The Sitka Assembly, Tuesday night (4/23/19), approved an agreement with the Sitka School District and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp to fund the Sitka Performing Arts Center through FY2020. And while the assembly voted to fund several other projects, for the second time they failed to approve the hire of a new planning director on the basis of salary.

At the regular meeting of the Sitka Assembly on Tuesday (4/23/19), assembly members unanimously passed an agreement that changes how the Sitka Performing Arts Center is funded. On April 3rd, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp signed the agreement with the Sitka School Board to take on a major share of running the PAC, which costs around $240,000 to operate annually. Executive Director Roger Schmidt said the goal was to work with the city and the school district to keep the PAC open and running at all costs.

“With the budget cuts that the city and school district were facing from the state, it looked like some type of solution was needed,” he said. “We were willing to take another level of leadership on this, making some major adjustments to our budget, like everybody, because the PAC is not only essential to our kids in Sitka but also critical for the fine arts camp.”

Under the new agreement, the city will cover basic utility costs of the building for a total of $57,000. The school district will cover heat and insurance. And the Fine Arts Camp will absorb the remainder of the cost, around $112,000. Currently, the school district pays SFAC that amount to perform technical and professional management of the PAC, and under the new arrangement the fine arts camp would provide those services to the school district free of charge.

Though assembly members asked technical questions of the city’s financial and legal departments, none voiced opposition and the motion passed 7-0.

The assembly also approved an additional $200,000 for the Sitka Chamber of Commerce and “Visit Sitka” to continue providing visitor services for a total of $500,000 in funding for 2020.

Assembly member Valorie Nelson opposed the motion.

“I think we’re putting the cart before the horse,” Nelson said. “We still have several budget meetings. I’m not in favor of voting for this until I know where we’re at.”

Assembly member Richard Wein pushed for them to move ahead.

“300,000 for a city of this size’s marketing is nothing,” Wein said referring to the $300,000 the Sitka Chamber of Commerce would be left with if the assembly didn’t approve the supplemental funding.

The motion passed 4-3 with Nelson, Eisenbeisz, Bean voting against.

No new planning director

But while the assembly moved forward with the PAC agreement and funding for “Visit Sitka,” they did not approve a renegotiated hire offer for the city planning director position, which has been open since last August. At the last meeting, a motion to approve the hire of Bruce Wall, who currently works as a city planner in Soldotna, failed when some assembly members voiced opposition to Wall’s salary offer- $93,000 with $15,000 in moving expenses and starting annual leave banked at 40 hours.

The renegotiated offer presented by city staff at Tuesday’s meeting kept Wall’s salary the same but reduced the moving expenses and removed the banked leave. But for assembly member Aaron Bean, that wasn’t enough of a change.

“Mostly because the starting salary is not changed,” Bean said. “I think that a majority of this assembly was pretty clear on the reasoning as to why we said no the first time.”

Assembly member Valorie Nelson agreed and said she would be happier with a salary in the $90,000 range. During persons to be heard on the motion, interim planning director Scott Berlinski told assembly members that it was his last day on the job. He said the position could be tough to fill if the assembly didn’t vote to hire Wall.

“I understand that several small communities in Alaska are looking for planning directors. It’s apparently not an easy agenda to fill,” Berlinski said. “I believe the job as offered is not overpaid compared to other similar professional positions both outside and inside of city hall. I believe Sitka needs a planning director, and if we get to the end of the agenda tonight you’ll see that it is my last day of work, so I urge you to approve this hire.”

The motion to approve Wall’s hire failed 3-4 with assembly members Wein, Nelson, Mosher, and Bean voting against.

Executive sessions abound

The assembly spent nearly half of the meeting behind closed doors in three separate executive sessions- once to hear updates from legal counsel regarding litigation stemming from the 2015 landslide events, and once to discuss the liquor license renewal for Baranof Island Brewing Company.

The assembly also voted to postpone, until August, the hiring of a consultant to investigate the Sitka Police Department. This decision came after the assembly went into a third executive session to hear a report from interim police chief Robert Baty, who has been on the job less than a month.

The assembly began considering hiring a third party investigator in February after Noah Shepard, a former jailer and patrol officer recruit filed against the city. The assembly voted to allot $35,000 dollars toward hiring someone to investigate the department, but postponed choosing the consultant when Baty’s hire was announced, to allow him to make an assessment of the department first.

On Tuesday, as the assembly considered holding off on a consultant hire for another four months, Mary Ferguson expressed her disappointment. The patrol officer, who is currently on administrative leave, filed suit against the city in October, alleging that she had been sexually harassed and discriminated against in the workplace. She’s been pushing for an investigation of the department ever since.

