When the school board met Wednesday night (9-3-26), it approved a handful of resolutions to send to the statewide organization for consideration. 

School board member Paul Rioux drafted the resolutions by comparing Alaska’s book of resolutions with other state school board associations around the country to see what language was missing. He also looked into the latest issues schools are facing, like developing policies for artificial intelligence. 

The seven resolutions unanimously approved by the board also included absenteeism, maintaining local authority over challenges to library materials, homelessness, and emergency training.

View the full list of resolutions here

The resolutions will be sent to the state association annual conference for consideration in November. The resolutions that ultimately get the greenlight will inform the board’s policy recommendations to the legislature and the state’s department of education. 

Dolly Parton’s passing last week has left many reflecting on the country music star’s philanthropy, particularly around children’s literacy. Last weekend (8-29-26), Sitkans took a page out of Parton’s book by giving free books to kids. Listen here:

It’s a rainy afternoon at Old Harbor Books in Sitka. Lisa Teas Conaway is browsing the shelves with her three sons.

“We found a great Frog and Toad for Owen here, who’s only seven months old. He’s very excited to chew on it already. And Adrian, what did you find?” Teas Conaway asks her oldest son, who holds up Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. 

They’ll be walking away with three new books — one for each of the boys — without paying a penny. A Facebook group called Sitka Kids is leading a pay-it-forward campaign for children’s books at the local bookshop. Kids up to age 12 can choose one book under $20. Community donations will cover the cost.

It’s one way Sitkans are honoring the legacy of Dolly Parton, who was dedicated to improving children’s literacy, especially in rural areas. Librarian Kari Sagel helped get the idea off the ground.

“People wanted to commemorate her, sing her songs, play tributes,” Sagel says. “And I sensed that people wanted to do something, and I thought, ‘Well, let’s give them something to do.'”

Parton has been making an impression on young readers in Sitka for years. Over 260 kids are enrolled in Sitka’s branch of the Imagination Library, Parton’s foundation that sends one free book a month to kids under five. As a librarian, Sagel says she’s always eager to give books to children. Especially physical books.

“I think research shows that the ‘book book’ is important. That’s the technical library term: ‘book book,'” Sagel says.

Jasmine Horton is a bookseller at the local store. Before the shop opened this morning, she says people were lined up outside with rainboots and umbrellas.

“I expected it to be busy for sure,” Horton says. “But when I walked up and saw the line, I was like, ‘Oh, let me hurry up and get inside so we can get started.'”

And there’s been a steady stream of customers all day. The fund started with $300 from Sagel, the bookstore, and Peggy Fedoroff, a retired teacher. With just a few days notice, they racked up more than $3,000 from individuals and businesses in town. Over 120 kids were able to walk away with a free book. 

“It’s social media and word of mouth in a small town. The two are just the perfect combo,” says Ashia Lane, the bookstore’s manager.

There’s still a few hundred dollars left in the fund. Lane says the bookstore is hoping to hold the balance on a gift card to pay-it-forward another day. 

Dolly Parton’s death was tough news for people around the world. But for Sitka’s youngest readers, her light still shines, even on a rainy day.

“And what that really means is that our rainfall amount hit a level where there had been landslides in the past,” Silva said. “So it’s not that there’s always going to be landslides when that level of rain hits. You know, it happened last night, and we didn’t have any slides in town, but it did mean that other slides have happened at that amount of rainfall that we hit that last night.” 

While no slides resulted from the heavy rains, Silva hopes Sitkans will walk away with a reminder to be prepared and use the dashboard as a tool when deciding whether to leave a landslide-prone area.

“I always think it’s worthwhile to really exercise caution, because while we don’t know that a landslide will happen, it could,” Silva said.

Silva recommends having a “hazard buddy” who lives outside of landslide-prone areas. When the risk level shifts to medium, consider staying with that person for the night. Silva also recommends keeping tabs on the National Weather Service website for the most up-to-date weather information, weather.gov/ajk. As for when to check the dashboard – Silva said there are some signs to watch out for.

