Dear Editor: As Senate Bill 146 moves into the House this week, Alaskans are once again being asked to stand up for Mt. Edgecumbe High School, a school that has long served students from communities across our state.
We have been here before. In the early 1980s, when Mt. Edgecumbe’s future was threatened, students, families, alumni and community leaders testified about the school’s irreplaceable role in Alaska’s education system. They emphasized that Mt. Edgecumbe provides opportunities, cultural exchange, and leadership development that cannot be replicated elsewhere. That collective advocacy helped protect the school then, just as it is needed now.
Years of deferred maintenance and limited access to funding have left the campus short-staffed and its facilities in need of major repairs. SB 146 would allow Mt. Edgecumbe to access funding to help remedy these long-standing issues, improving both campus conditions and the daily lives of students.
Mt. Edgecumbe is important to Alaska’s children, to our Sitka community, and to the state as a whole. A school with this statewide reach deserves to be maintained, protected and strengthened.
Alaskans can show their support by:
Contacting Governor Dunleavy and urging him to support SB 146, and to recognize its bipartisan backing and broad public support;
Contacting Rebecca Himschoot and other legislators (contact information available at akleg.gov/house.php);
Submitting written testimony to the bill sponsor through Senate Finance at Senate.Finance.Committee@akleg.gov; and
Encouraging friends and family in other Alaska communities to contact their representatives.
Thank you to Sen. Bert Stedman of Sitka for sponsoring this bill.
History shows that public voices matter. Now is the time to speak up again.
Jessica Wells, Sitka
