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MEHS off to good start after last year’s struggles, superintendent says
- Daily Sitka Sentinel
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
By Anna Laffrey
Daily Sitka Sentinel
As students from around Alaska start classes at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, school leaders say united leadership, new staff, and upgraded materials will bring change in the 2026-27 school year.
Superintendent David Langford predicts some 350 to 370 students will be enrolled this year, including some 120 freshmen. The school is accepting applications through Oct. 1, as enrollment so far is lower than the usual 400 students.
Throughout last school year, more than a quarter of the students enrolled at the beginning of the school year left. Last fall and winter, parents and students spoke up about student mental health challenges, and concerns regarding leadership, policies, communication, activities and academic offerings, counseling services, cafeteria food and other elements of student life.
Reacting to the steep drop in enrollment, and complaints brought forward by the school's advisory board, a committee of state legislators made an on-site investigative visit in February. Lawmakers then held hearings on MEHS facilities and oversight, and urged changes by the state Department of Education and Early Development, or DEED, which operates the school.
When Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the FY27 state operating budget in June, he approved $24.2 million to upgrade and maintain Edgecumbe's aging facilities. The results have been showing up on campus with new mattresses and bunk beds, repairs to the dormitories and replacement of failing food preparation equipment. (A breakdown of the $24.2 million for FY27 is at the end of this article.)
In an interview Tuesday, Langford said the new school year started off on the right foot when school leaders, teachers, residential staff, and cafeteria and other contract workers gathered for two days of all-staff training.
“Many people said they’d never seen it happen before,” Langford said. "It just started the school year off great, getting everybody on the same page, same concepts, same vocabulary.”
Langford is in his second year as superintendent; he's also superintendent of Chatham School District, which serves small Southeast communities including Klukwan and Angoon.
Last year, the advisory board wrote a formal letter to state officials who oversee operation of the school, asking them to make the superintendent role a full-time position. The State Board of Education later voted to form an ad hoc committee to address statewide concerns about operations at MEHS. Committee members met monthly this summer to discuss issues such as communication and food service at the school.
Langford said he's not involved with the ad-hoc committee, whose members were appointed by DEED from a pool of MEHS stakeholders.
“The committee is going to report out at the State Board of Education meeting in October – which, by the way, is going to be here (in Sitka)," Langford said. The meeting is scheduled for Oct. 13 and 14.
The superintendent said there isn’t anything specific that he is hoping to learn from the ad hoc committee. “If they have insights that we don’t have, I’d love to know what it is,” he said.
Staffing update
Langford said six new teachers are joining the staff this year, after six teachers retired or could not be retained last year. That included long-time teachers who resigned.
Two new principals are settling into campus life, after both the academic and residential principals resigned last year.
The new academic principal, Neville Boone, arrived in Sitka in July from Fairbanks, where he worked in school administration. He hails from New York.
After arriving in Sitka, Boone re-painted signs on campus that had faded over the years. He led a student assembly on the first day of classes and at the end of the school day Tuesday, Boone stood in the sunny courtyard outside the classrooms and played music from a speaker.
Terrence Shanigan of Kanatak and Anchorage is taking over as residential (dormitory) principal. Shanigan attended MEHS, and comes from a background in tribal governance, law enforcement, politics and military strategy. He is working with new dorm attendants, and other new staff in student support roles on the school’s “upper campus.”
Boone told the Sentinel Tuesday he feels he is part of a strong team. He said at a recent dinner with Langford and Shanigan, the superintendent “sat down with us and he explained to us his vision. I believe in his vision, and I’m running and rocking with it.”
Hiring is still open for a dean of students.
NANA Management Services is contracting with MEHS for a second year to provide residential assistants, cafeteria staff, and others who lead programs like the culture room. “They typically have around 49 employees that they hire, coming and going,” Langford said.
A mental health clinician is returning for her second year at Edgecumbe. “She’s already screening kids for mental health issues,” Langford said.
A new counselor has been hired to work in the academic building. Two wellness staff members work in the dorm to help students in the evenings. Students get medical care from nurses at a SEARHC clinic on campus. Langford said these individuals work together to watch kids who are struggling.
“We just had three straight days of suicide prevention training (last week) for all staff, everybody – NANA staff, state staff, teachers, everybody,” Langford said, noting the Southeast Regional Resource Center offered that training at no cost.
In addition, staff members from the nonprofit Sitka Counseling are visiting campus twice a week to hold support meetings and training for students.
“We really appreciate that kind of support from the Sitka community,” Langford said.
The AmeriCorps program is again providing up to three people to help run activities, tutoring, and more.
Langford said one new teacher plans to offer ceramics lessons with a kiln and pottery equipment MEHS has. He said students are enrolled in three sections of welding, and two sections of woodworking this term as University of Alaska-Southeast dual-enrollment students.
State education leaders are looking at making MEHS a “middle college,” wherein high school students could earn their two-year associate degree through UAS.
“So far, DEED is really behind it, UAS is really behind it, and so we’re trying to get it at least partially implemented by next school year,” Langford said, adding that the concept could involve Sitka High students as well.
New and returning students will see other changes at Edgecumbe this year.
Students will have to park their cell phones in their dorm rooms throughout the day. (State law now requires that school districts adopt policies that restrict students’ use of cellphones during school hours.)
“We’re phasing that in with kids, because cellphones are a big deal here,” Langford said.
Grocery shopping trips are also important to students. Langford said Shanigan is working with the Alaska Commercial Company to take students to AC Lakeside Monday nights, and is coordinating with Albertson’s/Safeway (Sea Mart), as well as Sitka Bulk Goods about taking kids shopping there.
Alaska Federation of Natives recently donated 300 computers, including 200 new laptops and a full Macintosh computer lab. Langford estimated that represents a donation of $300,000.
Maintenance
With a windfall state appropriation of $24.2 million in facilities upgrades, Langford said, “we’ve now got preventive maintenance on a long-term schedule.”
DEED leaders are working with the state Department of Transportation, which manages all of Edgecumbe's buildings.
DEED is implementing material improvements including the new mattresses, furniture and washing machines, Langford said. He said Sen. Bert Stedman advocated for repairs needed on the old buildings that comprise MEHS. “Stedman needs to be noted as leading that charge all the way through,” Langford said.
Langford described the work being funded by the $24.2 million in state appropriations for MEHS this fiscal year:
$10.2 million for dining hall and kitchen renovations, which will take at least two years to complete.
$5 million to replace the exterior of the academic building, which he said has been developing leaks and other problems over the past 20 years.
$5.2 million for student housing upgrades
$3.1 million to replace dormitory windows
$50,000 for mattress replacements.
$468,000 for updating dormitory furniture. Langford said workers are already replacing bunk beds
$125,000 for replacing laundry washers and dryers. “The newest ones we had are 17 years old,” Langford said. “That’s going to help replace them all with industrial-level kinds of machines.”
While the governor vetoed $123,000 in appropriations for a school maintenance staff member, Langford said Edgecumbe can leverage some other FY27 appropriations for an additional worker.
The state budget also includes $450,000 for student travel, activities and mental health services.
In addition to the FY27 appropriations, MEHS is working with unspent appropriations that the school received over the past five years. Those include $2.1 million for new roofs on the main girls' and boys' dorm buildings, and $519,000 for an access bridge on campus.
“Because of that, we’re going to get all new dorm roofs; there’s $2.1 million for that,” Langford said. “Those are coming in starting next summer.”
Over the summer the state spent $5.6 million in previously allocated state funding to fund windows replacements and an overhaul of the ventilation system in the main boys' dormitory, Langford said.
• This article originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
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