“Heavier rainfall than you imagine is a big one,” Silva said. “Other environmental triggers we’ve seen that you could observe with your own eyes are, let’s say, if you live near a stream, for example, and you see water that normally runs clear running muddier or sort of darker. That’s a sign that we’ve seen before landslides in the past.”

For more information, including maps of landslide prone zones and other slide signs, visit sitkalandslide.org.

The dashboard is hosted by the Sitka Sound Science Center in collaboration with a number of other organizations.

Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and may be updated.

A male brown bear in Sitka known locally as Tum-Tum drowned at Redoubt Falls earlier this summer during a state-run research project.

Researchers with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are currently in year two of a six-year project to count the number of bears on Baranof Island, which covers 1,600 square miles. 

State wildlife biologist Stephanie Sell said in a statement Monday that research staff were capturing and collaring brown bears at Redoubt Lake over a four-day period in late July when the drowning occurred. She said the five-year-old brown bear, who was highly habituated, was darted and took a trail that led to salt water.

Sell said staff made every effort to resuscitate him, including rescue breathing and CPR, without success. ADF&G staff ceased all captures in the area immediately afterward.

Sell said it was “a highly unfortunate accident” that they don’t take lightly.  However, she said, wildlife management and research come with inherent risks to both staff and animals. 

“Despite the skilled and professional biologists’ best efforts, across North America, occasionally an accident occurs which results in loss of the animal,” she said.

For the past decade, it’s been one man’s mission to go to every National Park System site across the country. And he just crossed number 400 off his list.

Pete Selleck visited Sitka National Historical Park on Thursday (8-27-26) to continue his quest to see all 433 sites. These places fall under an array of designations — parks, monuments, seashores, and battlefields to name a few. Selleck lives in Greenville, South Carolina, and says most of the destinations he has yet to visit are in Alaska. 

“As you can imagine, logistically, it’s a challenge to get to all these places, to get the weather just right and get the outfitters that can fly you to the right places at the right time,” Selleck said.

The National Park Service has added 16 sites since Selleck started chipping away at the long list. He says this journey is a way for him to marvel at the country’s scenery and reflect on its complicated history. 

“We made some mistakes, but at the same time, we have been trying to become a more perfect union, as we stated in the Constitution,” he said. “We’ve been trying to improve as time has gone on, and I think we’ve overcome a lot of things. We still have a long ways to go, but it does make me appreciate even more the opportunities that we all have being Americans.”

Selleck’s next stop is Glacier Bay, which will count for two — it’s a national park and a national preserve. Though that will help him reach his ultimate goal, he says he wouldn’t mind a change of pace.

“I’m kind of slowing down a little bit because I’ve really had a good time doing all this. And I’m going to miss the trips that I’ve taken with my brother, who’s been one of my co-travelers, and my wife,” he said.

Selleck may be nearing the end of his list, but his travels are far from over. He and his wife plan to take their two oldest granddaughters to Yellowstone next year. He hopes their trip to the nation’s oldest national park will spark the same wonder for the next generation. 

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Pete Selleck’s hometown, Greenville, South Carolina.

The Sitka Assembly, acting as a quasi-judicial body, unanimously denied a citizen’s appeal over a public records request at its meeting Tuesday night (8-25-26). 

Austin Cranford submitted a records request to the city clerk’s office in June, asking for information on changes to the city’s public records request process online. The city launched a new portal in June to address a massive increase in requests over the past decade and make the process more efficient. 

Cranford wants the city to provide legal justification for two additions to the requester’s form. 

“The city’s digital portal requires every online requester to sign a certificate of non-litigation affiliation and runs the request through a set of automated narrowing prompts,” he told the assembly Tuesday. “The paper form does neither. So I ask the city to identify the ordinance, statute, opinion, directive, or memo behind those extra requirements on the digital side. I did not ask anyone to write me an essay. Only what rule or rules this is based on and who decided it? This is the whole appeal.”

In his appeal, Cranford said the city refused to search for, or respond to, his request for the “legal framework,” and did not confirm that the records don’t exist. 

Municipal Attorney Rachel Jones said this portion of Cranford’s request did not ask for a public record — it was asking for legal analysis, which goes beyond the scope of a public records request. 

