For Lake Hood Elementary, the last day of school is really the last day
School is one of two closing in Anchorage District
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Wednesday was the last day of school for thousands of students in the Anchorage School District, but at Lake Hood Elementary, the celebration is bittersweet.
Students and staff are getting out for summer vacation, but they won’t be returning to the building in the fall.
Lake Hood is one of two elementary schools — the other being Nunaka Valley — that is closing at the end of the school year. It’s part of ASD’s “rightsizing” plan to deal with declining student enrollment and budget issues.
Principal Maria Humecky said they got the news in December and it’s been slowly sinking in. She watched in the hallway as students returned from their last recess.
“You know it’s an emotional day, but also a day of new beginnings,” she said.
The school, which opened in 1996, has at least one teacher who was a student there, according to Humecky. Many students have parents or other family members who graduated from the school.
Lake Hood Secretary Kassidy Ellingworth said her mother worked at Lake Hood for two decades, and her brother worked there as well. She said the school community has always felt like family and it’s hard to see it breaking up.
“I see it in the children, I see it in the adults,” she said. “Our families all went here so it definitely touches home.”
Most students at Lake Hood will be attending nearby Turnagain Elementary with a smaller number going to Northwood Elementary.
The school won’t be sitting empty; next year it will become the new home for the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School.
On the last day of school Wednesday, Principal Humecky said she wanted the students to leave with fond memories and fun activities. Students gathered outside to see fourth and fifth-graders culminate a science unit on volcanoes by launching soda sprays that erupted high into the air.
Humecky said she understood the sadness some felt at the end of the school day, but stressed it was mixed with excitement for some of the new things to come.
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