“I was more than happy to stay in my position and serve the city,” Ferguson said during during public comment. “Right now if I’m not going to be listened to by the city or protected by my employer, then I don’t know if it’s really worth coming up and talking to you guys anymore.”

Ultimately, the assembly voted 6-1 in favor of waiting until August to choose an investigator, with assembly member Valorie Nelson opposed.

Cross Trail will not be rerouted

A plan extend the Cross Trail from Harbor Mountain to the Starrigavan boat launch will not be altered to make way for more economic development. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Sitka Assembly, assembly members discussed the multi-year project that’s in its final stages.

The original route for phase six of the trail was set to go through an area of Granite Creek slated for development, so city administrator Keith Brady met with Sitka Trailworks Executive Director Lynne Brandon to discuss a possible alternate route.

“This alternate route does not delay the process at all, she can move forward,” Brady said. “Western Federal Lands- what they recommend is to award the contract and the best way to change the route, if necessary, is during construction to avoid any startup delays.”

Brady said the route, as it’s currently planned, crosses an area that would be turned into an “overburden site,” for rock and soil that’s removed during the development process. The new trail would be rerouted around the Granite Creek Quarry, as opposed to above it. Assembly member Steven Eisenbeisz wondered how pleasant the trail would be if it were moved.

“Part of the cross trail to me is the beauty and the serenity of it,” Eisenbeisz said. “On a scale of one to ugly, how bad is it going to be to have a trail through the middle of a quarry?”

Brandon said it was not her preferred option, but she was willing to work with the city. And she said it was likely the reroute wouldn’t happen anyway, because her team had estimated the costs would be too high.

“I have an estimate of, it’s about a $371,000 dollar difference,” Brandon said said. “And that’s for the actual construction and to do the permitting.”

Assembly member Aaron Bean voiced surprise at the figure and asked Brandon if she expected the municipality to cover the cost. Brady said he didn’t anticipate a reroute would cost as much as Brandon’s estimate.

Eisenbeisz said he’d like to see a cost-benefit analysis of what the economic benefits would be for rerouting the trail compared to how much it could cost. And Valorie Nelson said she was in favor of leaving the trail as is. Kevin Mosher made a motion to leave phase six of the Cross Trail as is, and that motion passed 6-1 with Eisenbeisz opposed.

In other business…

In other business, they voted unanimously to reappoint Victor Weaver to a three-year term on the planning commission and Scott Saline to a three year term on the historic preservation commission.

The body approved two changes to city zoning code- one reducing the minimum lot size requirement, and the second designating a specific zone for cemeteries, which are currently zoned residential.

The assembly voted to appropriate funds for data storage upgrades, and earmarked funds for the Shepard v. CBS suit.

Assembly members also approved Baranof Island Brewing Company’s liquor license renewal application. And Rachel Roy presented interim police chief Robert Baty with an award naming Sitka the “Safest City in Alaska.”

Shannon Haugland DJs her weekly show “Anything Goes” featuring big band music and Broadway show tunes. Haugland will receive an Arts Advocacy award at the capitol next month (Photo/KCAW/Rose)

When you think of local community theater, you might picture the charming actors, the ethereal voices, and the beautiful sets showcased in the Performing Arts Center. But maybe you aren’t picturing the people behind the scenes, pulling the strings and making everything come together without a hitch like master puppeteers. One of those people is Daily Sitka Sentinel reporter Shannon Haugland. She’s being awarded a Governor’s Arts and Humanities Award for Arts Advocacy. 

Downloadable Audio

It’s Sunday afternoon in Sitka, and if there are any musical theater fans out there on Baranof Island, you can bet they’re listening…to “Anything Goes.”

Every Sunday, on her long-running show at KCAW, Daily Sitka Sentinel Reporter Shannon Haugland plays show tunes and big band music, and interviews artists, young and old, about their craft. But this isn’t Haugland’s only contribution to arts in Sitka. Far from it — she’s the woman behind the curtain for Broadway Night, the Sitka Film Society, Sitka Community Theater productions, and the Radio Adventure Hour. She helps with Young Performers Theater and Sitka Fine Arts Camp Productions — in large and small ways.  

“Embarrassingly enough, sometimes I’m making tea or getting snacks for the actors,” Haugland said. “Being a support person or volunteer person for the arts sometimes is pretty un-glamorous, but has to do it.”

