An Alaskan city that could potentially lose education funding is receiving thousands of petitions from families willing to relocate

Two brothers aged 10 and 11 are the only pupils in the primary school Karlukinto a city Alaska in which only 37 people live. But to keep the school running with state money, a minimum of 10 students is needed.

For this reason, the village leaders issued an appeal on social networks: two families with three or four children are welcome to move to Karluk with payment of housing and expenses for a year. They expected to be contacted by a few families, but they have received thousands of inquiries from interested parties.

Alice Andrewsthe chairman of the Karluk Tribal Council, told the Washington Post that they are “bombarded” with applications.

“We have been trying to save our school and our community for years, and now it seems we have a solution”Andrews said.

By increasing the number of pupils, not only education money could be received, but also the school building could be saved. This place is important to the community, as meetings and parties are organized here, the available computers are used and it acts as a shelter for very cold nights.

Since they also lost the means to maintain the building and its maintenance was left in the hands of the people, they realized that it is economically more beneficial to support two families for a year than to leave the light in the school building on indefinitely.

“Once the school closes, it looks like the city is on the verge of collapse,” said Dave Johnson, president of the Kodiak Island Township School District Board of Education.

But could be a problem find qualified teachers interested in teaching in Karluk“That’s what keeps me up at night, finding the teacher,” he said. “Teachers agree to come, but many don’t even make it through the school year in a remote rural area,” he added.

Ideally, the teachers would come with their children who would also study at the local school.

In the meantime, the municipality will continue to filter applications from interested parties. They received nearly 5,000 responses from families across the country and some from other countries.. Families are now receiving official application forms which the council will try to process in the coming months.

The process is expected to be completed so that the families can be installed in Karluk before the start of the next school year in August. What the municipality wants is that the new residents of the city are not impressed by the cultural change.

Karluk is located on the west coast of Kodiak Island, which can be reached by a nearly 10-hour ferry ride from mainland Alaska, or two plane trips from Anchorage.