The clear waters and maritime infrastructure along Alaska’s coasts make for prime conditions for mariculture, the cultivation of marine organisms like oysters, seaweed, and shellfish. Andrew Jylkka and Sara Ebersole join KCAW to discuss what opportunities mariculture can bring to the state and how Jylkka’s organization, Spruce Root, can help local farms get up and running. Listen to the conversation here:

Paul Reid is the project coordinator for the Office of Education Advocacy. He said the ad hoc committee for Mt. Edgecumbe High School would meet on the second Wednesday each month all summer long, and would base a lot of their early work on results from surveys that were sent out in May. 

“The feedback that we received from these surveys was was very thoughtful and meaningful. I was very pleased to see the responses that we got,” Reid said. “We received 186 responses from students…I received 14 of 18 staff members’ respondents, and then for the parent survey we’ve had 60 responses so far.”

Reid was speaking at last week’s Alaska Department of Education and Early Development board meeting. Earlier this year, the state’s board of education voted to form the ad hoc committee in response to concerns about student mental health, deteriorating school facilities, and an unusually high number of students pulling out of the school, mid-year. 

The ad hoc committee, which will be composed of parents, students, staff, and alumni, is tasked with doing a deep dive into the functions of the school, and delivering its findings and recommendations for improvements to the state board in the fall. Reid said the meetings would be hosted on Zoom, and transcripts would be available to the public. 

Board Member Pamela Dupras, a Mt. Edgecumbe alum, said she wanted to be sure that the committee’s focus was on the future.

“I’m a little concerned the focus will be on this year, where we want improvement, and the same standards that were there when I was a student,” Dupras said. “I’m glad that the ad hoc committee has been created, but how exactly it’s going to help to create that outcome?”

Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said the goal of the ad hoc committee is to both move forward while understanding the past. And she said that work would extend beyond the committee to staff’s responsibilities, from directing millions of dollars in unspent state funding for the school, to updating the schools business practices and policies, all the way down to student handbooks.

“This isn’t a one-stop shop, one-time thing. We have a vested interest in the success of the students and the staff and the school and the tradition of Mount Edgecumbe High School,” Bishop said. “It is all hands on deck for this to really move it forward, and have it continue to grow.”

The ad hoc committee convened on June 10 for its first meeting. It will deliver its recommendations to the state board in October.

While the ad hoc committee is only temporary, the state board was also tasked with appointing two new members to the school’s permanent advisory board. Mt. Edgecumbe Superintendent David Langford recommended appointing Doug Walwrath, of Nome, to the parent seat and Candace Nielsen, of Wasilla, to the alumni seat. Walwrath is a former middle school teacher who has led the Northwestern Alaska Career and Technical Center for the last 17 years. Nielsen graduated from MEHS in 2010, and currently works for the Aleut Corporation. The board approved their appointments unanimously.

Bear and human activity triggered a temporary closure of the Sitka National Historical Park today (6-10-26). In a news release, Park Ranger Bethany Cherry said staff shut down trails after visitors failed to keep their distance from a bear.

The release urged visitors to exercise caution as bears roam the park for the salmon runs, and reminded park-goers to stay on trails and be aware of their surroundings.

According to the press release, approaching, following, or chasing bears on land or in the Indian River area will be considered harassment of wildlife.

At this time, the park is open during daylight hours only. The trail between the visitor center bridge and Sawmill Creek Road remains open for pedestrians to use after dark.

Sitka’s police force will see pay increases over the next three years. That’s after the Sitka Assembly on Tuesday (6-19-26) approved the new collective bargaining agreement with the Public Safety Employees Association (PSEA). 

Assistant Municipal Administrator Josh Branthoover said labor negotiations began with the union in late April and the parties reached a tentative agreement in mid-May. 

“Union negotiations are rarely a pleasure, but all things considered, it was a very mutually beneficial session,” he said.

