Original Research by School Decision on Craig High School
Craig High School sits in the largest town on Prince of Wales Island, a remote community where the working waterfront shapes daily life. The town of Craig is built around two harbors, with a commercial fishing fleet at North Cove Harbor and smaller charter and recreational boats at the other. Commercial fishing, fish processing, and the timber industry drive the local economy, and the U.S. Forest Service is a major employer. Getting here takes effort: most passenger and light cargo transport arrives by floatplane, and the year-round ferry from Ketchikan lands at Hollis on the eastern side of the island, about an hour's drive away. The surrounding Tongass National Forest provides hiking, hunting, boating, and wildlife access. Publicly reported sources describe the population as having declined over recent census periods, with recent estimates suggesting modest growth. No major new housing developments were identified.
The school itself is small, serving grades nine through twelve with an enrollment that is modest even by rural Alaska standards. This is a setting where students likely know every classmate, and where the peer environment is intimate by necessity rather than design. The student body reflects the island's makeup. White students form the largest single group, but Alaska Native students and students identifying as two or more races together make up a substantial portion of the enrollment. A family considering this school should understand it as a place where Indigenous and multiracial identity is part of the everyday fabric, not an afterthought. A considerable share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which aligns with the economic realities of a town whose fortunes have historically risen and fallen with salmon runs and timber markets.
Academic data is largely absent from what was available. No state assessment results were reported, no graduation rate figure was provided, and no multi-year trend data surfaced. This means a parent cannot look to this profile for a proficiency picture or a track record on outcomes. The absence may reflect the nature of a small remote school where reporting can be inconsistent, but we cannot confirm a specific reason from the data. A parent would want to ask the school directly what recent testing and graduation outcomes look like and how the district tracks student progress year to year.
Information on programs was not available. Whether the school offers Advanced Placement courses, career and technical education, dual-credit options, or extracurricular activities is not reflected in the data provided. For a high school of this size, course offerings are likely limited by scale, but the specifics are unknown here. A family should inquire about what pathways exist for college preparation and for work-readiness, particularly given the fishing and timber industries that anchor the local economy. There may be opportunities tied to those sectors, but nothing in the available data confirms or describes them.
Data on special populations was also incomplete. The count of students with individualized education programs was not reported, and the English learner count was missing as well. Without these figures, a parent whose child receives special education services or English language support would need to contact the district directly to understand what is available.
The Craig City School District brief turned up little of lasting impact regarding recent changes. No strategic priorities, bond measures, facility projects, or curriculum shifts were identified. This is a quiet district in a quiet town, and the absence of reported upheaval may itself be useful information for a family seeking stability.
What a parent is left with is a portrait of a very small, remote high school in a tight-knit island community where the economy and culture are tied to the water and the forest. The school's strengths, if they exist in academic terms, are not visible in the data. What is visible is a community where students grow up surrounded by a working waterfront and a predominantly Alaska Native and white population navigating the same remote circumstances together. For a family already connected to island life, that intimacy may be the point. For a family weighing academic breadth or documented outcomes, the gaps here are large enough that direct conversation with the school is the only way to fill them.
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