Let Butte kids play …

A Spectrum, by Gene Jansen

Butte Elementary School students are getting short changed. Recently, the Mat-Su Borough School District put out to bid the removal and repair of Butte Elementary School's asbestos-laden gym walls. The gym is slated to be refurbished this summer. I was appalled to hear once the project has been completed, Butte students still won't be able to play many of the indoor activities other Valley kids normally enjoy during a long winter -- like soccer, volley ball and T-ball.

Students have never been able to play any of the live-ball sports inside the Butte gym because delicate wall panels were installed to protect children from the possibility of asbestos exposure. After 20-plus years, the school district is finally removing the hazard. But administrators stop short of making the Butte gym a sports-friendly gym because the bid didn't include provisions for making it usable for live-ball sports.

On Wednesday, June 6, I attended my kids' last day of school, which had an outdoor fun day planned, but it rained. Most of the kids I talked to wanted to play indoor soccer. But since the delicate walls might have broken, teachers had to scramble to make it an indoor fun day without the really fun, live-ball sports. I know the Butte staff meant well, but I could see some very bored fourth- and fifth-grade students playing games like team coin rolling, lost under the parachute, beach-ball volley ball, and some goofy Hoola-hoop game. The gym teacher at Butte, Kay Omer, told me the kids do play soccer, volley ball and T-ball indoors at Butte Elementary, but they do it with Nurf and Whiffle balls.

The gym's asbestos removal plan calls for the delicate wall panels to be replaced by a high-impact dry rock which, according to Omer, is still insufficient for any of the live-ball sports. Personally, I have never heard of a gym made out of dry rock. If the school district really wants to save money, why not make new elementary schools out of mud and straw. This kind of thinking is why Valley kids are constantly getting short changed.

If the school district is going to the trouble of removing most of the asbestos -- the Butte locker room, which is used by students everyday during the school year, is not included in the asbestos removal plan -- why not fix the gym walls 100 percent, so our Butte kids can enjoy the same opportunity children in the rest of the Valley enjoy. Instead, the school district will half fix the problem, leaving Butte students to suffer a less challenging physical education.

Gene Jansen is a Butte Elementary School parent.