Haugland grew up in Bellevue, Washington, in a home where athletic skill was cultivated.

“We learned to swim at six months old and learned to play tennis at four years, and learned to ski at 3,” she said. “But even though my family was super sporty, my mom always gave us  opportunities to be involved in the arts. She didn’t dismiss the arts because we were athletes.”

She came from a big family, so she didn’t get to see many plays, but when she did, they stuck with her. She remembers seeing Oliver when she was 5-years old.

“I remember being lost in the story. I also remember singing the songs afterwards. My mom got the cast album, and my older sister and I would sing the songs all day long,” she said.

She remembers a moment in middle school when she was in the audience at a play. The theater lights went up at the beginning of the performance, and her own light bulb lit up too.

“I was looking at a mansion, I was looking at the inside of a ballroom,” she said. “I just remember thinking, ‘Someone did that.’ To me that was the magic. That was it for me. I fell in love with, kind of, behind the scenes work in theater.”

So in high school, she enrolled in a technical theater class.

“We learned how to build sets. We learned how to fix the lamps, the theater lighting,” Haugland said. “We learned proper theater etiquette. We learned how to be safe. Sometimes we learned that the hard way, unfortunately.”

While many theater kids maintain passion for — but not necessarily involvement with — theater after graduation, Shannon found a way to stay involved and creating in Sitka. She moved here in the late ‘80s and right away began DJing a show.

“I started my first day in town. My roommate signed up for the radio volunteer class and she invited me to come. I got a classical music show right away. As soon as I could Ken, the program director Ken Fate, gave me a slot and said I could choose the music genre.

That show morphed into “Anything Goes.” Her longtime friend Rebecca Poulson remembers the moment when she realized how strongly she felt about the genre.

“I was helping her with the show, and I was really into murder ballads and sea shanties,” Poulson said.  “I did have a little moment of realization that ‘Anything Goes’ did not include sea shanties or murder ballads. That’s when I realized that she was really serious about big band music.”

But it wasn’t until 2011 that Haugland became heavily involved with local theater behind the scenes. After Sheldon Jackson College closed, community theater in Sitka seemed to fizzle. Haugland joined a group that wanted to help revitalize it.

“I certainly wasn’t a driver at that point,” she said. “I remember my friend at that meeting, we were talking about why we were there, and my friend sitting next to me said, ‘I want to see something. I want to see a play. I live in a small town, I never travel, and I want to see something.’”

That’s when she realized a key philosophy of small-town, island living.

“You can’t just go to things,” Haugland said. “If you want something to happen you have to do it.”

She says it’s important to make sure there are creative outlets in the community, and not just for kids.

“We have a town that has so many great things for kids, and I think people forget that adults want to be expressive as an artist,” Haugland said. “They see it’s available here and something inside them says ‘I want to do that.’”

She’s brought over 100 films to Sitka with the Sitka Film Society. She’s produced six plays and two musicals and eight annual ‘Radio Adventure Hours.’ And this month will be the ninth annual production of ‘Broadway Night, a fundraiser for the Greater Sitka Arts Council and a chance for Sitkans to sing their favorite showtunes. Poulson nominated Haugland for the Arts Advocacy award so all of Haugland’s unsung work over the years could be acknowledged and celebrated.

“She is an amazing, amazing woman. She is brilliant. She loves people. She is so incredibly supportive of young people,” Poulson said. “She’s really open to people being who they are and art being what it is.”

Art being what it is — Haugland says that could mean different things for different people.

“It does the same thing for me that it does for all theater people. You get totally lost in the story. For non theater people, I totally get it. They go there and they’re watching people pretend to be other people,” she said. “I think it’s in our genetic makeup whether you watch the story and believe the story or whether you don’t, and you’re just sitting there embarrassed for the actors.”

So the next time you’re watching a community theater production, if you DO start to get embarrassed for the actors, think of the people backstage instead- the ones building the sets, steeping the tea, and making that, no matter how many “break a legs” are wished upon the performers, no legs are actually broken in the process. 

From left, Bran Carlo, Quinlyn Holder and Ian Rabl (Photo KCAW/Katherine Rose)

The 2018 Sitka High School Theater production of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” includes a cast of eccentric characters and a murderer who whistles nursery rhymes. And it’s not just a question of “whodunit.” The future of Sitka High’s theater program is uncertain too. KCAW’s Katherine Rose reports.

Downloadable Audio

A murder, a snowstorm, and party of unusual characters. In Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap,” everyone’s a suspect.  

