The Haines School District and community has faced a challenging year with the COVID-19 pandemic and the deadly landslide last December, which killed a beloved kindergarten teacher and community member. But looking forward, the school superintendent says the district’s finances are in very good shape, and the outlook is positive.

Looking back at the past school year, Haines School Superintendent Roy Getchell speaks proudly about how the community met numerous challenges.

“It’s certainly been a shared… I hate to say struggle, but a shared experience we’ve all gone through together.”

Two hundred and sixty five students were enrolled in Haines Schools last year.  That included about 20 students working remotely, and 65 home-schooling. And with that flexibility, enrollment stayed steady.

“It was a win-win that families got options, they had choices. Our enrollment stayed stable, our funding, thus, stayed strong. And I feel like we met the needs of our families where they were.”

Haines students went back to in-person learning last August 2020, first with a staggered start and then full-time in September. So, he says, it’s been relatively normal.

Last year, the District received more than $250,000 in federal relief money, and with more than $1.8 million annual funding from the borough, they were able to re-open schools with COVID protocols in place. They also subsidized internet service for families, and provided school breakfast and lunch. 

Superintendent Getchell says overall, school finances are in good shape.

“You couple that with the additional support we’ve received from federal grants etc etc and truthfully just sound financial management here at school, but also with a lot of oversight from our board, who are wonderful people to work with, we’re in a very strong position financially.” 

Last week, the Haines Borough Assembly approved flat funding for the district. In all, that’s more than $1.8 million dollars as part of next year’s budget. Getchell says state funding is pending the next year’s state budget passing in Juneau. 

In addition to COVID, last December’s massive landslide and the death of two people: Jenae Larson, a beloved kindergarten teacher and David Simmons, was a tragedy for the whole community. 

“We went from a very stressful situation to one of grief… So it was just an incredible, second restart is what I would say. Recovering from the physical loss in the community, for example all the destruction that occurred and all the stress that went along with that, to the grief of losing Jenae and David.. And just the impact of you know, Jenae not being at school whenever we started back.” 

Getchell hopes summer can be a time to take pause and process as well. 

“I think we’ve been kind of go go go and in our routines, and really haven’t taken time to just process everything. So, it’s been quite a year, so you know, my hope is that people enjoy all these sunny days and anytime they have with their family or time off, that they need to talk about it because it’s just a lot to process. That they reach out to someone that they care for or love and just talk about it. Because there’s a lot. This has been quite a year.”

And for some, summer school and activities are now in full swing, with sports programs like soccer, T-ball, golf, and swimming, when the Haines swimming pool reopens in August. 

Families should note there is no school lunch program this summer, but it will start back up in the fall.

Getchell is leading focus groups with students and staff to evaluate last year, and discuss areas for improvement, as well as where to spend federal funding. He says his office will be sending out a survey to the district and community soliciting feedback in July.