Su Valley students face uncertain future

June 6, 2007

By Will Elliott/ Frontiersman

TALKEETNA - Susitna Valley High School seniors are worried about how the fire will affect their paths to college. With no firm plans for where the students will study next year, some students are afraid their carefully laid college plans are up in smoke.

Su Valley senior Kristijana Timmers said she was still in shock.

&#8220For the past two years, we've had half a school,” she said, referring to ongoing repairs at Su Valley. &#8220Now we have no school.”

Su Valley freshman Ashley Evans was logged into the Web site myspace.com when she got word the school was burning. Evans thought her friends were joking.

&#8220Then I heard sirens,” she said. &#8220There were fire trucks coming from all directions. It was madness.”

Evans rushed to the school and found neighbors, students and volunteer firefighters converging on the scene.

&#8220There were people all over, people crying. It was pretty scary,” Evans said.

But according to some Su Valley students, the scary part is yet to come.

&#8220We're all really worried because we don't want to be shipped off to Huston or some other town,” Evans said.

That solution was suggested two years ago when the school was temporarily closed after the discovery that the roof could collapse under a heavy snow load. The 34-year-old school was under construction to fix that problem at the time of the fire.

Timmers was afraid the school district might revisit that option this fall.

&#8220I'm most worried about them splitting us up,” Timmers said. &#8220It would suck for the seniors going to college if they just add us to some other school. The councelors won't know who we are.”

Colleges expect the senior year to be the culmination of students' high school careers and show the heights of their achievement. A number of pieces to the college application puzzle could be in jeopardy, Timmers said, if students are folded in as refugees at a foreign school in another town. Students could have trouble getting leadership positions, for example, or strong letters of recommendation from teachers. Additionally, Houston High is more than 45 miles away from Su Valley. An hours-long commute would mean late nights for students involved in sports and other activities.

And some of those activities might no longer be an option, Evans said. Su Valley stored musical instruments for band members, skis for the ski team, and other activities equipment.

All of that is gone, Evans said.

Evans lost her saxophone in the fire. Those instruments range in cost from the upper hundreds to the lower thousands of dollars. The bigger problem, Evans said, is that music and other programs at Su Valley offered college credit. Those credits can save students thousands of dollars by allowing them to take fewer college classes. Evans would worried she would miss out on those credits if she were temporarily sent to a different high school.

&#8220It definitely seems like a big problem for people going on to college,” Evans said.

Timmers and Evans both hoped Su Valley students could stay in their community by holding classes in portables.

&#8220We're half in portables already,” Timmers said, since much of the school had already been closed for the roof repairs.

&#8220The important thing now is that we need to stay together,” Evans said. &#8220We're a close-knit community. It's not right to just split us up.”

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.