Ketchikan Gateway Borough offices are in the White Cliff building, shown here in a 2013 file photo. (KRBD)

Two newcomers won seats on Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly in October’s local elections. And voters picked one incumbent, one former member and one newcomer for Ketchikan’s school board. That’s after the borough’s Canvass Board tallied more than 400 absentee, questioned and special needs ballots Monday.

Jaimie Palmer held on to her lead in a race for two open Borough Assembly seats, securing more than 1,100 votes. In line for the second open seat is Grant EchoHawk with just under 1,000 votes. Both are newcomers to the borough’s top elected body. They’ll replace outgoing members Felix Wong, who’s term-limited, and Sven Westergard, who did not seek reelection.

Carlos Weimer placed third in the Borough Assembly race, Darlene D-Svenson fourth, and Jason Button came in last.

In a race for three seats on Ketchikan’s school board, attorney and former board member Stephen Bradford bested the field with upwards of 1,300 votes. In second place is incumbent Nicole Anderson with more than 1,100 votes. And newcomer Keenan Sanderson held onto third with just shy of 950 votes. He bested fourth-place Tom Heutte by just 31 votes. Ali Ginter placed last.

Sanderson and Bradford will replace Kim Hodne, the school board president, and Doug Gregg, who was appointed to fill a vacancy earlier this year.

Full results from borough races in Ketchikan’s Oct. 5 local elections. Click for PDF. (Ketchikan Gateway Borough)

And both ballot measures were approved by wide margins. An extension of a 5% sales tax on marijuana passed with just over 80% of voters in support. And a nearly $6.7 million bond measure to add artificial turf and revamp borough baseball and softball fields passed with 78% in favor.

Absentee and other outstanding votes had little impact on the overall standings. Each candidate who led on election night maintained that lead after all ballots were counted.

The results remain unofficial for another week or so. Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly will be asked to certify the election on Oct. 19. Palmer and EchoHawk will be seated immediately afterwards.

Disclosure: Grant EchoHawk is president of KRBD’s nonprofit board of directors. He is not involved in the newsroom.

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Candidates for Ketchikan’s school board logged on for the third and final of KRBD’s local election forums on Wednesday. Candidates tackled questions over how to better serve Ketchikan’s Alaska Native students.

Ketchikan students of Alaska Native descent graduate at a much lower rate than students as a whole. It’s a problem that’s dogged Ketchikan’s school district for years.

The six candidates seeking one of four seats on Ketchikan’s school board had some ideas to address that gap.

A popular theme among the candidates was simply getting more Alaska Native teachers, administrators, and aides in front of kids.

Here’s Ali Ginter — she’s seeking one of a pair of three-year terms on the board.

“I’d like to see more Native hires when that’s possible,” Ginter said. “I’ve noticed a lot of — on the agenda, we’ve had a lot of out of town, not even local hires.”

Ginter is a Ketchikan Indian Community tribal member, a Tlingit from the Kaachadi tribe. Ginter also suggested that the board should regularly engage with the district’s Native Education Parent Committee.

But, coming back to the question of getting more Alaska Natives on staff. How?

“It’s simple — you hire them. They’re out there. They’re available,” said Kim Hodne. He’s running for a one-year term on the board.

“They’re trained, they’re qualified, they apply for the jobs, you have to have the wherewithal to actually hire them and give them the opportunity. And by doing so, the natural inclusion of culture and a good step forward for where we need to be it has not happened for quite some time,” Hodne continued.

Hodne pointed to his prior record on the board. In 2018, he voted to establish the Native Education Committee.

But incumbent Tom Heutte said hiring more Native teachers wasn’t quite as simple as Hodne described. He’s also seeking a one-year term.

“Yeah, I’m not aware that there’s a huge pool of unemployed, certified Native teachers in our town, and it’d be just as simple to just hire them,” Heutte said. “We’re digging ourselves out of a deep hole of a 400 year old hole, as far as Native Americans are concerned, and we’ve got a long way to go.”

He emphasized the need to get more Alaska Native people into administration roles.

Heutte also echoed an idea brought forward by fellow incumbent Diane Gubatayao: to create a program that would create incentives for teachers’ aides to obtain a state teaching certificate.

