PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough School District will ask voters for a raft of bonds to pay for major school maintenance on the October ballot.

“These are our buildings, folks. This is major maintenance,” Assemblyman Rob Wells said in supporting the measure.

The proposition asks voters to approve $31,725,000 in bonds. The state has already agreed to make 70 percent of the borough’s payments.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Wasilla Middle School is one of eight schools in the Valley that needs roof repair. The district also wants $1.2 million to replace the roof at the administration building.

The bond packages will add an additional .109 mills to the borough property tax rate of 9.98. In dollars and cents, that means an extra $10.90 per $100,000 of a home’s assessed value.

The list of projects is extensive:

• $3.4 million to update fire alarm systems for 10 schools.

• $9.9 million for new or repaired roofs for Houston Middle School and Finger Lake, Snowshoe, Butte and Trapper Creek elementary schools.

• $15.1 million to re-roof Wasilla Middle School, Wasilla High School and Palmer Middle School.

• $1.2 million to re-roof the school district’s administration building.

• $300,000 to improve handicapped access to Snowshoe, Pioneer Peak, and Big Lake elementary schools.

• $1.5 million to replace the flooring at Finger Lake and Cottonwood elementary schools and at Colony Middle School.

• $385,000 to replace the floor at Palmer High School.

Initially the package contained $1 million to upgrade the running tracks at Colony, Palmer and Wasilla high schools and another $1 million to put in a turf field at Palmer.

“I don’t approve of the bonding for the running track and so forth,” Assemblywoman Lynne Woods said in moving successfully to strike the sports facilities.

Asked about the facilities, the school’s maintenance director Henry Cottle said the district has $500,000 for the turf field in hand that state Rep. Carl Gatto managed to secure from last year’s state budget. Gatto had initially asked for the full $1.5 million but $1 million got cut. When the district last talked to Gatto on the matter, Cottle said, the representative suggested a bond proposition to make up the difference.

Tom Kluberton asked Cottle and the district’s facilities coordinator Don Carney about the timing of the bonds. Last year, Kluberton pointed out, the voters approved a number of bonds for school security projects including electronic door locks and fencing.

“If these things are so old and we knew it was going to be such a problem, why did we go out and buy chain-link fence last year?” Kluberton asked.

Carney answered that school districts in general tend to focus on the immediate safety of the students and building maintenance generally takes a back seat.

But that’s not to say these projects aren’t necessary, Carney and Cottle told the assembly. Most of them were at the top of the most recent list of capital improvement projects the district submits each year to the state’s Department of Education and Early Development.

Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine said she didn’t think the measure had been given enough scrutiny. She said she believed the borough’s public works department should have a chance to weigh in.

“It just seems like we’re going about this backward,” she said.

Michelle Church said she also would like more of an opportunity to discuss the bond issue with the school district and there is enough time to do that.

“We’re not at the point where the roofs are caving in,” she said.

The measure failed briefly before Assemblyman Mark Ewing, who had voted to kill the measure, moved to reconsider. He said he changed his mind and decided that the voters should be given a chance to have a say. On a re-vote the measure passed 4-3.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

HOW THEY VOTED

Should the school district ask for $31.7 million in bonds in the October election?

• Cindy Bettine    No

• Michelle Church    No

• Mark Ewing    Yes

• Pete Houston    Yes

• Tom Kluberton    No

• Rob Wells    Yes

• Lynne Woods    Yes