By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Mary “Suzzuk” Huntington, an alumna of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, has been selected as the next superintendent and director of the state boarding school, the Department of Education announced Wednesday.
Huntington will start work on June 1, subject to the state Board of Education’s approval, the Department of Education said in the announcement.
Huntington, 44, will replace Janelle Vanasse, who has been superintendent the past six years. Vanasse said Huntington is a great pick for the job.
Huntington described her reaction to the announcement of her selection as “joy, excitement.”
Mary "Suzzuk" Huntington
“I’m humbled by all the support and well wishes from across the state,” Huntington said this morning. “It’s a reinforcement of the connections that began forming when I went to Mt. Edgecumbe. It re-energizes me in what we will be able to accomplish.”
“I think she’s an excellent selection for the spot,” said Vanasse. “She has both a strong vision for the school but also is tied to the history of Mt. Edgecumbe. That makes her uniquely qualified.”
Academic Principal Bernie Gurule had similarly positive comments.
“I think Suzzuk brings a lot of different talents and strengths to the job,” said Gurule, who has worked with Huntington over the years. “She’s an expert in cultural relevancy and the cultural aspects of education and society in general. ... She’ll be a really good superintendent for our school and our state. It’s going to be really hard for anyone to fill the shoes (left) by Janelle but I think Suzzuk will do really well.”
Huntington, a member of Mt. Edgecumbe Class of 1994, has deep roots and connections to the school. Her mother is a Mt. Edgecumbe graduate, too, and Huntington met her future husband when they were students there. Her three siblings are fellow alums, her stepson graduated in 2017, one of her children graduated in 2019 and another is in the class of 2023.
She has been on the Mt. Edgecumbe High School Advisory Board since 2017 and has been chair since 2020.
Huntington is coming to Sitka from Unalakleet, where she is coordinator of cultural programs for the Bering Strait School District, a position she has held since 2018. She previously taught in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms in that school district and has been assistant principal of Shishmaref School and Principal of Koyuk Malimiut School.
Huntington is Inupiat and originally from Shishmaref, an island community 100 miles north of Nome.
After graduating from Mt. Edgecumbe she earned a bachelor of education degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a master of education at the University of Alaska Southeast. In addition to her employment with the Bering Strait School District, Huntington has been active in numerous professional committees and cultural arts.
She said today that she has ideas about building stronger connections in the Mt. Edgecumbe community, including those between the school and families, cultures, communities, and other schools; and the connections with academic and residential staff, alumni, local and regional entities, and organizations across the state.
“There’s so much potential,” she said. And there are opportunities to build relationships and “to not wait until after we graduate to make those connections.”
“I do have a vision but don’t have an agenda,” she said. “I do plan to watch and observe for a while and make sure what I envision fits with what’s there. ... Some of the places I want to jump into from the start is to reinforce positive associations with identities and culture, the richness of the total number of cultures and languages that everybody brings to the table.”
The superintendent’s post is one of the two top positions that opened up this year at Mt. Edgecumbe High.
Bernie Gurule, the longtime academic principal, is retiring. Miranda Bacha, the school’s student support services coordinator for the past two years, has been selected to replace him. Stories on Vanasse, Gurule and Bacha will appear in a later edition of the Sentinel.
The Alaska State Board of Education is the governing body of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, which is operated by the state Department of Education. Current enrollment is 349 students, including some from Sitka, but enrollment preference is given to students from communities without high schools, the department said in the news release.
