Ask any student in Stebbins what they miss most about the school that burned down in 2024, and the answer is almost always the same: the gym.
It wasn’t just home court for the Tukurngailnguq School basketball teams. Some students miss rolling across the gym floor on small, multicolored plastic scooters. Others miss playing beneath a giant nylon "playground parachute". Some simply miss having a place to hang out before and after school.
That matters in a village where roughly a third of the population is enrolled in the school — nearly twice the share seen in Nome, the region’s main hub.
For now, students attend class in a patchwork of yurts and portable buildings. A makeshift gym with two basketball hoops has been set up inside a tall Quonset hut, but it also doubles as the cafeteria, with lunch tables typically taking up half the court.
In winter, paths are painstakingly plowed so students can hastily waddle from one building to another.
The students are making do.
Stebbins’ City Administrator, Daisy Katcheak, told Bering Strait School District officials at a community meeting held on the campus in late August that the lack of a permanent school is taking a toll on the youth.
“All my kids have graduated in the school that burned down two years ago, and I'm fighting for my grandkids now, Katcheak said. "Our parents should be fighting for our kids now. They're the ones hurting.”
According to the Alaska Department of Family and Community Services, the number of referrals for juvenile delinquencies in Stebbins have tripled(opens in new tab) in the two years since the school burned down, from nine in fiscal year 2024 to 27 in fiscal year 2026.
A spokesperson for the department, Kate Paskievitch, said the increase couldn't confidently be attributed to any specific event, including the school fire.
A near-final design for the new school was presented by Gavin Wells, an architect from the Anchorage-based firm Burkhart Croft, at the August meeting. He shared renderings of a large open-air common area that links the various wings of the building. There’s display cases for traditional art and room on the walls for murals.
The walls are slightly angled – which Wells says helps keep ambient noise down. There’s also plans for a 400-seat gym, along with an outdoor “play deck” that could be walled in and converted to even more classrooms.
The design is just one half of the hold-up. The old school burned down on June 26, 2024 – mere days before the end of the state’s fiscal year. The district applied for state funding just months later, but without a design in hand it was relegated to fifth place on a statewide priority list for the 2026 fiscal year. It wasn’t until this summer – two years after the school burned down – that it catapulted to the top of the list.
The district was awarded $17 million from the state this year, but it's less than a quarter of the $72.7 million it needs.
“The state is making us do it in phases,” Bering Strait School District Superintendent, Tammy Dodd, explained at the August meeting. “The state won't give us the full amount in one year. We have to apply every year for the rest of the monies that they owe us.”
The district also got $54 million from insurance, although Dodd told the group it's already spent a chunk of it on the temporary campus.
In response to criticism about the project’s timeline, Dodd said a lot of “behind the scenes” work was needed before construction could begin.
“We have to get the surveyors out to do the land. We have to get the lease. We have to get wetland permits and all of those type of things,” she said. “So that's what we did this past year.”
While the district office oversees the construction project, the school’s Principal Robert Cooper is overseeing the day to day. Cooper started working at the Stebbins School in 2019. He shepherded the campus through the pandemic, 2022’s ex-typhoon Merbok and the school fire in 2024.
“It's not easy, never has been easy for anyone, but if you like dealing with kids, and trying to see things through, have a long view of things, ultimately I'd like for every one of the kids to be successful," Cooper said.
Cooper said he’s concerned about Stebbins’ juvenile delinquency rates too, but that the lack of a permanent campus isn’t solely to blame.
“I think that there has to be a commitment from the people in the village to have like big brother mentors for the kids,” Cooper said. “I think that there is a perception that as kids get older, that they know right from wrong, or they can handle themselves. I think kids need direction.”
Cooper said he hopes one of his final acts before retirement is welcoming students into the new school.
It’s going to be another couple years, though. Long metal piles were shipped up on a barge this summer. Next spring, they’ll be pounded up to 50 feet into the permafrost to build a solid foundation for the school. Bidding for the first phase of the project is slated to open this fall, and construction is expected to run through 2029.