“Everyone is guilty of something, and it becomes very obvious. It could be any one of them,” says Sitka High teacher Keriann Gilson. She played Mollie Ralston in her high school production of The Mousetrap. Now she’s in the director’s chair, and has a soft spot for a good Agatha Christie mystery.  Christie wrote the play for London’s West End in the 1940s.

“She was known as the queen of crime,” Gilson says. “I think every single one of her plays and books that I’ve ever read has always had that really good twist ending where it comes out of nowhere and it hits you in the face like woah.”

The Mousetrap begins with a murder. Mollie Ralston, played by Senior Quinlyn Holder, hears news of this on the radio. She and her husband Giles have just opened a guest house at Monkswell Manor. Christie’s version was set in the English countryside, but Gilson set her cast at a bed and breakfast in Seattle. 

“They have all of these people coming, it’s the very first time, and they’re so excited. One by one these people show up, and of course there’s a snowstorm.”

They’re all snowed in when a detective shows up, on skis no less, to tell them that the murderer may be among them.

I spoke with a few of the suspects.

Senior Bran Carlo plays Giles Ralston. He’s been performing since the 5th grade, though he did have a brief role in Goldilocks and the Three Bears as a young cub.  

“I played Little Bear, of course,” Carlo says. “That really launched my whole acting career.”

He’s played sword eaters, crazy scientists, he became a DD&F state champion this year performing a comedic monologue as Batman. But Carlo says that that Giles may be his most challenging character yet.

“He’s a real person. He’s not over-exaggerated, he’s not dramatic,” Carlo says. “Those are the roles I’m used to playing. It’s actually pretty hard for me to play a role like Giles.”

I asked Carlo the tough question. Is he the murderer? He pauses for a second, then says “I’m gonna kill that stage.”

Then there’s the brash Miss Casewell, played by senior Tyler Garrity.

“In the script, Miss Casewell is supposed to be a very manly character with a deep voice,” Garrity says. “And my director was like, you’re not pulling off manly. *Laughs* So I kinda had to find a new character for her. She’s sarcastic and rude, very confident about herself. Fights back against the detective.”

Like Miss Casewell’s evolution, Garrity says she gained strength from theater arts.

“Theater kids can be so wonderfully accepting,” Garrity says. “You grow this family just by being in the same cast. Just gaining all of the friends that are more like family to me, and the confidence I’ve gained.”

Gilson says she sees this kind of transformation in her many of her students.

“I think the biggest thing students gain from theater in general is self confidence. And,” she pauses. “Sorry. I get really emotional when I talk about this because it’s a huge part of my life.”

And while Gilson and the students work to deliver a strong performance this weekend, there’s an air of uncertainty about next year. Her position, teaching theater and language arts at Sitka High was cut from the FY2019 budget.

“The future of the theater at the high school is kind of up in the air right now,” she says. “With my position being cut there is no one that will be taking over theater.”

Gilson hopes the community will come out to support high school theater arts, as do students like Garrity. She’s worried.

“Without theater I don’t know if my transition to Sitka would have been as easy,” Garrity says. “I really hope they find a way to bring it back.”

But the show must go on. And there’s a tradition about Christie’s twist endings, the original spoiler alert. Gilson says at the end of every performance, an actor will come on stage and say something like:

“Please keep the mystery of the mousetrap in your hearts. It’s just a way of saying ‘Don’t tell the ending. Do not spoil it.’

And true to tradition, I won’t spoil the ending. Mainly because I couldn’t figure out “whodunit.”

Pacific High students presented survey data suggesting that 44-percent would drop out if the school were closed or relocated within another building. (KCAW file photo)

The Sitka School Board on Wednesday (4-4-18) held an additional public hearing on next year’s budget — and this time testimony focused on Pacific High School.

The district is counting on the city — and ultimately the public — to step up and support critical programs and staffing.

Downloadable audio.

No one on the school board or in the administration has proposed cutting Pacific High, which is the district’s alternative high school, but there has been some discussion of relocating the program to one of the district’s other buildings — and creating a so-called “school within a school.”

Pacific High junior Killian DeTemple told the board that absorbing the school into another building would be equivalent to closing it.

“I ask you to consider this: To assimilate Pacific High into a separate but-already-existing institution would be to irreversibly damage or even destroy the social, cultural, and spiritual dynamics which have been established and evolved over the course of its history. Aside from the funding Pacific High receives as an alternative institution, the losses it would suffer in terms of spirit and community would be much too high for me and a significant number of my peers — and force us to drop out entirely, move out of the community for alternative education options, or to pursue a GED.”

