Superintendent John Conwell and school business manager Holly Holman at KUCB's studios. (Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB)
The past few years have seen shrinking student population in Unalaska's schools. And with a projected enrollment of 387 next year, the Unalaska City School District is facing a budget deficit of almost $300,000.
With a bare minimum of state funding on offer, local officials are looking for ways to cut. In these segments, superintendent John Conwell and business manager Holly Holman talk about how they hope to make up the gap.
Bryce Edgmon in the capital in 2014. (Courtesy: Alaska Legislature)
Falling oil prices and slowing production are taking their toll on Alaska’s budget. As newly minted Gov. Bill Walker and the legislature look for ways to cut back, rural residents are worried they could lose out on vital state support.
State Rep. Bryce Edgmon, newly returned to District 37 in the Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula region, says he's not sure Alaskans -- from the rural residents he represents, to people on the road system -- realize just how severe the state's budget woes are.
A Sand Point man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two children has been sentenced to 13 years behind bars.
James Griffith, 26, was originally facing up to two decades in prison for molesting a seven-year-old boy during a babysitting job back in 2011 -- and for attempting to trade marijuana for sexual favors from a 15-year-old while he was out on release.
Prosecutors agreed to drop several of their charges under a partial plea deal. But they argued that Griffith’s crimes warrant significant jail time.
Two resignations in the past few weeks have left a hole on Unalaska's planning and historic preservation commissions.
Steven Gregory was the joint commissions' chair, and one of its longest-serving members. In his resignation letter, he said he needs more time for teaching and coaching at the high school, among several other commitments.
Gregory also wrote that he doesn’t have enough time or "interest" to contribute to the historic preservation commission, which he calls "important and demanding." Preservation has only been active and a part of planning since last year.
Two men accused in a fatal fight outside an Unalaska processing plant bunkhouse will go back to trial in April.
A local jury acquitted Leonardo Bongolto, Jr., 37, and Denison Soria, 43, of second-degree murder charges last fall. The pair had been accused of killing fellow processor Jonathan Adams, 55, in a fight outside a Bering Fisheries bunkhouse in 2012.
The Bering Sea fishing fleet lost a shipmate last fall, when 45-year-old Paul Garcia died in Unalaska.
Fishing in the remote waters of the Bering Sea can be an isolating experience. Crews spend months at a time away from home, working long hours in rough conditions.
But for Garcia, the job was a way to connect with people and places that were way outside the norm.
A swarm of earthquakes have been recorded in the central Bering Sea. (Credit: AEIC)
The Pribilof Islands aren’t usually prone to shaking. But more than a dozen earthquakes have been recorded in between St. Paul and St. George since Friday afternoon.
Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, describes the activity as a "swarm."
"That is, a cluster of earthquakes that are responding to some stress in the earth that appears to be releasing itself kind of incrementally," West says.
Despite falling oil prices, Royal Dutch Shell will aim to restart its Arctic drilling program this summer.
Executives announced those plans during a quarterly earnings call with shareholders and reporters on Thursday. Chief financial officer Simon Henry said Shell will have to make a significant investment if it’s going to get back to Alaska.
"If we drill, if we go ahead, it will be over a billion dollars," Henry said.
The DPW will shut off water service on Standard Oil Hill and the East Point Loop from the airport to the APL dock for four hours on Friday morning. (KUCB Stock)
The Department of Public Works will be flushing water lines on Standard Oil Hill Friday morning. That means residents will be without water for about four hours.
Water service will be shut off in the Standard Oil area and on the fuel dock side of the East Point Loop from 8 a.m. until 12 noon Friday.
"The reason for that is to redirect the flow so that the flow goes through the lines we're actually trying to flush," says water utility manager Clint Huling. "It'll also eliminate unnecessary mud and debris from traveling down all those different lines, and it'll shorten the length of time that the dirty water is passing by each location."
