Haines School activities travel costs are seeing a spike, although a boon from A&E’s Ghost Hunters film crew paid the way for the basketball teams’ travel to Juneau last weekend.
“That was helpful because they had heard that schools in Southeast were having a hard time so they reached out to us and were very generous by allowing our students to go with them,” superintendent Roy Getchell said. “We had originally chartered air service to meet those needs which would have been very expensive, but it was our only available option if we were going to get there.”
Air and the Allen Marine charters cost the district around $5,000 each.
The district is currently working with other community organizations to help offset costs if transport can be shared to and from Juneau, Getchell said. The Glacier Bears have to travel two full weeks this month for their final away games of the regular season.
The state paid for an Allen Marine Charter two weeks ago for passengers booked on the canceled ferry. Although the state is currently considering paying for future charters, Getchell said if the school has to foot the bill for activities transportation, “it’s going to be much more expensive.”
Getchell credited athletics director Lynzee Swinton for managing the charter, but added that juggling the logistics of the private charter is burdensome.
“I don’t want to be in the transportation company business,” Getchell said. “If this is the plan, it’s definitely going to impact our budget and our ability to get where we need to go,” Getchell said. “This has been far more complicated than I think anyone would have guessed.”
Getchell said parents and students should expect changes in activity schedules in the future and that districts will “be unable to fund or manage schedules of such complex magnitude like we’ve seen this year.”
High winds and 5-foot waves in Lynn Canal forced the Allen Marine to turn back Friday, Feb. 7. Lady Bears assistant coach Amanda Painter said the charter’s crew passed out ginger chews to queasy passengers.
The next day the winds kept up, but the teams sat in the boat for two-and-a-half hours before the winds died down enough to travel. They flew the next morning to Ketchikan where they boarded a 15-minute taxi boat, followed by a bus trip where they waited two more hours at the ferry terminal. “We took the ferry to Metlakatla and arrived 45 minutes before our first game,” Painter said.
The teams boarded a fishing boat Wednesday on their route to Craig.
The Bears are hoping to take an Allen Marine charter again with a community group on Saturday, Getchell said.
He said Southeast Alaska school district activities directors are meeting in Haines in April to discuss transportation issues next year.