DeTemple had his facts right. According to district data supplied for a previous work session, Pacific High pencils out economically. It costs the district a little over $600,000 to operate, but generates at least $200,000 more than that in funding due to grants, the state foundation formula, and other revenue sources like the free and reduced lunch program. Much of this money would be jeopardized if the school’s enrollment dropped significantly.

Pacific High senior Madison Sprague offered data suggesting that over 40-percent of her fellow students would leave if the school were closed.

“We did a survey today. There were five options on the survey: To go to Sitka High, Mt. Edgecumbe, to be homeschooled, to drop out and get a GED, or to just drop out in general. And 44-percent said either drop out, or drop out and get a GED.”

Pacific High currently serves 29 students.

Just over half of the 20 individuals who spoke at the hearing were there to support Pacific High. Others testified in support of retaining teachers, the career and technical education program, and the Performing Arts Center.

High school music teacher Mike Kernin could barely contain his frustration that the Performing Arts Center — or PAC — was again up for a cut.

“Out of the 25 years I’ve worked in the district I’ve either been a political chip, whether it’s the Performing Arts Center or as a music teacher — 19 times. It’s frustrating. I have co-workers who won’t look at me because they think that if I’m for the Performing Arts Center, I’m against teachers. What are you going to do if you save a few bucks on the Performing Arts Center, and you tenure yet more teachers, and then have to tell them that they’re losing their jobs?”

In the board work session that followed, president Jenn McNichol asked her fellow members to give the administration “marching orders” for preparing a final draft of next year’s budget, and closing a spending gap of nearly $2 million. In all likelihood the budget will contain a request to the City of Sitka for an additional $500,000 to cover reductions in state funding resulting from increases in the assessed value of property in the city, to restore cuts from the last two years, to share expenses for the Performing Arts Center and Community Schools, and to retain two teachers in the elementary grades.

The City of Sitka, however, doesn’t have money to spare. But unlike the school district, it has the power to raise revenue. Board president Jenn McNichol said that it might be time for the citizens of Sitka to decide what kind of schools they want.

“Times have changed. That’s just the bottom line. I don’t think that there’s a lot of waste going on. The price of oil dropped several years ago and this is the ripple effect. That’s the most direct correlation that we can tie to all these problems.”

McNichol is a pediatrician, and she said school budget decisions could be “more difficult than medical triage,” because every program is important to a student or group of students and “every student is important.”

“To an individual student, Pacific High is everything to them,” McNichol said. “To another student, being able to perform in the auditorium is everything to them.”

The Sitka School Board will hold a final budget hearing and approve next year’s budget at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, in the high school library.

Sitka voters in 2003 passed a pair of bond measures by wide margins to fund the Performing Arts Center. They decided 63-37 to raise the seasonal sales tax rate by 1 percent to fund the $12 million costs of the PAC, and 59-41 to issue bonds for the the construction. The state sweetened the deal by offering to reimburse Sitka for a large share of the bonds. Nevertheless, the school district has borne the $240,000 in annual operating costs for the facility, and is now hoping the city will chip in. (KCAW Photo)

The Sitka School Board has pared down its budget deficit next year to the point where the district may have to lay off only 4 teachers — but cutting both the Performing Arts Center and Community Schools remain possibilities without more cash from the city.

The board discussed a handful of unwelcome budget decisions at a work session last Thursday (3-29-18).

Downloadable audio.

Note: The Sitka School Board has scheduled an additional budget hearing/work session for 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, in the Sitka High School library. The final vote on the budget will take place on Tuesday, April 17. You can review the documents presented by the administration for the March 29 budget work session here.

There is some good news: The school district is going to pay only half as much for health insurance next year as expected — but health insurance is not very compelling for budget watchers.

Neither is Secure Rural Schools — which was tucked into the federal government’s massive spending bill and signed by the president about 10 days ago — although it’s a very welcome boon to the district’s budget of about a half-million dollars. But that still leaves a deficit of almost $2 million left to close.

Staffing, programs, and facilities are at the heart of this year’s budget discussions, and those discussions grew serious as the board moved from the theoretical to the concrete, looking for ways to save money.

Board member Elias Erickson wanted the city to step up and pay half of the $240,000 in operating costs of the Performing Arts Center — or PAC.

If not, the board should consider closing it.

“If the city does not agree to share these costs, I think this board should take a close look at not funding this. While it’s a great facility, that’s 2.4 teachers, and that could mean a world of difference in some grade levels in educational impact, and we have to look at the outcomes for our students.”

