan last weekend. Though the Vikings boarded the ferry back without a win, Head Coach Jim Engell said the team played the three games with grit and determination. “It felt like the kind of games we needed to be able to prepare for a state tournament so hopefully we’ll get that nod,” Coach Engell said. Despite Petersburg starting pitcher Jack Engell throwing a no-hitter, the Kings claimed the win Friday night in a 1-0 game. Engell struck out eight...
The budget that legislators approved last week and will send to the governor for his signature into law or veto would provide around $804,000 in one-time additional state funding to the Petersburg school district for the 2023-2024 classroom year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has not publicly stated whether he will approve the increase in state funding for public education. He did not propose any increase in the budget that he submitted to lawmakers at the start of the session in January, leaving it to legislators to decide an amount. State funding for pu...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved the borough's FY24 budget in its second reading during Monday's meeting with three amendments added. The first amendment, proposed by Assembly Member Jeff Meucci, increased funding for Mountain View food service from $25,000 to $42,800 using general fund reserves. The increase was requested by the program to help meet the rising costs of food, inflation, and an increase in deliveries to five days a week, which started during the COVID-19...
With education funding undecided, Director of Finance Karen Morrison reported to the Petersburg School District Board during its meeting on Tuesday about possible budget scenarios for the next school year. The need for an increase in funding both at the state and local levels has been driven by inflation, rising utility costs, and the implementation of the Alaska Reads Act as well as the end of the district's hold harmless provision and COVID-19 funding going away. Earlier this month, the...
The Petersburg Arts Council recently installed a new wireless sound mixer at the Wright Auditorium that will make productions easier and improve sound quality according to Dave Berg. The upgrade was made possible by a $1,000 grant given by the Petersburg Community Foundation during the Little Norway Festival last year. The Mackie Wireless Mixer will be used for concerts, plays, dance recitals, and other events put on by the Petersburg School District and local organizations. The previous sound s...
