Twenty-nine Kake City School students and five chaperones were stuck overnight in Juneau over the weekend following mechanical issues with the Alaska ferry MV LeConte.
Kake City School District Superintendent Anji Gallanos said the school’s cross-country team was on its way back from a meet in Hoonah on Saturday when the LeConte was unexpectedly towed to Juneau. Alaska Marine Highway System officials said the ferry had mechanical issues.
Students stayed on the ferry while it was towed to Juneau overnight before ferry staff sent them home on a catamaran Sunday morning.
Gallanos estimates the catamaran trip home and lodging could have cost the district upwards of $20,000 if the ferry system didn’t step in. That’s roughly a quarter of the district’s travel budget for the whole school year. She said the additional cost might have meant the district would need to limit future sports travel.
“We would have had to do some pretty extensive fundraising,” she said. “We might have had to make some decisions as to whether or not we could bring more players to games throughout the region, or even be able to participate.”
The district budgeted $80,000 this year for student travel for a limited number of sports, including basketball, wrestling, volleyball, cross country, and art and music festivals. In an email to KTOO, Gallanos said the district has gone over its budget for travel in the past.
Gallanos said ferry service to Kake is limited in general. This year’s winter ferry schedule has the LeConte scheduled with service to Kake two to three times a month. She said the district uses the ferry system for more than just sports travel.
“We really rely on those ferries,” Gallanos said. “And the more ferries, the more opportunities we have to reduce our budget in our school district so we don’t have to rely on costly things like airfare, flying in things for parts and goods and services.”
Kake’s student athletes have about a month before they travel to Palmer for the state cross country meet. Gallanos said they will likely fly for its next meet because of limited ferry service. The LeConte remains out of service as of Tuesday afternoon.
