Leadership change urged for MEHS

Mt. Edgecumbe High School on October 20, 2025. (James Poulson / Daily Sitka Sentinel)

By Anna Laffrey

Daily Sitka Sentinel

In a five-hour regular meeting Thursday, the Mt. Edgecumbe High School Advisory Board voted to recommend and request that the state re-open hiring for the superintendent position at the state-run boarding school, allowing for "a thorough, rigorous and complete hiring process with input from Advisory Board members and stakeholders."

The state Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) appointed David Langford as superintendent this past summer, after the previous superintendent left June 30.

In recent months the Advisory Board and DEED have held meetings about problems at the school, and concern about the withdrawal of 105 students for various reasons since the start of the school year.

Most Mt. Edgecumbe students are Alaska Native and come from rural villages in Western Alaska. More than 400 students were enrolled at the beginning of the school year.

Langford spoke during Thursday’s meeting about presentations he and other school leaders gave to lawmakers in Juneau after a delegation of state senators and representatives visited Mt. Edgecumbe at the beginning of February.

The visiting lawmakers sat down with students to hear about issues with student well-being, and toured the campus to get a first-hand look at deterioration caused by deferred maintenance.

“Some good came out of that,” Langford said during Thursday’s meeting, which was held over Zoom.

Lawmakers have “really pushed for us to get a supplemental budget together for this year, which I didn't think we were going to be able to do.

“We're pushing to have that, and that's been submitted,” Langford said. “And then we're also trying to advocate for expansions in the budget for next year.”

He said the hearings helped get legislators’ attention and “put Mt. Edgecumbe on the map, and people all over the state are very concerned,” Langford said.

Problems with Mt. Edgecumbe’s academic and residential buildings, including issues with roofs, windows, cafeteria equipment and cleanliness, and showers and laundry, resulted from “decades of funding not being there,” he said.

“I'm sure there's lots of fingers that could be pointed to, either the legislature not funding it, administration not putting projects forward, (or) processes in DEED,” Langford said. “A good example is, I think the newest washer and dryer we have is 19 or 17 years old."

Advisory Board member Tanya Kitka asked that school leaders include the Advisory Board in future conversations about regular maintenance and major maintenance projects; it is the Advisory Board’s duty to consult on such projects.

Superintendent hiring

Members voted 4-3 on Thursday to transmit a letter to the state Board of Education and the state commissioner of education requesting the superintendent position be opened immediately to allow for “a thorough, rigorous and complete hiring process with Advisory Board and stakeholder input on this key position.”

Kitka had requested the action be added to the meeting agenda, along with a discussion about the superintendent position.

The state Board approved Langford’s appointment last summer after the previous superintendent, Suzzuk Huntington, announced in April of 2025 that she was resigning, effective June 30.

Langford took the job while already serving as superintendent of the Chatham School District, which has schools in Klukwan, Gustavus, Angoon and other small Southeast communities, and he has continued in that position.

In the 1980s Langford was on the team that re-opened Mt. Edgecumbe as a state-run boarding school – it had previously been run by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In discussions on the superintendent position Thursday, Kitka said she’s “had a number of people contact me about this topic, and so I think that merits bringing up with the Advisory Board.”

“It's been brought to light that to open the school at the beginning of the school year, everybody understood that we were in a crisis mode and needed to make things happen,” Kitka said. “And the commissioner, you know, thankfully, got things together and appointed Mr. Langford.”

“But I think that our school has high standards,” Kitka said. “The Advisory Board wasn't allowed to provide input on the appointment of the director. … MEHS is a unique, complex, school system.”

“Our school is not just deserving of a thorough vetting process for a dedicated director for a school, but we're kind of obligated to those who we represent and for what the school represents,” Kitka said.

DEED commissioner Dr. Deena Bishop said Thursday that she conducted a formal, complete process in hiring Langford; she said the only step she skipped was consulting with the Advisory Board.

Kitka said that reopening the position would allow for due diligence now that the school is emerging from a challenging fall semester.