Branthoover said changes include an updated pay scale and leave provisions. Officers will receive a 3% wage increase annually, starting on July 1, 2027. The agreement also includes a one-time $1,000 payment for employees that have been at the Sitka Police Department for at least a year and pass their probationary period, and increases on-call pay to $5 an hour.

“For the first time ever that I’m aware of, step movements were added in,” he said. “This is going to add evaluation-based and time-based step movements with the goal of longevity and rewarding our employees that stay longer.”

Overall, the estimated increased cost to the city is $311,790 over the proposed three-year contract, which starts July 1.

The Sitka Assembly voted to allocate more than $1.1 million in retroactive federal funding to the Sitka School District at its meeting Tuesday night (6-9-26). The money comes from Secure Rural Schools, a program that supports schools surrounded by federal lands which don’t contribute to the local tax base. 

For the past two fiscal years, SRS funding lapsed. Then, last December, Congress renewed the funding for this year, along with retroactive payments for the missed ones. The money can be used for schools or roads, and in years past, the city usually split the money with the district 50/50. But this year, the assembly is going all-in on education. On Tuesday, the assembly voted to dedicate 100% of the federal funding received to schools, adding more than $800,000 to what it has already budgeted for the district. 

In the last budget cycle, some of the federal funding had been earmarked for the Public Works department for street maintenance, but the money didn’t come through until recently. 

“There are needs at the school district, there are needs at the city,” Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said Tuesday. “I could argue the school district’s needs are larger. I could argue our potholes’ needs are larger.”

Municipal Administrator John Leach said the assembly expressed a desire to move the full amount to schools given their precarious funding situation next year. Even with last year’s state funding increase, school leaders say the money hasn’t kept up with the rising cost of education, and declining enrollment over the past two decades has also cut into the district’s bottom line.

The district was already facing a $1-2 million deficit in March, when staff discovered an accounting error to the tune of about $800,000 in unaccounted for expenses. In late April, the board approved a budget that cuts 8.5 positions, half of which are certified teachers. 

Eisenbeisz said this is a one-time disbursement for the district and he doesn’t want schools to rely on the full amount of pass-through funding in future years. He advised the school board to use the money wisely. 

“I understand the crutch is needed to bridge a gap, which may or may not be changing in future administrations at the state, but I don’t want them to become so assured of this and this funding level that that becomes an issue that binds future assemblies and future school boards to an unsustainable level,” he said.

Assembly Member Tim Pike agreed that the move is a rare, one-time occurrence, but said it was important for the assembly to take advantage of this opening to help the district. 

“This is a unique opportunity for the city to support the schools,” he said. “The needs are very large, and the state has not stepped up and done their part. So this is an opportunity to bridge us through into a hopefully better fiscal environment with a governor who would be more amenable to funding education and meeting the requirements for the state.”

Several assembly members said they support a continued push for Secure Rural Schools funding when meeting with Sitka’s congressional delegation in the future, saying the funds are important for both the district and the city.

Ultimately, the assembly voted unanimously in favor of the one-time allocation. It will consider the funding one last time before a final vote on June 23. 

33-year-old Jorge Ruiz-Rivera was convicted by a Sitka jury on three counts of stalking and three counts of violating a protective order earlier this year. 

Over the past two years, Ruiz-Rivera has been indicted several times in Sitka, including once for stalking a couple at their residence, and for attempting to contact someone with a protective order against him after he was in custody. A press release from the state attorney general’s office said that evidence in Ruiz-Rivera’s February trial showed that over several years he “engaged in a course of conduct towards these victims that placed them in fear of death or physical injury for themselves and their family members.”

On May 28, Sitka Superior Court Judge Amanda Browning sentenced him to 8 years and six months in prison. He is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau. 

37-year-old Gilbert Sam Jr. was arrested on May 16 after he allegedly stabbed a man in the neck several times at the Sitka Hotel. The victim, a 25-year-old hotel employee, had invited Sam, who did not work at the hotel, to help him wash dishes. According to court documents, the two men ended up in a heated confrontation, and Sam allegedly stabbed the man in the neck several times. The man was hospitalized but survived.

