Criticism
Dear Editor: Recently there has been a flurry of criticism in Sitka about Sitka School District administration and particularly Sitka Superintendent Mary Wegner. Much of it is coming from Alaskans Against Common Core, a group formed to prevent adoption of the Common Core Standards by the State of Alaska and the City and Borough of Sitka.
The Common Core Standards were introduced in 2000 by a consortium of
the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association to improve rigor in education which was seen to be falling further and further behind international norms. The standards stressed inductive and deductive reasoning over rote memorization and was not a curriculum, leaving that to the individual schools. It was initially very popular and the majority of the states “signed up.” Alaska did not adopt the standards but created its own Alaska Standards which all agree are essentially identical to the national Common Core standards.
In the last few years criticism of the Common Core has arisen and some states and communities have withdrawn from the compact. Interestingly, the criticisms and resignations have had little or at least much less to do with education than with politics, with the departing groups bemoaning national data mining and increasing influence by the federal Department of Education. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the frequency of encountering the paranoid style in American politics, some of the local groups have taken to vilifying their enemies, whether real or perceived.
Unfortunately and to the dismay of the Sitka School Board, Alaskans Against Common Core has taken this road. They have sponsored attacks on Superintendent Mary Wegner by rumor, e-mail, internet ads, and cartoons on their web site. The accusations include from the at least plausible, that she acts and speaks on policy without board authority, to the outlandish that she supports introduction of Sharia law and establishing contact between students and Islamic study groups.
All of these assertions including the “at least plausible” are false and some of them malicious. As a group the AACC members appear to oppose the Obama administration and its Education Department under Arne Duncan. It is speculated that Superintendent Wegner has been singled out as Alaska’s “bad actor” because of her recent recognition by President Obama as a leader in integrating digital learning into the classroom (a course she was directed to adopt by the Sitka School Board).
As a Sitka School Board member I would like to very strongly assert my utmost confidence in Mary’s character, probity, expertise in educational matters, dedication to Sitka’s Schools, and expertise in managing the budget and the fiscal policy of the Sitka District. We are lucky to have her.
Tom Conley,
Sitka School Board member
Thank You, White E
Dear Editor: On behalf of Sitka’s senior citizens, we wish to thank our friends at the White Elephant Shop for their sustained and unfailing generous support of the Swan Lake Senior Center programs. Their annual financial suppo9rt allows the senior center to continue providing hot, nutritious meals to Sitka’s seniors five days per week and wheelchair accessible transportation to seniors and people with disabilities seven days per week.
Thank you, Sitka residents, for shopping at the ‘‘White E.’’ Your support of the White Elephant helps them to pay it forward by supporting the Swan Lake Senior Center with meaningful financial support.
Sidney Fadaoff,
Southeast Senior Services, Juneau
Utility Rate Increases
Dear Editor: The following letter was sent to Mayor Mim McConnell.
Mayor McConnell: Sitka Tribe of Alaska is opposed to the utility rate increases being proposed by the City and Borough of Sitka. The trend of rates and fees increases imposed this past year is just too much to bear for the citizens of this community who either live on medium or low incomes or are senior citizens who live on fixed incomes. To burden the citizens with another rate increase on top of last year’s increases in the utility rates and the increase in moorage rates – for the third year in a row – and other proposed rate increases, is unreasonable.
Especially impacted with this proposed rate increase are our STA Tribal citizens who are lifelong residents of Sitka, but are at the brink of being forced to consider moving out of Sitka because they simply cannot afford to live here. We see this trend already taking place among our Tribal citizens and find ourselves striving to provide the additional support to our citizens in need. We would also go so far as to say that these repeated increases have contributed to a growing homeless population in Sitka.
It appears that with this trend to move costs out of reach of the average citizen, the City and Borough of Sitka is purposely creating a community environment where only the elite can afford to live. That is not representative of the rich history of this community. The City and Borough of Sitka Assembly has had such a focus on serving a select population and large businesses, now is the time to consider how these actions affect the common citizen.
At the regular monthly STA Tribal Council meeting held on March 18, 2015, the STA Tribal Council unanimously approved the STA Tribal Chairman signing this letter in opposition to the proposed utility rate increases. We stand as representatives of our Tribal citizens to say enough is enough.
Michael Baines, Tribal Chairman,
Sitka Tribe of Alaska