Erickson holds a publicly-elected seat on the board, but is also a senior in high school, and active in the music program.

Quinlyn Holder is the student representative on the board. She won’t vote on the budget, but she shared Erikson’s opinion that the PAC is partially a community responsibility.

At a budget hearing in February over 100 Sitkans showed up to support the PAC.

“A significant number of people speaking on the PAC were just community members who didn’t have children, or weren’t children. It only makes sense.”

Board member Eric VanCise was more blunt, however. Between the Blatchley Pool, Community Schools, and the PAC he saw only the pool as paying its way. He didn’t advocate for bargaining with the city to keep the PAC open.* He thought the performing arts could manage just fine in a gym.

“We’re looking at a different venue. None of us have been talking about getting rid of music or any of the programs — anything. No discussion about those kinds of cuts. It’s a change of venue.”

In all, the board is looking for nearly $400,000 from the city to share the cost of running the PAC, restoring past cuts, and compensating the district for one strange phenomenon in school funding: As the property tax valuation of Sitka goes up, state funding for education goes down.

Cass Pook is the longest-serving member of the board. In a March 5 special meeting with the Sitka Assembly she called the layoffs and other cuts the district was contemplating “sickening.” Her feelings had not changed at this work session. “We’re really in the situation of cutting things because the city has not funded us the way they should be,” she said.

Also on the table was the $100,000 the district pays a contractor to operate Community Schools, which is as dear to many people as the PAC is to others. Board member Dionne Brady-Howard thought a cut to this program would be a wake-up call to voters.

“I don’t know if people realize that Community Schools just isn’t for my kid who plays basketball and volleyball, but it is for the birthday parties, to be able to use the buildings at all outside the regular school day,” said Brady-Howard. “If they actually start to feel the pinch of losing all these things that have made the schools and Sitka as a community palatable to families with kids — I don’t know if we can undo that. I don’t know. Maybe the voters of Sitka need to feel it for this to become a reality.”

The board supported a measure in 2016 to raise property taxes by 2 mils in Sitka, but it was turned down by voters.

The School Board is scheduled to hold one final public budget hearing on April 17, before making its final decision.

*Note 4-6-18: At a subsequent board work session on 4-4-19, member Eric VanCise disputed KCAW’s characterization of his remarks. KCAW News makes every attempt to accurately reflect the views of elected officials expressed in public meetings. Listen to VanCise’s full comments regarding the PAC from the March 29 work session below.

A show of hands for the arts. Superintendent Mary Wegner asked the 100-plus people at the hearing how many supported continued funding of the Performing Arts Center, but did NOT plan to speak. 78 raised their hands (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Over 100 Sitkans turned out Wednesday night (2-22-18) for the first public hearing on the Sitka School District budget for next year.

All were concerned about one issue: The Sitka Performing Arts Center.

Downloadable audio.

The scene was almost a duplicate of last year, when Sitka students and their parents packed the high school library to express their support for the arts, and to stress the significance of the Performing Arts Center in contributing to the well-being and academic achievement of everyone enrolled in the district.

The main difference from last year is that the Performing Arts Center — or the PAC — is slightly more expensive to operate than in the past, and the district is looking at a $2.3 million budget gap with no obvious answers.

Nevertheless, although the PAC operates at a loss of $195,000 ($235,000 in expense minus $40,000 in revenue), the loss is only a fraction of what the district will have to make up to balance the budget next year.

The 23 people who testified were unanimous that the social and educational benefits of the PAC outweighed the costs of running it.

Here’s a few minutes of what their testimony sounded like:

Hello my name is Anders Marius, I’m a senior at Sitka High School, I’m also speaking in support of the PAC this evening. I moved to Sitka three years ago because my mother is in the Coast Guard. One of the big things that brough my mother here, as opposed to Kodiak or some other Coast Guard base was the strong performing arts tradition of Sitka…

Hello, my name is Zeke Blackwell, I’m here to speak in support of the Performing Arts Center. When I moved here I came to Sitka sight unseen and did not know what I was getting into. I moved here from New York City, and I found myself on an isolated island in Alaska, and I felt lost and confused and unsure of what was going to happen, and how long I would be here. And within the first week touring around town, I found myself in the Performing Arts Center, and I was blown away immediately, walking in the doors. Seeing a space like this completely changed my mind about what kind of town I had moved to.

