Talkeetna area grapples with loss of school

Aug. 23, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Talkeetna and Trapper Creek residents expressed shock and disappointment Monday, after hearing that Su-Valley Jr./Sr. High School would close this year due to the school's dangerous structural

problems.

After receiving an architectural report Wednesday that recommended closing the high school due to an unsound roof and weakened walls, the Mat-Su School District began notifying Su-Valley parents Friday that their children would not be attending the school.

District officials were scheduled to meet with parents and community members Monday night to discuss options for the estimated 188 students who were set to attend grades 7-12 at the school in just more than two weeks.

Those students must now find another location, whether that be space in the existing Trapper Creek Elementary School or taking the bus south to Houston High and Houston Middle schools.

Su-Valley parent Janet Flanders said her

ninth-grade son was disappointed that he might have to attend an elementary school for his first year of high school.

"The safety concerns are a big issue," she said Monday afternoon.

"But it's something that should have been looked at years ago, rather than waiting until a couple weeks before school starts."

In February 2005, the school district solicited an architectural study on the 1970's-era school to find a solution for its problematic roof, which caused snow and ice to slide off in heavy, dangerous chunks.

During the course of the study, architects discovered structural instability in the walls. Their final report didn't make it to the school district, however, until last week.

Despite the report's timing, school district information specialist Kim Floyd said the district is still glad to have the information.

"If there were ever more than 18 inches of snow and we had an earthquake, then it would tax the building," she said. "Engineers ruled that the building was unsafe."

The slanted metal roof was last replaced in 1981, when existing shingles were overlaid with metal roofing. Laying metal roofing over shingles, however, caused portions of the roof to become overly warm, creating sudden snow and ice slides.

In a district that is already cramped for school space, finding room for 188 students is challenging.

Possible solutions include turning Trapper Creek Elementary School into a high school for one year, while the Su-Valley roof and walls are repaired. The roughly 20 or so current Trapper Creek Elementary students would join approximately 100 students at Talkeetna Elementary School for a year.

Once Su-Valley students move back into their repaired school, Trapper Creek students could

return.

Floyd said that option would allow Su-Valley to keep its student body together under one roof, with the help of a couple portable classrooms.

Basketball and volleyball programs could prove difficult in the smaller elementary-school-sized gyms, but Floyd said the district was determined to try and offer these sports.

"This is going to be really challenging, but we are going to find a way to make all this work," she said.

Incoming Su-Valley ninth-grader Lorin Flanders said high school basketball will be difficult in Trapper Creek, his old elementary school.

"I play basketball, and that's a fairly small gym," he said.

According to the building report, repairs are estimated to cost more than $4 million and take up to six months to complete. The district hopes to get support from the state Legislature to provide emergency funding for the school repairs.

The most immediate challenge, though, is trying to get students enrolled and school started on time.

The prospect of moving portable classrooms, thousands of books, desks, chairs, copy machines and paperwork out of Su-Valley will take time.

"This is a massive undertaking," Floyd said, while adding that community support and input from Talkeetna and Trapper Creek is critical for a smooth transition.

"It would be wonderful to come to some sort of closure tonight," Floyd said of the Monday meeting. "We hope to find some solution as soon as possible."

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266, or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.