Unalaska, AK – Students returned to class in the Aleutians School District yesterday, but their numbers may not be high enough to support separate schools in Adak, Atka, and Nikolski. District Superintendent Joe Beckford says it's not certain that any of the individual schools will have 10 students, the minimum number required to keep the schools open.

"In 1999, we had 48 students just in Adak and we had anticipated growth here. Instead we've had the district contract in size and the communities are less," he says. "So now we watch very carefully to make sure we can make the required 10 at our sites."

If the school has fewer than 10 students, its funding will be stepped down over 4 years and then eliminated. Beckford says that means the village school would be shut and students would probably begin correspondence programs either through the state or through universities in the lower 48. He says boarding schools are a bad option.

"To take students out of a community and to put them into a boarding situation - especially very young students it's not only a geographical displacement but it's a cultural and societal and familial displacement as well."

The district might also cut staffing at the head office.

Beckford says declining enrollment is a common problem in rural, southwest Alaska.

"Our problem, really, is that we don't have enough women of childbearing age to sustain the populations," he says. "And we see outward migration of youth so what can be done to prevent it is to come up with some kind of a plan in which young people find life economically viable in these communities."

Last year, the total district enrollment was 38 students. This year's students will be counted during an official period in October.