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Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School will have a new principal in the fall.

The Juneau School District announced Thursday that Sarah Marino, a fourth-year science teacher at the school, will take over for interim Principal John Norman.

Marino will lead a 10-person staff at Yaakoos, a district-funded alternative high school. Yaakoos educates older students aged 16 to 21 who are credit-deficient.

Marino has established culturally relevant lessons that engage students with a variety of learning needs. She worked with the school's site council in a movement to accredit Yaakoos and establish it as its own school, rather than a program attached to Juneau-Douglas High School. Yaakoos' class of 2009 will be its first graduates since accreditation.

Marino also directed the Apple's 1 to 1 Learning program at the school, which makes laptop computers available for every student. The company has recognized Yaakoos with a Distinguished School Award.

Marino has a bachelor's degree in aquatic resources from Sheldon Jackson College, a master's in teaching from the University of Alaska Southeast and a master's in educational leadership principal certification from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

"Next year will be an exciting year as we move to our new home in Marie Drake and finalize our accreditation. I love working with the staff, students, and families here and look forward to creating a vision for our school that will guide us into the future," Marino said in the district's press release.

Yaakoosge Daakahidi, Tlingit for "house of knowledge" or "place where learning happens," was formed in 1995 as a joint effort between the Juneau School District and Southeast Regional Resource Center to serve about 25 students who had dropped out of school for at least one year. Today, the staff serves up to 180 students annually.

About half of the students are of Alaska Native heritage, more than twice the ratio of Native students at Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain high schools. Yaakoos graduates between 55 to 65 students each year.