Over 200 people packed the Anchorage School Board meeting on Monday to address the school district’s proposal to close seven elementary schools over the next three years.
Dalton Ante graduated sixth grade from Bear Valley last year. He told the school board he was confused why his former school was on the list of proposed closures for next year.
“I loved my time at Bear Valley and looked forward to coming back to volunteer when I can,” Ante said. “I also looked forward to continuing the long-standing tradition of coming back in my cap and gown to read the letter I wrote to myself in 6th grade.”
The district released the plan on Friday to close three schools at the end of the school year, three schools in 2026 and one school in 2027. If approved by the school board, it would close two schools permanently, repurpose three of the buildings for existing charter schools and run special programs such as child care facilities out of the other two schools.
District officials argue the closures are needed to adequately staff schools that have seen significant decline in student population in recent years.
The Anchorage School Board heard from dozens of parents at their Monday meeting, most of whom had students at Bear Valley. Many said they felt that the criteria used to identify schools was unfair and the process was not transparent.
Bonnie Gurney is a real estate appraiser and parent of a Bear Valley student who also testified at the meeting. Gurney said the district’s assessment that Bear Valley lacked growth potential was inaccurate.
“Any real estate professional will assure you that the only place there is massive population growth that can happen is southside anchorage so closing an elementary school is incompetent at best,” Gurney said. “We understand the predicament that you guys are in. You have schools that are half empty, that’s a hard truth. If you had a rubric that made sense, if you had transparency and if you had things that were consistently applied, we could deal with the big feeling of sadness. But right now we’re angry and we’re frustrated.”
The proposal would impact about 1,400 students and close nearly 12% of all elementary schools in the district.
The district will hold five community conversations over the next two weeks to hear from parents, and plans to vote on the plan at their Dec. 17 meeting.
In 2022, the district proposed closing six schools, but ultimately only closed Abbott Loop Elementary after significant pushback from parents.
Tim Rockey is the producer of Alaska News Nightly and covers education for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at trockey@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8487. Read more about Tim here.
