Teachers set up makeshift classrooms inside the school gym after the fire a brand new generator came online in March, but a mechanical failure shut down use of the building entirely in the middle of April.
In January, a catastrophic fire destroyed the generator and a backup source of power for Newtok’s school. The charred remains are housed inside a metal container behind the main school building. A brand new generator was installed in March. Plumbing repairs got underway and teachers held classes in makeshift classrooms in the gym. But that only lasted for three weeks. A malfunction with the fuel control valve took the new generator offline in the middle of April.
Parents like Carolyn George are worried. “They’re missing out on so much learning,” she said. She said two years of on-and-off remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic had already taken its toll. Three of George’s five daughters are enrolled in school in Newtok, and like nearly 50 other families, George is on the waiting list for a new house nine miles southeast at a new village site called Mertarvik.