KRBD - Ketchikan

Ketchikan’s school district might get through its budget crunch without layoffs. That was one message delivered by Superintendent Michael Robbins at Wednesday’s meeting of Ketchikan’s school board.

Earlier this year, Robbins told the board that the district was looking at deep, across-the-board staff cuts that could result in as many as 57 layoffs, or about 15% of the district’s workforce. Robbins and school board members have pointed to two major factors driving the budget crunch: declining enrollment and state funding that hasn’t kept up with inflation.

Lawmakers in the state House and Senate have floated bills that would increase the state’s per-student funding, known as the base student allocation. On Wednesday, a House committee voted to advance a bill that would provide for a $680 increase in the BSA this year, and another $120 the following year. A similar bill moving through the Senate would raise the BSA by $1,000 this year and $348 the next year.

But Robbins says that even a $100 increase in per-student state education funding would allow Ketchikan’s school district to eke by without layoffs.

“We feel like there’s enough room in our budget even with a very small, small, small increase of the BSA that will have all of our teachers and staff covered that currently are working for us right now,” Robbins told the school board.

But that doesn’t mean that the school district’s staff won’t shrink. Robbins says the district will close some unfilled positions left by resignations or retirements, and some low-performing teachers may not have their contracts renewed. But Robbins says he does not anticipate laying off teachers or staff for budgetary reasons.

Robbins said that with the reduction in staff, classes will likely get bigger at the elementary level. As it stands, the district has approximately 15 students for each teacher. Robbins says the district is currently budgeting for 18 students per elementary teacher. That’s in line with the Alaska state average as of 2019, but higher than the national average of 15.9, according to figures from the National Center for Education Statistics covering all grade levels.

But Robbins cautions that the budget is subject to change.

“This is the budget as of March 22, 2023 at 7:01 and 22 seconds. The budget process is a fluid process. So to sit there and say, ‘This is what it’s going to be in May when the assembly is done with their work’ is a little bit unrealistic,” Robbins said.

The board must finalize its budget and submit it to the Borough Assembly by May 1.

Two Klawock men are facing second-degree murder charges after allegedly beating an 80-year-old man to death early Tuesday morning. Investigators believe the killing was motivated by rumors circulated on Facebook.

Alaska State Troopers found Lincoln “Bingo” Peratrovich dead in his Klawock trailer home early Tuesday morning.

According to Adam Hawkins with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, 21-year-old Blaise Andrew Dilts and 22-year-old Moses Scott Blanchard allegedly beat the 80-year-old man to death with their hands, feet and heavy household objects.

During an interrogation, Dilts and Blanchard reportedly told investigators that they had seen a post on Facebook alleging that Peratrovich had catcalled an underage girl and pursued her with an ax the day before. Dilts told investigators he did not know if the allegations were true.

“There was a Facebook post about Peratrovich approaching a thirteen-year-old girl and chasing her with an (ax).  Blaise was asked if he knew if anything in the Facebook post was true. Blaise stated no. Blaise was asked why he joined Moses in beating Peratrovich. Blaise stated because of what was on Facebook,” Hawkins wrote.

According to court documents, state troopers investigated the allegation that Petratrovich chased the young girl with an ax on Monday and found that “no crime had occurred.”

The beating allegedly happened in the early morning hours on Tuesday. Around 1:30 a.m. the two suspects along with a minor boy and a minor girl were walking on a trail near Peratrovich’s trailer home. The girl said she told the group she was scared to walk past Peratrovich’s house because of the rumors. She says that Blanchard and Dilts told her not to worry because they were with her.

That’s when investigators say Dilts punched in a window of the trailer and kicked in the door. Dilts, Blanchard and the boy walked in and saw Peratrovich sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Then, all three allegedly started stomping on the man and beating him with their fists and heavy objects — firewood, a cannonball-shaped 15-pound weight, a chair and a milk crate. In an interview, Blanchard reportedly told police that the minor boy’s involvement was “minimal.”

The alleged assailants fled after a passing car started honking to draw attention to the scene.

Troopers had arrived at about 3 a.m., roughly 90 minutes after the assault was reported. Klawock’s local police department has been unstaffed since the death of the former chief in January.

Both suspects reportedly told police they did not call for medical help for Peratrovich.

“Moses stated that he thought Lincoln needed medical attention but didn’t because if he got better, he didn’t want to know it was him that beat him,” Hawkins wrote in the affidavit.

