Day: April 2, 2026

As the borough’s school district warns of potential “insolvency,” higher state oil revenue has increased the likelihood of a lifeline.

For years, the state’s school funding formula has stagnated, decreasing 26% in real dollars from 2011 to 2025 if adjusted for inflation.

Last year, the legislature closed some of that gap by increasing the base state funding formula to schools by $700 per-student. But that was well under half of what would have been needed to fully return to 2011 inflation-adjusted funding levels.

Meanwhile, the Haines Borough School District’s finances remain dire, district officials warn.

In testimony to the House Education Committee earlier this month, superintendent Lilly Boron said the district may “not be able to remain solvent” absent another funding formula increase.

The lack of funding has been felt most with “uncompetitive” staff salaries, making it difficult to recruit and retain staff, superintendent Lilly Boron said in an interview this week.

The district has averaged a 40% yearly staff-turnover rate over the past five years, and has been unable to fill vacant special education and technology positions this year.

Some districts in the state have turned to foreign teachers to solve staffing shortages, and Boron said nearly all of the district’s applicants for the upcoming school year would require either an H-1B or J-1 visa. But now H-1B visas are off the table for the district due to a $100,000 per-visa fee put into place by the Trump Administration, and rural districts like Haines are not eligible to sponsor teachers under J-1 visas, Boron said.

“I think what we’re recognizing is, if you have no qualified people applying for open positions and staying in open positions, you don’t have a school,” Boron said in an interview afterward.

Operating costs are also an issue.

During last year’s budgeting process, the district initially projected an $880,000 shortfall.

After the funding formula increase and an influx of money from the borough, the district balanced its operating budget, but continued to run deficits on transportation and food service, district business manager Judy Erekson said. Currently the district has only $233,000 in its main savings account.

As funds dwindle, cuts could be particularly hard because of the Haines district’s size. Having only one school building, and often one class per grade, it’s more difficult for the district to consolidate classes than larger districts.

Boron, who was joined in Juneau by school board member Kevin Shove, is just one of many local officials that have come to the legislature to lay out their districts’ needs. In committee hearings, members of the bipartisan House and Senate majorities have expressed support for sending more money the districts’ way.

In the House Education Committee, Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, an independent from Sitka, described further education funding increases as a constitutional obligation.

The Education Committee, also co-chaired Rep. Andi Story, whose district covers the Chilkat Valley, has introduced a bill to once again raise the base funding formula.

“I am only asking the state to hold up our end of the bargain, which is to maintain a system of education open to all the children of our state,” Himschoot said.

The issue remains money to address those needs, and a governor willing to approve the spending. Last year, the funding-formula boost only went through after the legislature held a special session and assembled a supermajority vote overriding Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto.

That scenario remains a possibility for this year. But on the other issue — money to put toward a funding increase — the landscape has suddenly changed.

Through the past month, war with Iran has sent oil prices skyrocketing, including Alaska North Slope crude. According to the state’s Department of Revenue, that could add over a half billion dollars in tax and royalty payments to state coffers this year compared with pre-war projections.

There’s been talk of some of that unexpected cash going toward education funding, said Sen. Jesse Kiehl, whose district covers the Chilkat Valley, and a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which drafts the state’s budget.

“There isn’t unlimited money from this war and the eternal tug of war over where you put it is going on,” he said this week. “But I think we invest in our kids, and there’s a group of us who are committed to that.”

Under the general umbrella of education, a number of buckets need filling.

On the one hand, there’s the House Education Committee bill, which would boost the state’s base funding formula by $630 per student to all districts in the state.

The $630 figure is the average funding needed to erase the operating deficits of the state’s five largest school districts, Himschoot said. Out of those five, Fairbanks is the only one operating in the black. But Himschoot also said the district has cut more than 300 staff since 2019 and closed seven schools to achieve that.

A funding formula boost, however, will have to compete against capital funding for school repairs and rebuilds, some of which are in dire condition. Legislators on the powerful Senate Finance Committee have pointed to schools in the state ridden with black mold, asbestos, and collapsing roofs, problems the state has ignored for decades, according to a ProPublica report earlier this year.

The school repairs would be a one-time outlay, whereas increasing the funding formula would obligate an increased annual flow of money.

