Construction of new Sherrod school to begin soon

Construction of a new school in Palmer is slated to begin this summer, but the fate of the old Sherrod Elementary remains unknown.

Borough officials are in the process of identifying the low bidder on the more than $10 million project. Whoever wins the contract, they are expected to break ground this summer and wrap-up the project in time for students to attend the school in the fall of 2003.

The new school will be located in what is now a farming field behind Swanson Elementary. Bus routes will remain the same, and like its predecessor, the new Sherrod building will house third- through fifth-graders.

The Swanson-Sherrod complex is unique in the Mat-Su Borough School District, with kindergartners and first- and second-graders attending school in one building and the older elementary students in another.

"People are attached to the idea," said Assistant Superintendent Bob Doyle. When voters in 1998 approved the more than $100 million bond to fund the construction of a new Sherrod Elementary, along with several other projects, many parents and community members advocated for keeping the two-building concept.

They also fought to keep the new building close to Swanson. At various times in the process, district officials considered building what was then called a "core elementary school" near Trunk and Palmer Fishhook roads. The community, however, spoke in favor of keeping the Sherrod-Swanson tradition alive.

A site-selection committee, made up of borough and school officials along with community members, eventually settled on the piece of land behind Swanson Elementary.

The site should present few problems to the contractor, according to borough officials.

"It's pretty straightforward," said Public Works Director Jim Swing.

However, the deep topsoil that made the land perfect for farming is less appealing to builders. It will have to be removed to get down to the more stable gravel beneath before the school can be constructed.

The site will also be annexed into city limits so the school will have access to Palmer water and sewer.

While the future of the new Sherrod Elementary seems secure, the same is not true of the original building. Built in the mid-1970s, the school has numerous structural and systems problems that would have made it more expensive to remodel than to construct a new building.

"It's an open-classroom concept," Doyle explained, "which makes for a lot of noise and distraction." The classrooms are also an awkward triangular shape, he said. Trying to turn these into closed-in, square rooms would have meant more money and less actual classroom space, so the Department of Education told the district it needed to build an entirely new structure instead.

Part of the district's sales pitch to Mat-Su voters in 1998 was that, in addition to getting a new Sherrod Elementary, the school district would be able to use the old building for central administration. The district spends around $150,000 a month on two separate lease spaces for administration, and the main administrative building the borough does own is old, with fire hazards and disability-access problems.

The original Sherrod school is large enough to house all of district central administration, meaning no lease costs. But it, too, has its problems. Its roof needs on-going work, the pipes are rusting, and the interior would have to be remodeled in order to house administration.

At the same time, some Palmer residents have argued that the residential area isn't suitable for an administrative building of this type.

The Palmer Economic Development Authority has thrown a new plan into the mix, proposing that Palmer build an administration building and lease it to the school district. The old Sherrod building could instead be turned into a community center or youth facility.

"Sherrod is in a lousy location for a new office building and, structurally speaking, it doesn't lend itself well to becoming an office building," PEDA board member Mike Liebing said in an earlier Frontiersman article. ". . . Let's put it in a business district. Let's do some actual urban planning."

PEDA has presented its plan to the borough and school district, but as of yet it is still just a proposal.

"The school board will have to sort through all of that," Doyle said.

The Sherrod replacement building is the last of eight projects funded by the more than $100 million bond Mat-Su voters approved in 1998 and reapproved in 2000. These include the new Teeland Middle, Larson Elementary and Meadow Lakes Elementary schools that are already up and running, as well as the remodels of Talkeetna Elementary, Burchell High and Wasilla High. A new Houston High School is expected to open the fall of 2003.

The state will reimburse 70 percent of the school bond, while Mat-Su taxpayers pick up the remaining 30 percent.