Traffic flow, new personnel among changes at schools

MAT-SU — Parents and students should expect to see a few changes and new faces when they arrive for the first day of school Thursday.

For one thing, a couple of Mat-Su Borough schools are in the middle of changes to the way cars move in and out of school grounds.

Cottonwood Creek Elementary is adding parking and moving driveways to keep cars from backing up on Seward-Meridian Parkway. School district spokeswoman Catherine Esary said that should be wrapped up this fall, but traffic patterns have already changed.

“It has already changed, and they probably have already experienced that going to registration,” Esary said.

There shouldn’t be too much disruption, she said. Which is more than can be said for Wasilla High School, where crews are installing fire hydrants and changing traffic flow. The district is posting updates on that project to its website.

“Ingress and egress may change from day to day until it’s completed,” Esary said.

The borough is still working its way through a raft of bond projects passed two years ago. Most of that work is the kind of thing that will be done inside schools and with minimal disruption.

Around the Valley, students will also see many new faces.

Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School has a new principal, Reese Everett. He’s new to Talkeetna, but not to the Valley, having worked in the district for a number of years, most recently at Houston High School.

Speaking of Houston High School, principal Mike Vrvilo left earlier this summer to take a job as director of education in the district administration office. The new principal won’t be a stranger, though. Bill Johnson was until this year an assistant principal at Houston High and was a math teacher in Houston prior to that.

Palmer High School, Houston High School, Wasilla Middle School, Palmer Junior/Middle School and Teeland Middle School are all getting new assistant principals, most hired from within the district.

Twindly Bridge Charter School reached all the way to Michigan to grab its new principal. Gerald Finkler will be in charge there this year. Scott Nelson, the new principal for Iditarod Elementary, also came to the Valley from out of state to take that job.

Allison Wall, the new principal of Trapper Creek Elementary — a teaching principal since the school is too small to employ a full-time administrator — comes to the school from a stint working at the district offices.

There have been a number of changes at the top, most notably the new superintendent, Ken Burnley, who came on board this summer. He brought Ken Forest — someone he’d worked with in Detroit — from Texas as one of his first new hires to take a re-defined assistant superintendent position.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.