Don't take your school woes out on Trapper Creek

Spectrum, by Theresa Adams

In response to the letter, "Close Trapper Creek School to balance district's budget," I would like to say, "What a crock of bull!" I don't have children in school any more but that doesn't mean I'm not involved. I live in the Glacier View area and take offense to the remarks made about our school, our community and our choices. That includes the remarks made of Trapper Creek though I truthfully can only speak for my own neighborhood.

I don't know why a person would think that our taxes are any less then theirs, the value of our property has gone up and up over the last 10 years and with this being a scenic highway, the view of the Matanuska Glacier and the improvements in our choice of homes springing up, I have been told our taxes are not that different from home values in Wasilla and Palmer. For the money we spend in taxes, do we have fire stations, any local police stations or a library, or a pool, or a tennis court? No. Do you hear us whining because we don't have these things? No. We live here by choice and with that came the knowledge that our children won't have dance classes or gymnastics unless we pay the price of driving more miles and buying more gas. We are happy to sacrifice some things because our children have a quality of life here that they can't get living in town.

There is a type of closeness in a small community you just can't get in places like Palmer and Wasilla. We have friends that moved to town and went to the PTO meetings like they always had here and they were shocked. They had less people show up for the meetings there then we have attending at GVS meetings. They missed the potlucks, too, that allowed us to all know each other and the needs of the community better. There is more parent and community involvement in a small rural school; people that haven't had kids in school for more than 15 years are still actively involved in bake sales and raffles and interaction with the students. As much as three generations of family will be working together to support the school activities. There are plenty of reasons why we choose to live here and put up with the inconvenience of driving 56 miles or more to shop or to take our families to do things that are not offered closer to home.

We may only have 50 kids in the entire school instead of in each classroom but we have multiple grades in that one room. Our teachers have to do a curriculum for at least three grades or more, plus extra studies for those that need the extra effort. Most of them even teach more then one subject and two different grade levels. It's not a simple job and the effort they make everyday is appreciated in our neighborhood.

Also, who has a right to say that any child is worth more then any other? Who put a price tag on children? We had a school that was nothing but portable buildings connected by decking for a long, long time. It wasn't much and I know because I helped clean it. It was time we received a school that was adequate and a safer, healthier place to teach our children. I don't know anything about extending the school day to 4 p.m. to save money in the Valley, apparently with some transportation changes or something, but the person that wrote the article asked if that half hour was really optimal learning time. Any time spent in a supervised school is optimal learning time. What about sleep deprivation in high school students and a Rhode Island study showing 85 percent of them are deprived of more than 10 hours' sleep a week? My answer to that is, what about family rules or a set bedtime? Anyone in school should be home at a certain time and in bed at a certain time, it's called a routine.

As for sending the students to another school, we have children that have to ride the bus every day that live more than 140 miles round trip from the school. How could they go all the way to the next school in our borough, which would be Sutton, and add another 80 miles to the miles mentioned above every day? Does that make sense? People in Lake Louise belong in the Mat-Su Borough and pay property taxes. Should they have to home school just because you want our taxes to work for you in the Valley? They get absolutely nothing for their taxes but the right for their children to go to school and free garbage disposal.

Why should anyone in the community of Glacier View, or the community of Trapper Creek, have to give up our schools? Maybe you people in town just need to do without a few things, like the pool or indoor ice rinks and tennis courts, inside tracks, that sort of stuff. After all, we have for years and we do well. If you discontinued some of the perks and got down to the basics, the price of education in the Valley may not be so costly. But then it was your choice to have those things, knowing they'd have to be maintained. It would have been silly to not realize that the Valley would outgrow the schools or that the classrooms would eventually be crowded. It is really foolish to think that we should give up our children's education just so you can improve yours. We do not live in a country with a caste system. I'm sure equal rights would also cover where we choose to reside and as for robbing Peter to pay Paul, who made you the Almighty and what gives you the right to say your child deserves a school but a child in Trapper Creek or better yet a community as far away from town as Glacier View doesn't? Shame on you!

Theresa Adams is a volunteer co-editor for the Glacier View Community Newsletter.