Adelyn Baxter

A group of Alaska Native teenagers premiered a bilingual hip-hop video on Monday showcasing Tlingit culture and Southeast Alaska.

Although goofy, the point of the project was to give local youth a chance to take pride in their heritage and the place they come from.

The video is called “Ix̱six̱án, Ax̱ Ḵwáan,” which translates to “I love you, my people.”

Throughout the video, AJ Hoyle blends Tlingit and English lyrics together over a Native drum beat.

Hoyle raps with a hip-hop star’s swagger across scenes from Southeast Alaska, including  the center of a canoe full of paddlers, fields of fireweed and the back deck of a ferry.

But the video and lyrics are fun, silly and, at times, absurd.

Bananas feature prominently, for some reason. They eat them, throw them and dance with them on camera.

Hoyle wrote most of the lyrics himself.

“So I was the rapper, also known as the emcee,” Hoyle said.

He’s written raps before and speaks Tlingit pretty well, but this was his first time rhyming in another language.

That’s why some of the lyrics seem random, even while playing with some familiar hip-hop themes.

“I pick those blueberries / I love my mom / I smoked a fat pound of salmon / Ix̱six̱án, Ax̱ Ḵwáan,” he raps.

He also included a shout out to “This is Angoon,” a Southeast Alaska hip-hop favorite by T.N.T. and Swerv Merv. That video is a couple years old now.

“You gotta shout ‘em out or else they don’t get no publicity no more,” Hoyle said. “And like, if I have to shout out ‘This is Angoon,’ that’s good, because now all of Alaska’s known.”

The video shows the group canoeing on Auke Lake, exploring Haines, riding the ferry, fishing and picking blueberries.

Everything from the video production to ferry tickets and snacks were paid for through grant money promoting health and well-being under a tribal suicide prevention program.

“So when we were doing our storyboard for the lyrics, we wanted to have images that illustrate indigenous life in Southeast,” said Will Kronick, who coordinates the suicide prevention program for the Tlingit & Haida Central Council.

Kronick said the grant was fairly open-ended, so he let the students choose what they wanted to do.

“They decided, ‘Let’s do a music video!’ And all the different scenes came out of that, too, because students wanted to do outdoor things, they wanted to go canoeing, they wanted to go fishing. So really, all of the ideas came from students,” Kronick said.

Kronick, Hoyle and another student, Marcel Cohen, worked on the lyrics for about a month.

Once they had them, it took two days to produce the song with help from Joshua LaBoca, a sound engineer who also helped produce the video. That took about 10 days.

“I didn’t do any micromanaging of them. All I said was do what you do, do what you know and go from there,” LaBoca said. “They weren’t camera shy on each of the days and that’s what made the whole thing smooth, that’s what made it fun.”

The seven students who worked on the video range from 13 to 17.

Most attend high school in Juneau, except for Jacob Brouillette.

He’s from Elim, outside of Nome.

“I was visiting for the summer and I was pretty much loafing around then all of a sudden my Grandma wanted me to get out of the house,” Brouillette said.

Since he’s Yupik and Inuit, he contributed a little bit of his own culture for the video. He demonstrates a broad jump common at events like Native Youth Olympics.

So what did the teenagers take away from the experience?

“New friends and a lot of days without sleep,” said Cohen.

“It’s only OK to say ‘I smoke a fat pound of …’ if ‘salmon’ is at the end,” Hoyle said.

As for their next project, the group already has plans for a music video inspired by Childish Gambino’s “This is America.”

Expect “This is Alaska” to hit the internet sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Watch “Ix̱six̱án, Ax̱ Ḵwáan (I Love You, My People)”: 

Andi Story’s world revolved around schools for 15 years. Now, the Democrat hopes to represent the Mendenhall Valley’s District 34 in the Alaska House of Representatives.

At a recent campaign fundraiser, the homemaker and mother of three talked about being the child and parent of educators.

She decided to run for school board after her second child started school.

“I’ve always known the value of education,” Story said. “But when my daughter, Mallory, was in kindergarten, she had 29 kids in her class and I wanted to vote on the budget.”

And vote she did.

The past 15 years on the board, Story spent much of the time working on budgets.

