My first period class should have 20 students. Today, I have three. I teach at a school that is a combination of the city school (Sidney Huntington School) and a boarding school (Galena Interior Learning Academy, or GILA). SHS is a k-12 school serving the students of Galena (a town of less than 500 people). GILA is a 9-12 boarding school for student from all over the state of Alaska. We hold classes on two campuses: the SHS campus (where the k-8 classes are also held) and the GILA campus which is a former Air Force Base. The two campuses are about 3 miles apart with SHS often being called the city school because, among other things, it is located inside the town of Galena while the Air Force Base is (sort of) outside the town (officially it's in, but it definitely feels out).
In the evenings and on the weekends the dorm staff takes care of the GILA students, but during the school day they are in classes that are mixed together with the SHS students. This means that we can't cancel school because during the scheduled school day the dorm staff are sleeping. However, sometimes situations arise that require flexibility. For example last fall we had no water at the SHS building. The elementary classes were canceled, but the high school still had classes. All of the SHS teachers had to travel to the GILA campus and find locations to work. I and two other teachers were working in the dining hall. Obviously, it's not the best situation, but we make it work. It has happened this year, but sometimes the roads are too icy to transport the students. In these cases the teachers travel to GILA (if they can't make it the school provides transportation) and classes are held wherever we can find space like the day we were out of water.
Most of the time, weather that would cause other places to cancel we consider normal. We don't blink at -20 and -30 degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures. When it starts getting to -45 or so transportation is provided for teachers whose vehicles won't start. At -50 the local kids aren't required to go to school, but most do.
Today, however falls into the category of unusual. I woke up this morning to the sound of snow hitting the windows and the wind howling. I could feel the house shaking (granted our buildings shake a lot more because everything except the Air Force base, which is protected by dikes, is on stilts because of flooding). I wondered if this would affect school. It did. Shortly after arriving at school I heard the rumor that one of the buses had gotten caught in a snow drift. Meanwhile stories start coming in on cars being blown across the road. Most of the trouble was between the former air force base nd town because this is a wide open area (and also the location of the airport). The first bus that should have dropped off local kids ay 7:45 am arrived about 8:10 which was the same time the first bus of GILA kids arrived. The drivers said it wasn't safe to drive the route with kids, especially for the new bus (we have two buses one is new this year) and that driver was hanging around school. Meanwhile, we have an issue. It's not safe to run the buses, but we have kids on both sides who should be on the other (city kids who need to go to GILA, GILA kids who came over for swimming or other things and then GILA kids who need to go to SHS). It was announced that students would go to classes if they were on the correct side and that students on the wrong campus would find a teacher's room to go work in. Seeing as we have about 30 city kids and 230 boarding students, I know the other campus must be pretty crazy today. Life on this side is pretty easy. Most classes are averaging 3-4 students. One of the lunch ladies came into my first period class for lunch count. She told me, "It's pizza day and we have enough pizza for the whole high school and most of them aren't here." They make the pizza from scratch and its pretty good. I'm guessing there will be a lot of leftovers.
We're waiting to see if/when the weather improves and just playing the day by ear.
