Bering Strait School District

http://www.bssd.org/

Bering Strait School District (BSSD) is a school district in northwestern Alaska, United States, serving approximately 1,700 students in grades K-12 in fifteen isolated villages. All schools in the district serve students of all ages, and most classrooms are multi-age.

The district headquarters are in Unalakleet, Alaska.[1]

Communities

The district covers a roadless area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi), roughly the size of Minnesota and North Dakota combined. The student population is roughly 98% Alaska Native, including Yup'ik, Siberian Yup'ik, and Inupiat Eskimos. Travel between villages is by air; the nearest road connection to the outside world is almost 300 miles (480 km) east to the district office in Unalakleet.

The communities in the district are traditional Eskimo villages which rely on subsistence activities such as hunting marine mammals and migratory birds, and gathering berries. Native dance and traditional crafts such as walrus ivory carving are still strong. At least four villages practice traditional whaling. There are few cash economy jobs, and the school is often the largest employer in each village.

Russia is visible from four district schools with the naked eye, most notably from Diomede School located on the island of Little Diomede, where it is only 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the International Date Line.

The route of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race runs through six district villages, where it is a major event. Many current and former Iditarod mushers live in the district, and participate in school activities focusing on the history and cultural traditions of mushing.

Mission statement

"The Bering Strait School District will educate our children to become self-sufficient and responsible citizens through quality programs that express high expectations for all in a safe, supportive and collaborative environment."

Vision statement

"The Bering Strait School District will educate our children to become self-sufficient and contributing citizens through quality programs that reflect our children's heritage."

Wiki-based curriculum system

The district’s OpenContent wiki curriculum project has over 13,815 pages of education standards, curriculum content, staff development tutorials, and various user-oriented pages. Although some pages are very well populated, and some are article stubs, the body of curriculum resources is increasing rapidly. Over 6,224 files have been uploaded, and daily use by students and staff was exponentially increasing as of October 2007.

Nearly all of the organization's teachers, students and administrators have contributed in the first two years of the project. All content is Creative Commons licensed, and editing by educators and interested parties outside the district is encouraged.

Although this is the official curriculum used by the school district's 16 K–12 facilities, outside contributors are welcome. The content changes and talk pages are used by the BSSD Curriculum Advisory Standing Committees to revise and edit the official, standards-based curriculum.

Schools

References

  1. ↑ "DISTRICT REPORT CARD for 2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR." Bering Strait School District. Retrieved on May 2nd, 2018. "from the school or district at: 225 Main Street, Unalakleet, AK 99684"
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