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October is National Seafood Month, a distinction bestowed by Congress 30 years ago to recognize one of America’s oldest industries. Alaska merits special recognition because its fishing fleets provide 65 percent of the nation’s wild caught seafood, more than all of the other states combined. Ironically, there is little to no fanfare in Alaska during seafood month. My hometown of Kodiak, for example, (the #2 U.S. fishing port) never gives a shout out to our fishermen and processors, nor do local restaurants celebrate seafood on their Oct...
The Petersburg School District wants to be clear to the public why it switched to a single phone system, and how a toll-free number will increase accessibility and better facilitate workflow for educators and administrators. Jon Kludt-Painter, the technology director of the Petersburg High School, headed the integration of a one number system. He said recent reports on school bulletins have advertised the new phone as a “District Office” number. It is not an office, rather an operator with nine call options, including a line to every sch...
District Governor Harry Kieling visited the Petersburg Rotary Club this week and commended the club for its work in the community and at the international level. "You are doing a great job with Youth Exchange and all the civic projects that make your community better," Kieling told the club at its Wednesday luncheon meeting. The Petersburg Club sends local students to the Rotary Youth Leadership program, hosts inbound and outbound students, provides high school student scholarships and...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A teacher shortage across the nation has added to Alaska’s ongoing problem of educators fleeing the state, leaving school districts scrambling for teachers with just a few weeks until classes start, school officials said. Numbers from August 4 show 155 teaching positions and 90 special education positions are open across the state, according to Alaska Teacher Placement. About half of Alaska’s school districts are still looking for teachers to hire for this school year, KTOO-FM reported. Lower Kuskokwim School Distr...
Last week the United States Senate passed an omnibus bill to fund the government through the end of Fiscal Year 2017. A member of the Appropriations Committee and Chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced a series of provisions within the bill that will provide resources to support programs with significant impacts in communities throughout the state. “With our state in the midst of a fiscal crisis, this bill will provide a much-needed boost to our economy. The bill provides new investments f...
Massive cuts could be in store for the agencies and people who provide the science and stewardship to preserve and protect our planet. The budget proposed by Donald Trump that starts in October puts on the chopping block the agencies and staff in charge of fisheries research and management, weather forecasting, satellite data tracking and the U.S. Coast Guard. Trump called the cuts a tradeoff to “prioritize rebuilding the military” and to help fund the border wall with Mexico. The Washington Post broke down a White House memo to the Office of...
A busy year for the Petersburg Rotary Club continued last week with district representatives visiting from Ketchikan. Assistant District Governor Rosie Roppel and newly appointed District Governor Michelle O'Brien are good friends and both belong to the same Rotary club. Over 30 attended a BBQ at Petersburg President Desi Burrell's house last week, and a new member was inducted into the local club during the event. Earlier this month, Burrell took over as club president, and Roppel says she...
July 1, 1916 – Captain A. W. Thomas, general manager of the Alaska Herring and Sardine Company, at Port Walter, was a business visitor in town. He states that they are confident of having a prosperous season. They have not started the work as yet of putting up the sardine herring, but are canning kippered herring and preserving the fish in other fancy styles. Twenty-three girls and twenty-two men are now employed at the Port Walter plant. They have a large quantity of herring corraled. Captain Thomas visited the Petersburg shrimp plant, and h...
Yesterday’s News May 20, 1916 – A request was received from the Petersburg Packing Company that water be turned on at the cannery June 1 and that the council fix the price for water service for the season. After considerable discussion and motions to make the price $2.50 per day, $50 per month for four months, and $300 for the season of four months, the rate was finally set at $75 per month for not less than four months. May 23, 1941 – The 42-foot C. G. R. Primrose II arrived in port Tuesday night to make her headquarters in Petersburg. Aboar...
Local Petersburg resident Eliza Warmack will be a new 5th grade teacher at Rae C. Stedman Elementary School next year. Eliza, her son Ari and her husband Glenn Warmack came to Petersburg four years ago from Sand Point in the Aleutian chain where Eliza taught kindergarten for two years. "We actually moved up there (Sand Point) for a teaching job," Eliza said. "We were in Portland and I taught there for a year and did some subbing for Portland Public and there was just not a job to be had. The...
wrangell — A crowd-drawing discussion on recreation funding held by the Forest Service Tuesday evening made the council chambers at City Hall feel unusually short for space. About two dozen members of the public met with staff of the Wrangell Ranger District to share their concerns about facilities maintenance. Listing concerns from greatest to least, residents participating at the meeting identified cabins, ATV trails and the overall recreation program as their top priorities, followed by trails, berry access, subsistence and stoves. F...
The Petersburg School Board unanimously approved an $80,037 software program for the Petersburg School District’s finance office. PSD Finance Director Karen Quitslund said the current software is 35 years old and that she has been looking at new programs for several years. “The current system is really outdated. It’s inefficient,” Quitslund said. “All the processes are done manually and of course the more manual processes that you have the more the margin of error is greater.” The district’s current software doesn’t interface with other prog... Full story
We are in this together To the Editor: I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the School Board members and administration that worked for literally hundreds of hours to develop and pass the amended Memorial policy. As we all know, it is heartbreaking to lose someone that you love, no matter the age, circumstance or relationship. No one grieves in the same way. Some are comforted by reminders of the person, but others can’t face any reminders at all. I appreciate the opportunities that our close-knit community offers in the way of r...
