KCAW

Sitka Community Orchestra director Drew Larson (center) conducts 30 members of the orchestra through an arrangement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony in 2023. (Redick/KCAW)

Sitka’s intergenerational community orchestra will present a spring concert this Friday, April 25. The show will include a broad range of music, from Fiddler on the Roof to Sibelius’ Karelia Suite. Cliff Richter, Amanda Cochran, and Juliette Langley joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton to share more on the history of the orchestra and the event this weekend. Listen to the full interview here:

The free concert is 7 p.m. Friday, April 25, at Sitka Performing Arts Center. For more information, email [email protected] or call 907-747-4031.

The post Community orchestra warms up for spring concert appeared first on KCAW.

Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory disease causing cartilage deterioration, leading to pain and loss of function. Physical Therapist Alicia Haseltine joined KCAW to discuss upcoming osteoarthritis workshops and classes in Sitka. A free workshop on April 25 will focus on knee and hip osteoarthritis, while a six-week class starting May 6 offers more in-depth guidance. Listen here:

Registration is required due to limited space, and sessions are available in person and via Zoom.

The post Local PT to lead workshop and six-week course on osteoarthritis appeared first on KCAW.

In preliminary drawings, Lot 15 is designated as part of the “West Boat Yard.” GPIP board members want to take a hard look at how best to use that property, and any other available lots, to support the new haulout, which is due to come online by the end of May. (GPIP image)

Board members of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park agreed at their most recent meeting (4-17-25) to give short-term tenants until September 30 to move out, in order to bring in long-term leaseholders involved in the marine services industry.

The largest tract available to support the boat yard – lot 15 – is currently in use as storage, most of it unrelated to boats or fishing. The board anticipates more substantial investment, however, as the community’s long-awaited boat haulout enters service next month.

Linda Behnken, director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, said thoughtful development of lot 15 and surrounding property would give locals a stake in the yard in the event things fell through with Kodiak-based Highmark Marine, which last month won the bid to operate Sitka’s new haulout.

“If we get to the point when this contract is over with Highmark, or they decide to pull out, or it gets pulled back for some reason that we really have all the options on the table, a full understanding of what revenue can be generated from the yard, what the costs are, and what it might look like to have a different operating model out there,” said Behnken.

Park director Garry White agreed that it was time to focus on priorities, as the budget for Phase 1 construction of the haulout is almost spent.

“I think there are higher and better uses,” said White. “Instead of finishing out all of Phase 1, like, do we really need the deck over here, shown in front of the boat in the haul out? That is a pretty spendy thing. Do we really need an on/off float? Or instead of investing in that, should we invest in (upland) electricity, or  invest in being able to get over to lot 15, and start opening that up?”

He encouraged the board to have a work session with the public to iron out some of the details that will make the new haulout functional in the near term, and poised for growth in the future.

Local boatwright Mike Nurco actively opposed Highmark’s proposal to run the haulout. Now that they’ve won, however, Nurco said there were no hard feelings. He did want to know a) where the bathrooms would be located, and b) where companies like his could become established, and offset the competitive advantage that he believed had been given to Highmark.

 “To level the playing field for the vendors – I think the deck is stacked towards Highmark already – I would like to see where the vendor space can be, and I would really like to see that move forward,” said Nurco. “Just get that going, because that’s the lifeblood of the yard, as much as DIYers, it’s very important to get the vendors out there with a wide array of services.”

The park board supported the idea of long-term leases – comparable in length to bank loans – which could generate the type of investment they were looking for. One prospective vendor, Jeremy Serka, said that he anticipated spending $500,000 on a structure to house his business. Park director Garry White said long-term leases would generate the revenue the park needed to support the upland development of Phase 2 of the boat yard.

The lengthy discussions that have led to this point inspired Chris Hanson, a machinist, to organize local interests into a Marine Trades Association.

“This whole process taught me that if you don’t have a seat at the table at the beginning, you’re not going to get one mid midterm,” said Hanson. “So I think what we need to do is just advocate for the trades as a group, as a whole, from the mouthpiece of the trades. Or have a mouthpiece for the trades themselves. Not antagonistic thing. Just a way for their needs to be met.”

