The village of Levelock's school closed on Friday due to low enrollment. The Lake and Peninsula School Board voted unanimously to shutter the school at a tearful meeting on Oct. 29.
"I've been through a few of these. I've closed schools, I've opened schools," said Austin Shangin, a board member from Perryville. "It's heartbreaking, but it's something that we have to do."
Levelock, a small village about 60 miles east of Dillingham, has seen average daily school attendance of seven students this fall. A school needs at least 10 students to get state education funding.
Superintendent Kasie Luke said that the district is facing a deficit that's about $300,000 larger than what the district initially budgeted for. Student numbers were projected to drop district-wide, and they did — but not as much as expected. And because of a peculiar wrinkle in state law, in this case, more students actually mean the district is expecting less state funding.
Luke estimates that the deficit is between $600,000 to $1 million. She said the district doesn't have funds to float schools that don't meet state counts and that closing the school is consistent with past practice.
Luke said this isn't the first time Levelock's school has come close to falling below the count. The school's numbers have fluctuated over the years, and families have been forced to consider what they would do if it closed.
But Luke said the reality that the school is really closing is just sinking in.
"When the heartbeat of a community, which exists in the school and the young humans that attended, stops, it's hugely impactful for the morale, for the growth of the community," she said. "It's such a common ground for everybody to attend and for everybody to be there."
Levelock's sole teacher, Kathy Touring, was moved to a school in Igiugig, where a long-term substitute had been teaching. Touring's first day there was Monday.
Six Levelock students decided to enroll in homeschooling. Their first day was Monday.
The district offers a remote homeschooling correspondence program, Lake View Homeschool, and its teacher traveled to Levelock earlier this month to help students with the transition. Luke says that overall, that has gone smoothly.
"Often with homeschool transition, there's a lot of questions about what families can do, what homeschool allotment covers," Luke said.
For no, Luke says the school district is working with the community and the borough on how to move forward. She says the goal is to keep the school building open and accessible to the public, but that's dependent on resources and local capacity.
"There is hope for a continuation of the community to function in the school, if we can work together and if resources allow, and I don't doubt that we can," Luke said.
Each spring, the district will assess whether to reopen the school.
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