Unalaska, AK – The Unalaska City School District wants to launch a pilot program in Unangan education for elementary school students in the fall.

The program will encompass a broad spectrum of Unangan culture, including dance, storytelling and subsistence knowledge of local plants and animals. There is also discussion of partnering with the Museum of the Aleutians, the PCR and other local institutions on multi-day culture camps throughout the year.

The pilot program will be different from the Unangan language program that was discontinued in 2006 for lack of funding. To get around that issue, the new program won't have a full-time instructor program supporters envision a roster of elders and other local mentors teaching the kids what they know.

City Council Member Katherine McGlashan, who sits on the school board's parents committee, began the push for reinstating some kind of program six months ago.

"I was trying to push for having the class during the school hours," she said. "But right now we're excited that the children will be taught Unangan values and traditions and just to keep this culture alive. So we're really happy that they're leaning in this direction."

McGlashan says the program will run four days a week for forty five minutes after school gets out, and that kids who participate will be able to take the high school bus home at 3:15.

The program will be up for School Board approval on June 12th.