Su Valley ready to teach after traveling rocky road

Aug. 19, 2007

By John R. Moses/Frontiersman

TALKEETNA - A state crew painted safety stripes and created a new turn lane on the Parks Highway last week while volunteers and school staff moved a mountain of supplies into hastily anchored temporary classrooms. Loose, rounded river rocks were underfoot everywhere on recently-graded ground. Teachers who should have been making lesson plans joined community volunteers to physically create educational order from classroom chaos.

Su Valley Jr./Sr. High is rising quickly from the ashes of a devastating June 5 fire through a cooperative community and school district effort -but with some severe technical difficulties.

The electricity came on this past Wednesday. By Monday morning's first day of school the paths should have a gravel coat, trenches should be filled and teachers say they will get by one way or another.

Veteran social studies teacher Dave Stull sat quietly in a nearly empty classroom awaiting a shipment of desks Thursday and thinking about law school as an option after retirement in a few years.

&#8220This is the third time I've gone through a major disaster to a school,” Stull said. Another school he taught at burned down and one was condemned shortly before the school year was to start.

&#8220If we have a good attitude about it, the kids will have a good attitude about it,” Stull said.

Attitude could be important Monday for those concerned about finishing touches. Very near the foot of the stairs to Stull's classroom rested a pile of mud and rocks that had yet to be leveled.

Pitching in

It's hard to argue that Su Valley students haven't pitched-in to rebuild the school. A network of youth were writing online requests for help to organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation before the flames had finished their work on the last remaining wing of the old school. Some showed up last week as their own summers waned to help set up classrooms.

Senior Grant Hicks seems to have eclipsed any Su Valley backer in his drive to raise funds. He's raised $20,000 in pledges so far from companies and foundations, a large chunk from a foundation run by the Fred Meyer stores. He wants to help cover costs that insurance won't.

&#8220I just wanted to help out the school,” Hicks said of his campaign, which resulted in about 50 letters stating the school's plight.

Among the pledges his campaign generated:

€ $13,377 from the Fred Meyer Foundation.

€ $500 from Diversified Tire.

€ $500 from Sons of the Confederacy.

€ $1,000 from MTA.

€ $250 from MCS.

&#8220We're expecting another $10,000 from Conoco-Phillips,” he said.

Hicks, a Willow resident who has attended the school since seventh grade, was away in Maryland at an orientation for Annapolis when the school burned. His parents broke the news upon his return. Hicks hopes to attend the naval academy, even though his parents are pushing a little for West Point due to their U.S. Army backgrounds.

His father is Su Valley Parent Teacher Student Association President Steve Hicks, who said there has also been some interest from Alaska Airlines and British Petroleum to help.

&#8220It's more traumatic for the kids than it is for anyone else,” Steve Hicks said of the fire, adding he and his wife, Kristi, are proud of their son's work.

Making the best of things

Superintendent George Troxel told the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District's Board the good news this past week that despite everything, teachers have reported to Su Valley's campus ready to work. He said power has been turned on and things were moving forward despite difficulties. The mood at Su Valley's campus was a little less upbeat on Wednesday and Thursday, but there was no lack of excitement. New teachers got their first looks inside portable classrooms borrowed from all over the district or moved from the old campus across the highway.

Principal Matt Clark wanted to make Wednesday, the first work day on campus, memorable for staff in a good way. He ran into a problem.

&#8220I show up yesterday ready for the first day for teachers. I'm going to have a pancake breakfast for them - no water,” Clark said. A well pump was being replaced. A 5-gallon jug of water that survived the Su Valley fire and came over in a portable helped him to make the pancakes. He also bought coffee cards for staff to redeem nearby

At least there was no dust from the heavy equipment still working at the temporary campus Thursday morning - there was too much mud for that. Portable classrooms where teachers set up shop shook as a machine tamped earth in a trench behind the small portable bathroom. Gravel had not been spread because some cables were still being installed underground, so large and small rocks lay atop graded soil as unattractive nuisances Wednesday and Thursday for people carrying boxes and desks between buildings.

Community volunteers threw themselves into frenzied preparations even before the electric company turned on the power. They had to, Clark said. The power didn't turn on until that day - Wednesday - when teachers met at cafeteria tables surrounded by towering piles of packed boxes and equipment. Matanuska Electric Association representatives gave daily assurances that two power poles and connections would be electrified before that time.

Clark gave the community and construction and district crews credit for a lot of hard work at the last minute. The portables were painted by crews working in the dark and rugs were not shampooed on a timely basis. Teachers &#8220had to do manual labor that [other] people would have done if the power had been on,” Clark said while on a break from clearing the Upper Susitna Senior and Community Center hall that will serve as the school cafeteria. &#8220Parents and student volunteers were here all day long slogging through the mud and the rocks hauling everything and anything.”

Clark's main concern now is whether the state will move quickly to put up flashing school zone lights and a reduced speed limit sign on the Parks Highway outside the campus. He said a highway department engineer told him a mandatory 45 mph speed zone would be unenforceable at Mile 98.

&#8220Tell that to the troopers,” Clark said.

Hicks, president of the PTSA, said he was told that Willow Elementary, also located along the Parks Highway, has a 45 mph zone because it is designated as a walk-in school, while Su Valley High is not.

Hicks praised the effort of all government agencies involved in the relocation effort and also praised the school's superintendent.

&#8220I really feel confident in our school board's interest in our kids,” he said.

Contact John R. Moses at john.moses@frontiersman.com, or call 352-2270.