Friday, August 7, 2026

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Photo: Desks with art supplies sit ready for preschoolers at Kodiak’s North Star building on July 31. A wing of the building reopened to children on Aug. 3. (Katherine Irving / KMXT)

The doors of what was once Kodiak’s North Star Elementary School reopened August 3 for the first time since last June.

The school closed because of budget cuts, but one wing of the building is now home to the Sun’aq Tribe’s Alutiingcut Child Care Center, a preschool for two-to-five year-olds.

KMXT’s Katherine Irving toured the center before its opening and has the story.

“This is our foxes classroom. This is our oldest.”

Montana Sanchez is the childcare administrator for the Sun’aq Tribe. On a Friday at the end of July, the building that used to be North Star Elementary School was abuzz with activity.

“You just walked into fixing the ceilings and the Wi-Fi on the same day.”

Sanchez and the teachers had just three days left to get everything finished before opening their doors for preschoolers on August 3. She showed me some of the classrooms, freshly redecorated with dollhouses and play mats and tables covered with art supplies.

“I think everyone’s been here for the last three weekends in a row getting this set up.”

She says this transition has been years in the making. The Tribe’s Alutiingcut Child Care Center got its start in 2022 with one classroom at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

The center has always accepted all children ages two to five, but with preference for Alaska Native and American Indian families.

As demand grew, they expanded to three classrooms at St. Mary’s.

With a long waitlist, and no more room to grow at the parish, Sanchez says moving to the North Star building was the logical next step.

Sadie Coyle, or Ms. Taqu as the kids call her, is the Alutiiq language teacher for the preschool and she has been with the Alutiingcut Child Care Center since the beginning.

We caught her in the middle of pushing a cart of supplies to her classroom.

“When we first started, four years ago, we had one classroom, and now eventually we’re gonna have five. I think that’s a good milestone for us.”

Enrolling at the preschool costs $1,075 per month per child for kids aged two through three-and-a-half, and $1,025 per month per child for the older kids. That hovers around the statewide average of $1,009 per month, according to data from the non-profit First Five Years Fund.

Sanchez says they currently have 35 preschoolers enrolled. They are planning to enroll 75 kids by December and hoping to be licensed for a maximum of 110 by next year.

“We already know this is going to be a big change for them, although it’s great. So we’re going to take it slow, and then hopefully in another month and a half we’ll open another classroom, and after that another classroom.”

Even with the expansion, she says they still have people on their waitlist. There are several in-home daycares on the island, but the Alutiingcut is the only childcare center, besides the one on the Coast Guard Base Kodiak, which is not accessible to the general public.

Sanchez says childcare is hard to come by. Preschools at the Kodiak Baptist Mission and the Lutheran Church closed in 2025 and 2022.

“We just don’t have many options. Especially the ages from three to five, it’s such a hard age to find childcare for. Yeah, we’re really hoping to fill that need.”

The expansion to North Star brings new opportunities.

Coyle, the language teacher, says she is excited to finally have her own classroom, with the space to teach the kids Alutiiq dances.

“Dance is my passion, and I want to be able to teach some dances that I’ve learned for the last 15 years now, because they have a lot more fun singing and learning, and like adding a little bit of song and tune to the language helps a lot.”

Coyle says she has been designing the curriculum for her class from scratch, which has been a lot of work and no small amount of stress, but she says it has all been worth it.

“A couple weeks ago, one of my kiddos looked outside, and it was very sunny, and he said, ‘Oh, Ms. Taqu, it’s macanguq out.’ Just those little moments where I’m like, oh, I’m doing something right, I’m doing something for the community.”

After months of work and four weekends spent getting everything ready, the North Star wing opened for childcare on August 3.

Sanchez says kids and parents alike were excited to explore the new space.

A federal appeals court is siding with a Wisconsin tribe in its long-running fight against an oil pipeline crossing its reservation.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Enbridge has been trespassing on land belonging to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, after pipeline easements on some tribal lands expired in 2013.

The court says Enbridge must remove its Line 5 pipeline from those lands, but sent the case back to a lower court to reconsider how much time the company will have to complete a reroute.

The court will also reconsider how much Enbridge owes the tribe for profits connected to the trespass.

 

 

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