MAKING HISTORY: New Fronteras first publicly owned, financed charter school

WASILLA — Thanks to hardworking parents, dedicated educators, a faithful borough and a hefty loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Fronteras Spanish Immersion School finally has a school that fits.

Most recently housed in a building leased by Northgate Church on Bogard Road, Fronteras — Spanish for “frontiers” — started as a “school within a school” at Larson Elementary eight years ago. This fall, the school will open in its first permanent building down the street from Teeland Middle and Mat-Su Career and Technical High School on North Seward-Meridian Parkway.

“We are truly pioneers of new educational frontiers,” said Heather Charton, the Fronteras Academic Policy Committee (APC) secretary, at the new school on Thursday.

The charter school is one of six in the Mat-Su Borough School District, but the first to have a publicly owned, publicly financed building — a point emphasized by Fronteras staff as well as USDA, Mat-Su Borough and state representatives at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday.

“(This) is really a historic day,” said USDA-Rural Development Director Jim Nordlund.

Until the Mat-Su Borough passed an ordinance dictating the criteria for charter school buildings in 2009, Fronteras and the other charters weren’t eligible for a borough-owned building like traditional public schools. But thanks to “some really tenacious people,” as superintendent Gene Stone put it, all that — and more — changed.

“These are exciting times when we see what we can all do, we all pitch in together and have a vision,” Stone said.

But it didn’t happen overnight. For years, the school’s policy committee, the school board, the borough and state legislators discussed options, unsure of what was kosher in terms of acquiring a new building for Fronteras.

“Nobody in the bureaucracy really wanted to deal with it because it was unconventional,” said parent and policy committee member Chris Whittington-Evans.

To the USDA, though, that was almost the appeal of the transaction.

“There’s no bank that would take this deal but we would because we’re innovative,” Nordlund said.

In February of 2015, the borough assembly voted to accept the $6.9-million rural development loan from the USDA, which is based on a 30-year note with 3.25 percent interest. Fronteras will use the base student allocation (BSA) funds annually determined by the state legislature to repay the loan. In the event of a default on the loan, the borough will maintain possession of the building and potentially lease it to another Mat-Su vendor.

Rep. Jim Colver (R-9) has been credited as one of the driving forces behind the effort to obtain the loan for the new school, but he and other speakers reminded the 100-or-so people in attendance on Thursday that Fronteras was as much a result of their determination.

“These are your families, your kids and your education — keep up the good work,” he said, to much applause.

Principal Jennifer Schmidt-Hutchins and kindergarten teacher Philippe Onfray both said they were excited about the upcoming school year in the new building, and that it was a long time in coming.

“I love it,” Onfray said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a while, and our dreams finally came true.”

Parent Crystal Hite said she, too, was glad to see the school succeed as much as her son, Reagan Schachle, had at Fronteras.

“I loved the other building and they definitely made it work, but this is so much nicer for the kids,” Hite said.

For one thing, the new school is big enough to handle the 300 K-8 students enrolled for the upcoming school year. It also has a regulation-size middle school gym that, unlike the previous facility, has wood floors instead of carpet.

Hite said she plans to enroll her youngest, now 3, at Fronteras once she’s old enough, for the same reason she signed her son up for the Spanish immersion school.

“I wanted him to have a different education. I didn’t want him to just have that basic curriculum and not experience the culture that Fronteras offers,” she said.

Finishing touches are still being applied to the interior of the 31,000-square-foot building, but the school will be open for the 2016-2017 school year. First day of class for students is Aug. 15.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.