SCHOOL BOARD

Unalaska City School District officials are advocating for more education funding during their annual visits to the Alaska State Legislature. A top priority is increasing the base student allocation, or BSA — that’s a number the state uses to determine how much funding each district receives per student.

The final results are in for Unalaska’s municipal election, and they confirm the preliminary counts from election night. All three incumbent candidates will keep their seats.

The polls have closed for Unalaska’s runoff election for School Board Seat B, and Brian Rankin received the most votes. Rankin received about 54% of the vote, coming in ahead of Nicole Bice who received around 46% of the vote.

Two candidates are going into a runoff after no one won outright on Oct. 3.

Six candidates will be running for five open seats in Unalaska’s upcoming general municipal election, according to the city. The filing period to declare candidacy in this year’s local election closed Monday.

Unalaska’s school board swore in new member Amanda Schmahl Wednesday evening. She’ll serve on the board until the island’s municipal election on Oct. 3.

On Wednesday, the school board approved a ninth and final new teacher contract, marking the end of a challenging effort to recruit amid a nationwide teacher shortage. To help with other hiring efforts, the board also approved a new salary schedule for administrative coordinator roles.

The Unalaska City School District has filled nearly all vacant teaching positions for next school year.

Unalaska City School Board members voted unanimously to reelect Jolene Longo as board president Wednesday. Longo was elected to the board in 2020 and this will be her second year serving as president. The board also swore in newly elected members Bob Cummings and David Gibson.

The final results for Unalaska’s Municipal Election are in and they confirm Darin Nicholson as City Council seat C winner. It was the only race in this year’s election that was undecided based on preliminary election results. City officials canvassed 37 absentee and questioned ballots Friday morning. 32 of those were tallied by the canvas committee, while 5 were deemed unqualified and were not counted.