Mt. Edgecumbe High School Superintendent Suzzuk Huntington has announced she will resign from her position at the state-operated boarding school at the close of the school year.
Huntington sent staff an email about her resignation last week, as the school continues to face financial difficulties and may have to cut a large number of staff members in order to deliver a balanced budget.
Huntington’s resignation will take effect June 30, after the end of Mt. Edgecumbe’s school year. She has been superintendent since 2022.
In her April 14 resignation letter to Alaska Commissioner of Education Deena Bishop, Huntington said:
"This decision has not been easy. As the world has grown more uncertain, so has the need to be physically closer to my immediate and extended family as well as the Arctic environment of my culture and heritage.”
On March 6 Bishop wrote a letter to MEHS staff and students about the need for cuts.
“MEHS is currently facing a budget shortfall due to increased operational costs, facility maintenance needs, and rising expenses associated with providing comprehensive student services. During the pandemic, the school received additional federal funding through COVID-19 relief programs, which has since expired. As a result, MEHS is readjusting to pre-pandemic staffing levels while maintaining a strong focus on student success,” Bishop wrote.
About three-quarters of Mt. Edgecumbe’s annual budget comes through the state. In February, Huntington delivered a budget proposal to the state board of education, which oversees school operations, in which she proposed cutting about half of the high school’s staff. Her proposal assumed flat state funding with a base student allocation amount of $5,960. Though the Legislature passed a boost to that funding a month ago, Gov. Dunleavy vetoed the additional funding earlier this month, and the attempted legislative override failed.
