Attendance boundary changes approved by Mat-Su school board

HOUSTON — With nary a whimper or word of protest this time, the Mat-Su Borough Board of Education approved attendance boundary changes that shift most Meadow Lakes secondary students from Wasilla to Houston schools next year.

Board members also approved minor boundary changes in north Palmer and in the Willow/Talkeetna area.

The only exception in Meadow Lakes would be for 18 students who live south of the Parks Highway off Museum Drive, Vine Road and Sylvan Road because of the danger of buses turning left onto the highway to get to Houston.

Current Wasilla High students from Meadow Lakes would be allowed to graduate from that school and those at Wasilla Middle and Teeland Middle would be able to complete their schooling at those sites before beginning high school in Houston.

The changes would boost Houston High’s enrollment by 95 students and Houston Middle’s enrollment by 90 students, which the district hopes will help bolster HHS’s academic program to include Advanced Placement courses.

Some Meadow Lakes parents had told the Frontiersman previously they chose to send their children to Wasilla High instead of Houston simply so that they could take AP classes and earn college credits.

Every boundary change was approved unanimously by the board except one dubbed “Meadow Lakes North.” Board members Sarah Welton and Neal Lacy voted against busing 30 students from Teeland Middle School and Wasilla High who live northwest of Church and Schrock roads to Houston.

Parents from that area were the most vocal about the change at previous board meetings because of the additional 25 minutes students would be on a bus and concerns about the safety of the Parks Highway.

Lacy had asked MSBSD Planning Consultant Shannon Bingham to find out from Alaska State Troopers the traffic impact and safety implications of school buses and other vehicles traveling from Meadow Lakes to Houston on the Parks Highway.

Bingham reported during Wednesday’s board meeting that he spoke to Capt. Hans Brinke at AST and also drove the questioned routes himself to study their turning patterns.

“Capt. Brinke told me that the Parks Highway corridor between Church Road and Big Lake is the busiest two-lane stretch of highway in the state,” Bingham said, adding that because it’s a designated safety corridor, it is heavily patrolled by troopers and speed violators receive double fines and points.

Bingham reported, however, that since the buses would be traveling in the opposite direction of most vehicles during morning and evening rush hours, they’d actually be in less danger of colliding with other vehicles during the busiest times of day.

The main determinant of safety risk was whether buses would be turning left or right onto the Parks and whether there was a traffic signal to assist with those turns.

Since a Houston-bound bus coming from West Museum Drive at about Mile 47.5 of the Parks would have to negotiate a left-hand turn onto the highway on the edge of a bridge without the assistance of a traffic signal, Brinke and Bingham determined the scenario was too dangerous to warrant the boundary change for those students.

And although there is a signal at Vine and at Pittman/Sylvan, Bingham went ahead and included in the exemption all those who live south of the Parks Highway.

Since the bus coming off of Church Road would be turning right on its way to Houston, those who live on the west side of Church will be attending Houston schools, despite the increased ride time for those on the most northern subdivisions.

None of the parents who had previously voiced concerns about the boundary changes spoke to the board Wednesday.

Bert Cottle, new deputy city administrator for the city of Wasilla, spoke on behalf of Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright, telling the board the mayor does not support forcing Wasilla students to Houston if they do not wish to switch schools.

Welton responded by reminding the board and those in the audience that overcrowding in Wasilla schools has made it necessary to shift attendance boundaries toward less populated areas of the Valley.

“The idea for why we have to do this is we want a better education for our students and we don’t want over-crowded classrooms and portables to affect that education,” Welton said, adding she was grateful to Bingham for researching the safety issue so thoroughly.

School officials reminded everyone that parents can still ask their school principals for boundary exemptions and principals are still able to grant exemptions if they feel the student and/or family would be unduly over-burdened by the boundary change.

The issue of schools overcrowding lead to a presentation by Bingham on the district’s dire need for a new combined secondary school on Knik-Goose Bay Road and upgrades/repairs to existing schools as the district grows by about 4,000 students every decade since 1980.

Deferred maintenance and overcrowding in the schools have lead to the need for about $232 million over the next five years, Bingham said. This means Valley voters could be hit with another bond issue on the Mat-Su Borough ballot in October that could cost homeowners either $80 or $107 per year on every $100,000 of assessed value, depending on whether the state would cover 70 percent or 60 percent of the cost.

The issue was discussed as a non-action item Wednesday, but will be presented for a first reading as an action item at the board’s May 11 meeting, beginning at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Palmer High School Library.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontierman.com or 352-2252.