In her first eight weeks in Cordova, new schools Superintendent Kim Hanisch has already attended the Copper River Salmon Jam, Cordova Music Camp, as well as district and statewide policy meetings. She’s also already run into a bear with her two Malamutes out on the Power Creek Trail, but she remains undeterred.
“The bear did its own thing, ignored us, and we ignored them,” she told The Cordova Times in an interview. “But that’s what makes it fun – you’re alive, it’s real. I like that little bit of anxiety in life.”
Hanisch, who started at the Cordova City School District on July 1, said since she arrived in mid-June she’s been learning the ins and outs of of the district’s strategic vision, and well as where her leadership fits into the mix.
“My goal is to really understand at a deeper level what’s made Cordova so successful up to this point,” she said. “And then … where do we need to really push a little bit to continue that growth?”
As a newcomer, Hanisch says her strategy is to collaborate as much as possible while she gets acclimated to the unique challenges facing Cordova.
“I’m not a top-down leader by any means. I like to share with a leadership team, make decisions together,” she said. “That’s the culture that’s been built here that I’m stepping into, and I hope to be able to foster that.”
Originally from South Dakota, Hanish has always had an affinity for outdoor recreation and the Last Frontier.
“I always dreamt about Alaska, and then was just basically too afraid to go that far,” Hanish said. She added her close-knit family in the Lower 48 said they’d have a hard time if she moved that far away.
But Alaska’s allure never dissipated.
In 2002 Hanisch, who specialized in biology, received a bird research fellowship on Teshekpuk Lake, way up north near Utqiaġvik. After the fellowship she took a short-term leave of absence from her boss in the Lower 48 for another teaching position at the Bering Strait School District.
“After a month of teaching, I let him know that I would not return and this is where I need to be,” Hanisch said.
After eight years building her career in the Bering Strait, she stepped away from public schools to focus on educational consulting with the statewide Reinventing Schools Coalition organization, which she did so she could “live in a cabin that was 30 miles from Tok and 10 miles from a neighbor.”
“I did the whole living in the wilderness experience – dry cabin, that whole bit,” Hanisch said, adding the experience was both challenging and rewarding.
But after realizing she was “becoming a bit too much of a hermit,” she picked up and went to the Kodiak Island Borough School District for a job as the director of instruction. Afterwards, she moved on to an associate professor role with the University of Alaska Southeast, before serving as superintendent in Unalaska until the end of last school year.
“I’ve been to every corner of the state and so many of the different villages and local communities,” Hanisch said. “I just feel so fortunate to have been able to see education in so many different lenses.”
A few years ago she first added Cordova to her long list of Alaskan adventures.
“A group of friends and I came here for a backpacking trip just randomly,” Hanisch said. “So that was my first exposure.”
The Cordova School District Board of Education unanimously selected Hanisch for the superintendent role back in January. She’s taking over for former schools Superintendent Alex Russin, who led the district for 11 years before retiring last month.
The major challenge she’ll have to face during her first school year will be balancing the district’s ever-precarious annual budget.
As the economy has continued to decline over the past few years and statewide education funding has become unreliable, the Cordova district has had to overcome various financial deficits.
This year administrators were forced to make various reductions, including leaving one teacher position unfilled, limiting student travel, and cutting down on departmental spending. The district found additional revenue to balance the 2026-2027 budget by drawing on reserves, asking the city to increase its annual schools contribution, and entering into a contract with Unalaska schools to provide food service work.
An additional challenge that will impact the district immediately after the school year starts is the winter ferry service gap, which is expected to last from Oct. 1 through March 6, 2027.
During an Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) public session last month, Hanisch and other district leaders pressed the department to come up with some kind of ferry option for Cordova, which sits off the state’s road system. She emphasized the five-month service gap would take opportunities away from students this winter.
“We’re just really advocating to consider some flexibility in the schedule so that we’re not totally without the ferry for that extended period of time,” Hanisch told AMHS officials. “That’s 17 trips at a minimum that we’ll have to do airfare. That’s not budgeted for.”
At her former position as superintendent of Unalaska schools, Hanisch said she was “thrown in to” the budgeting process right away. That experience, she said, makes her equipped to take on the unique financial issues present at Cordova schools.
Hanisch said she’s learned how to “get creative,” with budgets, as well as “how to get people behind change.”
“Hopefully someday we won’t have to continue to think about cuts, and actually can start to think about how we grow our programs,” she added.
Since she moved to town, she’s spent a lot of time exploring Cordova’s natural beauty – from hiking (“Every trail is like blowing my mind so far.”) and berry picking to kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding. She even has a fishing boat, but she said she hasn’t had many chances to take it out yet.
“That’s what I’m really enjoying right now, anything outside,” Hanisch said. “There’s just a lot of different ways to enjoy all those things that I love.”
The new superintendent said she’d love to meet as many community members as possible as she gets settled into Cordova.
“My door’s open, or invite me out,” she said. “I just really want to build those relationships early on and let them seem me as an open, listening type of leader.”
Hanisch’s first Board of Education meeting as superintendent will be on Aug. 12. The first day of school is Aug. 18.
This story was updated on Aug. 10 with to note the program Cordova Music Camp.
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