On May 21, a Sitka grand jury indicted Sam on three counts of felony assault. He is currently in custody at Anchorage Correctional Complex. A hearing in Sam’s case is set for June 17.

Earlier in the month 47-year-old Michael Harrison was charged after he allegedly destroyed a camera in the Sitka jail while in custody. On May 14, a grand jury indicted Harrison on one count of felony criminal mischief. He is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. A hearing in Harrison’s case is set for June 17.

Also last month, a jury convicted a Sitka man on a sexual assault charge. 32-year-old Jordan Schauwecker was indicted by a grand jury in 2022 on seven counts of felony sexual assault. At the end of a weeks-long trial in late May, a jury found Schauwecker guilty of one count of attempted sexual assault.  On May 27, his attorneys filed a motion to acquit him of the remaining charge. Schauwecker is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. A sentencing hearing is currently set for September 18.

Civil cases against the city dismissed, one appealed

Two civil cases against the city were dismissed last month, but one has been appealed.  

Susan Magie, formerly Suarez was severely injured when she was hit by a car while walking on the pedestrian path alongside Sawmill Creek Road in 2023. The driver, Beth Lang, was later convicted for felony assault and reckless driving, and was sentenced to just over seven years in prison.

Magie filed a civil suit against the city and the Sitka Police Department for negligence in 2025. The suit argued that the accident could have been prevented, since police had several prior contacts with Lang for swerving into traffic and losing consciousness behind the wheel. Claims against other defendants in the case, which included former and current police staff and medical personnel, were ultimately dismissed. According to court documents, a resolution was met between Magie and several other parties in March. The case was dismissed in late May following a joint agreement with the city.

Meanwhile, the City of Sitka is still trying to get a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit in which a local man alleges the city violated his First Amendment rights.

Former assembly candidate Austin Cranford filed the case late last summer, claiming the city’s social media policy — specifically the police department’s restriction of comments on its Facebook page — violated his right to free speech.

In his court filings, Cranford says the city allowed a member of the public to comment on a police department post while restricting the comments of others, including himself. Cranford says that deprived him of his civil rights under the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason granted a motion from the city to dismiss the case in late April [4/29], [WEB: finding that the city didn’t violate Cranford’s First Amendment rights when it allowed the “public administrative query” on the police department post], but left an opening for Cranford to file an amended complaint, which he did on May 5th. The city filed a second motion to dismiss in late May, which Cranford is also challenging [5/29].  

Cranford is a former assembly candidate, and the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city and settled for over $320,000 out of court in 2025. And it isn’t the first time Austin Cranford has challenged the city. He appealed the denial of a public records request he made to the city earlier this year and had two public records appeals in February of 2024 alleging city corruption and claiming his records requests were being wrongfully denied.

It was unclear, as of Tuesday, when Judge Gleason might issue a ruling on the city’s second motion to dismiss Austin Cranford’s First Amendment lawsuit.

Painter Stephen Lawrie joins KCAW to talk about how fishing has always been a throughline within the communities of Southeast Alaska as well as his artwork. Lawrie’s new exhibition, part two of “This Thing We Call The Ocean…Names Discovered, Stories Told,” will open June 13 at the Pioneer Bar and showcase fishermen of the past. Listen to the conversation here:

The funding comes from Secure Rural Schools, a federal program that supports schools surrounded by federal lands which don’t contribute to the local tax base. 

For the past two fiscal years, Secure Rural Schools funding lapsed. Last December, Congress renewed the funding for this year, along with retroactive payments for the missed years. The money can be used for schools or roads, and in years past, the city has split the money with the district 50/50. Tonight, the assembly will instead consider dedicating 100 percent of the federal funding received for Fiscal Year 26 to schools, adding more than $800,000 to what it has already budgeted for the district. 

