School Renovations Depend on Prop 1

Image from Google Street View.
Image from Google Street View.

Proposition 1 is an education bond that would give the Anchorage School District more than 57 million dollars for building maintenance and improvements.

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The Anchorage School District is requesting more than $57 million in bonds make improvements to it’s buildings.

The largest project, nearly $23 million, will renovate Airport Heights Elementary School and build an edition onto the school. Airport Heights was built in 1954 and has not had a major renovation, according to District officials. They say it needs more space for special ed and intensive needs students. The school lacks a multipurpose room. It also does not have dedicated art, health and music rooms. Those subjects are currently taught in relocatables outside the main school building.

Officials say there is not enough room to pickup and drop off kids and the parking is inadequate. Those problems will be resolved by the renovations and the addition, officials say.

The remainder of the bond money would go toward improvements at schools throughout the district.

Besides Airport Heights Elementary School, major building system upgrades are planned for Eagle River Elementary, Huffman Elementary and Bayshore Elementary Schools, among others.

Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.

Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.

Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.

Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.

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