Mosquito Lake residents organize to reopen school

Mosquito Lake. (Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
Mosquito Lake. (Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

Residents in a small community north of Haines are trying to organize to convince the local government to reopen Mosquito Lake School. The school was closed after a drop in attendance. The Haines Borough, which owns the building, is considering selling it.

About 20 people attended the second “Friends of Mosquito Lake School” meeting Wednesday, where they discussed their next steps.

The school needs at least ten students to qualify for $300,000 in state funding. Borough Manager Dave Sosa said finding that many students would “most readily solve the issue.”

If the residents aren’t able to find enough students to reopen the school, they would need a very strong proposal to open the building as a community center. That proposal would be up against the option to sell the building.

Selling the building and property it sits on could bring in some serious revenue for the borough. The borough assessor says it’s worth $810,000.

Residents in the area think there are enough students to reopen the school. Last year, there were nine children enrolled. Three left the school partway through the year.

Some expressed frustration with the borough during the meeting. Jim Stanford and Dana Hallett urged the group to stay positive.

“It’s not about us versus anybody, we’re all in this together,” Hallett said.

The school district and borough will start planning their budgets for the next fiscal year soon. Friends of Mosquito Lake will need to find a way to get onto one of those budgets.

 

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