After Advisory Board members voted 4-3 to recommend re-opening hiring, Kitka said she would draft a short letter for members’ approval and school leaders’ review.

Once approved, the letter would go to the state Board and the DEED commissioner.

Ad-hoc committee for Mt. Edgecumbe

At a state Board of Education meeting in December, state Board members signaled support for forming an ad-hoc committee to address issues at Mt. Edgecumbe, which had been presented by dozens of parents, former school staff and other community members.

Bishop told the Advisory Board on Thursday that “the organization of the ad-hoc is getting done now.” She said it will include a “reasonable amount of people to be able to gather feedback, put out surveys to families.”

The state Board still needs to give its formal approval for the ad-hoc committee; that’s scheduled for the next Board meeting in early March.

“It looks to move pretty quick once the Board gives its approval in March,” with ad-hoc committee recommendations anticipated by the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year, Bishop said.

Kitka said she hopes ad-hoc committee members will speak with parents of students who left the school this year.

“I think that the parents of those students have a huge portion of the story to tell and uncover the reasons why we had such big numbers (departing) this year,” Kitka said.

Policy manual updates

Advisory Board members discussed ways they could get more procedural training.

Alaska Department of Law representative Morgan Griffin noted that the Mt. Edgecumbe High School policy manual details the duties of the Advisory Board as an advisory committee, and the state Board of Education as the governing board for MEHS.

Griffin said many of the state statutes in the policy manual are outdated. The state Board is responsible for updating the policy manual, at the direction of the commissioner of DEED.

Bishop told the Advisory Board that DEED is happy to work on those updates and “will proceed; we can begin an organization around this, and work in concert with the advisory board to give suggestions.”

Open seats

Two Advisory Board seats are opening soon, as terms of alumni representative Tanya Kitka and parent representative Amber Cunningham end on July 1.

School staff said Thursday that they will advertise the open seats and solicit applicants online, through a messenger service and on Facebook.

By May, Langford is to select applicants to fill those seats. The state board will confirm appointees in June, and they will be seated by July 1, staff said.

Other business

Also Thursday, Advisory Board members reviewed an organizational chart showing the state’s staffing structure for the academic and residential campuses at Mt. Edgecumbe High School.

Langford said the school is trying to fill vacant dormitory positions, including security and recreation roles, but is not looking to fill vacant teaching positions unless the school gets additional funding.

The school is hiring for one world language teacher position in FY27 as a teacher is moving out of town, Langford said.

Advisory Board members asked for updates on dormitory and cafeteria staffing. NANA Corp. won a state contract to provide those services this year.

Student Advisory Board member Martin Karmun reported Thursday that breakfast offerings have improved; fresh fruit and other whole foods are now available in the cafeteria after students spoke up about the lack of healthy breakfast options throughout the fall semester.

Over holiday break, the state purchased new furniture for dormitory common areas and updated the vending machines. Karmun said that the new furniture seems cheaply made, although it’s an improvement from the old couches that were worn out and peeling.

Langford spoke about student handbook updates, and said he hopes to provide the Advisory Board with a revised student handbook to approve at its next meeting.

Academic Principal Miranda Bacha said the school needs to look at developing a policy addressing student violations of each other’s privacy by videotaping them. She said the school saw its first such incident this year.

Another student safety concern is with increased foot traffic and vehicular traffic associated with the new SEARHC hospital building, Bacha said.

Residential Principal Nicole Ritzinger reported on a host of good things happening at the school, including the addition of two additional open swim times each week at the Mt. Edgecumbe Aquatic Center, and staff volunteering their time to offer new activities.

After hearing feedback, the recreation team went back to issuing students and parents a set, weekly recreation schedule rather than a dynamic daily schedule.

School leaders thanked Sitkans who are volunteering with the “MEHS Arts Project,” which has fiscal sponsorship from Sitka Conservation Society, to raise funds and materials needed to connect MEHS students with Alaska Native artists, arts and cultural activities like singing, dancing, sewing, harvesting and processing traditional foods.

Links to meeting materials are available at https://www.mehs.us/about_us/advisory_board.

• This story originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.