JJ Marsh is the tribal administrator for Sun’aq. She said its Alutiingcut Child Care Center, currently inside St. Mary’s School, has 36 enrolled children and at least 40 on its waitlist.
Kodiak parents in general have limited options for childcare on island. At Coast Guard Base Kodiak, for example, the Childhood Development Center or CDC can accept up to roughly 100 students at a time. But in recent years it has struggled to maintain staff and has had to reduce the number of children it can take at times.
Marsh said later this summer all of the preschool’s operations will transition over to the former North Star Elementary School, including programs to teach young children the Alutiiq language.
“When we move into North Star, I believe we’ll be going up to 72. And if we open another classroom, I believe we can go up to 88 children," she said. "But that’s in the future, right now we’re just interested in opening up.”
Marsh said the tribe is hiring for more preschool teachers to accommodate the higher capacity.
On June 4 the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly unanimously approved a three-year lease with the Sun’aq Tribe at a rate of roughly $142,000 per year.
“Just want to say I'm really excited that the lease is here and we're able to vote on it tonight [June 4]," Assembly member Caroline Roberts said.
The lease begins next month on July 1. Sun’aq plans to use one of the wings and the library of the building to run their preschool, about 9,086 square feet.
Borough Manager Aimee Williams told the Borough Assembly on June 4 that Sun’aq will also have access to common areas within the former elementary school.
“We will be considering the playground space a common area, so they will absolutely have access to that, and we have ordered some signs to place around that area that say no dogs clean up your waste, that kind of stuff, to help mitigate the circumstances that we've been experiencing without anyone in that building,” Williams said.
Under the lease terms, the Borough will pay for electricity, heat and sewer and water. Sun’aq will pay for janitorial services and internet.
A variety of other organizations and individuals are interested in leasing space in the building. But Williams told KMXT on June 18 that none of those ideas have materialized and so no other leases for space within North Star have been proposed at this point.
Marsh with Sun’aq said the Tribe’s preschool should be up and running in the North Star building by early August.
And for transparency, Borough Mayor Jared Griffin is also the general manager at KMXT. Per KMXT’s policy, he does not have any editorial influence over news stories and doesn’t review them before they air.
