Kitchen May Become Classroom: PETITION: Unused Space at Iditarod School Draws Boosters’ Attention.
By Rindi White, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Feb. 16–WASILLA — Iditarod Elementary School boosters hope a petition drive will trigger funding to turn a former kitchen at the school into classroom space.
Susie Meyer, an Iditarod PTA member, and Bernadette Rupright asked the Wasilla City Council on Monday to back a $1.2 million project to clean up and remodel the now unused kitchen.
City councilors replied that the school is beyond their jurisdiction.
Meyer and Rupright said they plan to press on.
Meyer and Rupright plan to present a petition from supporters to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board and to the borough Assembly. A joint meeting of the two is planned for 6 p.m. March 13 in Assembly chambers, 350 E. Dahlia Ave., Palmer.
Iditarod Elementary School, 801 N. Wasilla-Fishhook Road, was once home to the School District central kitchen, where school lunches were made and trucked around the district. The School District officially dedicated a new nutrition services facility last week in Palmer and mothballed the 12,700-square-foot kitchen in Wasilla.
Several rumors about possible uses for the space have cropped up since it closed. At a School Board meeting Jan. 24, district officials dismissed concerns that the kitchen would house a suspension program. The idea of suspended high school students sharing space with grade-schoolers sparked fear among some parents, who are now seeking assurances that the space won’t house outside programs.
“This type of program is certainly not any program that we feel should coexist with the mainstream students, and certainly not grade-school students,” said Susie Meyer, an Iditarod Elementary PTA member.
School District spokeswoman Traci Crotteau earlier this month said the school is 20 students over capacity. The renovation project is third on a list of capital improvements the district submitted to the Legislature.
School operations and maintenance supervisor Scott Schwald included Iditarod kitchen renovations in a districtwide administration and support budget that was presented to the School Board at a work session Wednesday.
Chief school administrator Bob Doyle said he believed renovations would be too costly to include in the fiscal year 2008 budget.
“I don’t know how we would do that without a bond project,” Doyle said.
School Board member Jim Colver said state funding could solve the problem.
On a recent lobbying trip to Juneau, Colver said he spoke to Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, about the renovation project. Kohring liked the idea, he said.
John Davies, a legislative assistant in Kohring’s office, confirmed that Kohring supports funding the Iditarod Elementary School renovation project. No legislation has been written to date.
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Daily News reporter Rindi White can be reached at rwhite@adn.com or 352-6709.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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