ANSEP and MEHS
Dear Editor: As a response to the various points advanced by ANSEP in their recent interviews and press releases, regarding their proposal to take over Mt. Edgecumbe High School, there are so many directions I could take. There are a myriad of scholastic and even sentimental reasons that this is a bad idea, but in this letter, I will instead delve more into the reasons this attempted takeover is bad for Sitka.
This takeover by the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program is ill-conceived, at best. The fact remains that no clear plan for how they would assume the responsibility of a 24/7 institution that is technically designated as a “child care facility” has ever surfaced, and they cannot likely address this within the time frame they propose for their takeover, by next school year. It is also unclear as to whether or not 400 students hailing from predominantly urban areas (which are the ones who fit their proposed requirement of incoming freshmen needing to have passed high school Algebra 1 in the eighth grade) would want to move to a small town on a remote island in Southeast Alaska. Most of the students they currently serve (according to a report of their own) are from MEHS, Bethel Regional H.S., and the Mat-Su region. The school currently supports 400 students, who in turn support numerous businesses during the school year when tourism dollars are not available. If the proposed new school cannot successfully execute their plan to the tune of 400 students and, should it fail due to poor planning, can one even conceive of the economic impact on Sitka? Not to mention the numerous and invaluable partnerships between MEHS and the Sitka community that could be lost under such a takeover, partnerships with organizations such as the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood, Sitkans Against Family Violence, KCAW, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, Sitka Fine Arts Camp, to name a few.
In addition to which, although ANSEP is currently promising to save the state money, and to use their currently deep pockets of private contributions to enhance the campus and its amenities, how long will they continue to have these “deep pockets” to even continue their own existence? With oil prices remaining steadily low, many of their biggest donors, the oil companies, continue to announce layoffs in their own companies due to low profits, and an astute observer would ask how long their charitable contributions to programs such as ANSEP will remain intact.
Mt. Edgecumbe High School has existed since 1947, and in its current form since 1985. We have a long-standing record of success, which it would be foolish to entirely displace with an institution whose conception, by their own admission, has been so quickly thrown together. Although we have had this tradition of providing education to predominantly rural students for so long, make no mistake, we are not an institution that rests on its laurels. We have undergone changes in our own student population in recent years, and as any quality institution does, we have continued to adapt and to innovate to answer these new challenges, and we will continue to do so. But we need the continued awareness and support that the community of Sitka has always graciously given us. For that, we thank you in advance.
Dionne Brady-Howard, Sitka
