Sorted by date Results 1726 - 1750 of 6836
The results of the Petersburg School District's spring Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment showed growth in language arts and math, but students didn't score as high as anticipated. Bridget Wittstock, special education director with the school district, presented the results of MAP test scores for kindergarten through ninth grade to the Petersburg School Board at their June 8 meeting. The spring results were compared to the test scores from the fall. Wittstock noted that the students...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate easily confirmed former Obama administration official Tommy Beaudreau as deputy secretary at the Interior Department on Thursday, a rare bipartisan moment in an increasingly bitter fight over President Joe Biden’s policies on energy production and climate change. Beaudreau, a lawyer and former Interior chief of staff, is widely seen as a moderate and was selected in April after Biden dropped plans for a more liberal nominee who faced key Senate opposition. His nomination was approved on an 88-9 vote. Forty-one Rep...
A local Boston Whaler vessel crashed into a Hewescraft belonging to Island Point Lodge in the Wrangell Narrows in front of Trident Seafoods and OBI Seafoods on Wednesday morning, resulting in at least two injuries, according to two eyewitnesses. Al Domon and Joe Pang, two fishermen from California staying at the Green Rocks Lodge, said between 8:45 and 9:15 A.M. on Wednesday, the Boston Whaler was headed south into the Wrangell Narrows in the direction of Petersburg Harbor. The Boston Whaler was... Full story
A week after the Sandy Beach Playground was installed, organizers said the playground has enhanced the park and gotten nonstop attention from the younger members of the community. The new playground replaced a 25-year-old playground that consisted of some digging equipment, a swing set and a slide. Desi Burrell, one of three organizers of the project, said auditors recommended the replacement of the aging playground several years ago. Because the Petersburg Rotary Club had installed the original...
The Petersburg School Board adopted the fiscal year 2022 operating budget at their meeting on June 8 that has a total revenue that is below the school district's expenditures for the year. According to budget documents presented to the school board, the fiscal year 2022 operating budget is based on a total of $8,043,406 in revenue. Because the school district is anticipating an enrollment of 415 students this fall, the school district will see a drop in state funding of $696,443 over last year...
As the Petersburg Borough prepares to end its Local Disaster Emergency Declaration and disband the Emergency Operations Center at the end of the month, Incident Commander Karl Hagerman said during the COVID-19 community update on June 11 the local COVID-19 Dashboard would continue to be a local resource of all things COVID-19 related. "It's been quite a long haul, very rewarding," said Hagerman. "But I'm ready to get back to my normal job for sure." With the end of the Local Disaster Emergency...
Petersburg Medical Center will keep offering COVID-19 vaccines past the expiration of the Local Disaster Emergency Declaration at the end of the month. PMC Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner said at the COVID-19 community update on June 11 that the hospital's efforts to vaccinate the community against COVID-19 have remained unchanged. While the hospital isn't anticipating large vaccine clinics in the future, like the ones held at the beginning of the year, smaller vaccination clinics are still...
Emma I. Chase graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science, Bioengineering degree....
For the kids enrolled in Kinder Skog's summer program, all they wanted to do on Wednesday was go to Sandy Beach Park to play on the new playground. "The kids wanted to come down, so that's where we ended up," said Kinder Skog Mentor Rickki Malone. Katherine Pilcher, 10, Luci Maldonado, 8, Cali Compton, 8, Rebel McGrath, 9, and Kade Norheim, 8, spent their time at Sandy Beach enjoying the new playground equipment, but spent most of their time on a large circular swing that resembles a tire...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —Graduating seniors in Juneau will be allowed to earn half a credit less than prior graduating classes under a change adopted this week that was billed as a way to acknowledge the impact the pandemic has had on learning. Under the change adopted by the Juneau School District Board of Education, the graduating classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024 would need 22.5 credits to graduate, rather than the 23 credits previously required. Reducing the elective credit total by a half-credit would allow “more time for recovery of core con...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Senate delayed action on a state spending package Tuesday, as lawmakers evaluated their options for getting needed votes on a budget and completing their work ahead of a Friday special session deadline. The budget proposal that advanced from a six-member conference committee Sunday attached strings to funding for programs like the annual dividend paid to residents. It was criticized by some lawmakers as a strong-arm tactic. Dividends typically have been paid using earnings from the state’s oil-wealth fund, the...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The federal government announced plans Friday to “repeal or replace” a decision by the Trump administration last fall to lift restrictions on logging and road building in a southeast Alaska rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon. Conservationists cheered the announcement as a positive step. Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy criticized it and vowed to use “every tool available to push back.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plans were announced on a federal regulatory site with little deta...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Wildlife officials in Alaska have said two campers were attacked by a bear this weekend while they were sleeping in a tent in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jeff Selinger said the campers were sleeping when the bear attacked Saturday around midnight, Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday. The campers had bear deterrents but did not have enough time to use them. “There’s no indication that they did anything to prompt the attack or did anything wrong,” he said. “It’s one of t...
