State lawmakers questioned Mt. Edgecumbe High School leadership about conditions at the Sitka school this week. So far, a quarter of the students have withdrawn this school year. The hearings follow months of concern about student welfare at the boarding school that serves primarily Alaska Native students from rural communities around the state.
Schools around the state are struggling to keep up with building maintenance, teacher turnover, and increased costs. Mt. Edgecumbe High School is among them, with one key difference – it’s state-run. At a House Education Committee hearing on February 11, Sitka Representative Rebecca Himschoot, an Independent, highlighted that distinction. She said legislators are directly responsible for the safety and quality of life for students attending the boarding school.
“That is why we are here today. Like all school districts across Alaska, Mount Edgecumbe is experiencing rapid changes with impacts to student health, safety and mental well being. We are not here today to point fingers or to condemn any one person or any one decision,” Himschoot said. “Rather, we are here to bring facts, transparency and perspective to the situation, because Edgecumbe is the only school in the state for which the state is directly responsible, it is critical that the dialog today is open, productive, and honest.”
Last fall, a group of alumni advisory board members, along with a handful of former and current staff, addressed the Alaska Board of Education and Early Development with concerns about student welfare at Mt. Edgecumbe. They said recent funding and staffing cuts led to fewer programs and extracurricular opportunities, along with more restrictive policies on campus. They said the changes were taking a toll on students’ mental health, and more students than usual were changing schools. As of February, school leaders say 100 students have withdrawn this year, around a quarter of the student body.
Every year, dozens of students leave the school early. School staff say it’s for a variety of reasons, but this year’s departures also align with a dramatic dip in the school’s budget, and longtime staff departures. Education Commissioner Deena Bishop told legislators that during the coronavirus pandemic, the school expanded its staffing with around $5 million in relief funds. After the money ran out, they found themselves $1.6 million over budget last year.
“At the time, what alerted me was that there was a recommendation…to eliminate 14 teaching positions. And I knew from having run high schools and other things over my time that there’s no way that you could have a comprehensive high school with 14 less teachers,” Bishop said. “We would not be able to do that.”
Instead, last summer, the state balanced the budget by cutting four teaching positions along with one administrator and two administrative support staff. Bishop said the state reviewed the school’s finances and found spending for the dorm and food contractor was up significantly, even though they weren’t meeting federal requirements (Bishop said a USDA inspection in FY25 yielded 59 violations). So they switched to a new contractor, NANA Management Services. Around the same time, the longtime dorm supervisor and other residential staff stepped down. The superintendent also resigned in April, and was replaced by David Langford in August.
It was a big transition. Ilana Kalke was one of two Mt. Edgecumbe students who addressed legislators. She said a disconnect between the contractor, NANA, and state staff was affecting students.
“It seems like they have trouble communicating, which impacts, this leads [to] inconsistent application of rules,” Kalke said. “At the beginning of the school year, there’s something where we can check out a lounge, and that wasn’t across all dorms. There’s been trouble communicating, getting rides, and just like less collaboration, which affects rec activities.”
While Kalke, a junior, spoke highly of her education and experiences at Mt. Edgecumbe, she said the school’s aging facilities are affecting student life.
“There’s leaky pipes, washers that don’t work, malfunctioning showers,” she said. “And this isn’t just the dorms, but also the academic building. There’s leaks in classrooms, in the library.”
At the Senate Education Committee hearing, Superintendent Langford said they had been working on solutions with NANA to improve the student experience both in the lunch room and the dorm rooms, and they’ve addressed some deferred maintenance, but it’s an uphill battle.
“Not just last year or this year, but maybe a decade worth of neglect that has things have not been taken care of, and move to the next level,” Langford said. “So we’re moving as fast as we can to make changes and update the school.”
Bishop and Langford pointed to several fixes made in the past year, including replacing dorm furniture and beds, and kitchen equipment. Anchorage Democratic Senator Löki Tobin said the Legislature had approved funding for aesthetic dorm improvements, as well as structural repairs. She said that funding was vetoed by Governor Mike Dunleavy in FY24, but the legislature didn’t see another ask from the school for the funding. Tobin wanted to know why it hadn’t been pursued.
“I’m just kind of confused, a little bit, about your engagement with Mt. Edgecumbe, your responsibilities. You are the oversight body, and yet we continue to see the governor veto, since 2020, projects for Mt. Edgecumbe,” Tobin said. “It’s just very challenging for me to understand exactly what the oversight has been of this particular facility underneath your leadership. But I know that finance will dig much more into this.”
Legislators also questioned Bishop’s decision to hire Langford as the new superintendent when he had already accepted a job to run Chatham School District in Southeast which serves Angoon, Tenakee Springs, Gustavus, and Klukwan. He’s currently doing both jobs. Bishop said she was looking for someone with experience, and Langford agreed to live in Sitka and do the bulk of the Chatham job remotely.
“Many superintendents don’t spend as much feet on the ground in their own local places, in their schools, as much as really the Mt. Edgecumbe superintendent can, because he lives about a couple blocks away from the school,” Bishop said.
Langford, who has been in the superintendent role for around seven months, told Legislators while 100 students was around 25% more than typical for this time of year, he was hopeful they wouldn’t lose any more. He said he was determined to turn enrollment around, and the school has already begun accepting applications for next year.
Listen back to the full hearings here:
House Education Committee
Senate Education Committee
