Klukwan School advocates asked the Chatham school board last week to hire a teacher, a hire superintendent Bruce Houck has declined to make in the face of declining enrollment and severely reduced state funding.
Klukwan’s enrollment fell to 7 by the October count deadline, below the minimum 10 required to receive full state funding. Houck told the board that even with the 12 students the board budgeted for last spring, Klukwan School already had a shortfall.
“We are having to supplement their budget at the expense of the other sites,” Houck told the school board at a Nov. 17 work session. “The board did agree to do that. Now that we’re below the 10, it puts a different point on it.”
The school has been unable to secure a teacher this year and has relied on subs. The first teacher hired to begin the school year never showed up and the second quit after the first day. A new teacher is interested in the job, but Houck told the board he didn’t offer a contract because of the lingering question of whether the board will close the school.
“We have someone who has shown interest in filling in,” Houck said. “Because we have five to six kids in the building and the board was going to have this discussion, we have not offered a contract.”
Grant Robinson, spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEED) said it’s up to the district to decide whether to keep the school open in the face of reduced state funding.
“If the district decides to close the school they must notify the department of the intent to close the school and provide an education plan for the students in the community,” Robinson said.
Robinson said state aid has yet to be determined because the department is still in the process of reconciling enrollment counts statewide. Robinson said Houck reached out to DEED on Oct. 25 requesting information on the school closing process.
Klukwan residents, school staff and parents all spoke passionately at last week’s meeting about the value of the school not only to students but to the village and Tlingit culture. Tensions between Klukwan and Chatham have simmered for years and some in Klukwan blame poor communication and neglect as reasons for Klukwan’s dwindling enrollment.
Chatham board members said they had no doubt those advocates loved and valued their school, but that they wanted to hear concrete ideas rather than rehash past grievances.
“I know you love your school and your community, but we have problems here and we have to find solutions to those problems in order to keep this school open,” board member Jim Wagner said. “My ears are totally open…please give us your ideas on how we can make it work.”
Parent Janelle Forsberg suggested hosting an open house and hiring a teacher to attract students who transferred to Haines School.
“Speaking with other families that live in this area, they have never even driven past the school or know where it is located,” Forsberg said. “They are making school choices without knowing necessarily what is in their backyard.”
Klukwan advisory school board member Shanah Kinison said hiring a teacher should be the first priority and that it could draw students back to Klukwan School. She said she’s heard anecdotally that parents would bring their students back to Klukwan if it provided a stable teacher.
“We’re not going to pull kids back from town without a single teacher,” Kinison said. “Right now, we have a sub. We had parents pull their kids because we didn’t have a teacher.”
“You can’t have a school without a teacher and you can’t have a school without students,” Wagner said. “You need both. How do we achieve that? I can see why parents wouldn’t want to send their students there. That makes a lot of sense to me.”
The board scheduled another work session with Klukwan for Tuesday, Nov. 23. In the meantime, it asked Klukwan staff to prioritize services and look for ways to cut costs. The board also asked Houck to contact potential teachers to start in January.