The Borough Assembly held a work session with staff from Alaska's federal delegation to discuss Alaska Natives Without Land legislation that will be introduced to the United States Senate in the coming weeks. The meeting is part of a series of work sessions the delegation is hosting throughout the region to gather feedback regarding the latest version of the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act. Sen. Lisa Murkowski originally introduced the act in...
SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium spoke about the possibility of collaborating with the Petersburg Borough, taking over the Petersburg Medical Center and building a new hospital facility during a Borough Assembly meeting on Monday. SEARHC Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elliot J. Bruhl gave the presentation at the request of Mayor Mark Jensen. He explained the details about a possible partnership with the borough and addressed concerns about SEARHC taking over a...
The Borough Assembly repealed three local health mandates and one public health alert and amended Health Mandate #5 at an assembly meeting on Monday. The changes to the local health mandates and alert were presented to the assembly as recommendations from the Emergency Operations Center. The assembly had the option to discuss and vote on each health mandate and the alert individually, but instead voted to approve the EOC's recommendations in one unanimous vote. At a special meeting on May 1,...
SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has expanded its services in Petersburg and taken over two locally operated health providers in the past three months. After a series of funding cuts, Susan Ohmer, executive director and founder of Petersburg Mental Health Services, decided to transfer PMHS' services and offices over to SEARHC, she said in a letter to the public in March. "I am pleased with how SEARHC has worked collaboratively to keep our wonderful PMHS team in place as they expand...
The Associated Teachers of Petersburg (ATP) will receive a one percent raise each year for the next three years as part of a new labor agreement between the teachers union and the Petersburg School District. "I think we have a really good contract moving forward, so we're pretty happy with it," said Ginger Evens, ATP's representative during negotiations with the school district. The new contract will take effect in the fall of 2021 and span three school years through spring 2024. With each schoo...
The Borough Assembly made five more amendments to the Petersburg Borough's fiscal year 2022 operating budget at their meeting on Monday before passing it in its third reading. The General Fund's revenues and expenditures equal $9,741,364 and is an overall increase of .39 percent from the 2021 fiscal year adopted budget. The recent amendments to the budget addressed a one time bonus to Emergency Operations Center staff, upgrades to two borough marine facilities, a funding source for the maintenan...
The Petersburg School Board updated Board Policy 5127 at their meeting on Tuesday to specify that students must be enrolled in the Petersburg School District to participate in the Petersburg High School senior graduation ceremony. The school district allowed a one time exception to past practices to allow students not enrolled at PHS, but in an accredited home school program, to participate in the most recent senior graduation ceremony, said PSD Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter in an email to...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday urged lawmakers to act on his proposal to place in the state constitution a new formula for the annual check residents receive from Alaska’s oil-wealth fund as the current special legislative session slumped along. Some legislators have raised questions about some of the administration’s modeling assumptions and concerns with tackling the dividend issue without other pieces of a possible fiscal plan. “It’s like whack-a-mole,” Dunleavy said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Eve...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An agreement announced Tuesday between an Alaska Native village corporation and conservationists would restrict development on lands in the Bristol Bay region where a mine developer has proposed a road, a move that could create another obstacle for the proposed Pebble Mine. The Conservation Fund said it has launched a fundraising campaign to buy the land easements on more than 44,000 acres (17,800 hectares) from the Pedro Bay Corp. for $18.3 million. Terms call for the money to be raised by the end of 2022, said Ann S...
Abbey Hardie was named to the Chancellor’s List attaining a grade point average of 4.0 during the Spring 2021 semester at the University of Alaska Southeast. Andrea Burt was named to the Dean’s List for the 2021 spring semester at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. Gillian Wittstock was named to the Dean’s List at Gonzaga University for the 2021 spring semester....
The Petersburg Borough is offering $10,000 in prizes to be distributed throughout the month of June as part of a program to encourage local residents who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 to get the shot. The Sleeves Up Petersburg drawing is sponsored by the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, though the funds were distributed through the Alaska Chamber. The program is part of a statewide campaign to increase the state's vaccination rate by 25 percent. The drawing is open...
The Borough Assembly passed a resolution at a special meeting on Tuesday that will terminate the local Disaster Emergency Declaration at 11:59 P.M. on June 30, which will also bring an end to all the local health mandates and orders and disband the Emergency Operations Center. "The whole purpose of the emergency declaration and the standing up of the EOC was to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and protect Petersburg residents," said Incident Commander Karl Hagerman. "At this point in time, I...