“It would be like asking a librarian to review Lord of the Rings and assess if it was a good authorship decision to have Sam and Frodo have a bromance instead of having a romance or an enemy relationship,” she said. “You’d have to go through every page where the character development happened. You’d have to apply the narrative structure of heroic epics. You’d have to look at brotherly love and why that’s a good narrative choice or not, and then pull every page that shows why that was a justified or unjustified decision. That would be asking a librarian to conduct literary analysis, and it’s the same thing here.”

The assembly said they believed Jones made a clear argument and unanimously denied Cranford’s request in a 6-0 vote. 

Cranford is a former Sitka Assembly candidate, and he’s fought several public records request denials before the assembly since 2024. He also sued the city in 2025, alleging censorship on the Sitka Police Department’s Facebook page. He’s the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city several years ago and settled for over $300,000 out of court. 

She joins three other candidates running for two open assembly seats – they are JJ Carlson, Sherri Blankenship and Darrell Windsor.  

Hall declined KCAW’s request for an interview. 

Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday, October 6.

In Cranford’s appeal, he says the city refused to search for, or respond to, his request for a “legal framework” for the additions, but did not confirm that the records don’t exist, so he’s fighting the decision. A brief from Municipal Attorney Rachel Jones says this portion of Cranford’s request did not ask for a public record– it was asking for legal analysis. A “legal framework” Jones says, is beyond the scope of a public records request. 

Tonight, the assembly will hear arguments from both Cranford and city staff. Acting as a quasi-judicial body, the group may grant or deny the appeal.

Cranford is a former Sitka Assembly candidate, and this the latest of several records appeals he has made before the assembly since 2024. He also sued the city in 2025, alleging censorship on the Sitka Police Department’s Facebook page. He’s the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city several years ago, alleging he was unfairly demoted from sergeant to officer in breach of his union contract. The case was settled out of court for over $300,000. 

In other business, at tonight’s meeting the assembly will review an updated sub lease with Alaska Airlines. And it will consider the municipal administrator’s recommendation to hire the city’s interim fire chief, Brian McLaughlin, into the full-time, permanent position.

The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. tonight. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.

The Sitka Assembly has offered a second interview to a candidate for the city’s top job.

In a special meeting on Friday (8-21-26) the assembly interviewed Gerrie Cotter for the municipal administrator post. Cotter has a law degree from Loyola University Law School in New Orleans, and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from West Virginia University. She currently works as the administrator of Perry Township in Stark County Ohio, a community of just under thirty thousand people.

“We have police, fire, zoning, parks, and roads departments,” she told the assembly during a video call. “I’ve been township administrator there for the past year, and I’ve done quite a bit to help them modernize their processes.”

Before moving into the township administration job last year, Cotter spent nearly 14 years working for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, where she led a statewide workforce development program for young adults, and did policy work. She has also served as a trustee for a township in Ohio, and on a local school board. 

“So I’ve got a wide range of experience, much of it with local government. I really enjoy being able to see the improvements that you’re making at the local level. It’s much easier to see those improvements when you’re working in a particular community. So I do like that aspect of it,” she said.

“I’m also a licensed attorney in the state of New York,” she continued. “So I’m certainly capable of interpreting, drafting, recommending policy.”

The assembly prompted Cotter to share her experience in a variety of areas, from negotiating contracts with unions and doing public outreach, to building a budget and building a team.

“I think just being open-minded and listening to staff to hear what their concerns might be or what they’d like to see changed, and being flexible enough to consider those things is really important, especially when you’re dealing with diverse folks,” Cotter said. “I also think there’s ways that you can, you know, maybe create some more camaraderie and find commonalities and things that folks enjoy doing together to try and create that team environment too.” 

After interviewing Cotter for around an hour, the assembly went behind closed doors in an executive session. When the group returned, Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz announced that they would advance Cotter to a second interview.

Right now, Cotter is the only candidate in the running for the municipal administrator job. The assembly began its search for a new administrator when John Leach, signaled plans to resign last fall. Leach originally planned to step down in May, but extended his work with the city through December.

Cotter’s next interview date has not yet been announced. You can listen back to the full interview here.