Credit Katie Basile / KYUK
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on the last school year, the Lower Kuskokwim School District has fewer teachers leaving this year than in the recent past.
Teacher turnover is nothing new in the Lower Kuskokwim School District. In recent years, the district has made efforts to develop teachers from within the region to try to reduce turnover. This year, the district dealt with a new challenge: the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down in-person learning for most of the school year. Despite the pandemic, or perhaps because of it, more teachers than usual are deciding to stick around for another school year.
Credit Annalyne Ulroan / Lower Kuskokwim School District The art made by students in the Lower Kuskokwim School District will take center stage at the Bethel Cultural Center on Friday, May 7. Up until now, all the art made by students could only be viewed virtually. The instruction that took place was also done remotely because of the pandemic.
At 6 p.m. on May 7, the doors will open at the Bethel Cultural Center for a live, in person First Friday show of student art. Teddi Worrock, the cultural center s program director, said that the event will span many art forms.
“We worked together to create this beautiful wall that has art from all the students all over the Y-K Delta,” explained Worrock. We also have a dance group that will be performing. We have art from Reyne Athanas and Jamie and Katie Nicolai that will also be displayed. We also have an art station provided by the library that’s a lot of fun for kids. So if the parents want to walk around and view the art, the ki
Theresa Crushshon, a visual and media artist who is currently serving as Integrated Arts Coordinator with the Lower Kuskokwim School District; and Teddi Worrock, Program Director with the Bethel Cultural Center, talk about art made by students during the pandemic that is being shown at the Cultural Center’s First Friday exhibition.
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On April 29, 18 parents, teachers, and students, nearly all from Bethel, called into the Lower Kuskokwim School District board meeting. They pleaded with the district to allow students to return to in-person school five days a week, and for sports to resume. LKSD Superintendent Kimberly Hankins provides her response to those calls.
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Credit Katie Basile / KYUK
Some families in Bethel are considering moving if the next school year looks similar to this one. On April 29, 18 parents, teachers, and students, nearly all from Bethel, called into the Lower Kuskokwim School District board meeting. They pleaded with the district to allow students to return to in-person school five days a week, and for sports to resume. The district is taking action to meet those demands.
In March 2020, the Lower Kuskokwim School District, along with many districts around the nation, closed down in-person schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. LKSD kept in-person schooling closed while the virus hit the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta harder than almost anywhere else in the country. Carolyn Iverson, a parent and school social worker in Bethel, said that she was on board with those decisions at the time. Iverson is married to KYUK’s general manager.