By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
Girdwood is a growing community with the potential to double in size from its current year-round population of around 2,000 residents. With that in mind, concerned citizens are considering the possibility of expanding the Girdwood School from an elementary and middle school to a K-12 school.
A high school has long been considered in the community, but the question that remains is whether to establish a charter school or a publicly funded high school through the Anchorage School District. A charter school task force was established this past year, polling community members and initiating talk about starting a high school. The Chugach School District has spearheaded the movement and representatives from the district have spoken at several public meetings this past year.
However, the Anchorage School District and its superintendent, Carol Comeau, have not had much of a voice in the matter. In a Turnagain Times article published Oct. 18, much was written about establishing a charter school with quotes from Chugach School District representatives, but the Anchorage School District superintendent was not available for comment at the time. Comeau expressed her interest in adding to the discussion and recently spoke to the Turnagain Times about the possibility for expanding the Girdwood School to serve high school students.
To gain a better understanding of the community’s position on whether residents preferred a charter or public high school, the Anchorage School District conducted a survey last spring; however, the survey turned out to be a weak reflection of the community with only 15 percent (198 responses out of 1,300 mailed questionnaires) responding.
One of the questions asked whether respondents were in favor of expanding the existing school to include a high school program and 59 percent answered, yes, 23 percent answered, no, and 16 percent were uncertain or neutral.
Comeau said the response told her that it was a divided community. She added that this was the second survey conducted on the issue. In 1996 a survey was taken and the result was also split.
In last year’s survey, the long school bus commute from Girdwood to Anchorage (about 40 minutes) was a strong determinate to offer a high school program in Girdwood. Other reasons included a desire for a smaller school environment, more flexibility for winter sports, and no need to transport after school activities.
As for the advantage of attending a public high school in Anchorage, those surveyed answered: broader academic offerings, more social opportunities, extracurricular activities, state of the art facilities and larger student populations.
The majority of the respondents in the survey were parents with students in grades K-6.
“What was interesting is when I went down there to a couple of the meetings a number of the parents said that when I filled out the survey in 1996, I absolutely wanted my child to go to a high school in Girdwood because they were little, and I just couldn’t imagine them going to Dimond High School at the time,” said Comeau. “But they said as my children got older and they realized they wanted to experience a larger environment, they wanted broader academics and so forth, then my feelings have changed. So there’s no question that so much of this is understandably from the perspective of the age of children now, there are others who absolutely want this high school, and I respect that very much, but I don’t have a good feeling because of the small number of surveys of what the community really wants.”
Comeau said she would like to conduct another survey this school year that is more in-depth than the last survey.
“We really have to explore this more in-depth because we have to remodel the K-8 school,” she said, “and we are very open to having more discussion should we really look at making this a K-12 school or should we just remodel it as a K-8 school, and then if Chugach School District or somebody else wants to start a charter school through the Chugach School District, and if they can get the funding, and they can find a facility and do all that, then they can do that.”
If the community chooses the charter school option, funding could be a problem in the near future because state funding for charter schools will not be provided for at least the coming school year. Without that funding, Comeau said, the charter school would not be possible without additional funding.
If Girdwood chose to build a public school for a K-12 facility, Comeau said it would be modeled after a number of the small K-12 schools around the state, which would not include some of the amenities of a larger school. She added that students would still have the option of attending a high school in Anchorage, such as South Anchorage or Diamond High Schools.
“It sounds like the people that are really looking at this charter school idea really want to pursue the Chugach School District model,” Comeau said, “and I’m right now launching into my budget time, and I haven’t been asked to come down and have more discussion, and I’d be happy to do that, but we just haven’t been asked, so I have assumed that the majority of the people interested this idea really are looking at the Chugach School District model.”
Comeau said she would be coming to Girdwood over the next few months to talk about new renovations for the Girdwood School with new space opening up at the school after the library relocates to the new Girdwood Library/Community Center. But she said there is still uncertainty over whether or not to request funding from the voters to build an addition to the Girdwood School to accommodate a 9-12 component or request money for a renovation project to upgrade the existing K-8 program.
“That’s really a critical discussion that needs to take place during this school year with the community,” she said.
The school board on Dec. 17 recommended that $300,000 be appropriated for the Girdwood School design. The money is part of a $34.3 million bond package, which includes construction projects for additions and renovations to Chester Valley Elementary School (East Anchorage) and Sand Lake Elementary School (Southwest Anchorage). The school package qualifies for 60 percent reimbursement from the state, and the Municipality of Anchorage taxpayers would cover the remaining 40 percent. The package is now being forwarded to the Anchorage Assembly for a public hearing and vote prior to insertion on the April 1 ballot. It then must be approved in a municipal-wide vote.
If approved, Girdwood residents must finally decide whether to approve a design to renovate and upgrade the K-8 school or expand to provide a high school program.