Karluk, a small village with just 24 inhabitants has schools at the beginning of this year for the first time beginning the month of April.
Up until recently, only two residents of the area were children. Schools must have at least 10 students in order to be eligible for state-funded funding. In the hope of reopening the school it was announced that the Karluk Tribal Council posted an advertisement offering to cover the cost of living for a year for two families who want to relocate to the area.
It worked.
The advertisement became all over the internet this summer, and nearly 5,000 people took part.
One of the families are the Wilkinsons. Toni as well as her 5 children flew four times more than 28 hours to travel from Karluk after a flight from Lexington, Kentucky.
“When we arrived in Karluk There were many people waiting on the airstrip to welcome us and guide us around. They also helped us take our luggage, and then bring us and show us around the home. One lady had prepared breakfast for us, so it was extremely welcoming,” she said.
The family moved in early September, and has adjusted to life on the island and enjoying the beaches. Wilkinson’s wife and his two grown children resided in Kentucky.
“They have put a lot of effort into arranging things for us, and making us feel at ease and everyone’s simply been welcoming and friendly,” she said.
In addition to and the Wilkinsons as well as another couple in the process the village has enrolled enough students to allow school to be able for the Kodiak Island Borough School District Board of Education to agree at its meeting last night to reopen the school.
Kathryn Reft is the Karluk Tribal Council’s secretary and treasurer. She claims the council went through a plethora of requests to identify the best families that could move on the islands. The family she mentioned with three children is in the process of moving to the island.
“Well we’re happy for the opportunity to achieve this feat,” she said. “And it looked uncertain for a moment but we’re able to take a breath.”
Reft stated that they were hoping for families who had traditional Alaska experience, however with only two houses available currently, they had to prioritise families with plenty of children.
“It was like’Oh, we doesn’t have enough children”” she explained. “We were very concerned about one parent being in as well, but it all came down to the number of children and how we could work that out.”
The fact that there were enough students to attend the school was only the beginning. It’s been a long time since the Kodiak Island Borough School District hasn’t seen a school in the area for five years. The board of education for the district decided to open the school with only one day’s notice. Staff now have only a few days to go through their paperwork and decide what’s the next step.
“I’ve had to go to the borough, and determine what we have to do to regain control of that campus,” said district superintendent Cyndy Mika. “I must file a formal request to the Director of Education at the Department of Education to request for permission to open the school, because they’re the ones who can grant us the authority to open.”
This is only the beginning of the story — Mika must also certify all schools at this time in September. even with the state-funded funding of $371,000 to this school, district is needing to raise $412,000 to run the school and pay its staff. It means they’ll have to come up with around $50,000 to run the Karluk school within the already limited budget.
At its meeting on Monday the school board stated that the main obstacle is locating and housing an instructor to teach at Karluk school. The district faced an difficult time finding staff at rural schools in the past. Mika stated that she was disappointed that the Tribal Council renovated two houses to accommodate families who are moving in but there’s no third one that’s waiting for teachers.
“Not only do we have to hunt for the right teacher, but we’re also trying to set up a classroom inside the building as the dwelling of a teacher, and it’s not an easy to sell” the teacher said.
So, a teacher might have a separate bedroom and living area and would be required to share the bathroom, kitchen and laundry rooms students use throughout the time of the day.
Mika says that the communities around Kodiak have had teachers living in schools in the past, however she’s worried about how it could influence the teacher’s time-to-work balance. The district plans to have rotating staff instruct at the local level for couple of weeks at each period of.
Despite all the hard work however, Mika said it’s worth it.
“Ultimately we have 10 students at Karluk and we have to educate them, and it’s the right thing to begin the school’s opening,” she said. “It was ideal to have a year to plan the opening rather than hurrying it up, but right now is the time to do the actual work.”
Wilkinson The mother of five who just relocated to Karluk Wilkinson said that the family has been enjoying meeting the locals while seeing bears, as well as taking a trip around the island.
“It’s simply gorgeous! It’s gorgeous too, Kentucky is beautiful too but in a different manner,” she said. “So we’re loving it and we’re eagerly anticipating the school starting up.
The family who is headed to the village from California and is expected to arrive in the latter part of September.