And while her term ends this year, she decided to put her public service skills to a slightly different purpose.

“I thought I would rather try and get a seat at the table up at the Legislature and not be testifying to the people around the table but be on there and being a voice,” Story said.

Not long after she was elected to the school board, Story and another concerned parent, Mary Hakala, founded Great Alaska Schools, a nonpartisan coalition of public education supporters advocating for better school funding.

Hakala approached Story after hearing her speak about the insufficient state funding at a school board meeting.

“We both had reached a tipping point and we both independently said, ‘Let’s see if we can do something,’” Hakala said.

Several years of intense work began.

The organization expanded statewide, mobilizing parents and educators to contact their representatives and testify in support of increased school funding.

“We did make a difference,” Hakala said. “Actually, who made the difference were the hundreds and hundreds of parents who chose to speak up, and we just helped make that possible by tapping that energy.”

Story went on to join the Association of Alaska School Boards’ board of directors in 2009, serving as president for a year in 2016.

She talks about the relationships she’s built with legislators and education advocates around the state, but says seeing normal Alaskans engage with the issues are among her proudest moments.

Recently, she ran into a mom she spoke to during the last legislative session.

“She said ‘I did it! I went up and testified this year,’” Story said. “I was really glad because it was my prompting and that’s what it takes, is people owning it because we can fix these problems and that’s empowering.”

Story’s proud of her work with the school board, particularly when it comes to ensuring better education access for all students and the district budget.

She now turns her attention to the state budget.

The state needs a responsible fiscal plan, she said, and she’s ready to put in the work it will take to get one.

“I feel my commitment is whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or an independent, we need to come together and work together for a fiscal plan for Alaska,” Story said.

She’s open to looking at a state income tax.

She also wants the state to diversify its energy economy and bring down health care costs for businesses and families.

While making daily door-to-door visits in her district, voters say their biggest concerns include jobs and public safety, she said

She supports increased funding to address police and fire department staffing shortages.

Story also supports the Juneau Access Road and maintaining the Alaska Marine Highway System.

Back at the campaign fundraiser, Story mingled with friends and supporters. Many were from Juneau’s education community.

Nico Bus, who hosted the event with his wife Susan, said he’s known Story for years. He appreciates her advocacy work and believes she would represent the district well.

“Other than all her strengths, I think we also would benefit from a female in the Legislature kind of keeping the balance between all these senior males that are pretty set in their ways,” Bus said.

So far, Story has raised almost $30,000, according to campaign filings.

She faces independent candidate Rob Edwardson in the Aug. 21 Democratic primary.

KTOO is publishing profiles of all the statehouse candidates for House District 33 and 34 and Senate District Q over the next few weeks. You’ll also find the profiles at KTOO.org/elections.

The Juneau School Board voted Friday to release current district Superintendent Mark Miller from his employment contract, about a year early.

Miller accepted a position as superintendent of the Sonora Union High School District in Sonora, California, which was announced earlier this week. He requested the contract change on Wednesday.

His contract originally expired June 30, 2019. He’s been in the position for four years.

The board could have asked that Miller’s superintendent license be revoked for not fulfilling his terms of employment. But they decided not to do that.

Miller has been publicly vague about his reasons for leaving, saying it is simply time for him to go. Whatever the reason, it seemed to be enough for the board.

“I can’t really say because of confidentiality reasons why he resigned, but he has reached a point where he just needs to leave the district and it was a suitable reason that I think the members of the board thought it was good enough to let him go without any penalty,” said board member Emil Mackey.

Two members of the public showed up to testify and were not as sympathetic. Jim Housley, a former teacher in the district, said the board should learn from this incident when selecting Miller’s replacement.

By leaving early, Miller does forgo a 5 percent bonus on his $165,000 salary. According to an article by the Union Democrat, he is also taking a $10,000 pay cut.

Miller is originally from California and still has family there. He came to Juneau from Hayward Unified School District.

Miller’s release is effective Aug. 15, just before the start of school on Aug. 20.

The school district will look internally for an interim superintendent while a permanent replacement is sought.

