A Future for Pearl Creek
​Facing declining enrollment and a budget deficit, the FNSB school district released a plan late last month to close five elementary schools in our community, including Pearl Creek. These closures have serious implications for all Fairbanks families and risk driving enrollment in public schools even lower. In an effort to provide another option for local families, the Pearl Creek community is formulating a plan to transition to a science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) magnet school. This proposed magnet model would build on Pearl Creek's decades of experience delivering successful STEAM programming and academic excellence, while formalizing partnerships with premier Arctic researchers living right here in Fairbanks. Magnet schools are the largest form of school choice in our country. This approach could offer a new school option for existing Fairbanks families, attract talent to Fairbanks' labor market and reverse declining student enrollment in the FNSBSD. To make this a reality, we need to hear from you.
Pearl Creek Elementary is nestled in a beautiful birch and spruce forest in the hills north of Fairbanks. For 40 years Pearl Creek has been one of the most beloved schools in the Fairbanks community. Decades of academic excellence, a unique outdoor environment, supportive and hardworking parents and staff, and many partnerships in our community have earned Pearl Creek a great reputation and made Pearl Creek a wonderful place to learn.
Pearl Creek Elementary
PEARL CREEK as a
STEAM Magnet School
The Pearl Creek community is currently proposing becoming a magnet school with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) focus. We believe that by fostering a STEAM culture of creativity and innovation helping to solve real community concerns and priorities, our students will become the citizens and leaders Fairbanks and the world needs. Becoming a magnet school would allow students who are outside of our school boundaries to join this unique and thriving school community! We are currently gathering data to present to the school board to get approval to move forward. Having a list of interested families will help us tremendously with our proposal. If you have children K-5th grade and would be interested in having them attend a Pearl Creek STEAM magnet school in 2025-26 please take a moment to fill out this survey!
Who We Are:
At Pearl Creek our motto is
Inspired, Compassionate, Involved.
Our goal is to provide an excellent education while fostering an environment where students become more inspired, more compassionate, and more involved,
Pearl Creek is known for:
• Academic Success
For the last 40 years Pearl Creek has consistently produced some of the highest academic outcomes in our school district.
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• Unique Outdoor Setting
Pearl Creek is located in the hills of Fairbanks and its unique outdoor setting offers an abundance of recreation as well as educational opportunities.
- Full size hockey rink
- Groomed nordic skiing trails
- Community garden
- Local farm in walking distance
- Hiking trails
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All of these are incorporated into our teachers’ lesson plans. Students harvest vegetables from our garden, pick berries at the local farm, hike in the woods, and gather inspiration for art projects from the forest. Our PE classes enjoy the school’s ice skates, snowshoes, and cross country ski gear for outdoor gym activities.
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• Community
Parental involvement and support!
As a parent there are many opportunities to get involved and be a part of your child's education at Pearl Creek. Parent volunteers and our PTO contribute:
- Parent-led After School Enrichment Clubs
6-8 week clubs meeting once a week after school run by a parent volunteer and facilitated by staff and the PTO. Recent Pearl Creek after school club offerings include:
Knitting, fiber arts, skiing, hiking, chess, volleyball, basketball, flag football, sewing, community service, art, running club, gardening club, improv club, lego club, Alaska animals, Battle of the Books.
Other events put on by our PTO:
- Beat the Principal 5km Fun Run
- Community STEAM night
- Community Halloween Carnival
- Puffins in Business Bazaar
- Read-A-Thon
Teacher involvement and community support!
At Pearl Creek our teachers go above and beyond. Many of them apply for grants, develop programs, and form relationships to facilitate these amazing learning opportunities. Some examples of these partnerships include:
- Fairbanks Native Association Community Services Saakaay (Youth Program)
- Deep Sea Pressure Experiments on Icebreakers (University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Science)
- NASA's Globe Project
- Stormwater Pollution with the City of Fairbanks
-Wilderness Survival in Gates of the Arctic National Park (Fairbanks Alaska Public Lands Information Center)
-Extreme Climate Studies with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Local artists​​​​
If Pearl Creek sounds like a good fit for your student, please fill out this interest survey:
PE classes incorporate the vast trail system on the school grounds
A Community Garden provides a place for hands on learning and also vegetables for our annual Harvest Festival!
133 students participated in the Pearl Creek Running Club this fall!
A snowy recess at Pearl Creek!
