School district plans ELP restructuring

PALMER -- Regardless of whether or not the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District must cut $8 million from the 2005 budget, the Extended Learning Program will be restructured for the 2004-2005 school year.

"It's going to be a redefinition of ELP," said Connie Lutz, the district's executive director of curriculum and assessment. "The total elimination of it is not in the plan."

Lutz, who will oversee the new ELP system next year, presented the benefits of changing the program to focus services on highly gifted students, those whose IQ is 145 or more, at last week's Mat-Su Borough School Board meeting. But this is only one of the possible changes that may affect the program; the district recently sent out surveys to parents of ELP students in order to get a feel for what type of restructuring will work best for students.

"We don't know what is going to happen," Lutz said.

If the state does not go through with proposed increases of funds for education, ELP is one of the programs listed to be cut completely. With the anticipation that the state will come through, district officials are setting aside that possibility for the time being, and focusing on restructuring the program based on feedback, not financial constraints. The idea to restructure the program came forward during the district's series of town meetings in December. Many parents who attended the meetings called for an elimination of the program as a whole. Instead of eliminating the program, Lutz hopes to get feedback from parents, students, teachers and principals on how to better run the program.

While some parents argued against the program in December, there were also people at last week's meeting who argued that the program should remain as is, serving students not based on IQ, but on motivation to succeed.

"I agreed that the small number of 'highly gifted' students face challenges and require special attention, [but] the balance of the current ELP students should not be abandoned," parent Mike Liebing said in an e-mail. "The current 650 students served by the current ELP system are benefiting and we want them to continue to have access to these services."

Surveys to ELP parents were sent out last week, and the findings from these surveys will be presented at the April 21 school board meeting. Realistically, Lutz said it could take months to complete the restructuring of the program.

"I know this is difficult for the teachers, parents and students to have this cloud of uncertainty out there, but we will try to make the decision that best benefits the students as fast as we can," Lutz said.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.