Listen to this story:
Two new faces in leadership are bringing some fresh ideas to the Anvil City Science Academy and Nome Elementary School.
At the science academy, this year’s theme is Alaska studies. Emily Annas is the school’s new principal.
"We're really working hard to do place-based lesson plans, and so we're doing things on local plants. We are doing local science experiments,” Annas said.
She said the school will be bringing in people from the community to teach students about skills and knowledge that matter in the region.
“We've had a lot of outreach support for our camp-out that we do every year,” Annas said. “We've had all our slots filled with local educators that are coming out to teach local knowledge, and I'm super excited about that.”
Annas joined Nome Public Schools three years ago as a middle school science teacher. She transferred over to the science academy a year ago as a social studies teacher before taking on this role.
Annas said a new hire will also be teaching a useful new elective.
“He'll be our social studies teacher. He'll be arriving about mid September. He's probably going to start to teach at the end of September, and his elective will be photography. I'm really looking forward to seeing that,” Annas said.
Like the academy, Nome Elementary School is starting the year under new leadership. Michelle Carton comes to Nome from Utqiaġvik, where she was an assistant principal at Fred Ipalook Elementary.
She said one of her first priorities was setting up “Positive Behavior Intervention Supports.”
“Which essentially is creating systems so that processes and routines can be set, so that students understand how to operate within them," Carton said. "It helps support their overall social emotional learning, as well as their academic and behavioral growth.”
Carton said she’s passionate about music and the arts because they are a pivotal part of learning. So, she teamed up with the Nome-Beltz Middle High School band director, Richard Sargent, to bring music to the elementary school.
“So now fifth graders are going to have two classes a week in music, and we're going to have a performance in December,” Carton said. “We've actually expanded it, so we're going to be putting on a Christmas performance, which we're hoping will include all K through 12 students in some capacity.”
Students get in at 7:30 in the morning. Carton said it was important to her that students started the day on a good note. So, she brought in Legos and games like Uno for students to play and socialize with, until class begins at 7:55.
“I've seen more kiddos show up at 7:30 because they want to have this before school opportunity, and one of our main goals is to try to raise the attendance as well as have kids be to school on time,” Carton said.
The latest attendance data available from the state shows Nome Elementary had an attendance rate of 86.84% for the 2023-2024 school year, which is about 3.6 points lower than the statewide average.
Both Carton and Annas said they want to create supportive, and engaging spaces where students can thrive.
