Mid Valley finds temporary home

BIG LAKE -- After much scrambling and discussion, Mid Valley High School has found a home -- at least for the 2003-04 school year. The school administration has decided to move the Big Lake alternative school to the Houston Middle School grounds for the coming year, housing the school in five portables, two of which are already in place. The placement has been discussed among the principals involved and administrators say housing the high school on middle school grounds will not be an issue.

"We will be a separate campus from the existing school," Mid Valley principal Dave Holmquist said Tuesday about the schools' proximity.

He said the location would allow the school a temporary home at a minimum cost while the search continues for a permanent home. Holmquist also said he will have to cap enrollment while the school is at the Houston Middle location, since they will only be able to accommodate 80 students, most of whom have already pre-enrolled.

"If we have a demand beyond that we will try to accommodate them some other way, and put them on a waiting list for the following year," he said.

At the May 21 school board meeting, Holmquist presented the Mat-Su Borough School Board with two possible options for temporary housing of the school -- the Houston location and Big Lake Elementary's unused old wing. Last week school administrators decided to move the school to the Houston location. Kim Floyd, public information specialist for the school district, said the elementary school prospect may have looked more promising initially, but the administration felt it would be a contentious move for the community -- and a decision needed to be made and acted upon.

"They felt they needed to make a decision and not leave (the students) hanging," Floyd said Tuesday. "(Chief school administrator) Bob Doyle and the board are very committed to those students and following through on our promise."

Mid Valley is currently located at Faith Bible Fellowship Church on Hollywood Road, but a growing campus and permanence is not what the location was intended for, Pastor Ethan Hansen said earlier. Hansen said the church opened its doors to the school last year and while the church's ongoing relationship with the school district has been a good one, it was time for Mid Valley to find a more suitable location. Residents in the area had complained that the school's current location provides no buffer zone from neighborhood homes, according to Assemblywoman Jody Simpson. Either of the two options presented at the May 21 school board meeting provided that buffer zone, since both were on existing school grounds.

Holmquist said Mid Valley would retain its identity even though they will be housed on Houston Middle's grounds. Students will be using the restrooms in the school, but will have minimal involvement in their building, he said.

"We want our own culture," Holmquist said. "We don't want to mix with the existing school."

He said work would begin immediately to move in the portables and prepare for the coming school year.

"It's been kind of a roller coaster," he said, referring to the scramble to find an adequate site until a permanent one can be located. "I'm just happy that we can keep our promise to those 80 (returning) kids."

Nine students graduated from Mid Valley last week, and two graduated earlier this year.