Blanchard and Dilts are both facing second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, and a second-degree burglary charge. They remain in custody in the Craig Jail with bail set at $600,000.

An Alaska State Troopers spokesperson declined to say whether anyone else would face charges in connection with Peratrovich’s death, saying the investigation is ongoing.

Christy Ruby stood by a table piled with blue, red and purple sea otter pelts in her Ketchikan studio. These are her bestselling colored sea otter. Since 2017, she’s used the dyed fur in her traditional handicrafts. She sells her creations online and at local craft events.

“I use them sparingly because it costs twice or three times as much to have them dyed that color,” she said.

She says the rich colors are what make her creations unique. She’s grateful for her ability to hunt the animals, but worries that efforts to reform sea otter management could jeopardize her business and traditional craft.

Sea otters are a keystone species, protecting vital kelp beds, but they also prey on crab and clams that make up lucrative fisheries. They’re protected by federal law, and only certain Alaska Native people can hunt them.

Southeast’s otters were driven to near-extinction by the fur trade in the early 20th century, but their numbers have grown considerably since they were reintroduced in the 1960s. And as the population has grown, so have calls to loosen the strict federal rules protecting them. And that has some artists and hunters concerned.

To be clear, scientists aren’t sure that otters are overpopulated in Southeast Alaska. There are now more than 25,000 spread throughout the panhandle, and one 2019 study estimated that the region’s ecosystems could support three times as many. But that hasn’t stopped efforts to reduce their numbers.

Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly recently took the topic to lawmakers in Washington, D.C., asking for control of the federally managed species to be turned over to the state, or for current regulations to change. Petersburg’s assembly called for higher harvests in 2018. And the late congressman Don Young attempted to make it easier to sell intact hides.

Proponents say increasing sea otter hunting would help bolster lucrative shellfish fisheries.

But Ruby says those changes won’t fix the problem — at least, not without putting her traditional work at risk. She says state control of otter hunting could result in more red tape, preventing her from creating her work.

She says she’s been frustrated for years by how the Marine Mammal Protection Act — the law informing how sea otters are managed — is written. She and nearly two dozen other otter hunters met with federal officials in the early 2010s to clarify ambiguities in the federal law, and Ruby says she’s concerned that the state management could put up new roadblocks.

“The state will get funding, and they’ll have areas where they’ll close off to even Natives won’t be able to hunt that area because they say there’s a lack of otters there. Which, you know, you cannot track an otter — they move all the time,” Ruby said.

She’s also worried about allowing non-Native hunters to kill sea otters. That’s against the law under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. If rules are relaxed, Ruby said she thinks hunters will flood the market with hides and lower the value of the traditional work she creates.

“They’ll turn them into coats, and all this stuff that they want to do, and our crafts will be gone,” she said. “Because we don’t have the ability to pay that much money for what the hunters will get for that hide.”

She’s also worried about backlash: If sea otter pelts become a widely traded commercial commodity, she said she’s concerned that could spark calls for hunting to be banned outright.

Will Ware, a Lingít artist who lives in Petersburg, also opposes opening sea otter hunts to non-Native people. He says there are simpler solutions, starting with the Marine Mammal Protection Act itself.

The law currently requires hunters to be at least one-fourth coastal Alaska Native by blood quantum. He says he’d like to allow any enrolled tribal member to hunt. For example, in Ketchikan, that would allow anyone enrolled with Ketchikan Indian Community to hunt sea otters.

“I think you would see a lot more otters being harvested each year,” Ware said. “That would be low hanging fruit that would immediately make a difference.”

Ware also thinks that the rules should change to allow the exportation of tanned hides and handicrafts to Canada. Neither is currently allowed under federal law. He said Lingít and Haida people have been sending goods through that route for years.

“If we had our congressional delegation start working with our counterparts in Canada, which were traditional trade routes of our Lingít and our Haida people,” that would be ideal, Ware said.

Jeremiah James, an artist based in Yakutat, also has an issue with marketing laws. Some of his pieces have sold for around $1,000, but he can’t reach a wider market.

“And it’s one thing to sell it in the country to each other,” James said. “But we’re just passing money back and forth, and that’s not how you create wealth.”

He also agrees that non-Native people shouldn’t be allowed to kill sea otters. He said laxer rules could allow businesses to squeeze out Alaska Native artists.

“When people talk about opening it up to more people, all I see is another thing that’s being taken away from my people,” he said.

