Why do some Haines High School graduates go on to complete college and others drop out? Do students who pursue trades find jobs there? What can Haines do to better prepare students for life after high school?

The Haines Borough School District may soon be seeking answers to those questions by way of a follow-up survey of alumni.

school board member Anne Marie Palmieri brought the question to Tuesday’s school board meeting, suggesting the district track students who have graduated in the past five years to see what they’re doing now and whether they achieved their goals. She said she was concerned about ones who drop out.

“If we can find these kids and ask them, ‘What part of your Haines experience helped you?’ and ‘What else would have helped?’ it can help us prepare for the next group of kids who come in.” Students are the school district’s ‘customers’ and the district should know how well it served them, Palmieri said.

school board members directed superintendent Michael Byer to form a plan for a survey to present at the December meeting. Byer said the district may seek help from parents or other volunteers to locate graduates.

“Creating the survey is the easy part. We may have to do some work to get people to respond to it… Some (graduates) would be hard to find, but you’d probably get the best information from the ones who are hardest to find,” Byer said.

Board chair Carol Kelly said such follow-up studies are done regularly at other schools. “The information you get is invaluable. If there’s something academic or curricular (that’s holding former students back), that needs to be addressed. If it’s something social, that needs to be addressed in the community as well as the school.”

Sarah Swinton, a 1986 Haines High School graduate who has served on the school board eight years, also spoke in support. “It would be interesting to find out. I know (going away to college) was a pretty scary, eye-opening experience for me. That’s maybe why kids are dropping out.”

Board members said “culture shock” suffered by small-town Alaska students at large universities in the Lower 48 was probably one of the reasons Haines graduates drop out. Member Sean Cone noted that some Alaska universities have programs for Bush students to make the transition to urban life.