Borough assembly, school district talk numbers at joint meeting

PALMER — The Mat Su Borough Assembly met with the Mat Su Borough School District on Sept. 11 to discuss a variety of numbers and updates on the school district.

The MSBSD is projected to have 19,040 students enrolled in schools this fall. This is up less than 100 from 2018 after jumping more than 150 in 2017 and seeing a major leap in from 2016-2017 of 344. Enrollment by school varies within different areas of the district. Wasilla, Colony and Houston high schools each saw a little over a dozen less students than expected. Palmer High School expected an enrollment of 726 and currently has 765 students. Houston and Palmer middle schools were each under by two students, and Teeland was over projection by 25. The highest school over projection was at Big Lake Elementary, which went over projection by 53 students. Overall, the district projected 18,910 students and currently has 19,040 enrolled.

“Overall right now, we’re 130 students under projection, but a significant amount of those are in our homeschool program and it’s typical that that continues to enroll later,” MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette said.

The official count for the state will be during the first 20 days of October. Twindly Bridge Charter and Mat-Su Central were the farthest under projection. Twindly Bridge was 53 under and Mat-Su Central was 255 under.

Poverty rates among students in the Mat-Su Valley continues to grow in the last three years after seeing a sharp drop off from 2013-2015. The 42 percent poverty rate in 2013 dropped to 35 percent in 2015. The poverty rate jumped 6 percent in 2016 but has slowed down, rising one percent in 2017 and two percent in 2018 to 44 percent.

“For us to accomplish our goals in student learning we need to make sure that they feel safe, I’m going to be talking about school safety tonight. We need to make sure that they’re fed, and that they can move on then and focus on the things that we want them to be learning,” Goyette said.

Wasilla High School first employed a Safety Resource Officer in 2005. Palmer High School added one this fall, and the Wasilla City Council has funded two positions for Colony and Houston high and middle schools to be put in place for the 2019 fall semester. MSBSD added 800 security cameras in 2017 and completed the safe routes to schools update this year.

“We’re revising our policies and procedures. We’re going to be bringing our student advisory board in and helping us revise all our students rights and responsibilities,” Goyette said.

Student Advisory Board serves as the collective Student Government for the district. The district plans to install door safety latches and installed a remote front locking door pilot at Finger Lake Elementary and Susitna Valley High School. MSBSD is in its third year of trauma informed professional development. Members from the school district office will attend a statewide safety summit next week.

“Our report is a model for the state. We’ve been asked to do quite a few presentations and really target some legislative funding that would be directly towards school safety,” Goyette said.

The MSBSD achieved some of the highest test scores in the state for the spring semester of 2018 during the PEAKS assessment. MSBSD had a 51 percent score in English and language arts, higher than Fairbanks, Juneau, and Kenai. MSBSD scored 43 percent in math, also higher than the other four districts. The graduation rate has continued to rise since it’s last drop in 2014, when it dropped from 76 percent to 75 percent, but has steadily gained and is projected at 83 percent in 2018.

“At this point to hire 47 armed police officers is quite frankly cost prohibitive within the district,” Goyette said.

The MSBSD no longer formally expels students from a school. The School Board issues expulsions and those students have the option of attending the Mat-Su Day School to finish their diploma or GED. Safety discussion continued with questions from the assembly.

“There is an alternative you know that’s arming teachers who go through a course,” Assembly Member George McKee said.

The district is also piloting gun safes in rural schools as armed police presence is unavailable. The issue was posed to parents during the district survey and results were very divisive.