Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

School enrollments are up in Haines and Klukwan.

With 11 students, enrollment at Klukwan School surpassed the 10-student benchmark needed to qualify for full state funding.

Enrollment had fallen below 10 last year, leading Chatham School District to consider closing the school. The school opened this fall with nine students and reached 11 by the official count day Oct. 1. “It’s a celebration, but we still have a way to go,” said Chatham superintendent Ralph Watkins.

With two seventh-graders enrolled and no high-school program, enrollment may dip again in a few years, Watkins said.

Hired as superintendent this year, Watkins said keeping Klukwan open is critical to him “but the reason it’s open today is because of the hard work and dedication of my Klukwan staff and community… They were the force that kept this school open.”

At Haines School, enrollment on count day reached 257, nine students more than a year ago. Haines superintendent Roy Getchell said Haines enrollment numbers have been stable for years “which is good because if you look across Alaska, except for a few locations, enrollments are declining, so I feel good about that and I would say the forecast for next year will be pretty close to what we have this year.”

“Over the last 50 years, the numbers of students have been trending down. Demographics plays a big part, but when you look at our overall enrollment over the last five years, I would consider (Haines enrollment) stable,” Getchell said. “We’re small and so we’re super-dependent on incoming class size compared to the class that’s graduating.”

The May 2020 edition of Alaska Economic Trends magazine reported Alaska has long led the nation in yearly population turnover, with people under 40 representing about 75 percent of the movers.

Unlike births and deaths, migration is an uncertain component of population change. Alaska has seen a net loss of population for 10 years and the pandemic meant fewer people moved at all.

With families on the move and costs of living on the rise, projections are difficult to make. Southeast Alaska continues to see a decline in population and has a large senior population.

At Klukwan, Chatham is working on opening a preschool program in January. The program is a place-based model focusing on an infusion of outdoor activities including Tlingit language and culture. The goal is to take advantage of the outdoors as its own schoolroom for the students and to offer a different program than the valley’s other two preschool programs.

“There is a lot of appeal in what’s happening in Klukwan as far as the school size, the facilities and the opportunities that are there and I think if more people knew about it, more people would want to get involved,” Watkins said.

“There’s a lot to offer, but there has been some inconsistency in the leadership within the district due to high turnover and leadership that didn’t fully grasp the importance of having a school in Klukwan, the once center of all things Tlingit,” Watkins said.

The community initially made plans to keep the school going without the district’s help, but the district has recently recommitted to supporting the school’s growth and continuity. “We are now working collaboratively on how we can build and grow not just the school but the community’s commitment to it,” Watkins said.

Klukwan offers a curriculum not found in the standard educational system, Watkins said. “Just to see these children out there in their Native ancestral lands learning about their own culture and the heritage passed down to them just as it was passed down from their elders, is really just incredible.”

Keeping enrollment numbers up is critical, but some issues are harder to overcome than others, Watkins said.

“There are a lot of factors that impact student achievement. Poverty is a real thing in our Native communities and socio-economic status has been proven to be a reliable indicator of student challenges. Students who come from families and homes that lack resources often underperform. There’s no way around it, it takes a community sure, but it takes the broader community to take care of those that are the most in need.”