Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1984, 1994 and 2004.
This week in 1984, with enrollments nearly doubling this fall at Juneau-Douglas High School, the school’s new principal has planned meetings so students, parents and teachers can help craft new policies to meet potential problems. Chris Bogden, who took over the reigns full-time as principal at the high school last month, has scheduled public meetings with the ninth- through twelfth-grade students for next week and with parents the following week in an effort to hammer out new policies on everything from attendance and student movement on campus to lunch periods and student activities. “Given the increase in students and faculty there are going to have to be some changes this year. We want to get students, parents and faculty all involved so they’ll more readily accept the changes when they happen,” said Bogden, a former Baltimore school principal who recently graduated from Harvard.
Original Story: “School policies under review,” by Chuck Kleeschulte. 7/12/1984.
This week in 1994, federal safety officials have allowed exploratory work at the Alaska-Juneau Mine to resume this week after finishing their investigation into a cave-in that killed a worker July 1. Though the final report is not yet complete, no fault for the accident has been assigned to the mining company, said Garry Day with the federal mine safety office in Vacaville, California. Chris Haas, 42, was killed when a portion of the mine tunnel near Sheep Creek collapsed while a crew was working to enlarge the passageway. The crew was installing strong wire mesh and bolts over the tunnel walls to prevent any slippage when one of the sides collapsed, killing Haas. Three other workers escaped unharmed. Work was put on hold while investigators from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration surveyed the area. Day said that Echo Bay can proceed with its work by either building a tunnel around the cave-in, which is about 1,000 feet from the mouth of the adit, or by shoring up the area.
Original Story: “Miners return to work,” by Carole Healy. 7/12/1994.
This week in 2004, renovating and adding onto an annex next to Juneau-Douglas High School might cost less than building a new school in the Mendenhall Valley, but not if you figure in parking, according to the city’s rough first look at costs. Those cost estimates, and the assumptions that underlie them, are likely to be the next points of contention in the debate about what high school facilities Juneau should have. Voters on May 25 narrowly turned down a 1,080-student school at Dimond Park that was on the verge of being built. The city and the school district are working out cost estimates for the two options that emerged from a mayor’s focus group last month: renovate and add to the Marie Drake building next to JDHS (to be used as one school), or build an 840-student school at Dimond Park and have two high schools. The school board intends to recommend a bond measure to the Juneau Assembly for the October ballot. The city has estimated it would cost $52 million to build a school in the Valley and $2 million more for a 500-space parking lot. Renovating and enlarging Marie Drake could cost about $35 million, and a 500-space parking garage could cost $20 million, the city estimated.
Today the second high school, Thunder Mountain High School, has been converted to a middle school as of July 1 and all high school students consolidated into JDHS for the coming school year. A shortage of parking is among the major concerns expressed during debate about the consolidation.
Original Story: “School debate shifts to cost predictions,” by Eric Fry. 7/9/2004.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
