While most Alaskan students are picking out new backpacks and school supplies, those in the Lake and Peninsula School District are already engaged in traditional hands-on learning.
Last May, LPSD employed a unique strategy to cope with dwindling dollars.
While other districts switched to four-day school weeks and other budget-cutting measures, LPSD was the first school district in the state to cut 20 days off of the school calendar – returning to a system that used to be the norm, and taking a break for subsistence activities.
Superintendent Ty Mase feels that it is an idea that locals are embracing.
Superintendent Ty Mase: "The communities like the idea. There is a lot of buy in because of the opportunity for increased culture, for increased participation in the commercial fisheries which is the main industry in our region.”
The new subsistence calendar is hoped to fill the district’s $500,000 budget gap through reduction of salaries for certified, classified and administrative staff, reducing student and staff transport, food service, utilities, and general maintenance. Additional reductions – the number of in-service days, professional days, and possibly how many out-of-school field trips students can take.
Under the subsistence schedule, the school year begins Sept. 5th and finishes May 1st. It will result in 77.5 fewer hours of classroom instructional time.
Students are expected to spend those hours learning the life skills of their ancestors, taking advantage of more hunting, fishing, and berry picking opportunities. The subsistence calendar a boldest move, but not the only cost saving-measure the district has taken up.
Superintendent Ty Mase: "“We have cut most of the fat, and now all the cuts we are looking at are what we consider essential programs: hot lunch program, preschool..so further cuts are just going to dig deeper.”
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