Who we would become:
MAGNET MODEL
A magnet school is a public school that offers a specialized curriculum that is attractive and available to ALL students, both in and outside of Pearl Creek's boundaries
The magnet school model embraces Pearl Creek's current thriving student body while inviting additional students to join this supportive and creative community from outside the area. Pearl Creek currently works with UAF on multiple programs and the magnet school model will strengthen these relationships and opportunities for students, as well as expand on them. For example, under the STEAM model Pearl Creek can continue to build upon strong relationships with Local Alaska Native organizations to explore STEAM through Indigenous world views. Students will enjoy academically focused activities while also having the advantage of multiple outdoor opportunities throughout the day, including the adjacent Nordic Ski Park, skating rink, and outdoor ball fields set within the boreal forest.
If Pearl Creek as a STEAM Magnet school sounds like a good fit for your student, please fill out this brief interest survey:
STEAM SCHOOL
Key features of a STEAM Magnet already in place at Pearl Creek Elementary that would continue and be expanded on:
• Strong core academic instruction
•Contribution to real science investigations year-round through partnerships with University of Alaska Fairbanks, NASA’s GLOBE program, Project OneTree, and others.
• Annual Community STEAM festival
• Annual student STEAM project fair
• After school programs operated by community artists, musicians, actors, scientists, land managers, engineers, culture bearers, tradespeople, and medical professionals
• Engineering design and art challenges
• Artist in Residence Program
• Community Garden Program
• Leveraging Fairbanks community organizations and families for learning in and out of school.
• Ecological monitoring sites dating back to the 1960s
• Active field trip schedule to community learning sites across all classrooms
We hope to expand this programming to include:
· provide elective learning opportunities through a Walk-to- STEAM program during the school day
· Options for part time enrollment for homeschool families.
· Lab school partnership with UAF to offer STEAM outreach experiences for undergraduates
Pearl Creek students doing hands on field science
How to Advocate for Pearl Creek
1. Share this website
The most important thing you can do is share this website and ask any family interested in attending Pearl Creek to fill out the survey. If we can show that keeping Pearl Creek open can help increase our districts enrollment numbers we will have a much stronger proposal. This means any out of district families that would be interested in joining the district if their child could attend Pearl Creek will hold extra weight. If you are currently homeschooling or in private school and would want your child to attend Pearl Creek as a STEAM Magnet school, please fill out the survey!
2. Provide Public Testimony
The school board is asking for community input before they cast their final votes on school closures. We need to be well represented at every testifying opportunity to keep Pearl Creek open!
Call 907-452-2000 ext. 11400
you must call by 4pm the day of the meeting to sign up
*testimony is limited to 3 min
Meeting Times
1. Tuesday, January 21 @ 6pm
2. Monday, January 27 @ 5:30pm
3. Tuesday, January 28 @ 5:30pm
4. Tuesday, February 4 @ 4pm
All meetings are in the downtown School District Building:
520 Fifth Ave. Fairbanks, Ak 99707
3. Send emails
Contact the Governor
https://gov.alaska.gov/contact/feedback/
Contact Your State Representatives
To find who represents you go to this website:
https://akleg.gov/
Type your physical address in the box located on the far right at the very bottom of the page to discover who represents you! Contact them today!
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insist our elected officials AT A MINIMUM "effectively "flat fund" education" by acknowledging very real inflation from 2017 to current (cumulative rate of 28%) and change the BSA accordingly. (Effective flat funding would be a BSA of $7589.)
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ask for realistic transportation funding
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ask for help with deferred maintenance
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insist they work together to immediately prioritize education
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tell them YOUR story...their job is to represent YOU!
Please consider emailing your support of keeping Pearl Creek open as a magnet school to:
Superintendent - Dr. Luke Meinert: superintendent@k12northstar.org
School Board Members: schoolboard@k12northstar.org
Fairbanks Borough Assembly: assembly@fnsb.gov
Talking Points:
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Any information from this website can be used to explain the importance of Pearl Creek!
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We are aware that decreased enrollments and flat state funding (effectively decreased state funding) require that some schools must be closed this year.
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We believe that closing Pearl Creek will exacerbate the problems by: additional people leaving the district/unenrolling their children, decreasing property values in the Pearl Creek area, leading to a reduction in tax revenue, leading to lower borough funding for the school district.
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We believe that by transforming Pearl Creek into a STEAM magnet school, the district will not only retain students that they would otherwise lose, but would also provide an exceptional choice for students across the borough who are not currently attending a district school.
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We believe this would effectively be the beginning of staunching the out-migration of students while also providing a model for innovative transformation that can be replicated across the district leading to better opportunities and outcomes for every student.
