‘Right back into the swing’

Only minutes before the start of the first day of the school year on Wednesday, Kenai Alternative High School Principal John Galahan said that even now — in his 33rd year teaching — the excitement of the first day “never really gets old.”

Until students arrive in the building, he said, it’s not yet a school. In the last couple of weeks, as he and other staff have been preparing classrooms and readying for the unique storm that is dozens of teenagers, something “feels flat.” As students began to occupy the school’s hallways that morning, he said that a special excitement was setting in.

“It’s just fun.”

Galahan and Kenai Alternative weren’t alone. Wednesday marked the start of a new school year for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, returning students to waiting classrooms and teachers at most of the district’s 42 diverse schools.

At Skyview Middle School near Soldotna, new seventh graders can have a steep transition on their first day, Principal Shonia Werner said. They’re coming from schools where they likely spent their time in a single classroom, now navigating class schedules and learning to use their lockers.

On Wednesday morning, Werner could be seen in a densely packed hallway between class periods directing students to the right rooms — recognizing one student still carrying her backpack as needing extra help with accessing her locker.

Some minor growing pains aside, those young students will quickly rise to the occasion, Werner said.

“It’s really fun to see that growth that they make from the first day even to the third day,” she said.

The first day of the school year is exciting, Werner said, as students reunite with their friends, meet teachers, and get a taste of what awaits in the coming months. At Skyview, she said a major focus this year is on reading — across many classes. Students will also be encouraged to set goals and start advocating for their own pathways.

“They will understand where their growth is happening,” she said. “Where they need to go.”

At Tustumena Elementary School in Kasilof, Principal Devin Way said the start of the year brought lots of new faces — to the school and to the district. Dozens had enrolled in just the last couple of weeks.

Only a few hours into the first day, though, she said the school felt like it was “right back into the swing.”

Across many classrooms at Tustumena, some students could be seen on Wednesday already digging into books or math worksheets. Others were busy getting to know their teachers.

“It feels like my kids are back,” Way said.

In the lead-up to returning kids to classrooms, Way said she and other staff spend a lot of time thinking about how they can improve — “things were good, but how can they be great?” The school is short a teacher and has some multi-age classes, so Way said they spend a lot of time talking about how best to serve each student by putting them into the best situation.

“We try to make the class the little community that it needs to be — the right personalities in the right places,” she said.

This year, Way said, she wants to hear and share more of the great things that are happening with students in the school. The school has a system where students can be recognized for being kind, helpful or otherwise noteworthy that she wants to see busier.

“I want everybody to be getting these,” she said. “I want them, daily, to be coming to my inbox so that I am constantly calling parents and telling them how amazing their kids are. We have very sweet and kind kids.”

Back in Kenai, at Aurora Borealis Charter School, which inhabits the opposite side of the same building as Kenai Alternative, Principal Cody McCanna on Wednesday eagerly oversaw the first day of school for students from kindergarten to eighth grade.

Like Galahan, McCanna said that the start of the school year means watching his school again fill with life.

“The first day, it always reminds me why I got into education,” he said. “Seeing how excited kids are to come to a place where they know that they’re going to learn and have fun.”

Over the coming school year, McCanna said he’s looking forward to watching each student grow as they build confidence, expand their knowledge and develop relationships with their peers.

River City Academy, which is temporarily located inside Skyview Middle School while they wait for a new facility set to be constructed as part of a bond package passed in 2022, centers personalized pathways for students. Principal Shea Nash said Wednesday that RCA is an option for students who want to attend a small school — a small school choice. That means they’re still a relatively traditional setting unlike an alternative or charter school.

What RCA offers is more direct teacher mentoring and an opportunity to “work at your own pace.”

“We get kids who accelerate really fast through things, and then we get kids who have been kind of left behind in classes at traditional schools,” Nash said. “The system’s not set up well to go back and meet them where they’re at.”

On the first day of school, Nash was meeting with students and helping them develop their “individualized learning path.” That can include classes taught at RCA, classes at Soldotna High School and classes taken at Kenai Peninsula College through programs like the Kenai Peninsula Middle College.

At RCA this year, Nash said, they’ll work to instill “a culture of respect” in the students, while also preparing them to set goals and recognize their intrinsic motivations that drive them forward.

Learning can become, he said, more than chasing grades and trying to impress others. Instead, students can seek out ways to prepare for the future and pursue learning that interests them.

Kenai Alternative also provides individual pathways through education for students who sometimes don’t gel with traditional public schooling.

Galahan said that the school is about breaking down barriers. Students at the school have faced challenges — “regular school just didn’t work for them.” Each student at his school receives support to develop the skills they need while taking on their own unique pathway to a diploma.

On Galahan’s desk on Wednesday were a stack of files — each described the specific needs of each student to complete their high school careers. A sophomore might be a “clean slate,” while some of the seniors only need to pick up a couple of classes on their way to the finish line.

“That’s our goal: get them the credits that they need so that they can be successful,” Galahan said. “We’re getting them ready for the real world — the rest of their life.”

That goal doesn’t sound very different from the KPBSD’s stated mission: “supporting students in life success.”

More information about the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, its schools and calendars can be found at kpbsd.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.