Southcentral

Over the last school year, Ben Kolendo’s opportunities to speak during Matanuska-Susitna School Board meetings were severely reduced. But at the first meeting after relinquishing his duties, he stepped up to the podium and said he wants back in. Following six years as a student representative, Kolendo announced he’s running for a seat on the school board.

“I firmly support the rights and freedoms of students and parents. It is not the district’s job to raise our children, but to educate them,” Kolendo said. “Together, we can build a future where our schools provide the highest quality of education while respecting the values and freedoms of our community.”

Kolendo was elected by Mat-Su students three times to represent them on the school board. Last fall, at the beginning of his sixth year, Kolendo found his seat among the audience instead of up on the dais with other board members, without any vote or public explanation of why he was removed from the board.

Friction between Kolendo and board members started in 2023 when the board was deciding how to select members for a citizen’s library advisory committee. Kolendo’s pointed questions about the committee and ongoing contract negotiations with the teacher’s union led the board to change their own policy, removing the title of “board member” from the student position and prohibiting Kolendo from participating in discussions. Kolendo’s only chance to speak was a single report at the beginning of meetings.

In December, Kolendo and then-Wasilla High School student Quinlen Schachle sued the district, arguing that investigating students who had spoken out against the policy change was a violation of students’ free speech. Now, Kolendo is seeking a role on the very board that kept him from speaking up.

“I thought that sitting on the board as student representative would be enough to make a positive change within our district, but I realized it wasn’t,” Kolendo said. “Now I’m here to actually step in and see how much positive change I can make.”

Kolendo was born and raised in Alaska and graduated from Career Tech High School in Wasilla in May. He plans to study political science and public policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage starting in the fall. Kolendo would be 19 if elected in November — but he argues he brings more experience to the board than other candidates.

“I think the biggest question that I have been getting with my campaign and will be getting is my age, but when you look at my time in this district, I’ve been doing the job that the school board members have been doing for longer than almost any of the people currently sitting up there,” Kolendo said.

He’s running for the seat representing District 1 in the eastern Mat-Su that encompasses Butte and Sutton, areas which have historically voted for conservative candidates for Assembly and school board. In 2020, 76% of voters at five District 1 precincts voted to reelect former President Donald Trump.

Kolendo is running his campaign on a platform of fiscal responsibility, increasing parental rights, and returning to a tradition-based curriculum. He’ll register as an Independent candidate, and believes he can represent both sides of the political spectrum if elected.

“I think this is actually the most interesting district because it has some of the most conservative groups, but also some of the most liberal groups,” Kolendo said. “It’s a really big stance of mine that I want to represent both sides. I believe that our school board should be bipartisan, and it should be crossing each side of the political line to what’s best with students.”

Kolendo’s opponent, Tom Bergey, was originally elected to the school board in 2018 and won reelection in 2021. Bergey described himself as a supporter of parental rights in education and said on his campaign website that he is “the conservative choice for school board.” Bergey did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story. One school board member said they have been advised not to comment on Kolendo due to his lawsuit against the district.

Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, is the youngest Mat-Su lawmaker elected in recent history. Sumner won a seat on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly at 34, and says the Mat-Su is a conservative stronghold.

“You know I think it’s almost difficult to beat an incumbent and especially running to their left in the Mat-Su is probably nearly impossible,” Sumner said.

Kolendo argues he’s not running to the left of Bergey, and feels he may be even more conservative in some areas.

“I actually don’t think we differ very much. I think the biggest thing we might differ on is budgetary spending,” Kolendo said. “I think I’m a little more conservative when it comes to budgetary spending.”

On Wednesday, the board voted to eliminate the Student Advisory Board Representative altogether. The student representative had been a part of the school board for over 40 years. Under the new board policy adopted by a 6-1 vote, the superintendent will selectstudents to report to the board. Kolendo feels that student voice is vital.

