Education

The Tuluksak School is doing remote learning. Not because of COVID-19, but because students set fire to the school.

This year has been a major challenge for educators as they struggle to teach children in the middle of a pandemic. Last spring, most schools shut their doors and moved to remote learning after COVID-19 arrived in the state. After completing the school year learning alone at home, students in Emmonak seem to have a new appreciation of school.

Toksook Bay Principal Michael Robbins talks about how the community is using their low-power radio station to stay informed and connected through the pandemic.

Following the arrest of one of its elementary school principals, the Lower Kuskokwim School District is changing its policies on how sexually inappropriate behavior is reported and investigated. In meetings about the new policies, school board members asked whether the district’s administration was capable of investigating its own employees without bias.

Last week, the Lower Kuskokwim School District announced that students in Bethel would start the school year remotely because of the high number of COVID-19 cases in the city. That was just the start. Active cases of COVID-19 are now being seen in a number of villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, forcing schools to close.