November 20, 1915 – The building of the board walk along the beach at Scow Bay was completed last Saturday, and Olaf Arness has notified J. C. Hays, of the road commission, that the job is ready for inspection. The walk is 5,820 feet in length. Although the specifications called for but two planks in width for part of the way, Mr. Arness used three planks the entire length of the walk, and also renewed numerous portions of the old single planking. This extra work and material cost him about $50, which he contributed, in addition to taking t...
Petersburg School District administrators and teachers are wondering what's next after the state released results from the new Alaska Measures of Progress (AMP) testing assessments. PSD students scored higher than the state average, but scores in every grade were below the median level in mathematics. (Note that median is not a measure of average, but the middle number in any list of numbers and is sometimes more accurate than an average score if data is relatively skewed.) Fifty percent of...
PSD Superintendent Erika Kludt Painter discussed the Alaska Measures of Progress (AMP) scores—a new state adopted standardized test that students completed for the first time last spring. Kludt Painter said the tests are totally different than what students are used to and they’ve been expecting scores to reflect that. The AMP standards are higher than previous tests and measures English language arts and mathematics for grades 3-10. “It came in pretty much what we thought which is they don’t look the same as they used to,” Kludt Painter s...
United Fisherman of Alaska members gather in the Sons of Norway hall this week as it conducts its 2015 Fall Board Meeting. Board members representing 35 Alaska commercial fishing organizations began their meeting Tuesday, Oct. 27 where representatives of Lt. Governor Mallott, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska Anchorage and other independent commercial fishing agencies gave presentations to the board. Much of the time was devoted to internal discussion regarding seafood...
The Petersburg School Board met in a work session last week to discuss the implementation of random drug testing for Petersburg High School students participating in activities. The board kicked off the discussion highlighting criticisms and questions they’ve heard from community members regarding drug testing. Board member Mara Lutomski said one of the common concerns she hears is whether or not teachers and coaches will be tested along with students. While coaches and teachers wouldn’t likely be randomly drug tested, the board can request dru...
The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce announced this week that they have hired John Havrilek as the new Administrative Manager of the organization. He replaces Cindi Lagoudakis who resigned in August. Havrilek will assume the administrative duties of the organization and work with the 11-person board of directors in fulfilling the chamber's community-wide mission. President Seth Scrimsher expressed appreciation to Lagoudakis for her work the past 20-months and welcomed Havrilek, who began his...
The Petersburg School Board held its first meeting of the 2015 school year. At the meeting, the board unanimously approved spending $18,510 for the much needed addition of an exhaust hood in the cafeteria kitchen. “We have received a health code violation because we do not have an exhaust hood over our stove and steam kettle,” said Daniel Tate, maintenance/facilities director. “The school never was designed with a cafeteria, it was essentially put into a multipurpose room.” Tate believes the cafeteria was originally called a gymnasium on the... Full story
The Petersburg School Board unanimously approved a list of capital projects for the district at their Tuesday evening meeting. Maintenance Director Dan Tate helped prepare and prioritize the list, which outlines the district’s needed capital projects for the coming six years and is required for submittal to the legislature for possible grant funding. Rather than being a straightforward list of priorities, projects are ranked strategically to garner points from legislators who prepare an overall ranked list for funding for new capital p...
While students have been enjoying a summer away from school, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter and other staff have been working behind the scenes preparing for the upcoming year. At Tuesday’s regular School Board meeting, the superintendent also apprised the board of a new evaluation tool that the district will begin using to assess teachers, librarians, counselors and principals this year. The evaluation is required by the state and Kludt-Painter said she and her staff have been working to implement a state-approved evaluation tool that w...
The state legislature has finally reached a budget agreement, drawing a “collective sigh of relief from Alaska,” as Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka) put it. The $5 billion budget will include funds pulled from the Constitutional Budget Reserve to balance it. The state still faces a nearly $4 billion budget hole in fiscal year 2017. This year’s legislative session went over seven weeks as legislators couldn’t reach a compromise. It sparked the possibility of a partial government shutdown on July 1 that had Governor Bill Walker sending... Full story
WRANGELL - The next steps have been taken on an agreement between the University of Alaska Southeast and Wrangell Public School District, with the establishment of an office for the university's technical preparation program. The tech prep program is offered for college credit through the university, and courses are taught by approved instructors using UAS syllabi. Enrolled students earn high school credits needed for graduation as well, and school superintendent Patrick Mayer explained the...
As of Tuesday, the Alaska Legislature meeting in a special session in Anchorage had still not passed a budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. On Sunday, the Senate Finance Committee rejected a compromise budget passed by the House the previous day, which included some small concessions to the minority such as reversing cuts to the ferry system and per-student funding. A conference committee between the two chambers was being organized to negotiate an amended budget. However, any deal that would tap into Congressional Budget... Full story
