By Marcia Kuszmaul
Homer Independent Press

Families and community members celebrate the new Nikolaevsk Charter School at an open house, Jan. 9, 2026, Nikolaesk, Alaska.  (Photo by Marcia Kuszmaul/Homer Independent Press)

The community of Nikolaesk aced its final exam when on Jan. 22 the state unanimously approved its 180-page application to open a new charter school in a building the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) had closed. 

The K-12 Nikolaevsk Charter School is now accepting pre-enrollment forms through February 28 for the 2026-2027 school year.

Last month on Jan. 9, more than 80 community members streamed into the old Nikolaevsk School to celebrate its rebirth. 

“Building the charter, we were thinking who is in our community, what’s the kind of school these families desire,” said Blake Sawyer, president of the NCS Academic Policy Committee (APC) and a graduate of the original Nikolaevsk School.

Blake Sawyer, president of the Nikolaevsk Charter School Academic Policy Committee, takes questions from community members attending the school’s open house, Jan. 9, 2026, Nikolaevsk, Alaska. (Photo by Marcia Kuszmaul/Homer Independent Press)

It really does take a village

The new school’s motto, “It takes a village,” testifies to the community’s four-year effort to get the school of its dreams and its belief, expressed in its application, that “learning is a shared effort — uniting home, school, and community to nurture character, skill and purpose.”

Families began organizing and applying for charter school status in 2021. Over multiple applications, they missed deadlines or were voted down by the KPBSD board.

“We were parents, not familiar with the daunting application and process,” Natalie Thomas, vice president of the APC, said. “But we learned and became more experienced.”

Then, in May 2025, the KPBSD Board of Education voted to close the Nikolaevsk School due to low enrollment. 

“That really hurt,” Thomas said. “The school is the heart of our community.”

The closure was the opportunity to go back to the board for another vote. This time, in November 2025, the KPBSD approved the charter school.

Natalie Thomas, left, vice president of the APC and a board member of Alaskan Homestead Education (AHE), and Mariah Kerrone, curriculum coordinator of the APC and president of AHE, welcome community members to the open house, Jan. 9, in Nikolaevsk, Alaska. (Photo by Marcia Kuszmaul/Homer Independent Press.)

Meanwhile, in 2023, community members established Alaskan Homestead Education (AHE), a nonprofit providing educational experiences in Alaskan homesteading traditions. AHE leases the school building for NCS from the district.

“Education is lifelong, from birth to death,” Mariah Kerrone, AHE president and curriculum coordinator for NCS, said. “During school, in off hours and the summer, this building serves the entire community.”

Kerrone said opening the school has been “consuming.”

The APC meets 6 p.m. every Monday at the Nikolaevsk Fire Station to keep preparations moving forward for opening day, Aug. 19.

“Anyone is welcome to come.” Thomas said. “Now we can post jobs, add the school to the district web site and enroll students.”

The community’s dream school

At the open house, APC president Sawyer shared the school’s principles, including respect for the community’s cultural foundation of freedom and autonomy instilled by the Russian Old Believers, support for its rural, agricultural and subsistence traditions, and strong family and community partnerships.

The result – a hybrid model with three enrollment options: 

• Full-time on-campus classes in a Montessori-based curriculum for grades K-8 and a high school curriculum built around Career Technical Education (CTE),
  
• An independent homeschool option supported by a certified homeschool advisor or,
  
• For high school students, a combination of homeschooling with the option to enroll in up to two on-campus classes.
  
  

A chair made for the school embodies the pride the community feels in having its own school. Alaskan Homestead Education is hosting a furniture-building class, February to April 2026, in Nikolaevsk to help furnish the school and is seeking donations of cash and materials. (Photo provided by Nikolavesk Charter School)

Elias Kerrone, who will be a high school junior when the school opens, is now schooled at home on North Fork Road and takes classes at Kenai Peninsula College in Soldotna. He’s excited about the CTE curriculum and in-person classes.

“I get more from it,” he said. “There are less distractions, and it’s more comprehensive.”  

Tisa Nelson of Anchor Point is homeschooling four children, two younger and two high schoolers. She expects to continue to homeschool the younger ones but take advantage of NCS for the teenagers.

“High schoolers need their own peers,” she said. “The CTE classes are fantastic. You can’t get that anywhere.”

The CTE classes are three-hour blocks two afternoons a week of hands-on, cross-curricular learning that can lead to professional certifications. In addition, NCS high school students get 18 hours of core academics and 4.5 hours of electives each week.

At the open house, community members also voted for the school’s mascot. Their choice – the  firebird, a magical creature in Slavic mythology that embodies hope and transformation. How appropriate.