Author: Robert Woolsey

Mt. Edgecumbe High School graduated eighty-eight students on Thursday (5-7-09). The state-run boarding school in Sitka serves students from towns across Alaska. It was standing-room only in Sitka’s performing arts center, as families and friends turned out to support the new grads. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey attended the ceremonies, and sent this audio postcard:

The Sitka school board voted to lift restrictions on the distribution of religious promotional materials in schools on Wednesday (5-7-09). Members also learned about beautification at Blatchley Middle School, rising lunch prices, and a fifth grader's views on freedom.

The first cruise ship of the season arrived in Sitka on Wednesday (5-6-09) with about 1,700 passengers aboard. Many came ashore at Crescent Harbor to do a little sightseeing and shopping. KCAW's Chris Todd sends this audio postcard from the docks.

The Sitka School Board plans to spend about half of its federal stimulus funds on technology. The district has almost $900-thousand dollars in mostly unrestricted stimulus funds coming.

The Sitka Tribal Council has asked the city of Sitka for support in protecting herring stocks. The council made the request at the semi-annual government-to-government meeting between the Tribe and Sitka Assembly Tuesday (5-6-09) evening. The meeting was also a social occasion. The two government bodies enjoyed a prime-rib dinner at the golf course before getting to business.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is planning to remove Sitka’s Granite Creek from its list of impaired waters next year. Over the past six years, the state has contributed a quarter-million dollars of federal funds to control sediment loads in the stream, which passes through two large gravel mines before reaching tidewater at a state recreation area. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey recently toured Granite Creek with Sitka’s environmental superintendent Mark Buggins. They talked about the success – and challenge – of stream rehabilitation in an industrial area:

The University of Alaska on Friday (5-1-09) awarded Herman Kitka an honorary Doctorate of Humane letters. The 94-year old Tlingit leader was a founding officer of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska in 1938, the first president of the Shee Atika board of directors, and influential in developing the legislation that led to the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. Robert Woolsey attended the ceremony:

Another long-time Alaska cultural institution is undergoing change this year. The Island Institute will hold its twenty-fifth Sitka Symposium this summer, and then close the book on the annual gathering of writers, students, and thinkers. Carolyn Servid and her husband Dorik Mechau are co-directors of the Island Institute, which will continue to run its Writer in Residence and other programs. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey talked with Servid, and with English professor Scott Russell Sanders, about the symposium:

Efforts by the Tenakee Springs advisory school board to recruit new families for the town have met with success. Two families, with a total of six school-age children, are making plans to move to Tenakee Springs after learning about the community through an ad in Craig’s List, and through subsequent media exposure in the Juneau Empire and Anchorage Daily News.

The Sitka Summer Music Festival has named a successor to founder and artistic director Paul Rosenthal. Cellist Zuill Bailey will take over as artistic director for the 2012 season, on the eve of Rosenthal’s seventieth birthday.