“As soon as adults are saying ‘that’s not how students feel’ or ‘that is how students feel,’ you’re losing the point entirely,” Kolendo said. “With this new district group that will be run by the superintendent and the school board, I believe even though it will be a facade of student voice, you won’t actually be getting it.”

If elected, Kolendo would be the second-youngest municipal elected official in Alaska history, according to the Alaska Municipal League. Ketchikan residents elected 18-year-old Trevor Shaw to their school board in 2013.

The candidate filing period for Mat-Su School Board officially opens in August, and Election Day is Nov. 5.

One of the two climbers trapped since Tuesday near Denali’s summit was rescued alive by a helicopter crew early Friday. The other died in a snow cave while waiting for help, according to park officials.

The rescue at 19,600 feet took place at about 7 a.m., according to a statement from Denali National Park and Preserve staff. Clouds and high winds that had grounded flights near the mountain’s peak relented Thursday night, allowing the park’s high-altitude helicopter to drop a duffel bag of supplies near the snow cave in which the hypothermic climbers had taken shelter.

“The pilot observed one climber waving at him at the time of the air drop, however winds were still too strong to safely conduct a short-haul basket extraction,” park officials said in the statement.

By Friday morning, the helicopter had returned to the area with a pilot and park ranger.

“The surviving mountaineer climbed into the basket and was flown down to the 7,200-foot Kahiltna Basecamp, then evacuated to the Talkeetna State Airport for transfer to a LifeMed air ambulance,” park officials said.

Park spokesman Paul Ollig said no communications had been received from the climbers since Wednesday night. Rescuers first learned of the other climber’s fate from the surviving man after he was flown from the mountain, with a medevac flight later taking him to Anchorage.

“He had expressed that his partner had died approximately two days prior to being rescued,” Ollig said.

Friday’s rescue was the culmination of a days-long effort by air and ground searchers to reach the two climbers. They were part of a trio from Malaysia that summited Denali early Tuesday. But they then used an inReach satellite communications device to request help from the summit, saying they were exhausted, hypothermic and couldn’t get down.

One of the climbers was able to make it to the mountain’s high camp later Tuesday and was flown off the mountain in serious condition, but the other two sheltered in a cave to await help. By Wednesday night, they reported that their inReach was dying.

“We received kind of a flurry of five really brief messages from the climbers at that time indicating that their inReach device was at 1% battery life,” Ollig said.

The deceased climber wasn’t immediately identified Friday morning, Ollig said, as park staff worked with the Malaysian consulate to notify his family. Park rangers plan to recover his body, according to Ollig, but no immediate time frame has been set for doing so.

Kristen Faulkner, 31, won this year’s Elite Women’s Road Race in West Virginia. She finished the 127-kilometer race in under three and a half hours, beating the next racer by almost a minute.

While she says she competed in sports her entire life, the Homer athlete began her cycling journey seven years ago in New York. Faulkner worked in the finance industry at the time and went to an introductory cycling clinic in Central Park.

“New York City’s this concrete jungle, and so my time in Central Park was really kind of my ‘me time’ every day to feel like I was in as much nature as I could get in Manhattan,” she said.

The next year, she moved to California and got more serious about cycling. After doing her first road race in Europe, Faulkner says she got hooked on professional racing and switched to competing full time.

“When I started cycling, I was working at a desk job, and I thought, you know, I could work a desk job for the next decade, or I could ride my bike outside for the next decade,” she said, “and I think being from Alaska and having such a passion for the outdoors, it was clear to me which one I really loved a lot more,” she said.

She now lives in Girona, Spain, which she says is the epicenter for cyclists.

At the end of last year, Faulkner joined EF Education-Cannondale, an American women’s professional cycling team. The team made a splash earlier this month by placing third overall at La Vuelta Femenina in Spain — one of three grand tours held each year for women. This year’s Vuelta is more than 880 kilometers and is split up into eight races, or stages.