Hi, my name’s Keith Greinier. I grew up here in Sitka, Alaska, and went through the Sitka School District. Extracurriculars weren’t really an option in my family, there wasn’t a lot of money in my family for that sort of stuff. I wasn’t involved in any programs going through elementary school, going through middle school. And it took me a long time to get involved in high school. Really, what changed my life was the construction of the PAC and the theater program that followed. I did a play onstage and still today I can remember going through bows and standing there with all my really close friends I grew up with and really for once feeling involved, feeling like I belonged to something here in Sitka. I was able to continue with my life, being someone with low grades, and I got into a trade school and interviewed for a union apprenticeship — all that accomplishment I attribute to my time spent at the PAC. And I’d really like to see this building remain open for other kids like me.

Hi, my name is Sarah Frank. I’m the music teacher at Blatchley Middle School. Music has always been my home, and it’s my goal that it’s the home for every single student as well. And this extension of the PAC, of the school music experience, is something that I hope our students will hold dear forever. I know you’re in a difficult position making difficult choices, and I hope that you’ll consider this an integral part of our students’ human experience.

My name is Susan Brant-Ferguson. I have had many years of teaching music successfully to children without the PAC, but I saw a difference when we had it. It’s an extension of the classroom that an elementary gym can’t do. When you perform on the Performing Arts Center stage you can’t help but feel valued. Don’t pawn the family jewels. Thank you. (audience laughs)

Those were the voices of Anders Marius, Zeke Blackwell, Keith Greinier, Sarah Frank, and Susan Brant-Ferguson — 5 of the 23 students, teachers, parents, and community members who testified in support of the continued funding of Sitka’s Performing Arts Center.

All members of the Sitka School Board expressed appreciation for the input on the PAC. Cass Pook said “you brought to life what happens there.” Eric VanCise said the PAC was just one piece of “a very large puzzle.” Dionne Brady-Howard urged the audience to take this same energy to the legislature, which has the greatest stake in school funding in the state. “Government doesn’t happen without advocacy,” she said.

Board president Jenn McNichol echoed that sentiment, and assured the public that board was not cutting funding for anything just yet.

“There is no chopping block. There are considerations in how we need to balance the budget. And balancing the budget is our legal requirement. And we have no means to generate revenue.”

She also urged those in attendance to “keep your horizons broad” and speak out in support of “everything you believe in, in this town.”

Tuba player Daryl Johnson plays with the Louisville Orchestra. This is his eighth year performing with the Holiday Brass — and now he vacations here in summer. “I can’t get enough of Sitka,” he says. “I started the tuba in the 6th grade, because I was the big kid. But it’s paid for my schooling and allowed me to play all over the world.” (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Musicians from orchestras around the country have gathered in Sitka this week for the 10th anniversary Holiday Brass Concert.

As performances go, the music is top shelf and so is the venue: The Sitka Performing Arts Center opened a decade ago with Holiday Brass — a decision designed to showcase the publicly-funded facility’s capabilities as a concert hall.

While this may sound like a very grown-up strategy to increase appreciation for the arts in a community, it actually started with three kids in the Sitka High band room about 30 years ago.

Downloadable audio.

Note: The 10th Holiday Brass Concert will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, December 21, in the Sitka Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at Old Harbor Books.

Sounds: Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei in rehearsal.

“I love this theater. This is a beautiful place to play,” says Paul Cox.

I’m standing among timpanis, glocks, xylophones, and chimes — the habitat of the orchestral percussionist. Paul Cox is the full-time Dean of Creative Arts at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, and a part-time performer.

He grew up right here in Sitka.

“When Wade and Roger and I were in high school we played in a large brass group. It was timpani and brass. My freshman year of high school. And then we went to the music festival and we got a command performance, and we got to play in Juneau on the big stage there.”

Wade Demmert (center) rehearses with the Toronto Orchestra’s principal trombonist Gordon Wolfe (l), and Louisville Orchestra tubist Daryl Johnson. When he wasn’t playing music in high school, Demmert says he and his girlfriend cruised around Sitka in his car — with percussionist Paul Cox sitting between them. Says Cox, “I was the little nerd.” (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

And that set the stage for the Holiday Brass, the annual reunion of three Sitka students who met in middle school, took up instruments together, and never put them down.

“So coming back here I always hearken back to 1985 when we all first played together as a group. So I just see it as a continuation of how our lives have been intertwined over the years. So yeah, we pinch ourselves.”

On stage are ten brass players rehearsing Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei — or Adagio for Strings — one of the most iconic pieces of American music. It was played at JFK’s funeral, and at the 9-11 Memorial. The performers include principal players from some of the country’s major orchestras. They’ve had the sheet music for several weeks, but this is the first of three rehearsals they’ll hold together before the concert.