But Ware, the Petersburg artist, said he sympathizes with crabbers and dive fishermen who say that higher otter populations are weighing on fisheries. He emphasized that he doesn’t want to pit fishermen and Native hunters and artists against each other.

“We sense the frustration,” he said. “Alaska Natives utilize the shrimp and crab as part of our subsistence foods, and our traditional and customary foods for millennia. We don’t want to see the crab or shrimp disappearing any more than anyone else.”

Back in her brightly lit studio, surrounded by fur-draped mannequins and old sewing machines, Ruby, the Ketchikan artist, said she agrees. She thinks the answer lies in more aggressive support for Native hunters, and maybe even more communication with crabbers and fishermen about where they’re seeing the sea otters move.

“It’s a no-brainer when it comes to actually making something happen,” she said. “But we just don’t get the full cooperation from everybody.”

The bottom line, she explained, is that policymakers concerned about the impacts of otter populations should focus their efforts on increasing the capacity of existing hunters and craftspeople. She suggested a Southeast Alaska tannery, for instance, would allow her to process more hides and cut down on considerable shipping costs.

“There’s no tannery — quality tannery — here,” she said. “We have a few tanneries, but they don’t put out the quality that people really want to use.”

She said hunters, crabbers and dive fishermen have the same goal — and they should work together.

Ketchikan is expecting nearly 1.5 million cruise passengers to visit this summer. If the projections hold, it would be the community’s biggest cruise season to date.

According to the latest draft schedule, Ketchikan’s cruise season kicks off April 20 with the arrival of the Norwegian Bliss in Ward Cove. That’s one of the largest cruise ships that sail in Alaska waters – carrying up to 4,000 passengers. About a quarter of the season’s passengers are scheduled to arrive at Ward Cove, the private terminal eight miles north of downtown.

The first port call at Ketchikan’s downtown docks is scheduled for May 2 when the Carnival Miracle ties up at Berth 2. The season is scheduled to ramp up quickly from there, with the community’s first six-ship day expected on May 18.

Some Fridays during the summer months will see a total of seven large cruise ships tie up in the Ketchikan area, though only six are scheduled to be in town at any one time.

Some 1.1 million people are expected to arrive at the city’s downtown docks over the course of the season. They’ll be split fairly evenly among the city’s four berths, with about 21% at Berth 1, 26% at Berth 2, 29% at Berth 3 and 24% at Berth 4.

Altogether, Ketchikan is expecting 632 port calls throughout the season. The last call downtown is scheduled for Oct. 5, but ships will continue to dock in Ward Cove at least two days a week through the end of the season on Oct. 27.

Ketchikan city leaders are soliciting feedback ahead of the cruise season. The city is taking online comments about the cruise ship calendar through March 31. Those will be shared with Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, the company that handles scheduling.

City officials are also soliciting comments on downtown traffic, parking, pedestrian access and more with a separate online form. City Manager Delilah Walsh said Thursday that the city is not considering any major traffic changes in the immediate future but is open to suggestions.

“If there’s something that we can incorporate for ‘23, that’s great. If not, I plan to do something similar in September or sometime post-season in order to get feedback for real changes that we can make in 2024, when we’re not in this crunch-time schedule,” she said at the March 16 Ketchikan City Council meeting.

She said the city’s biggest traffic priority is ensuring that loading and unloading zones are designated. There’s a public meeting scheduled at the Ted Ferry Civic Center from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21.

Alaska’s state education department has selected five tribes for a pilot program that will allow tribes to open new independent schools.

The state tribal education compacting program was established under Senate Bill 34, which passed the Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Dunleavy last year. The five selected tribes each receive grant funding to start their school over the next handful of years through a compact agreement with the state’s Department of Education and Early Development.

The tribes can set their own curriculum and schedule. They’ll receive guidance from the Alaska Federation of Natives as the program moves forward.

Supporters say the program will improve education for Alaska Native students. It’s part of a larger push to bring more culturally relevant lessons into the classroom to support Indigenous students.

Sealaska Heritage Institute holds a conference each year that brings together educators to train them on how to bring Alaska Native culture into their lessons. The University of Alaska Fairbanks also offers standards for culturally responsive teaching set out by several Alaska Native organizations and tribes.

According to the state education department, the schools would be open to all students from kindergarten through high school.

“These State Tribal Education Compact Schools (STECs) would be public schools open to all students and would offer a unique, culturally rich combination of Western and millennia-old tribal educational models,” reads information on the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.”

The tribes selected for the pilot program include Ketchikan Indian Community, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, King Island Native Community, Knik Tribe and Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope.

