Anchorage Daily News

Mt. Edgecumbe, a state-run boarding school with a long Alaska history, is getting high marks from recent graduates, re-affirming a reputation as a premier education option for kids who live in the Bush, a new study found.

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But the high school has also become a rare safety valve for motivated teenagers who want to escape alcohol, drug and abuse problems in the villages, according to the study.

The study's authors wanted to examine the one-of-a-kind boarding school, which in its 60-year history has had a controversial past, like many Native boarding schools across the country. Specifically, the researchers wanted to look at the role the boarding school plays in rural Alaska education and in Native people's lives.

Since the state took over operation from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1985, the Sitka school has focused on college prep classes, a change from the voc-tech emphasis of its past. It's become a boarding school with strict rules where ambitious students are challenged, and its students go on to college and graduate school at much higher rates than those who stay in the villages, according to a study released Thursday by University of Alaska Anchorage researchers.

"Mt. Edgecumbe offered a lot more opportunities and opened more doors," said 1994 graduate Andrea Montag, now a second-year law student in Oregon. Montag participated in the study.

She said she grew up in Kotzebue listening to her father, Frank Greene, class of 1964, tell stories of the school.

While she said she went to get a better education than what was offered in Kotzebue's high school, other respondents said the school gave them a way out of trouble.

One respondent, according to the study, said: "(I) wonder what might have happened had I not gone -- considering what life was like during that time in the village. Don't feel like there was much for teens to turn to other than alcohol/drugs."

About 10 percent of respondents said they chose the school because of alcohol or drug problems in their communities.

James Agloinga, 35, and originally from White Mountain, graduated in 1991.

"I would have thought the vast majority of students that went to Edgecumbe are going to Edgecumbe to get away from the lack of schooling and lack of discipline and just were more concerned about their education than teen life in the rural villages," he said from his home in Nome.

"It would be a damn shame if the State of Alaska ever cut funding for that school."

Although the school is open to any high-school aged Alaskan, nearly all the students are Native and from the Bush. And while only 6 percent of Alaska Natives over the age of 25 have bachelor's degrees, 37 percent of Mt. Edgecumbe graduates have one.

The study asked 130 graduates from 1986 to 2006 to rate the school in a variety of categories. Most gave the academics and residency life high marks.

The study was preliminary and more work is necessary, said one of its authors, Diane Hirshberg, assistant professor of education policy at UAA's Institute of Social and Economic Research.

The study involved an extensive survey of graduates. Because people participated voluntarily, the results could be skewed in omitting the views of dropouts and those who had something negative to say, she said.

The school is at its maximum capacity of 400 students, said September Horton, the school's director of admissions and enrollment. Not everyone who applies gets in. Last year, 375 kids applied for 220 openings, most of them freshmen slots, she said. Preference is given to students who do not have high schools in their villages.

Academic principal Bernie Gurule says it's a misconception that the school takes only the best and brightest students. It's looking for motivated students, not necessarily the smartest, he said.

The school loses about 50 kids a year because of homesickness, he said.

"It's a very structured environment. Kids are told when to eat. When not to eat. When to sleep. When not to sleep. It's a huge lifestyle change for a lot of them," Gurule said.

Jared Raymond, 16, of Stebbins, is one of those kids. He dropped out at the end of last year after only four months.

"The school was good," he said. "But I didn't like the after-school activities. I didn't like being inside."

He missed hunting, being on his four-wheeler and his friends in his village, he said.

The school does not cost students any money to attend, and operates on roughly $6 million in mostly state funds.

The school has a long history. It opened in the late 1940s. And while the school over the next few decades turned out some of Alaska's most prominent Native leaders, graduates also told stories of forced assimilation into white culture and extremely strict living conditions.

The school is not a "Native school" and therefore does not offer any Native language classes or classes specific to Alaska Natives, Gurule said.

"Mt. Edgecumbe now is really an entirely different institution. It's a school of choice," Hirshberg said.

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