Su Valley school plans receive warm reception

TALKEETNA — Preliminary plans for a new single-story junior/senior high school with plenty of natural light sources received a warm reception on a chilly day in the Upper Susitna Valley as architect Michael P. Carlson showed the plans to teachers and students.

The preferred layout of the school’s design committee and staff includes turning the campus’ existing outdoor running track and soccer field into a football field surrounded by a modern track surface. Preliminary blueprints also include an upgraded driveway with two access points to aid the flow of buses, vehicle traffic and emergency vehicles.

The new school will replace the former Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School, which was destroyed by a June 5 fire. The Mat-Su Borough School District’s insurance is paying to replace the school.

Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School’s Building Design Committee examined a pair of concepts and narrowly chose a one-story version over a two-story building.

“They liked them both,” said Carlson of Anchorage-based McCool Carlson Green. “It was kind of hard to separate them.”

The one-story design won out largely because of a need for classrooms used by junior and senior high school students to be close to each other, Carlson said. A single-floor design also clusters applied arts, shop and lab facilities.

While a two-story building is a more energy-efficient design overall, Carlson said about 10,000 square feet of the more than 50,000-square-foot facility would have gone on the upper level. Facilities like the gymnasium and labs have higher ceilings than regular classrooms. The potential for energy savings “wasn’t as huge and significant as it might have been,” he said.

Much of the space is considered flexible space that can be used in many ways as determined by the current and future needs and student populations. The plan modernizes a few things for safety within the constraints of the insurance policy’s replacement limits, Carlson said. A pathway will be installed bordering the new driveway. Students who walk to school or are dropped off on the Parks Highway used to travel on foot, often through the dark, on a driveway used by private vehicles and buses. The old driveway had one way in and out. That hampered firefighters who struggled to keep a stream of water tankers flowing through the June 5 fire zone while battling a wind-whipped blaze that ultimately destroyed the old campus.

There are areas set aside for future amenities such as a pool, a hockey rink, a ski shed and a building to house a proposed wood-fired heating system to be used in conjunction with the traditional system. No money has been set aside for those uses. Su Valley has a hockey team, but plays its home games at an outdoor rink in Talkeetna. There is no football field and thus no football team, and the dirt-surface track that hosts regional meets is rutted in places.

The plans also designate an area for any classroom expansion that may be needed should the student population increase in the future.

Security is also an issue in modern school design, Carlson said. The old school’s lunch and gathering room was at the main entrance, meaning campus visitors had to cross through a student gathering area to check in at the administration office.

The new plan puts the administration wing at the front of the school. Seated at a strategically placed curved counter will be Su Valley’s longtime gatekeeper, Virginia (Ms. Ginny) Robson of Trapper Creek.

She’s had her say during the early design phase.

“I told them I want to be out there so I can see and hear everything that is going on,” Robson said.

Carlson said the next public meeting will be 6 p.m. Nov. 13 at the campus, which is located near Mile 98 of the Parks Highway. By then the informal, sketched blueprints should be formalized. Carlson plans that day to run focus groups on specific elements like designing the library, gym and shop classes.

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