Education

A longtime Southwest Region School District educator from Aleknagik who has dedicated decades to teaching Yup’ik language and culture retired last month.

Generations of students filled the Dillingham Elementary School gym on Friday to celebrate longtime teacher Amy Ruby. After 35 years in the classroom, Ruby retires this week.

Dillingham's fifth graders spent a recent Thursday outside the classroom, learning from professionals across the community.

Wanda Wahl, who grew up in Dillingham and is a member of the Curyung Tribe, worked as the interim director of the Bristol Bay Campus for the past two years. Now, as permanent head, she wants to work with the region’s rural communities to make the university more accessible.

Four Dillingham musicians are packing their instruments and heading to the statewide music festival in Anchorage this week.

Bristol Bay is linguistically rich, with Alutiiq, Yup’ik and Dena’ina all traditionally spoken in the region. But as elders pass on, the number of birth speakers grows fewer and the need to teach and preserve these languages, more pressing. Igiugig’s Village Council President AlexAnna Salmon, a language revitalization leader in her community, says an “all hands on deck” approach is needed to continue these efforts.

The Alaska Reads Act rolls out this July. It's a set of programs meant to improve reading in kindergarten through third grade. KDLG’s Christina McDermott and Izzy Ross discuss what the act means.

The Bristol Bay Native Corporation's education foundation has spearheaded higher education scholarships and programs for its shareholders for years. Its leaders now want to bolster the cultural heritage program with a focus on language revitalization.

The city plans to reevaluate the school funding after finalizing its own budget and learning the state's base student income for the upcoming year.

The Dillingham City Council and school district have been in the throes of budgeting for next fiscal year. Over almost hour of public testimony at the last city council meeting, people supported increasing the education budget from $1.4 to $1.7 million, but some city officials are concerned about funding other municipal projects.