After several weeks of waiting, Tuluksak is getting support from the state. In early February, a line leading from the community’s water plant to the school broke, leaving the school and teacher housing without running water.
Tuluksak school principal Kary DelSignore said that district staff now have a reliable vehicle to haul water as they truck it from the water plant to the school’s tanks. She said that the school has also received shelf stable meals from the Food Bank of Alaska and drinking water for students and staff.
“Now we are able to guarantee our students and Elders in the community daily meals, and again, very thankful for their help with that,” DelSignore said.
Without the state support, DelSignore said that they would not have been able to continue to keep the school open and serve the community and students.
“We still face the struggle of making sure that the village pipe is repaired so that we can actually restore running water to the school building. So that is the next thing that we’ll be working on,” DelSignore said.
DelSignore is hopeful that a contractor will come and repair the line after the spring thaw and restore running water to the school building.
“Barring any other issues, we are kind of holding our own and able to keep the school building functioning and serve our students,” DelSignore said.
The school is also loaning fuel to the Tuluksak community and the state will supplement the fuel supply until a barge can come in.
“And so that will be part of the disaster aid that they supply to us. So we don’t have to worry about fuel right now,” DelSignore said.
She said that students are doing well and back to their regular routine of attending classes.
“We’re really pleased we have students traveling to NYO; we’ve been able to have sports practice. All of those things are crucial to keeping our students engaged and involved in school,” DelSignore said.
The support couldn’t have come at a better time: the students are in the middle of state testing.
