School Begins!

 This is Joann A. Alexie Memorial School, a K-12 site with about 100 students. It is home to the green and yellow Falcons. Our first day for students began August 15, a rather exciting and exhausting day! It was just like any other site, but maybe with a few more extreme behaviors..... I have the Special Education position at this site with a beginning caseload of 16. May sound small, but...it does keep me hopping!

 Typical school bike rack with variety of bikes. Students mostly walk before freeze up occurs. Once there is enough snow, then the snowmobiles come out. For now, some students get rides on four-wheelers, especially the younger children. Our circular window on the porch is boarded up, with soon to arrive window.

 What a scary crew! We had to take this photo to prove to the district headquarters that we were all in attendance at our on site teacher inservice. Since it is so expensive to fly teachers into Bethel, home to the Lower Kuskokwim School District, most district inservices are conducted on site through the VTC.
Left to right we have:
Eli, Bruce, Mary Alice, Dorothy, Susie, Cindy, Ray, Betsy, Ashley (principal), and Tim.

  Door to gym, just a photo to show this is a 3 can door. The buildings shift so much that closing doors, sometimes, is not an option as they don't fit anymore. Same with keeping them open.








A four can door into the storage room for the kitchen. Plenty of number 10 cans to choose from. The tomato sauce cans are the heaviest and best to use...

Just like elsewhere, the school menu is predetermined by the district. The difference comes when a freezer goes out, and the food needs to be eaten now. Or the mail plane delivers an unexpected set of boxes the night before, and the maintenance worker finds them in front of the school the next morning, and there isn't any more room in the freezer. All teachers have school food in their freezers. Eli has ham, Dorothy and I have chicken and tater tots.....

 Doors open at 8:15.

Breakfast is often juice, milk and container of cereal. A special treat can be sausage and pancakes. When the kids are done eating they play Bump, sit and visit, or chase each other around before class. Early on it was through the halls, but we stopped that quickly!

Classes begin at 8:45 ending at 3:45.

Since recess is not an option for most of the year, the only time students get to run around is at lunch or their PE time.




 We have Kindergarten (in Yugtun), a 1st/2nd blend (in Yugtun), 3rd/4th blend, 4th/5th blend, 6th, 7th/8th blend, then 9-12th grade students taking their various classes to obtain high school credit. Several high school classes can be taught with teachers in Bethel broadcasting here through the VTC.  Sometimes our HS teachers have at least two different classes at the same time as the schedule can be driven by what students need to graduate.