In other business, the assembly will consider approving a new labor agreement between the city and the union representing Sitka’s police. Labor negotiations began with the Public Safety Employees Association (PSEA) in late April, and the parties reached a tentative agreement in mid-May. Changes include an updated pay scale and leave provisions. Overall, the estimated increased cost to the city is about $312,000 over the proposed 3-year contract, which starts July 1. 

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

Some Southeast Alaskans may have only stopped in Yakutat on the “milk run” flight to Anchorage. But just beyond the tarmac lies a birders paradise. From black legged kittiwake’s nesting on the jagged edges of seaside cliffs, to a posse of surf scoters, riding the ocean waves in a v-formation as they forage for mussels off of the rocks below. 

But there is one bird in particular that has motivated a pack of over a dozen visitors across the country to wander through beach dunes early on a Saturday morning, armed with binoculars and zoom camera lenses: the Aleutian tern. 

Nate Catterson is the volunteer guide leading the trip. He began birding  over a decade ago to learn more about his surrounding environment. Since then, he has worked to help track the migration of Aleutian terns, traveling as far as Indonesia. Yakutat is key to that research, since the village is home to the southernmost breeding colony of Aleutian terns. And they are not the only terns that make a pit stop here, with Catterson pointing out an Arctic tern landing a few feet ahead of the group.

The tern birding trip is one of many activities organized by the Yakutat Tern Festival, a four-day gathering organized by the Yakutat Nature Society that brings locals and visitors from all over the country to observe and learn more about terns and other wildlife in the area.

Catterson is an attentive guide, answering questions as they crop up while sharing enough facts about terns to fill up a trivia quiz. His knowledge proves insightful to everyone from beginner birders to cultivated conservationists like Paul Bannick, who is also the keynote speaker for the conference. While Bannick has photographed birds across Alaska, it is his first time in Yakutat. He looks up at the terns and smiles, clearly enchanted by them. 

“To be encountered with the story of a bird that’s traveling 1000s of miles to survive, but also their elegance and resilience and beauty. And they’re small birds, yet incredibly protective of their young and their nests, fearless. All of these things I think offer inspiration,” says Bannick.

Seth Rosenberder is a lifelong birder from Cordova. He initially got into birding under the influence of his maternal grandmother.

“She was enthusiastic about birds. I still have the field guide that she gave me when I was seven years old,” says Rosenberder.

He is attending the festival for the first time with his partner. Rosenberder says he is grateful for the opportunity to connect with birders from all over. 

“We get to come and network with each other, and meet different people and figure out different places that we want to go [birding],” says Rosenberder. “I think the community, the togetherness aspect of it, is important.”

Bannick says that events like the festival play an important role in engaging people with conservation work. That’s especially important for the Aleutian tern population in the United States, which researchers say has had a steep decline over the past few decades. 

“It’s been said that we protect what we love, and we only love what we know,” says Bannick. “If you care about conservation, you should care about creating opportunities for people to fall in love with natural systems and wildlife, and this festival gives people a doorway to walk through and find that love, which can change their life and change the lives of other people that they come into contact with.”

Melissa Allen, of Juneau, is a festival volunteer who experienced that first-hand. She was recruited by the festival’s coordinator after sharing that she was DJing at a different event celebrating Arctic terns. Today’s walk on the beach was Allen’s first time ever seeing an Aleutian tern, adding fuel to her newfound passion. 

“Last year was the first time that I learned about Arctic terns, and I feel like that’s cracked open something in me,” says Allen. “There’s a great blue heron that lives by where I live, and that’s been really special, and the mergansers and the harlequin ducks that have been coming around, I’ve started noticing birds ever since I first learned about terns… I’m not a birder, but I think I’ll get there.”

If Allen does begin to consider herself a birder, she’s with the right crowd. The festival organizers hope to continue drawing attendees, old and new alike, to expand their flock of enthusiastic birders and everyday conservationists.