Committees streamlined to speed school projects along

MAT-SU -- With a roster full of upcoming school-related construction projects, Mat-Su Borough Assembly members attempted to accelerate at least one part of the process Tuesday, by combining site selection committees.

Site selection committees are charged, under Mat-Su Borough Code, with finding an appropriate area for new schools or school facilities. Typically, the committees consist of nine people -- two assembly members, two members of the Mat-Su Borough School Board, two members of the Mat-Su planning commission and three members who live in the vicinity of the proposed school facility location.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly, Tuesday, unanimously approved a measure to streamline the process by charging one, five-member committee with selecting sites for seven upcoming school facilities.

According to staff reports, in the past 18 months, the school board has forwarded 10 requests for school or school facility sites to the borough. Progress on the projects has been slow, with only one selection project, for Horizon Charter School, thus far completed. Two more -- Wasilla Elementary and the Vocational Education Center -- are pending, leaving seven at various stages of completion. On that list are the Valley Pathways school, Beryozava School, a Palmer-area elementary school, Mid-Valley Pathways, a nutritional services facility, Midnight Sun Charter School and an elementary school in the Knik/Settler's Bay area.

But appointing one committee to select all seven sites, some assembly members said, could limit the amount of local involvement in the process. The seven remaining projects cross into five different assembly districts and, under normal site selection committee guidelines, one assembly member and three of the nine on traditional site selection committees are from the area of the proposed facility.

"It's going to be extremely difficult to have schools represented by one committee, in five different districts," Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson

said. "I see issues of missed data …"

Assembly member Jody Simpson said the need to get sites selected and move the process forward took precedent.

"The overriding interest is in getting this started, not on who's going to be there," Simpson said. "I do think we need to get off the dime."

The new ordinance allows for a single, temporary committee consisting of two assembly members, two members of the school board and one member from the planning commission. Also included are two additional members -- one from the planning commission and one from the assembly.

Anderson said the committee is scheduled to be set up by the assembly's Feb. 17 meeting. The five members and two alternates were submitted to be on the Feb. 3 agenda, he said, and can be confirmed by the assembly at its next meeting. On the list to represent the assembly are assembly members Betty Vehrs and Jim Colver. Up for the two planning commission seats are Helga Larson and Faye Palin, and Sarah Welton is his recommendation to fill the school board seat on the committee. The two alternates recommended are Simpson and Planning Commissioner Rose Jenne.

"I tried to balance it between the planning commission, school board and assembly to represent each district," Anderson said.