Karluk Tries To Save Its Beloved School By Offering Housing & Services To Large Families

4,000 To 5,000 People Responded 

Karluk Is Trying To Do What We Couldn't

Copper Valley Has Already Closed Three Of Our Schools

Gakona, Chistochina & Copper Center Have Lost Their Major Community Centers As A Result 

It hurts to lose your local school. And people in the outlying parts of the Copper Valley are aware of that. We've lost three major schools in the past years, and a sense of local community has gone with the closures.

The now-closed schools in Gakona, Chistochina and Copper Center used to be a place for surrounding families to meet; for events, and for community development. You learned to know your close neighbors when you went over to the school to vote, or play volleyball, or take the kids to a scout or AWANA meeting. The closures have impacted these settlements and villages in many ways, leading to a loss of a sense of community, and a mutual understanding of our common problems as small towns and villages. 

Since real estate values are so closely linked to having schools nearby, land values in the three communities are most likely negatively affected, too.

In the Copper Valley, the three schools that were shuttered were all tied to Native villages. The elementary students who went there were the most racially mixed in the region. 

So it's interesting to watch what's happening in the little fishing village of Karluk, where there are now only two pupils. The village needs 10 kids for the Karluk School to stay afloat with state funding, so the Tribal Council went looking. After they posted the above ad, they received requests from 5,000 families. 

Karluk is on Kodiak Island, in a gorgeous location.