Gubatayao is seeking a three-year seat. She applauded a Ketchikan Indian Community program that offers scholarships to tribal members studying to be teachers.

“Also, […] we could make an effort to do special recruiting. Another one is our selection committees at each school, and they need to have a diverse selection committee when they’re interviewing potential teachers,” Gubatayao said.

Nicole Anderson is another candidate for a one-year seat on the school board. She also endorsed Gubatayao’s proposal to help aides get certified as fully-fledged teachers.

“That is an amazing idea. I know a lot of businesses that do that. I mean, if you’re working in a business and you want to move up, get the education through the business,” Anderson said. “And I don’t see why that couldn’t also be implemented through the school district.”

Incumbent Paul Robbins, Jr. was one of a few candidates to point out the board’s recent government-to-government meeting with KIC’s Tribal Council. He emphasized the importance of consulting with Alaska Native organizations.

“I think the most important thing that was accomplished at that meeting was a recognition that the school board is not the ones who are going to come up with the solutions that are needed to bring Alaska Native culture into the schools, and to make sure that the students are adapting well, adapting better, and graduating better, the solutions are going to come from our Alaska Native entities,” Robbins said.

Robbins is seeking a three-year seat on the school board.

The candidates touched on quite a few subjects during the two-hour forum — including the pandemic. Each of the six candidates pledged to follow recommendations from Ketchikan’s emergency operations center — meaning that if the pandemic significantly worsens in Ketchikan, they wouldn’t oppose a move to a hybrid or distance learning model.

Election Day is October 6.

The full two-hour forum is available below. It’s also on KRBD’s Facebook page and on the KRBD Evening Report podcast feed.

The post Candidates for Ketchikan’s school board discuss how to better serve Native students in KRBD forum appeared first on KRBD.

Superintendent contract

Ketchikan’s interim superintendent now has a two-year contract for the district’s top job. Beth Lougee was named to the top schools job following a 20-minute closed-door session Wednesday evening. Members of Ketchikan’s school board didn’t discuss the contract in public. 

But its terms were released following the unanimous vote. She’ll be paid $145,000 annually plus benefits.

Lougee has held the interim position since former district chief Bob Boyle stepped down in late 2018. She had been the district’s curriculum director.

She started her career in education as a teacher in Wyoming, where she got masters’ degrees in school counseling and administration. After that, she spent time as a middle school principal in Silver City, New Mexico before moving to Alaska.

She told KRBD in January that after a tumultuous couple of years — which saw a faculty member convicted of sexual abuse — she wanted to focus on improving reading, writing, math and social studies in Ketchikan’s schools.

“We’ve done a lot with social-emotional learning. And one of my goals or vision that I’m looking at is, as we’re a district that has gone through some things, and focusing on social-emotional learning, we need to get back to the basics: academics,” she said in a Jan. 17 interview.

Board vacancy

In other personnel news, the school board has a new member. After Rachel Breithaupt resigned last month for health reasons, the board picked Tom Heutte to fill the vacant seat Wednesday.

“I’d like to serve on the school board because I have a strong ethic of service to the community,” Heutte told the board. “I have a strong interest in education.”

It’s not Heutte’s first time on the board: he took over for former board member Kim Hodne after he stepped down last winter. Heutte didn’t run for re-election last October, citing conflicting personal commitments.

Graduation requirements

In other action, the school board unanimously gave preliminary approval to a revised set of graduation requirements for high school students. Those eliminate an explicit requirement that students take one year of both U.S. and world history, though the total credit requirement for social studies classes remains the same. The graduation requirements will come back for a final vote in two weeks.

Active shooter training

And finally, the school board also adopted an active shooter training curriculum for Ketchikan students. Several parents and teachers raised concerns last month and spoke out against the program, saying lockdown drills could traumatize pupils. 

But on Wednesday, the board heard from the program’s supporters: a majority asked the board to okay the active shooter training program. Many argued it would prepare students for a crisis. 

Board member Jordan Tabb opposed the curriculum, citing a recent whitepaper by the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. In addition to concerns about trauma, the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions say there isn’t enough evidence that the drills are effective. Newly appointed board member Heutte joined Tabb in opposition.

Superintendent Beth Lougee says the district will refine its active shooter drills by working closely with mental health professionals, teachers and law enforcement.

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