Borough breaks ground at new Houston High School site

HOUSTON — Borough and School District officials gathered at the future site of Houston High School to break ground on the new building at the site that formerly was home to Houston Middle School. In 2018, the Magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck southcentral Alaska in November damaged Houston Middle School beyond repair, forcing the school district to scramble to put portable classrooms around the Houston High School building, of which there are now 15 which house students.

“I spent over 20 years in the old building. It was bittersweet to see it go but look at where we’re at now. Our community and our students are going to have the opportunity to gain knowledge, to be productive young adults when they leave here. Hopefully they’ll want to stay here because they have the knowledge to earn a living and that’s very important for the whole Mat-Su, not just Houston,” said Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson.

In addition to serving as the Mayor of Houston, Thompson works at Houston Jr. Sr. High School. In attendance for the groundbreaking ceremony was Wasilla Mayor Glenda Ledford, Borough Mayor Vern Halter, Representatives David Eastman and Kevin McCabe, as well as Assembly and School Board members and representatives from the offices of Governor Dunleavy and Senators Sullivan and Murkowski. Borough Mayor Vern Halter recalled when during his first week as an Assemblyman, Su Valley High School burned down, forcing students into portable classrooms while a new school was built. Halter beamed as he spoke at the groundbreaking, sporting a navy blue suit as opposed to his usual vest and boots.

“This is my last groundbreaking but that’s not why I wore this suit today. I wore this suit out of respect for the students here at Houston, the grade schoolers and the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, all you teachers, all you admin staff, janitors, everybody’s lives who were affected by mother nature in 2018,” said Halter. “This is a wonderful day, that’s why I wore a suit today. This is my last groundbreaking and I broke a lot of ground for schools over the years but this is my favorite. This is the closest to my home.”

The building that was Houston Middle School during the 2018 quake that resulted in the ultimate condemnation and demolition of the structure was built in 1985 as Houston High School. The current Houston High School building was added nearly 20 years ago, splitting the middle and high school apart. Students in 6-12th grades at Houston have shared one campus for the last five semesters with the addition of 15 portable classrooms that house mostly middle school students. Much of the cause of the multiple failure of the building during the quake was given to stacked concrete masonry units that fractured and fell from the walls. BDS Architects Eric Spangler discussed the design and upcoming construction of the building.

“This all started with the earthquake. The building that’s coming back is going to be a structural based frame so there’s not going to be any CMU, any concrete. It’s all going to be structural steel. That’s the best way to resist earthquake forces. There’s not going to be any block that’s going to be cracking or anything like that,” said Spangler.

The recent FEMA decision to rule in favor of the disaster claim and reimburse the borough with funding to pay for the school came just after the Mat-Su Borough School Board voted to appropriate nearly $6 million this spring in order to close the existing funding gap and allow the project to go out for bid. Construction will continue for over a year until the school opens for the fall semester of 2022. The students that were in 8th grade at Houston Middle School will be the first graduating class from the new school.

“I want to give a shoutout if you will to the Assembly, to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, to the Mat-Su Borough School District School Board and to our Federal and state legislative delegation and of course the Governor, all folks at these different levels of government have been extremely supportive in finding a solution to move this forward,” said Borough Manager Mike Brown. “Had they not taken action we would not be standing here today with construction equipment behind us or behind me and in front of you we would still be talking about the prospect of construction in the future, so my hat’s off to them for their work in finding a solution that allowed us to move forward while we waited on FEMA.”