“I think the legislators are struggling with revenue, and they might not want to use one-time funds to set up an expectation they can’t deliver on in two years,” Boron said. “I appreciate that, but this is the rainy day. We’re at the breaking point.”

Haines does have maintenance needs, and the district is seeking state reimbursement for roof repairs made last year. But relative to some other districts, the major needs are inside the building, primarily teacher wages and rising fixed costs.

According to data presented to legislators by the district, the cost of property insurance alone has increased 62% in the last five years.

If lawmakers do decide to get behind a funding formula boost or capital improvements at schools, both would still have to get past the governor’s desk. That could be a challenge, Kiehl said.

“I don’t think there’s been much receptiveness from the governor yet, but we continue to talk with him and his administration.”

The funding decisions will need to be finalized before May 20, when the legislature hits its adjournment deadline. Even then, a governor’s veto could leave final funding levels in flux, possibly resulting in a special session to consider a veto override.

Meanwhile, the borough’s school district will have to finalize its own budget in early May, even as state funding is uncertain.

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Proposed state legislation could give borough assemblies more power to exempt specific property from taxes; lawmakers and the public disagree on how that power should be used. 

Under current state law, when municipalities like Haines implement property tax exemptions, it must be from a menu of pre-approved exemptions in state statute.

House Bill 291, introduced last month by Anchorage Republican Julie Coulombe, would remove those state restrictions, giving municipal leaders free rein to implement any exemption they choose. 

The bill would also change the approval process for new exemptions, which currently must be approved by municipal voters at the ballot. Under HB 291,  the assembly would gain the power to create exemptions by simple majority vote, so long as exemptions were below a certain threshold. As currently drafted, exemptions over the $75,000 mark for a single property would still go to the ballot. 

Rescinding exemptions, however, would still have to be done by ballot referendum. 

In initial debate at the Legislature, Coulombe has presented her bill largely as a matter of principle — increasing local control and chopping down what she sees as unnecessary state regulations. At one point in the hearing she dubbed it the “free the municipality bill.” 

“I’m always for cutting red tape,” she said. 

But her colleagues hearing the bill in committee have focused more on outcomes, what communities will do with their increased power. 

In Haines, recent history suggests an appetite for broad-based exemptions. Two years ago, residents voted by a large margin to double the size of the exemption for seniors and disabled veterans, raising the total exempt from taxes to $300,000 of a home’s assessed value. 

It’s that kind of scenario House members seem concerned about, revealing a gap between Chilkat Valley public opinion and sentiment in the Capitol. The concern in the Capitol doesn’t fall clearly along partisan lines, either. 

During a hearing last week in the House Regional and Community Affairs Committee, Sitka independent Rebecca Himschoot raised the specter of voters, for instance, putting into place a tax exemption for everyone under the age of 30. That’s not currently on the list of state-approved exemptions. But if the bill successfully eliminates the state-approval requirement, it would be fair game. 

“When you ask the voters if they want to pay more tax, the answer is no,” Himschoot said. “And yet, people want certain services.” 

On the other side of the aisle, North Pole Republican Mike Prax focused on fairness, describing tax exemptions as “how do you cheat the other guy and pass savings on to me.” 

Perhaps not surprisingly, cutting out large chunks of the tax base is more popular with taxpayers than it is with budget-makers. 

In Haines, the extra senior tax exemption has made a significant dent in borough revenue, accounting for $316,768 of lost revenue in its first year of implementation. According to data from the state tax assessor, the percentage of taxable property in Haine held by seniors is the fourth highest of any municipality in the state. 

Like some other municipal revenue challenges, it’s downstream of problems at the state level. 

The state government is required by law to reimburse Haines for half its senior exemption, the portion all municipalities are required to exempt. But the Legislature has ignored that statute and hasn’t reimbursed municipalities at all since 1997, currently totalling nearly $8 billion annually that the state owes to individual communities. 

Both sides of the debate — taxpayers and budget-makers — say there’s nuance to their position. 

Many in Haines maintain the vote to double the senior exemption was a way to protect older residents on fixed incomes. They also say it’s a matter of respect. In recent months, assembly members have faced outrage when they’ve pointed to the exemption as a factor in borough budget challenges. 

