Planning begins for new Su Valley campus

Frontiersman

TALKEETNA — It took more than 12 hours, but a planning process that drew students, teachers and many from the community resulted in a lot of intellectual ammunition for designers of the new Su Valley Jr./Sr. High campus.

More than 30 people braved a rainy night and a dark drive through moose country, several of them school board members and Mat-Su Borough officials intent on being part of the planning process. Tuesday’s meeting, the first of three planned at the school’s temporary campus, ended a day of presentations that architect/educator Amy Yurko of consultant BrainSPACES.com said was productive.

The consultants agreed an assembly should be held in the near future on campus to solicit advice from students who have no way to get to an evening meeting due to family time constraints or the distance they may live from the campus. Su Valley High draws students for an area starting in Willow and ending in Trapper Creek, including students who live in the Hatcher Pass area reachable by school bus from the Parks Highway.

Parents asked for assurances that the new campus would be better than the old one, which had a deficient roof and was generally considered to have poor lighting, dark, narrow hallways and an inefficient design. Administrators and staff met with Borough project manager Bob Berhtold, Yurko and BrainSCAPES Educational Planner Peter Brown about specific needs and wishes.

Yurko cautioned that 47,050 square feet is all designers have to work with. That’s slightly more space than might be allocated to a new school in the area under state standards given the size of the student body, and all the Borough’s insurer will cover as a replacement building for the school that burned June 5.

To that end she encourages parents, staff and students to think of ways to create spaces that have multiple uses, such as a second gym for middle schoolers that could double as a cafeteria.

The old Su Valley High School had one gymnasium to serve middle and high school students and no indoor track, like the gymnasiums at Colony High School and Houston Middle School. An indoor track is a priority for student Katie Kreppel, who recalled the difficulties of training for a track season and competing for college scholarships while clamping metal spikes to her running shoes to get traction on ice. The school’s outdoor track was pressed into use even before the ice melted, she said.

“When they say start you still slide back three meters,” she said.

Kreppel challenged the designers to imagine practicing inside a building like the room where the meting was held “while jumping over backpacks and small kids, and [still] train” for athletic events.

Parent Bronn Salmon, a computer expert, quizzed designers and district staff on the level of technology that would be built into the new school.

Parents also said they want full-spectrum lighting to combat seasonal affective disorder and plenty of natural sunlight as well as full-sized windows. The idea of siting the campus farther back near a lake and possibly with a view of Mt. McKinley was also discussed. The former building site had no view and was tucked low into trees.

Planners cautioned that the more spent on a site means less for the building and outfitting it. That said, planners also said the community can expect a lot of options.

“Probably, we’ll have many concepts,” Yurko said.

She said the community could mix and match elements of those concepts to find the right fit, and single- and multi-story plans would likely be drawn. One option is to have facilities the community could share on a first floor with the second floor restricted to school classrooms and be off limits after school.

School board candidate and parent Sandra White asked that designers take into account the individuality of Upper Susitna students and the wild environment in which they live, suggesting that the school reflect the mountains, trees, rivers and all the adventurous activities many locals engage in year-round.

Another wish is for a community pool, or at least a space to add a pool later, and for room to expand with the growing community’s population over the next several decades.

Yurko caution the Su Valley community to decide how large a school they eventually want and what impact school size might have on the innovative and personal nature of some programs.

“If you double it, could you maintain all that good stuff?” she asked. “Maybe. Some of it. That’s a question I have to turn back to you … how big a school do you want for your kids?”

Assistant Mat-Su Borough Manager Marian Romano said the school district’s insurer will replace the building, but won’t fulfill everyone’s ultimate wish list.

If a room had linoleum, “it won’t be replaced by hardwood,” she said. “The insurance will replace the building, but it will replace the building that you had.”

Except in this case, designers said the space would be designed in a way the community accepts, the teachers have chosen and the community helped plan.