Assembly approves Fronteras loan

PALMER — Fronteras Spanish Immersion Charter School is on track to become the second Mat-Su Borough charter school to get its own permanent building.

All but one of the Mat-Su Borough School District’s six charter schools — Academy Charter School in Palmer — is in leased buildings. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously voted Feb. 3 to take on a $6.9-million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan to fund the construction of a building that would make Fronteras the second permanently housed charter in the Valley.

Fronteras has been trying for years to negotiate with the borough for a permanent, borough-owned building to house their kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in which kids learn in Spanish and English.

“A lot of these parents started their kids in kindergarten they’re like, ‘Gee it took you so long my kid is already going to high school,’” Alaska Rep. Jim Colver said by phone from Juneau Feb. 4.

Colver was the driving force behind the Fronteras, said Assemblyman Ron Arvin. He added that, as an international businessman, he was glad the borough was supporting this kind of bilingual education.

“I’m asked the same question every year... ‘What foreign language would you suggest that someone needs to be able to speak?’ Arvin said. “My first answer is Spanish and my second language is Mandarin Chinese. The world is changing and it really is language and communication is the fundamental thing that draws communities together.”

Officials admit the plan is risky. If the borough defaults on the loan the USDA will own the building. If Fronteras disbands, the borough will be saddled with an extra school building. The plan is for Fronteras to pay the bonds off using the part of its budget that currently goes to rent, but if there were additional payments to make the borough would be responsible.

However, the planned site of the new school is on borough land in between Mat-Su Day School and the Teeland Middle School/Career and Technical High School complex, Colver pointed out.

“What happens if that is no longer Fronteras Spanish immersion Charter School? It’s built to educational specifications, it’s right in the middle of the educational complex there,” he said. “There’s very little downside risk.”

Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss said that there is risk inherent in the way the borough has been building schools all along. The borough currently borrows the money and the state reimburses 70 percent of it, DeVilbiss said.

“There’s a very real possibility that we’re going to have to pay off that 70 percent the state agreed to pay,” the mayor said. “They’re not obligated to pay that.”

Numerous parents and teachers testified regarding Fronteras’ building needs. They spoke of sending water bottles to school with children because the water there was at times undrinkable. They talked about gravel playgrounds and a carpeted room used as a makeshift gym.

“There’s all of these things that I could tell you about but really, in the end, there’s one reason you should support this and it’s because this is what’s best for children,” said Ben Wargo, a Colony Middle School teacher with two children attending Fronteras.

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