by Doug Molyneaux
Sleetmute students and staff have retreated to portions of their school building that have yet to threaten collapse or require use of raingear and hardhats in class. State government has failed to address years of mounting maintenance needs at the village school, which is formally named the Jack Egnaty Sr. School. The result is a million dollar-plus repair/replacement price tag with no funding in sight. Officials at other schools should take heed, as this could be your fate if putting off manageable maintenance work.
The Alaska constitution requires the legislature to establish and maintain a system of public schools (Article VII, Section 1). The legislature may be negligent of this responsibility on many fronts, some of which they seek to remedy though recent passage in the State House and Senate of the bipartisan education bill (SB140), which as of this writing sits on the desk of former teacher and current governor Mike Dunleavy who threatens to veto the bill.
This legislation promises an increase of $680 per student to the Base Student Allocation, but it does not address the more pressing need of students and staff at the condemned Sleetmute school.
The Kuspuk School District has allocated some funds towards the Sleetmute issue, but the amount is far short of the estimated cost. Repair or replacement of the Sleetmute school relies on Capitol Improvement Project (CIP) Funds or some form of emergency funding. At last check, Sleetmute ranked #23 on the state CIP list, of which only the top 10 typically get funded.
I don’t live in Sleetmute. I don’t have any family attending the school either. My awareness of the condemned school building comes as a result of being contacted several years back by the school’s two teachers. They asked for my help advising a student working on a science project about Kuskokwim salmon. I formerly served as a fishery biologist in Kuskokwim Area for some 20+ years and the teachers knew it, so they gave me a call.
That request has since forged my ongoing role as informal ‘school science project advisor’ and, in collaboration with the teachers, resulted in a slew of student initiatives to apply the scientific method in exploring questions about Kuskokwim and Yukon River salmon, climate change, bird behavior, best choices for firewood, drivers of Bering Sea king crab and snow crab abundance, and more. That initial request is testament to the resourcefulness of these two devoted teachers to advocate for their students. They are indeed a rare pair.
The lead teacher, Angela Hayden, has been teaching in Sleetmute for 16 years and the secondary teacher, Sheree Smith, has been teaching there for 11 years. They would like to stay, provided they have a building to work in. Such longevity is nearly unheard of in the Kuspuk School District where teacher turnover is high. In fact, this year district officials expected turnover to be near 80%.
That rare dedication of the Sleetmute teachers has been key to the school’s 100% graduation rate. In contrast, the district average of about 50%. Sleetmute attendance rate is 95%, dropout rate is 0%, plus this little school with the collapsing roof, rotting floor, and black mold encrusted walls ranks in the top 20% of all schools in Alaska for overall test scores in math and reading proficiency, according to the website Public School Review (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/jack-egnaty-sr-school-profile).
Their students regularly rank among the best projects in their respective categories at the annual Alaska Science and Engineering Fair. Last school year, two of their students were even invited to present their findings about spring flood risk at a student session of the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
This school is working despite their circumstances. It makes all the more appalling and tragic the conditions students and staff must work in because of government neglect in funding basic building maintenance. Now the repair bill is ballooning and the state risks losing this little jewel in the rural Alaskan wilderness. But for now, Sleetmute students and staff will keep their raingear and hardhats handy as they forge ahead to shape our future leaders. Unfortunately, the civics lesson being taught is the ineptitude and dysfunction of our state government.
Doug Molyneaux is a former Kuskokwim Area fishery biologist with Alaska Department of Fish and Game (retired).