The new travelift for the haulout – the $1.4 million-dollar vehicle that lifts boats out of the water and sets them down in the yard – is en route to Sitka, but unassembled. Municipal engineer Michael Harmon said this expense had been missed. Paying for a crane to erect the travelift will take the project’s contingency fund down to $97,000. The haulout is scheduled to be operational by May 30.

The post As Sitka’s new haulout nears completion, park board aims at upland development appeared first on KCAW.

The Alaska Native Sisterhood Spring Bazaar is April 19 at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall. The bazaar runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Debe Brincefield joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the event. Listen here:

The post ANS to host spring bazaar this weekend appeared first on KCAW.

Two jobs at Xóots Elementary have been eliminated in the current draft of the Sitka School District’s ’26 budget, along with two at Keet Gooshi Heen. The Sitka School Board will have to decide how deeply to draw on district reserves next year to keep those jobs. (KCAW/Woolsey)

Note: View the most recent Sitka School District budget. The school board’s next public hearing on the budget is set for Wednesday, April 23, 5:30 p.m. at the Sitka High Public Library.

The four teachers – two at Xóots Elementary, and two at Keet Gooshi Heen – have already received  their notices of non-retention, superintendent Deidre Jenson told the board at its work session on April 16.

But those letters could be rescinded, depending on how far the school board chooses to draw down its reserves.

How much in reserves would the Sitka School District have to spend to save elementary teachers?

The Sitka School District traditionally keeps around $1 million in reserves, to cover emergencies or other unplanned expenses.

To keep two teachers, the district would need to spend the fund balance down to $557,000.

To keep three teachers, the district would need to spend the fund balance down to $447,000.

To keep four teachers, the district would need to spend the fund balance down to $337,000.

Other positions likely to be cut:

School nurse reduced to approximately half-time.

Data manager (duties redistributed to Blatchley assistant principal).

Loss of two positions funded by Sealaska Heritage Institute grant and a CLSD (literacy) grant.

Paul Rioux, who served a previous term on a school board that also faced a serious budget crisis, steered the group back to this fundamental question, as the conversation veered toward an hours-long micromanagement of specific line items.

“I’ve done this a few times in the past and we’ve come to this point, and we’ve been like, we want to add two teachers back, go find us $400k, or kind of that 10,000-foot view thing,” said Rioux. “Not that I’m saying to do that. I’m just saying that in the past it’s been pretty broad. It hasn’t been, ‘What’s this line? Let’s cut $20-thousand and move it to this line.’ It’s been, ‘We want a librarian. Go find us $300-thousand. I’m not saying that’s the only way to do it. I’m just saying that, in my experience, that’s how we’ve done it.”

Board president Phil Burdick wanted to allow all board members  time to have their questions about the budget answered, something he didn’t think was possible in a two-hour work session. He wanted the administration to revisit the budget, and to find a way to balance it that was consistent with the board’s previous direction to keep class sizes low, especially in the early elementary grades, and to update both the curriculum and technology used by students.

“While we have a balanced budget at this moment, we also have some cuts in places that we at the table have said that this is something that we want to focus on,” said Burdick. “So instead of getting into the line items, I just wanted to talk about the actual bigger picture of what it is that we’re facing, right?”

Board member Tom Williams felt that there were opportunities for cost savings in the budget – like staff travel and some administrative expenses – that could be converted into teaching salaries, but the answers to his questions were not obvious or straightforward. Clearly frustrated, he said, “I’m drowning.” His fellow board member and daughter-in-law, Amanda Williams, was also unhappy with the ongoing loss of teaching staff, and increasing class sizes in kindergarten. “21 is a lot,” she said.

(Note: The Sitka School District has experienced a 31-percent decrease in instructional staff since 2015 – 19-percent of that loss just this year alone.)

Amanda Williams also found some of the coding and categories impenetrable, and some of the expense items unrealistic. A former Science teacher at Blatchley Middle School until her job was cut last year, Williams pointed out that $300 for classroom supplies for a year in her old classroom was far from adequate. When someone asked how teachers would manage, Burdick – a former teacher himself – said quietly, “Out of their own pockets,” suggesting that this had become the unwelcome new normal for educators in a time of shrinking public funding for schools.

Board member Steve Morse was quiet for most of the work session, but when asked for his thoughts, he was hopeful. With less than two weeks before it’s due to be sent to the assembly, the Sitka School District actually had budget numbers that balanced.

