Brianna Gibbs/KMXT     
            On Saturday slide-guitarist and singer David Jacobs-Strain will perform for Kodiak residents during a one night show presented by the Kodiak Arts Council.
            Strain’s trip to Kodiak this weekend will be his second, he played alongside musician Corey Harris a few years back during a performance at the Rendezvous. This time Strain will play at the Harbor Convention Center on Saturday starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 for students, $25 for adults and can be purchased online through the Kodiak Arts Council or at the door before the show. 

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            Broadband access is coming to the community of St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands. The Alaska Native Village Corporation Tanadgusix has received a grant to update the current network and provide broadband service. Larry Yerich is the spokesman for United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development in Alaska and said the community connect grant is awarded annually to rural communities across the nation.
             “The Community Connect Program is administered through the Rural Utilities Service National Office and the Rural Utilities Service is part of the USDA Rural Development family its just that we don’t administer it here at the state level," he said. "The Community Connect Program serves rural communities, typically where the broadband service is least likely to be available but where if they had it would make a huge difference in quality of life for the people who live there, the residents.”
            He said the Tanadgusix Corporation received $554,140 from the Community Connect Grant and had to meet specific requirements in order to qualify.
             “There are eligibility criteria. The following entities would be eligible for the funding: Incorporated organizations, Indian tribes or tribal organizations as defined by U.S. code or state or local units of government or private corporations or limited liability companies organized on a for profit or not for profit basis," he said. "The eligibility area would be a single community with a population less than 20,000 people that does not have broadband transmission service. The funds are used to build broadband infrastructure and establish a community center which would offer free public access to broadband for two years. ”

            Yerich said Tanadgusix Corporation will have to match at least 15 percent of the funds for the broadband project. 

            Coming up this week: The Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society will meet in Kodiak next week; don’t forget the chinook symposium Monday in Anchorage, and more on the fisherman’s former favorite footwear fiasco. Also, pollock B season is about over while Bering Sea crab gets going. We had help this week from KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez in Unalaska, CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld in Juneau, and Fish Radio’s Stephanie Mangini in Kodiak.

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            The Kodiak Island Borough School district will hold its third and final strategic education plan meeting tonight. Superintendent Steward McDonald said the meetings are an important part of drafting the district’s strategic education plan, a process that began in the early 1990s and takes place every year.
             “If we were to look at our budget development hand book you would see that every year begins with a needs assessment, and after the needs assessment is completed where we look at all of our data then we come together and we look at all of our education plans, and we have many, we call them our blue print," he said. "And then we take all of those ideas, and there are many, and we bring the community together and we take a look at what are the local priorities and how do we strategically focus on a few things to move forward. Once that is established, strategic planning, the board will review it, shape it with some of their own goals and that becomes the basis of all of our budget planning for fiscal year 2014.”

            Assistant Superintendent Marilyn Davidson is in charge of the planning process this year and said the meetings have been an excellent opportunity for community members from different backgrounds and entities to collaborate on ways the school district can improve.
              “So representatives from different ethnic and cultural communities, the college, the science community, the workforce community, a broad group of people that have come together. The Coast Guard has representation at the table, the schools, who their parent teacher associations," Davidson said. "The people who are not at the table specifically are the district people. District people who are in these meetings are listening, they're at the side, they are hearing what the community is saying and that’s really the first step in this is to listen to what the community is saying.”

            Davidson said the meeting last week generated some strategy ideas and the hope is that tonight’s meeting will provide a planning draft that can be presented to the board of education and move onto budgeting.