School boundary changes rejected

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Hundreds of emotionally charged Valley residents watched Wednesday night as the Mat-Su Borough School Board listened to a full hour of public testimony and then voted unanimously to reject all but one school boundary change for next year.

The only boundary change that was approved will send 41 Indian Hills area students from Larson Elementary to Iditarod Elementary - all other boundary lines will remain the same.

A steady stream of parents lined up to voice opposition to proposed boundary changes that would have moved nearly 500 students into different schools next year.

It was a proposal school administrators said was necessary as already-overcrowded Mat-Su schools continue to take in more and more students each year. Roughly 600 students are expected to join the district next year alone.

Several concerned parents said they would rather home school their kids next year than move them to schools that are farther from their homes and neighborhoods.

More than 200 students from Wasilla High and Wasilla Middle schools were slated to move to the Houston schools, with many of the kids living less than three miles from the Wasilla schools.

"We are Warriors, please don't take that away from us," said one emotional parent. "Try to do what's right, not what's convenient."

Most speeches from the public were followed by applause from a standing- room-only crowd.

In the end, the school board voted in accordance with the will of the people at the meeting, and while its vote did not alleviate the overcrowding, it did satisfy many in attendance.

A letter from Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle was at the entryway for parents to pick up before the meeting. In the letter, Doyle outlined several alternatives to the boundary changes.

Wasilla High and Wasilla Middle schools could use work rooms for teacher planning periods, instead of classrooms, and thereby open more classroom time for roving teachers who could use empty classrooms for one period, before moving on to another empty classroom. The changes are not ideal and class sizes would likely increase.

Class sizes will likely be larger next year at Larson and Tanaina Elementary schools as well, but Doyle said that would be alleviated in the fall of 2006 when the new Wasilla-area elementary school opens.

As for Sherrod and Swanson Elementary schools, portables may be added and students might be moved between the two schools to find open, unused classroom space.

In an interview Thursday, School Board President Mike Chmielewski cautioned that these solutions are only temporary and don't solve the larger, long-term needs.

"The bigger solutions involve more money and more schools," he said. "We are now at a point where everyone can see that we are pushing up against the limits of our schools."

Chmielewski said the school district has plans to form a committee to meet with developers in order to determine growth patterns in the Valley.

"That's important so we know when and where to build next," he said. "It will give us better information on obtaining future sites."

For the near future, Chmielewski echoed the sentiments of several school board members - Mat-Su residents need to approve school bonds in the upcoming elections.

"People are beginning to recognize the difficulty and size of this problem," Chmielewski said.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.