The board identified four district staff members who have their superintendent certifications — Thunder Mountain High School Principal Dan Larson, Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School Principal Molly Yerkes, Director of Human Resources for the district Darryl Smith and Director of Student Services Bridget Weiss. Board members acknowledged that there may be other qualified staff they are not yet aware of. 

Research biologist Elizabeth “Ebett” Siddon filed a letter of intent to run for Juneau School Board on Sunday.

Siddon said she started to think about running for the board a few months ago after getting the chance to teach local middle school students about science.

“And I ran it by a few friends and people were really encouraging, and so the more people I talked to about it, the more support I realized I would have, and the more interested and invested I got,” Siddon said.

Siddon first arrived in Juneau 16 years ago as a graduate student. She now has her Ph.D. and studies fisheries at NOAA’s Auke Bay lab.

Last fall, Siddon and several other STEM advocates got together to form SouthEast Exchange, a network connecting local teachers with STEM professionals in the region.

Through that, Siddon met a science teacher at Floyd Dryden Middle School and taught a month-long ecosystems unit in her classroom.

Siddon also sits on the Governor’s Council for Special Education and Disabilities and holds the statewide parent seat on the Alaska Early Childhood Coordinating Council.

She has a son in preschool and special education programs at Harborview Elementary School. If elected, she hopes to focus on early intervention and education for young children.

“I’ve had this unique opportunity to learn about things like ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and kindergarten readiness across the state and things that the statewide programs are working on, and I think that I could be a good liaison to the school board as well,” Siddon said.

Siddon said she plans to officially file for candidacy when the period opens on Aug. 3.

Three school board seats will be on the Oct. 2 municipal ballot. So far, only Paul Kelly has filed a letter of intent to run. Incumbent Emil Mackey said he plans to file a letter of intent. Josh Keaton confirmed Thursday he will not run this year. Longtime board member Andi Story is focusing on running for statehouse.

Siddon will be out of town teaching at the Shoals Marine Lab off the coast of Maine for the next few weeks, but plans to start actively campaigning when she returns.

Former legislative staffer Paul Kelly has filed to run for Juneau’s Board of Education in the Oct. 2 election.

Kelly is a third-generation Alaskan from Anchorage. He decided to move to Juneau full time last July after working here as a legislative aide for Rep. Andy Josephson.

“It’s important to give back to your community and even though I just moved to Juneau, I don’t think it’s too early to start giving back,” Kelly said.

Kelly, 34, graduated in 2016 from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a bachelor’s in engineering. He now works for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as an analyst programmer.

Kelly said he’d bring his experience to the board of mentoring students through UA’s Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program. He also served in leadership roles with the Society of Women Engineers and on the College of Engineering student council.

He also previously worked as an English language teaching assistant in France.

Kelly also said his fiancee has two children who attend Juneau schools.

“So it’s personal for me that I want to ensure that they have the best possible future and that every Juneau student should have the best possible opportunities,” Kelly said.

He said the school budget is his primary focus.

Kelly has been going door-to-door in Juneau neighborhoods to introduce himself to voters and plans to continue up until the election.

The municipal filing period for Juneau Assembly and school board candidates opens Aug. 3. There are two open seats on the school board.

Three school board incumbents are up for re-election this October. Andi Story is focusing on running for statehouse. Emil Mackey confirmed he will file a letter of intent. And Josh Keaton confirmed he will not run this year.

Another candidate, Elizabeth Siddon, filed a letter of intent to run on Sunday.

Two residents and a dog made it safely out of a Mendenhall Valley house fire on Friday.

Capital City Fire/Rescue arrived at the home on the 8000 block of Kimberly Street shortly after 3:30 p.m.

Don Etheridge was in his home across the street when he noticed the smoke.

“We saw smoke coming up about the time the 911 call came across the scanner, went out and made sure they were already out,” Etheridge said. “They came over and stayed in our yard to stay out of harm’s way.”

Etheridge said the fire seemed to start on the back porch before moving into the home.

“We had flames coming out the roof vents when they got here, so it spread quick,” Etheridge said.

The fire was knocked down shortly before 4 p.m. The extent of the damage and possible sources were still being determined Friday afternoon.

American Red Cross volunteers were on the scene offering assistance to the home’s residents.