Alaska Gateway School District and Upper Tanana slated to sign agreement Nov. 13

Alaska Gateway School District and the Upper Tanana are scheduled to sign a memorandum of agreement Nov. 13 in Fairbanks, according to a tentative agenda the Tanana Chiefs Conference posted Tuesday for its Fall Summit. The signing is set for 4:30 pm, the last item before closing remarks.

The agenda does not say what the agreement covers or who will sign it. TCC labels the agenda tentative, current as of Oct. 21.

TCC lists Eagle, Dot Lake, Healy Lake, Northway, Tanacross, Tetlin and Tok in its Upper Tanana subregion. TCC is a consortium of 42 members, including 39 villages and 37 federally recognized tribes, across 235,000 square miles of Interior Alaska.

The district reported 377 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade in state enrollment data for 2025-26. It had 369 in 2023-24 and 381 in 2024-25.

The summit runs Nov. 12 and 13 at the 8 Star Events Center, from 8:30 am to 5 pm each day. TCC Chief/Chairman Sharon Hildebrand called it the organization's first-ever fall summit in her October letter to tribal members. Each day pairs larger panel discussions with smaller breakout sessions. One Friday morning breakout is titled "Education Today, Workforce Tomorrow: A Tribal Dialogue." Participants may be able to earn one university credit through UAF, which requires advance registration and an added one-hour Zoom session later.

"This is being done in response to our Tribal needs. The Tribes are guiding the discussions and topics," Hildebrand wrote in her November letter, posted Tuesday.

The signing follows final-day afternoon sessions on heating assistance, infrastructure, and tribal stewardship and land use plans, and an hour billed as "Tea Time with Federal Partnerships."