Alaska’s education commissioner wants the Alaska’s Board of Education and Early Development to form an ad hoc committee for Mt. Edgecumbe High School.

Department of Education Commissioner Deena Bishop was tasked with researching the idea in December, after former staff and alumni voiced concerns about mental health and student safety at the school, and urged the board to take action. At the State Board of Education meeting on Thursday (1-22-26), Bishop shared her recommendation. 

“I do believe that having an ad hoc committee to bring back information to you, the good, the struggles, the things that are considered, you know, bad by some, it should be included of parents and students and staff,” Bishop said. “If you want information from other boarding schools about how they operate, but providing that to you is a benefit.”  

Bishop said following the December meeting, her department sent staff to the school to look into complaints. Bishop said most tied back to last year’s staffing and funding cuts, as well as the shift to a new contractor, NANA Management Services, to manage the school’s food service and dormitories.  

“I don’t want to give this board or anyone in the public [the impression] that we don’t care,” Bishop said, or that they’re not, “working through those growing pains, or lack thereof.”

While Bishop said the school was “in crisis mode” last year, she said she hopes that the committee would be able to help students, staff and parents move forward. 

“We had to plug holes with funding from other sources, because there was, you know, a delta in that that work. So there are great changes, but there’s nothing better than bringing a group of people together to lead through changes, and I hope to do that while listening, and especially listening to the feedback of the folks that care deeply about Mt. Edgecumbe,” Bishop said.

Bishop said the ad hoc committee would focus on academics and student experience, and safety was added as a third category at a board member’s recommendation.

Several board members signaled support for forming the committee, but it was unclear at the meeting whether they needed a formal vote to establish it. Bishop said she would seek legal consultation and either call a special meeting for a vote or move forward with creating the committee as soon as possible, ideally before the board’s next regular meeting in March.