Faulkner won the fourth stage. She says doing well at the Vuelta was especially important for her after getting hit by a car led her to develop a blood clot in her lung last year.

“I had to take three months off of riding, and I wasn’t sure how it’s going to come back,” she said, “and so to come back healthy and strong and be competing against, you know, the best in the world, and winning was a really exciting thing for me to have happen.”

Faulkner eventually began training indoors and even won a race at the end of the last season. She began this season becoming comfortable with racing again. Faulkner says recovering from the injury became more of a psychological journey than a physical one.

“I think emotionally, it was really hard for me to kind of trust cycling again, and trust that I could be safe and to really let myself go all out on these climbs, and especially on the distance,” she said.

As a national champion, Faulkner will be one of two athletes who can compete in road racing wearing a jersey with an American flag design for the next year. In addition to road racing, Faulkner is also one of nine athletes being considered for the U.S Olympic squad for women’s team pursuit — an indoor cycling event where teams of four race against each other on a track.

A third grader from Rabbit Creek Elementary School in Anchorage is Alaska’s winner in the 15th annual Doodle for Google nationwide art competition.

In January, Google asked K-12 students across the country to create a doodle showing their wish for the next 25 years. Lennex Czajkowski’s won for her piece titled “For the World not to be Polluted.” She learned she had won at an assembly Wednesday with her third grade classmates.

“I drew a bee pollinating the flower and the earth,” Czajkowski said.

The 55 state and territory winners were announced Wednesday, but voting in the nationwide contest is open until June 4. Czajkowski said she sees pollution along the side of the road.

“I thought to myself what would I not want to happen to the earth, and I went from there,” she said.

Lennex’ mother, Adrean Czajkowski, said she had known for about a month, and had to keep the secret from her daughter.

“I’m really proud,” Adrean Czajkowski said. “It’s something that she came up with, from the concept and the drawing and everything all on our own. She came to us and said ‘here, Mom, look what I did.’”

Contest judges will select five finalists and one grand prize winner, who will take home a $55,000 college scholarship and $50,000 worth of supplies and technology for their school.

Each of the five other national finalists will receive a $5,000 scholarship. Czajkowski is competing against 11 other K-3 grade students.

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has conceded to challenger Suzanne LaFrance in the city’s runoff mayoral election.

“As I transition out of office, I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition to Mayor-Elect LaFrance and her team,” Bronson said in a statement Thursday.

His concession comes two days after LaFrance declared victory in the May 14 election. The most recent results show that LaFrance captured roughly 54% of the vote to Bronson’s 46%. Almost 80,000 votes have been counted.

In his statement, Bronson highlighted several accomplishments over his three-year term, including securing funding for the Don Young Port of Alaska, providing pay raises for the Anchorage Police Department and working to address the looming natural gas shortage in Southcentral Alaska.

“While there were challenges, setbacks, and even disagreements along the way, I am grateful for the dedication and hard work my administration put into serving the residents of Anchorage,” Bronson said.

LaFrance is set to be sworn in as Anchorage’s first elected female mayor on July 1.

Suzanne LaFrance declared victory in Anchorage’s mayoral race on Tuesday, one week after voting ended in the runoff election.

“Over the coming days and weeks, my team and I will be sharing more about the transition, what’s ahead, and how to get involved,” LaFrance said in a statement. “We’ve got a lot to do, but I’m ready to get to work as your mayor.”

On election night, partial, unofficial results had LaFrance leading incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson by 4,973 votes, or nearly 10%. Through Friday, more than 27,000 additional ballots had been added to the unofficial tally.

LaFrance’s lead narrowed to 7%, though her lead in total votes widened to 5,487 votes. Far fewer ballots remain to be counted.

Bronson’s campaign could not immediately be reached for comment. As of midday Tuesday, LaFrance’s campaign manager, Katie Scovic, said they had not received a concession from the Bronson camp.

LaFrance, a former Anchorage Assembly chair, is the city’s first elected female mayor.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.