 “This is the most transparent budget I’ve ever seen, and it’s balanced,” he said. “And I think that what we’ve come up with is we would like some of the things put back in there, like positions for teaching.”

House Bill 69, drafted by Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, would have topped up the state’s funding for public education by another $1,000, the first permanent increase in nine years. Both the House and the Senate passed the bill with slim majorities compared to last year – even Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman was among the “no” votes this time – so HB69 was far from veto-proof. As expected, the governor promptly vetoed it the morning following the school board work session, saying he’d accept an alternative bill with a $560 increase.

If this alternative bill passes, it’s likely to create headaches for the Sitka School District, whose present draft budget is built on an anticipated $680 increase from the state, with time running out to rebalance the numbers before the budget is due into city hall by the end of the month.

The post How far will Sitka’s schools dip into reserves next year to save elementary teaching jobs? appeared first on KCAW.

Barb Morse is with the Sitka Recreation Foundation. Walk2Connect” is a leader training for people interested in organizing walks for various age groups and interests. Free registration is now open for20 participants at the Sitka Parks & Rec website. The class meets Wednesday, April 30 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall, Meeting Room 2. The first 10 participants to register for this class will receive a walking leader kit from America Walks.

The post Walk2Connect training set for April 30 in Sitka appeared first on KCAW.

Next month, Sitka will hold a special election for voters to decide whether they want to cut cruise traffic in Sitka by nearly half. Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson says the election isn’t just “special” because it’s happening in May. It’s actually the first of its kind in Sitka. 

“In my research it is, that’s what I was able to find, that it’s the first one that’s been triggered by the citizen initiative,” Peterson says. “So it’s been an interesting process to go through. And here we are.”

While it’s a different time of year than a regular municipal election, the voting process will look the same when polls open on Wednesday, May 28.

“On May 28 on election day, the polls are open at Harrigan Hall from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.” Peterson says. “Fortunately, we’ve been able to retain the same rooms that we use for the regular election.”

Early voting options will be available as well- voters can cast their ballots by mail, fax, proxy, or in-person beginning on May 13, including on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon. Sitkans must be registered to vote locally by April 28, in order to participate.

A local advocacy group Small Town Soul organized the ballot initiative. If approved by voters, it would cap Sitka’s tourism season at 300,000 passengers annually, set a daily limit of 4500 passengers, and set other requirements for cruise ships, including establish a permitting process, requiring the city to enforce violations through fines or revoking permits, and requiring cruise operators to report visitation data to the city. Over 600 people signed the group’s petition to get the cruise limit question on the ballot in a special election. In response, another advocacy group, Safeguard Sitka’s Future formed, calling for Sitkans to vote no. 

Find more information on the upcoming May 28 special election here.

The post How to vote in Sitka’s special election on May 28 appeared first on KCAW.

Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s Young Performers Theater presents the play “Failure: A Love Story” this weekend in Sitka. The play tells the story of the three Fail sisters and is described as a “weird, magical fable” set in 1920s Chicago. Performers Alaina Becker, Lola Hitchcock, and Ruby Gandel and director Zeke Blackwell joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton to talk about how they bring their characters alive and what audiences can expect from the show. Listen to the full interview below:

The show is Friday, April 18 at 7 p.m., Saturday, April 19 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 20 at 3 p.m at Odess Theater.

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The City and Borough of Sitka Parks and Recreation department is unveiling a bouncy new piece of gymnastics equipment, an “air floor,” in an open gym event this weekend. The free open gym and ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place this Friday, April 18 from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Keet Gooshi Heen elementary school.

Elle Campbell and Kevin Knox joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton to share more details about this weekend’s event and to give a sneak peek of upcoming spring and summer programming. Listen to the full interview below:

The post Parks and Recs launches into spring with new ‘air floor’ appeared first on KCAW.

Sitkans Against Family Violence (SAFV) is hosting the second annual Sitka Rose Awards on April 25. The Rose Awards honor women and LGBTQ+ people who have honored SAFV’s core values of safety, community, and respect. The event will include a variety show, raffle, and local food trucks. Shelter supervisor Mel Beadle joined KCAW’s Brooke Schafer to share more about the history of the event and how it supports SAFV’s mission. Listen to the full interview below:

The Sitka Rose Awards take place April 25 at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi. Doors open at 6 p.m. For questions, call SAFV at 907-747-3491 or email [email protected].

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