Like Cox, Wade Demmert is home-grown.

“I’m Wade Demmert. I grew up here in Sitka…”

Demmert and Roger Schmidt were neighbors on Japonski Island, where Demmert’s father worked for Mt. Edgecumbe High School, and Schmidt’s father was a doctor at SEARHC. They’ve known each other since elementary school.

Demmert – I’m a year or so older than Roger and started in the band and ended up playing trombone. When it came time for Roger to get to 5th grade he told me he wanted to play the flute, and I persuaded him to play the trombone, and we’ve been playing music together ever since.
KCAW – What a close brush! If Roger had become a flute player…
Demmert – History would be different, yeah!

Demmert teaches music in Seattle, and plays professionally on “everything that comes along,” from orchestras, to video-game soundtracks.

He and Schmidt and Cox were the kids always walking around with their instrument cases. Maybe they were teased, but this is how it begins when you want to play music in the big leagues.

“I remember getting together with Paul and Roger in the band room after hours somehow — I don’t know if we were let in or what — and we would do things like free improv and stuff. Percussion and trombones. And from there it went to playing together in bands in high school, and ended up with Paul at Rice University in Houston at the music school there. Yeah, we had a close-knit group of musicians in high school.”

“Mild panic fits,” says Roger Schmidt (center). A full-time arts administrator with serious performance chops, he still has to up his game to play with full-time musicians like Vanessa Fralick (l.), associate principal trombone of the Toronto Symphony. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

And the guy who’s is pulling together all the strings of this close-knit group?

“I’m Roger Schmidt, and I’m the organizer of the Holiday Brass tradition.”

And while Schmidt is an accomplished trombonist who trained at the Oberlin Conservatory, he’s not full-time performer. He’s the director of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and he’s pushing the envelope — with his lips.

“Mild panic fits. Yeah, there’s a lot going on.”

Schmidt is a multi-tasker. He’s created the musical program for all the Holiday Brass Concerts, and he arranged this piece by Samuel Barber for brass.

Before The Holiday Brass became an 11-piece ensemble to open the Sitka Performing Arts Center in 2008, it was a quartet in Sitka’s Centennial Building. This photo from the 2005 show features Don Immel, Nathaiel Dickey, Roger Schmidt and Wade Demmert on trombones. (Wade Demmert photo)

Still, it’s a little unsettling to be on stage with Gordon Wolfe, the principal trombone of the Toronto Symphony on his left, and Vanessa Fralick, the associate principal on his right.

“I’m going on so many different levels. To try and keep track of what’s going on. Trying to tune with this chord. Trying to move my slide as fast as the other people are around me. It’s not something I do every day. I definitely feel very engage trying to keep up with the band.”

Schmidt was fairly confident he would lose money on the Holiday Brass Concert when he first staged it in 2008 — but that proved not to be the case, and the concert remains one of Sitka’s hottest tickets. The Fine Arts Camp manages this space on behalf of the Sitka School District. He knows that not every student who performs on this stage will launch a career in music.

That’s not really the point, is it?

“It doesn’t matter what you end up doing with your quote ‘career’ or your livelihood. Any investment you make in music is going to pay many times over whether it’s brain development, whether it’s an ability to make music with other people, or to get a chance through history to connect with some of the greatest creations that humans have ever made. Tell a kid, by playing this instrument you might get to play Beethoven someday. Who would you not want to have a chance to play Beethoven someday?”

Or a chance to jam after-hours in the band room with your best friends, like Roger Schmidt, Wade Demmert, and Paul Cox.

Downloadable audio.

The Original Grind to be held Saturday, Mar. 18 at the Sitka Performing Arts Center. The theme is all Original Works. As always the philosophy of the Monthly Grind is affordable, non-political, and family entertainment. Jay Bradley, the show’s coordinator, will talk about what expect at the Original Grind.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at Old Harbor Books. Cost is $5.00 for adults $1.00 for children or free with a plate of homemade desserts. For those bringing a dessert you must purchase a ticket in advance and will be reimbursed at the door. We encourage you to bring a cup to help reduce the trash.

Doors open at 6:30pm show starts at 7:00pm. For more info call Jeff at 747-4821.

Downloadable audio.

Sitka Fine Arts Camp presents “Little Red Riding Hood,” by the Sitka Spruce Celtic Dancers, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. and Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center. 

Choreographer Director Kris Fulton will discuss the performance, along with SFAC director Roger Schmidt.