Recent News

Parents of Juneau elementary school students have the most confidence in the Juneau School District, according to a survey conducted in May of randomly selected parents.

The survey was presented last night (Thursday) at the second annual School Summit at Thunder Mountain High School. The purpose of the summit was to share student achievement reports and the annual survey.

District Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich said the survey showed elementary parents expressed the greatest confidence, followed by middle school parents, and then high school parents.

“When we asked parents about the confidence not of the district, but of their school, we see a similar pattern, ranging from 83 percent confidence at the high school level, to 91 percent confidence at the elementary level,” Gelbrich said. “When we drilled down even further, and we asked about parents’ level of confidence in their child’s teacher, or in secondary schools’ teachers, the parents surveyed indicated even stronger confidence, ranging from 85 percent at the high school level, up to 93 prcent at the elementary level.

The summit was step two of a three-tiered approach to reviewing Juneau student’s academic performance. Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, results under the federal No Child Left Behind Act were released earlier this month. Gelbrich told the 50 to 60 parents, teachers, and principals gathered in the TMHS auditorium that math scores are trending upward and science scores have reached a four-year best.

“Again, this is State standards. Overall when we look at ‘so how are we doing in relationship to the State of Alaska?’ Juneau School District students out-perform students statewide,” Gelbrich said. “And while we think this is good news, we know that Alaskan standards are, when compared to standards in other states nationwide, relatively low, so we want to set the bar higher.”

Following Gelbrich’s presentation at the School Summit, the audience broke into groups to review each school’s academic performance. Click here to open School Summit presentation (PDF).

The Coast Guard is monitoring the condition of a fisherman who suffered cuts to the inside of his mouth aboard the 98-foot vessel Shellfish.

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow says the boat rolled while the 25-year-old crewmember was in the engine room with a flashlight in his mouth, causing cuts on his tongue and the back of his throat. The Coast Guard launched two helicopters from Air Station Sitka last night, but Wadlow says weather prevented them from doing a hoist.

“Coast Guard flight medics are keeping appraised of his situation. Right now, he’s kind of out of the danger zone. He still has the injuries, but they are non-life threatening,” Wadlow said.

When the call came in at about 6:30 Thursday night, Wadlow says the boat was about 270 miles west of Sitka, where it’s headed. At last check it was travelling about 7 knots.

Wadlow says the Coast Guard will attempt another hoist if the weather improves.

Nearly three decades after it was first proposed and designed, construction is now getting underway on the Pacific Northwest Research Station’s Juneau Forestry Sciences Laboratory.

Ground was broken Thursday afternoon on the new lab adjacent to the University of Alaska Southeast campus, just down the foot and bike path from the Egan Library.

The U.S. Forest Service’s Paul Brewster, assistant director of the Research Station and head of the Juneau lab, says funding for the $8.3 million dollar facility was finally approved in the last year and a half.

“They have a national priority list for facilities,” say Brewster. ”This being a research facility, it’s sort of looked at separate from other administrative facilities like the Juneau Ranger District office out there.”

Brewster believed its location next to UAS and potential opportunities for students to become involved with forest research could have helped bump the lab to the top of the priority list.

About twenty Forest Service employees are expected to move into the facility when it’s completed and opens in the latter half of next year.

Research Station Lab members are currently working out of the old NOAA fish laboratory in Auke Bay.

Previously, they worked out of facilities on Sherwood Lane, just down the street from the Alaska State Troopers and Department of Motor Vehicles. But an audit revealed health and safety concerns, and poorly functioning lab space.

For more on the new laboratory, check out the story in this newscast that aired Friday morning:

On Monday, the Juneau Assembly Committee of the Whole is scheduled to discuss relocating the Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial to Marine Park. But it will do so without a recommendation from the city’s Docks and Harbors Board.

When the assembly approved a floating cruise ship berth to be built in front of the memorial, it told the Docks and Harbors Board to work with the memorial’s board of directors, and if necessary recommend a new location.

