State review of Mt. Edgecumbe wraps up, recommendations to come

A state committee reviewing Mt. Edgecumbe High School — the Sitka boarding school that draws students from across rural Alaska — meets for the last time Wednesday, but families won't learn what it recommends until later.

The State Board of Education created the committee in March, after parents and students testified in December about safety at the school, students withdrawing, and dorm staffing. It's looking at academics, student support and the day-to-day climate at the school, and will report its findings by October. Nothing is up for a vote at Wednesday's meeting, and no draft recommendations have been made public yet; the board that oversees the school will take up the findings when it meets in Sitka in October.

The review lands as the school faces real financial strain. Mt. Edgecumbe is carrying a $1.6 million shortfall and has lost teachers as enrollment declines, and its budget for the coming year — somewhere between $12 million and $12.5 million under two competing scenarios — is unsettled. Because the school has no local school board, the state board governs it directly, which is why a state-level committee is the one reviewing it.