LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
School Board Urged To Deal with Threats
By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka School Board had a good news-bad news start to their Wednesday meeting in the Sitka High School library.
The board recognized its own members who had received Association of Alaska School Boards Boardsmanship Awards. Basic Boardmanship Awards were acknowledged for Dion Brady-Howard and Elias Erickson and an Excellence in Boardsmanship Award for Eric Van Cise.
Board president Jennifer McNichol said the awards are based on participation in AASB training events, sportsmanship academies, workshops and annual conferences.
The mood then turned somber during the Persons To Be Heard segment where the public comments on topics of their choosing.
A member of the public said that in the past two months there have been two death threats made to children by other students at Keet Gooshi Heen elementary school. One of the victims received a note in September saying her neck would be snapped and that the assailants knew where she lived. Another student was approached on October 18 by two youths who said they were hired by another child to assassinate her.
The speaker said she had approached various school officials and accused them of not doing their jobs. The speaker said she has hired an attorney, and stated that the district was violating state law in the actions relating to the complaint.
The speaker said she had talked to other parents and discovered there were at least 13 children who have withdrawn from the Sitka School District because of bullying. She said the school district does not have appropriate rules in place to deal with these issues. This was confirmed when the first victim’s representative spoke at an earlier school board meeting about the note threat. At that time McNichol asked Superintendent Mary Wegner if there was an appropriate policy and Wegner stated, “Not at this time.”
The speaker said school officials did not notify the police, as required by state law, and that she had not received any response to her concerns. She said the School Board would be held accountable.
McNichol asked Wegner if the board would be supplied with any additional information about the issues the speaker brought up when they met in one of the two executive sessions already on the meeting agenda, and Wegner said they would be discussing board policy in one of the closed-door sessions.
On a separate topic, local parent and Mt. Edgecumbe High School teacher Stephen Courtright, a member of the Families For School Libraries organization, spoke concerning efforts to return a working library to Blatchley Middle School. Funding for the library was cut in the current budget.
“What we are working on is trying to make sure that Blatchley Middle School has a working library again with a full time librarian, and to see that in every library in this district,” Courtright said. “This is for the betterment of our students and the betterment of the community as a whole.”
Beth Short-Rhodes also spoke for Families For School Libraries. She turned to address the entire room with her remarks.
“I think it is noteworthy and not at all surprising that we are in a school library tonight,” she said. “School libraries are the heart of our schools. They are places where we come together to find reliable information and places where we can gather together as a community.”
Short-Rhodes presented the board with packets of letters of support of the Blatchley library that they had gathered over the Thanksgiving weekend.
“We understand that school budgets are tight right now and are going to get even tighter,” she said. “Instead of throwing up our hands and saying what can we do we have decided that we need to be vocal about the things we care about and urge others to do the same. If a school library can be cut, what is next – sports, music, art, shop class, foreign language …?”
In other business at the meeting, the board heard updates on the Supporting Transitions and Educational Promise Southeast (STEPS) grant, and the Culturally Responsive and Embedded Social and Emotional Learning (CRESEL) program by STEPS grant director Mandy Evans.
The board also heard administrative and board member reports, and under new business viewed updates to their Family Life/Sex Education policy and Code of Ethics that would add additional language that complies with Alaska Statutes.
The Board held two executive sessions to end the evening.
Wegner reported to the Sentinel today that in the first executive session the board considered a student discipline grievance, and after returning to open session voted to reject the grievance.
District policy on school safety, including student harassment, threatening behavior and bullying by students was the subject of the second executive session. The board did not take any action on the issue when it returned to open session following the closed door session, Wegner said.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.