Klukwan fights for school to remain open, ahead of possible vote on closure in November

Klukwan families and community members are urging the Chatham School District to address the causes of its low enrollment, ahead of a possible November vote on whether to close the school. They talked with board representatives at an emotional community meeting last week via Zoom. As KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports recommendations included hiring a permanent head teacher, repairing the school bus, and creating stability for the school community to draw students and families back and keep the school open.

 

Nicholas Szatkowski is a parent and member of the Klukwan advisory school board, and addressed Chatham School Board representatives via Zoom. 

“There are students available right now, if we had the school to offer to them,” he said.

Parents and community members of the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan agreed said past district decisions have led to the instability, causing low enrollment. 

“The solution is, we need an end to the bad decisions that are hurting the enrollment. And how do you tell if it’s a bad decision or not? Listen to the local community. Our advisory school board is here for the purpose of giving advice to the district for exactly these issues.”

They said the first steps in re-stabilizing the school is hiring back a head teacher.

Klukwan School secretary Frances Leak said students transferred to the Haines school because of a lack of stability and a head teacher. As of this month, five elementary school-age children attending the school. 

“At the beginning of the year, we had 10 and there was another family that was considering enrolling their kids if we could get a teacher. But because we were so delayed, of course they decided to enroll in town school.”

The two board representatives for Klukwan — who are based in Angoon — held the meeting ahead of an all-board working session October 26th, to discuss enrollment, which dropped below 10 students, the threshold for state funding. 

The Chatham School District will deliberate whether to close the Klukwan school, and could vote as early as their next meeting on November 9th.

“So when we talk about solutions, or ideas, we really need to be able to have stability,” said  Justina Hotch, an educator and grants manager for the STEPS program for Klukwan. “We need to know that we’re at least going to have a teaching position through this school year. So we can make plans. And we can work towards finding a long term teacher so that teachers know that at least for this year, they are going to have a job at this school.”

The Klukwan school had a head teacher last year, but the district eliminated the position due to budget cuts this year — and families expressed frustration. They say the district hired someone but with the reduced salary, that person declined the job with extra responsibilities and lack of pay. This year, substitutes teach students month-to-month. 

Principal Bradley King, who is based in Gustavus, told community members that for the immediate term, he is working on hiring a new substitute teacher.

“We’ve been working to get another substitute teacher to cover for the end of October through November. Thus far we have been unsuccessful, we had a couple of names on the list and we received a couple of additional names that we’re working to try to get ahold of at the moment,” King said. “As of today, I actually sent out emails to 27 teachers who are listed through the Alaska teacher placement program as potential substitute teachers to fill in at the school. Um, no responses as of yet.”

King said he was looking for a substitute with a special education certification. There had been some concerns about who was overseeing special education services, as the district office is based in Angoon.

Catherine Hotch says she used to be the special education aide. Her job was eliminated, but she continues to volunteer her time for the students.

“I still see the need for being there when somebody, some special ed or OT (occupational therapist) So I stayed up here and for two years, I did over 100 hours of free volunteer work. And there’s three of us that have 100 hours-plus, every year. I’m just staying up here because the kids mean that much to us,” Hotch said. 

Hotch’s daughter graduated from high school at the Klukwan school, and she’s deeply committed to supporting children continuing there. 

“The kids are the most important thing here. I grew up with grandparents that told us ‘It’s for the kids, it’s for the kids’ and I grew up hearing that.”

Parent Nicholas Szatkowski was one of many who said Klukwan offers an incredible learning opportunity.

“It’s very rare in the world today, actually. My son is learning to speak Tlingit language, he’s learning traditional Tlingit art, formline and other things like that. He gets amazing attention, because of the small school size, he has interaction with multiple age kids that you don’t have in a conventional school where everybody’s segregated by age. And there’s a lot of cognitive development that’s really enhanced and social developments, by interacting with multiple age kids. There are a lot of really cool, great things happening in the Klukwan school,” Szatkowski said.

He says school bus repairs are also an immediate priority. Last year a school bus driver hit a moose, and the district sent the bus to Juneau instead of a garage in Haines, and neglected to follow up with the repairs. 

“They could easily have fixed it there (in Haines) and had it back in action, but instead it was taken to Juneau. It’s been in Juneau for 11 months. I don’t think any of us would take our car to a garage and have the garage tell us it took 11 months before they could fix the car. Nobody would tolerate that. So it’s clearly an example of the administration not taking action to make something happen that we need,” he said.

The lunch program was eliminated several years ago, but community volunteers continued to cook a few times a week until the pandemic hit. Parents called for the district to re-start the lunch program. They also want to see the pre-school re-opened. Again, Justina Hotch.

“We have babies in the village! They’re like all sorts of babies, young children in the Upper Valley. But nobody’s gonna want to send our kids without stability without knowing there’s a stable learning environment. That’s why we’re asking for, well I’m asking for honest conversations. And at least to tell us if we’re going to have a teacher through this year. That position. At least if we’re going to have that position through this year,” Hotch said.

Superintendent Bruce Houck told KHNS via email Tuesday the bus repair had been completed, but did not have a timeline for when the vehicle would be returned to Klukwan.

The Superintendent said the Chatham School Board is expected to vote on whether to close the Klukwan school, and that could be as early as its November 9 meeting. 

The community is opposed and says it has part-time teachers, staff and families dedicated to keep the school going, it just needs funding and support. 

The Chatham School District’s full school board is scheduled to hold a work session on the Klukwan School, including an opportunity for public comment at 6 p.m. Tuesday October 26, see Zoom details here.