Wasilla school delayed

PALMER -- Construction of the Wasilla-area elementary school slated for completion in 2005 has now been pushed back one year, causing some frustration at Wednesday's Mat-Su Borough School Board meeting.

"The options are not going to make moms and dads happy at all," said Bob Doyle, chief school administrator for the school district. "We may be back, with this kind of time frame, to talk about double-shifting some schools."

The school is listed on the district's six-year capital improvement plan, which the board approved unanimously on Wednesday. The $12-million project initially would have had the school opening in fall 2005. Now Wasilla must wait until fall 2006 for the overcrowding at Larson Elementary School to be relieved.

When board member Robert Johnson asked what the board or district could do to speed up the building process, Doyle said the time line really rests in the hands of the Mat-Su Borough.

"We don't control it beyond a design part. We've done a prototypical design which gets used over and over again -- there's been no delay on our part," Doyle said. "The intent was to go fast with a known design that we can live with."

The prototype design has been used at schools such as Sherrod Elementary School. Doyle said the idea was to streamline the building process by creating one reusable building design for several future school construction projects. He also said he's frustrated that the borough's timeline for the new school does not reflect that.

"This is back to the old way," Doyle said.

Borough Public Works director Don Shiesl said that while the actual construction of a school takes from nine to 12 months, needed design changes will lengthen the process.

"We have to upgrade the prototypical design for new codes, and that can be fairly extensive," Shiesl said. "You can't just take it off the shelf and build it."

McCool Carlson Green Architects has been awarded the design contract to upgrade the prototype design; Shiesl said keeping up with the electrical codes is an especially extensive project.

"It has to be revised. We have to make sure we are following state codes," Shiesl said.

The construction bid cannot be awarded until the design is complete, extending the process even more.

The school could be finished by the end of 2005, but the 2005/2006 school year will already be in full swing, leaving the school to sit empty until fall 2006.

"It's really a matter of timing," Shiesl said. "But we do have a site, and that was selected fairly rapidly and has allowed the architects to get out there and do the studies that need to be done."

The school board has asked the district to prepare a resolution to the borough asking for the process to be streamlined, not only for this school but also to help future overcrowding issues.

"With this timing, you would not be able to relieve overcrowding at Goose-Bay [Elementary School] until fiscal year 2009 or beyond," Doyle told the board.

Shiesl said the borough is working in the time frame that gets the job done right.

"The end product will be better than if it were rushed," Shiesl said.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.