Raegan Miller is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution at KRBD.org/donate.

Some Alaskans recognized a familiar face on stage at the 95th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night. An actor born and raised in Ketchikan was celebrating their movie’s big win.

Tallie Medel co-starred in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which took home a total of seven Oscars, including best picture. KRBD caught up with the actor.

Even before Oscar night, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” had already won a bevy of awards — like an outstanding cast award from the Screen Actors Guild, two Golden Globes and a Writers Guild of America award. According to IGN, even before the Oscars, it had already claimed the title of most-awarded movie ever.

So, co-star Tallie Medel was hopeful the streak would continue on Oscar night.

The movie had already racked up six awards by the time Harrison Ford came out on stage to present the award for best picture. After all, co-star Ke Huy Quan, who some might remember as Data from “The Goonies,” had acted alongside Ford in an Indiana Jones movie decades ago. Medel took it as a sign.

“We, at that point, had already won so many awards — besides the Oscars, too,” Medel said. “So leading up to the best picture announcement, it seemed clear that we were poised to win.”

And they did. “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” an A24 film that premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival last year, won best picture. It beat out competition like “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: the Way of the Water,” and “Elvis.” In total, the movie earned seven Oscars.

Lead actress Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian person to win an Oscar for best actress. The film also collected awards for best supporting actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), best supporting actor (Ke Huy Quan), best director (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan), best editing, and best original screenplay. It is the second-most decorated film to come out of an Academy Awards, after “Moonlight.”

Medel said it was overwhelming to look out from the stage as the producer, Jonathan Wang, accepted the best picture Oscar.

“I didn’t look at the audience much because I think I might have, you know, collapsed from seeing … the faces of artists that I’ve always looked up to and admired,“ Medel said.

But Medel — who played the part of Becky, girlfriend to the character Joy Wang (Stephanie Hsu) — said the win just “felt right.”

Medel’s character struggles to be accepted by her girlfriend’s parents, who immigrated from China, and her traditional grandfather who Joy’s parents don’t want to know they’re dating. It’s one of the struggles that contributes to Joy’s character being taken over by a force from another universe and kind of going off the deep end and creating an everything bagel that could wreak havoc.

The movie is a fast-paced sci-fi that follows Joy’s mother as she jumps through bizarre and absurd universes, trying to reconcile the things that could have been if her life had been different. In some worlds, she’s a martial arts pro, in others, a movie star. In some, she divorces her husband or never moves to America.

Medel explained it like this:

“I think a message that we can roll in for this time that’s from the film is nothing matters,” Medel explained. “But that also means that we can do anything we want. You know, it’s ours to create and to heal. And collaborating with other people, catching the words that you’re experiencing, you know, floating over your head, being able to grab them and write them down. Anything that you feel compelled to create, just make it and the judgments not going to serve you.”

Between Oscar night and the various after-parties, Medel says it’s been a whirlwind.

They mingled with stars like Brendan Fraser (Oscar winner of best actor for “The Whale”), Alison Brie (“Community,” “GLOW”), Jenny Slate, Paul Mescal (Oscar presenter, (“Aftersun”), Paul Dano, Kyle MacLachlan, Sally Field, (“80 for Brady,” “Steel Magnolias”), Michelle Williams, and others.

“It’s been absolutely surreal,” they said. “I’m so happy for everybody. And I’m so honored.”

Medel plans to stay in Los Angeles for the next month before jumping into more projects. Medel also teaches “clowning” theater classes and is the founding member of the three-person dance group “Cocoon Central Dance Team.” They are working on a screenplay about Ketchikan, which still holds a special place in their heart.

“I just am really grateful to everybody in Ketchikan for being so supportive and so kind,” Medel said.

Medel remembers taking classes at the Ketchikan Theatre Ballet and performing with First City Players. Medel said they owe a lot to this town of nearly 14,000.

“And Alaska has just so many amazing artists,” they said. “Aren’t we so lucky?”

They hope to visit again soon — they were in town last summer, teaching classes with First City Players.

Elizabeth Nelson, First City Players’ executive director, hopes to see Medel again soon.

“I think really what I would say about Tallie is she is one of the kindest, most open people I know,” Nelson said. “And how she is able to just take what is such a gorgeous sense of play, and performance and make other people feel that they can do exactly what she does. But there’s just such an open kindness about her, I am thrilled for her.”

And it’s safe to say that Medel is thrilled, too.