“People on our assembly want to point fingers at seniors,” former assembly member Brenda Josephson said in an interview last week. “Disrespecting our seniors and wanting to give all the money to nonprofits — it’s so contrary to everything I was taught and what people in our region believe.” Josephson was an organizer in a 2023 campaign to change property tax assessment procedures in both the borough and the state.

On the budget-maker side, some say there could be more targeted ways to protect vulnerable taxpayers. 

“The senior tax exemption is based on age, so it’s not those that need it most that are benefitting first,” said Alaska Municipal League director Nils Andreassen in an interview Thursday. “Someone else in the community is paying the difference. The mill rate is going to go up with additional exemptions.” 

Instead, Andreassen argues municipalities should implement property tax “circuit breakers,” which would offer tax breaks based on specific income thresholds. 

With senior tax exemptions already allowed in state statute and Haines municipal code, that specific debate in Haines will continue regardless of the outcome of HB 291. House Community and Regional Affairs chair Donna Mears said last week her committee will continue to hear the bill, but won’t consider advancing it this legislative session.

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The New Hope Fellowship Church has raised $35,285 for its scholarship award since 2016. Paul Rogers explained that the money has been distributed to 11 Haines students since that time. In 2024, there were no applicants, so in 2025, the church awarded two scholarships. Rogers and Sage Thomas started the recent fundraiser night by introducing the auctioneer, Dave Routh. Routh’s fast-talking description of the strawberry trifle made by Inez Gross was a good start. Other dessert auction highlights included brownie balls, grasshopper pie with Oreo crust, gluten-free cake, and an eclair cake. But the bidding for Sharon Stickel’s chocolate raspberry cheesecake with ganache topping got fairly exciting. Heather Rogers was the proxy bidder for Jim Stickler. Stickler could not attend, but trusted Rogers to make the right choices. In the end, Heather Rogers walked out with half the elaborate chocolate cheesecake. The other half was served on a freshly cut round of wood, and shared with everyone at the end of the auction. 

Duly Noted flashback to last week — perhaps you recall the educational mule trip to Baja, Mexico? Please note that Matt Whitman was on that trip. He was also hiking into the rugged terrain, sleeping under the stars, enjoying meals prepared over an open fire, and experiencing the ranchero lifestyle and cave art with the group. This Duly writer overlooked this important detail. 

Christen Price is the new pastor in town. She started in January at the Haines Christian Center.  She and her husband, retired Lieutenant Col. Russell Price, plan to be in Haines forever, as they have burial plots at Jones Point Cemetery. Christen Price says that during her husband’s career in the Army, they relocated every so often. She enjoyed living in Georgia the most, but her husband is an Alaska boy, so this is where they need to be. Since Christen Price took over in January, she says that the children’s choir has been a great source of joy for her. Price credits her worship team.  She says that all Haines kids, regardless of their church affiliation, ages 5-12 are invited to sing at 5:45 p.m. Thursdays at the Haines Christian Center. Price says that the Sunday services have included plenty of piano, bass and guitar lately. Palm Sunday included two young people playing keyboard and Easter service should have some impressive kid-powered music as well. Russell Price grew up in Haines, the son of Mary and Warren Price.

Karlie Spud has been beading up a storm. She had the opportunity to share her craft with the 11 students who were visiting Klukwan and Haines from Colorado recently. The students spent time wood carving with Jim Heaton for part of that time. Karlie Spud has known Heaton for years and jumped at the chance to teach the eager students the one-needle method of beading. Spud says that the original plan was to teach them to make a beginner project, a salmon pin. She says that most of the visiting students completed multiple projects while practicing their new skill, including some impressive earrings. She says that the students were all “living phone-free lives while in Haines,” and that might be why they accomplished so much. Spud acquired the beading supplies from Lani Hotch at the traditional art supply store in Klukwan. She says that Lani Hotch has been a beading inspiration for years. Spud has been sharing that beading tradition with her 5year-old daughter, Aaliyah Spud. She beaded with the older kids and thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the Chilkat Valley. 

Greg Podsiki is starting a 4-H program in Haines. Podsiki says that his goal is to “fill the barn at the fair.”  He says that the background checks for volunteers are the first step, and already in motion. The next step is for the adult leaders to take the online training courses. The final part of the 4-H plan is to get kids interested in joining and get some animals. 