The memorial board believes the monument should be left where it is – near Taku Smokeries on the downtown waterfront – but not with a dock there. The memorial board is concerned with how the floating berth might impact the annual Blessing of the Fleet, as well as the view of the water from the memorial. If the dock is built, the memorial board says it should go to Marine Park.

Last night (Thursday) the Docks and Harbors Board considered two completely different options for making a recommendation, but couldn’t pass either one and had to table the issue.

Chairman Kevin Jardell argued that the assembly directed the board to make a recommendation on a “mutually acceptable location,” and in his eyes Marine Park meets that definition.

“From a Docks and Harbors Board member’s perspective, it would be acceptable to me if they put it in Douglas,” said Jardell. “If they move it to Parks and Rec’s park, it really doesn’t impact me. I may have personal beliefs that it shouldn’t move, but from our perspective it’s acceptable to move it outside of our bailiwick, and if there’s only one that’s acceptable to the fishermen’s memorial, we wind up with only one mutually acceptable place.”

Jardell read from a lengthy letter, which he proposed sending to the assembly as the board’s recommendation. While it said Docks and Harbors finds Marine Park acceptable, it also encouraged the assembly and memorial board to give the current location a try with the cruise ship dock in place before ultimately deciding to move the memorial.

Earlier this month the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee unanimously passed a recommendation, saying the memorial should stay where it is until a plan is developed for Marine Park.

Jardell’s recommendation failed to get the five votes it needed to pass the Docks and Harbors Board. With three members absent, the vote was 4-2.

Board member Eric Kueffner was one of the no votes. He offered his own recommendation that the memorial stay where it is.

“For the very limited impact that this cruise ship construction would have on the memorial, it’s really not worth the trauma that it would cause to all the people who are so invested in it to try and move it anywhere,” Kueffner said. “Second of course is the cost of this, which we don’t really know the cost, but it strikes me that there’s no particular reason to do anything about it now. As three or four people testified tonight, we don’t have to do anything now.”

But Kueffner was the only board member to vote in favor of his recommendation, which failed 5-1.

The issue was tabled until the board’s next meeting, even though the assembly is scheduled to discuss the matter on Monday. Deputy Mayor Merrill Sanford was at last night’s meeting, as was the assembly’s Docks and Harbors liaison Ruth Danner. Sanford said it’s possible the Committee of the Whole will still make a recommendation to the full assembly on Monday.

A Soldotna woman has been indicted for lying on her 2010 Permanent Fund Dividend application.

According to the state departments of Law and Revenue, a Juneau Grand Jury has charged 62-year-old Sherrie Ann Ace of one count of unsworn falsification in the first degree, a Class C felony. The indictment also charges Ace of second degree attempted theft, a Class A misdemeanor.

Ace could face a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $50,000 if she is convicted of lying on her PFD application. If she is convicted of the attempted theft charge, the maximum sentence would be a year in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The Docks and Harbors Board is expected to make a recommendation to the Juneau Assembly tonight on the location of the Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial, now that a floating cruise ship berth is to be built in front of it.

The memorial’s board of directors believes it should be left where it is, but not with a dock there, citing concerns over impeding the annual Blessing of the Fleet.

Port Engineer Gary Gillette says there would be enough room for fishing vessels to pass in front of the memorial once the dock is built, though it will be tight. But Juneau commercial fisherman Dick Hoffman told the Assembly on Monday the new dock will make it difficult for commercial fishing vessels that participate in the May blessing ceremony.

“We all gather, we’re drifting around out front. We’ve got the whole harbor to float in,” Hoffman said. “That’s now going to have this dock in it. The area that we’re going to be allowed is going to be very limited. We’ll have some little keyhole that we can look through to see what is being performed right in front of the memorial. And we’re going to have wait our turn to go into that cul-de-sac, instead of having a sort of a parade of vessels following fairly close together and keeping a continuous flow going.”

The memorial board says if the monument does move it should go to Marine Park. But the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee recently recommend the memorial stay at its current location.

The Docks and Harbors Board meets at 7 o’ clock tonight in Assembly Chambers.

The Assembly will make the final decision, probably at next week’s Committee of the Whole meeting.