Stewart McDonald Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough School District Superintendent is set to move on this coming summer, but he won’t leave his current position without recognition. Stewart McDonald is one of four finalists for the 2017 National Superintendent of the Year Award, a 30-year program that acknowledges leaders in education across the country. McDonald has served for nine …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Kodiak residents voted for the borough and city to explore possible consolidation, and that’s what members of staff and the elected bodies are doing. Borough Mayor Dan Rohrer updated the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council on their progress at a joint work session last week. He explained he, Borough Manager Michael Powers, City Mayor Pat …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Discover Kodiak just officially released an interactive map which enables adventurers to see the Kodiak  trails before they hike them, as well as the elevation. Trail Genius, a company made up of couple Jason Manders and Amanda Campbell, came to Kodiak this summer to record the island’s most popular trails in real-time. Now, those trails are up and …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Borough Lands Committee is scoping out more property to develop in order to open up living situations in the community. The lands committee formed last year sometime after the announcement of the Jackson Mobile Home Park closure, which led to an emphasis on both the lack of availability of land and the high rent prices in Kodiak. …

Marilyn Davidson. Kayla Desroches / KMXT Kayla Desroches/KMXT One of the major players in how arts education looks in the Kodiak Island Borough School District just learned that she’ll receive a Governor’s Award for her work. The award recognizes individuals and organizations who have been influential to arts and humanities in Alaska, and there are a total of eight recipients, …

Coming up this week, Fish and Game will see more cuts again next year under Governor Walker’s proposed budget, in Southeast, the Dungeness crab season was kind of a bust, and the GHL for the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery has been set. We had help from KSTK’s Aaron Bolton in Wrangell, KFSK’s Angela Denning in Petersburg, KCAW’s Emily …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council are continuing in their effort to keep each other in the loop following an agreement to improve communication between the borough and city. Tonight they’ll hold a joint work session to update each other on issues important to the entire community. Along with updates from the borough lands committee, …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The organizers behind the 2016 Kodiak Strong Planning Day are reaching out to the community to stand behind the goal of establishing a hydroponic growing facility. Merissa Koller Williams, Healthy Tomorrows director and Planning Day organizer, says the hope is that the facility will be powered using renewable energy. “You can grow a lot of stuff in really …

Coming up on Talk of the Rock, host Kayla Desroches speaks with the staff of the new Alutiiq language immersion preschool which will be opening in Kodiak next month. They’ll talk about what to expect and how the preschool plays into the larger Alutiiq language scene.

Ground squirrel parka made by Susan Malutin and Grace Harrod, 1999. Courtesy the Alutiiq Museum Kayla Desroches/KMXT An archaeologist is studying the ancient ground squirrel on Chirikof Island and trying to figure out when the squirrel would have been introduced to the area and how. Catherine West is a research assistant professor at Boston University and has been coming to …