Amy Kane had a pop-up Monday at the Brewery. She served her homemade focaccia sandwiches, chorizo burritos and individual dishes of maple-spiced secret recipe nuts. Zane and Beau Bradley helped her hustle 50 sandwiches and burritos, which sold out just as the brewery closed for the evening. Happy patrons were excited for a dinner option in town.  Kane says the stunning sunset Monday evening was the real show stopper.

Mike Ward had a mini-family reunion last week, including cousins Eileen Beedle and Dottie Shook, who visited their aunt Judy Weir, the last remaining of eight siblings in her generation.  She lives at Haines Assisted Living. On hand were Connie and Tom Ward Jr., Summer Lynch and Tom Ward III, as well as Jeanine, Dustin, and 4-year-old Harper Rumfelt. Mike Ward hosted the group at his Lighthouse Restaurant.

The post Duly Noted: Beads, burritos and Baja appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

On March 30, Alpenglow Woodfired Pizza – one of Haines’ few year-round restaurants – announced  it would be closing its doors.In a social media video, owner Nolan Woodard said the restaurant would close for the week but open one final time on Saturday for a combined three-year anniversary and goodbye party. 

The move came after the building owner posted a lease nonrenewal notice on the building, giving the business a month to vacate – bringing the breakdown in negotiations between Woodard and landlord Chris Thorgesen into public view. 

Woodard shared a proposed lease with the Chilkat Valley News that contained provisions he called untenable:  like one requiring him to carry a $1 million insurance policy on the building, removing a 48-hour notice requirement for entry, and allowing the landlord to seize equipment within 15 days if he fell behind on rent or violated the lease. 

“I basically said to him that I don’t feel comfortable signing an agreement that gives you the right to basically take away things that would disrupt the operation of my business.” 

Woodard said he understands repercussions for deferred payments, but “if the punishment for not paying you is something that disrupts the flow of me being able to operate my business, then I can’t pay you,” he said. “That would sink us.” 

The lease dispute accelerated a decision Woodard said he was already weighing, as the restaurant has operated at a loss each year, since he bought it in 2023.  

Community reaction

The closure drew strong reactions in the community.  Local restaurant owner and Haines Chamber of Commerce president Travis Kukull called the lease terms unethical and compared the arrangement to sharecropping in a post on Substack. 

In the post, Kukull wrote that landlords hold disproportionate power in small markets with limited commercial space. “The landlord, on the other hand, risks very little, pays no wages, and takes most of the harvest.” 

Kukull wrote that he thinks the best lease agreements are those that include the tenant’s success and are mutually beneficial. He suggested things like landlords providing funding for tenant improvements and rent being set as a percentage of business sales. 

Thorgesen commented on the post, disputing Kukull’s characterization of events and arguing that landlords also carry financial risk. 

He wrote that he does not normally “concern myself with the thoughts of sheep,” but felt compelled to respond given Kukull’s role as Chamber president. 

“You say, ‘a small, independent business like Alpenglow cannot and should never take on the risk.’ Then why should a small independent landlord? Your inherent Marxism blinds you to any true win-win relationships so long as one is the bourgeoisie,” Thorgesen wrote.  

He also disputed the idea that the landlord is offering nothing in this situation. 

“Why don’t you go and buy a crappy building spend an exorbitant amount of money fixing it up, another small fortune in throwing away the trash that had been built up for decades, and fight with bureaucratic middle-managers who don’t know the difference between bologna and mayonnaise, only so you can let someone else use your building with no recoupment of costs,” he wrote.  

In an email to the Chilkat Valley News on Wednesday, Thorgesen did not agree to an interview or address the specific lease provisions Woodard objected to. But wrote that Nolan’s three-year lease ended on the last day of March. 

“As of today, Nolan owes me $10,262.10 in back rent,” he said. “When you don’t pay your rent, people tend not to rent to you.” 

A difficult financial situation

Woodard said the lease disagreement was the immediate trigger, but that the last few years have been increasingly financially precarious. 

While his gross sales have gone up year over year, he has been struggling financially – for one thing, costs have gone up. 

“A simple example is that when I first started this business, my flour was $70-80 a bag. It’s now over $100. So I spend, on average, $300-500 a week on flour.” 

