Borough breaks ground on big new school

KNIK — On the only really rainy day of the summer so far, dignitaries met to commemorate the beginning of the biggest school construction project in more than a decade.

When complete, Joe Redington Sr. Jr./Sr. High School will be 97,000 square feet and will house 550 students. The borough says it’s the biggest project since the year 2000 and it’s set to open in fall of 2015. The first class would be grades 6-10 with the idea of adding a grade as those students move up. The first class of sophomores would then graduate from Redington.

Mike Brown, the borough’s head of capital projects, said that by square footage it would be half the size of Palmer, Colony or Wasilla High School but 10,000 square feet larger than Houston High School.

Mat-Su Borough School Board President Susan Pougher said that the school would do away with the 20 portable classrooms that the district has spread between Wasilla High School and Wasilla Middle School. She had a lot of thanks for the Valley’s delegation in the Legislature, which approved funds for the school, and to borough voters, who approved bond money to match those funds.

“Without the support from our legislators and our voters here in the Valley we would not be building and buildings,” she said.

Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Darcie Salmon praised the school construction as “forward thinking” and pointed out that it would serve what would be the fifth largest city in Alaska were it to incorporate — the Knik-Fairview area. A man whose day job is in real estate, Salmon also gave advice to people in that line of work.

“This is the time to invest in this particular chunk of dirt, anywhere around here that you can find a piece,” he said.

Joe Redington Sr., is considered to be the father of the Iditarod sled dog race. His daughter in law, Barb Redington, also made a brief statement.

“We really appreciate it and what an honor it would’ve been for Joe and (his wife) Vi,” she said.

Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, also liked the name.

“It’s a real honor to be at a dedication where it’s not being named after some politician,” he said. Instead, it’s being named after someone Stoltze described as “a real local hero.”

He said he believed the new school would allow the borough to continue providing education in myriad ways, “whether it’s in a beautiful building like this, a home school, a charter school or some variation of those.”

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