Breaking ground for the future

While the weather outside was downright chilly Friday, the event was enough to warm hearts and bring smiles to those in the Upper Susitna Valley.

A ceremonial groundbreaking of the new Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School is a signal that one of the Mat-Su Borough School District’s most pressing projects is moving forward. Since the former Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School burned in a June 5, 2007 fire, students have been displaced to a makeshift campus of portable buildings placed on Su Valley Senior Center property.

The center and its members deserve our thanks and appreciation for stepping up to fill a vital need for local youth — their education. But it’s also nice to know that sacrifice isn’t permanent as Collins Construction continues its charge of building the new multimillion-dollar project.

Groundbreakings many times are simply an administrative exercise, where officials grip a shovel and grin for the camera. But there are those rare occasions, like Friday, when breaking ground on a project is truly exciting for an entire community.

It hasn’t been an easy road. While many schoolchildren may daydream about their school burning down, it’s a nightmare when it actually happens. Since the fire, the Mat-Su Borough and school district have worked hard to bring a new building on line as quickly as possible. Haggling over insurance payout (which is still ongoing) and then a set-back that delayed awarding the final construction bid haven’t taken the focus off of what’s most important — providing Upper Susitna students with the best education possible.

We’re also proud of how the students themselves have pitched in, some raising funds for the effort, others helping the community clean up after the fire while still others turning dirt at Friday’s groundbreaking.

“Our Borough is one big family,” School Board President Jim Colver said, adding that the folks in the northern part of the Borough are “not a distant relative.”

There’s still much work to be done before Su Valley students are walking the halls of their new school (hopefully by the second semester of the next school year). More than a foundation for a building is being constructed in the Upper Susitna Valley. The school district, Borough and community are laying a strong foundation for the area’s future and for education.

It’s exciting stuff.