The demand hasn’t kept up, he said. “I’ve had days of summer, I’m not even kidding, where we have had $250 in sales the whole day. It doesn’t even offset the cost of the dough.” 

He’s had to rely on flexible payment arrangements with vendors, gone through periods where he couldn’t pay his staff, and said he has fallen behind on the rent. 

Former owner Olen Larson said the outcome was genuinely surprising. 

“Myself and my wife doing the cooking, my wife doing the prep, me doing the books and a dishwasher. We made that survive for the three years we owned the business and we still came out on top. We were in the green,” he said. “Yes, I saw my challenges of course – wintertime being the hardest due to the lack of tourism and lack of year-round residents.”

When they sold the business to Woodard, the couple retained a 25% minority ownership and acted as advisors from afar. 

When they sold the business to Woodard, the couple retained a 25% minority ownership.

“It must have been inflation and the economy starting to turn. I’m not too familiar with what started driving the business down as far as numbers go,” he said. 

Larson said he doesn’t know what caused the breakdown over the lease negotiations to occur but called a nearly 10-year run of a pizza restaurant in one place in Haines incredible. 

Larson said he would check in with Woodard every few months and said he never heard anything negative other than that the winter months were slow. 

“My wife and I wanted to be able to support him and the crew as much as possible so we kind of deferred payments and kept pushing payments back and back to where it would allow him to use those funds to continue to have the cash flow into the business and keep it alive.” 

Now, he said, the couple is focused on helping Woodard navigate the debt, liquidation, and closure of the business. 

The fallout

As more details about the situation became clear, particularly the revelation that Woodard owed thousands in back rent, some early reactions began to shift.

Kukull said he initially read Thorgesen’s lease proposal as more of an eviction notice. “Nobody in their right mind would propose this,” he said. 

But, he said restaurant closures are rarely driven by a single issue. Rather, they come from a combination of financial strain, operating costs and timing. 

“All of a sudden, it just spins out of control and before you know it, you’re just scrambling to cover your ass in every direction, asking people for favors you shouldn’t be asking for,” he said. 

In this specific case, he said he didn’t think people should go around looking to lay blame on any one person and that he wants people to read his column as a place where he’s advocating for a small business owner to review their leases and fight for their best case scenarios. 

“I have sympathy for [Thorgesen] as a property owner. I don’t know all of the problems he has with all of his businesses and leases. But if something’s not working for him and it’s not working for [Woodard], can we try to figure out a different option here?” he said. 

In hindsight, Kukull said, he could have offered to mediate a discussion between Woodard and Thorgesen. It could have gotten more people in the community talking about how to create a more small-business-friendly environment in Haines. 

“Stories like this are detrimental and they don’t make people want to move here, they don’t make people want to try to open a small business. It just stops everything,” he said.

Woodard said people have asked him if he would move the restaurant into another building, including two vacant commercial buildings on Main Street. 

But, he’s looked at a few and at least one needed extensive repair before he’d be able to open. “I don’t have $100,000 of repair money,” he said. 

He’s considering his options and the future is uncertain. 

“I still owe a lot of people a lot of money,” he said. “I’m not fully out yet. I still have some irons in the fire. But the way it’s currently looking, the most likely occurrence … we will liquidate the business, recoup as much as we can in terms of costs with that and then from there, make the final decision on whether or not I have to file bankruptcy. I’m trying to avoid that, but also be realistic about the fact that it might be our only option.” 

A loss for the town

One of the darkest parts of the closure of Alpenglow is that Woodard was within sight of getting a beer and wine license.

He spent the past two years working to get a beer and wine license, pushing the issue through borough meetings and state hearings before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved two more licenses for Haines in February of 2025. 

Those licenses became available March 1, 2025 and Woodard said finalizing a lease was the last step needed to move forward with his application and get it in front of the licensing board this month. 

Without the lease, that effort stops short.  While it would not have guaranteed success, it could have provided some breathing room, particularly during the slow winter months.

“All of that work he’s done over the last few years is basically trash,” Kukull said. “To put that much effort into anything and he didn’t see any benefit for himself … I hope everybody’s pissed.” 

Editor’s Note: The Chilkat Valley News rents office space from Chris Thorgesen and has maintained a commercial advertising trade relationships with both Thorgesen and Alpenglow Woodfired Pizza.  

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