Anchorage School District’s planned closure of Fire Lake Elementary in Eagle River has caught the attention of Rep. Jamie Allard, who represents Eagle River and Chugiak in the Alaska Legislature (the school is in Rep. Dan Saddler’s district).
Allard said it makes no sense to close that school, considering demographic shifts. While Anchorage is losing students, Eagle River is growing, she said, with hundreds of new houses and multi-family units being built within walking distance of Fire Lake Elementary.
She said Fire Lake is where a large percentage of Eagle River’s military families have their students, and provides programs for children with disabilities.
“Moving them to different locations will affect them significantly, and should be avoided at any cost,” said Allard, who has long been an advocate for children with learning disabilities.
The district is planning to convert the school into a daycare center for the employees of the district, and at some unknown point in the future, some of the school building may be made available for a charter school, she said.
“If closing an Eagle River school must happen in the future, leaving Fire Lake Elementary intact, and instead consolidating Homestead and Eagle River Elementary schools, makes more sense from both a structural and education standpoint. You could then re-house Eagle Academy into one of those buildings, and allow for a neighborhood charter school that is within walking distance for many more of Eagle River’s residents. Education choices would increase, the special programs available at Fire Lake would remain intact, and students would still be able to safely walk to school, which would decrease travel times and transportation costs alike,” she said in a published statement.
Allard pointed out that the school board has no representation from Eagle River because the school board members are elected citywide. That means Eagle River has no seat at the table.
“My hope is that the Anchorage School District Board reconsiders the decision to close Fire Lake, revisits the re-housing of Eagle Academy to a more appropriate and accessible location, and puts on indefinite hold any actions that negatively affect the one part of the Municipality of Anchorage that is thriving and growing,” she said.
The school has 230 students, with 10% of them in special-needs classrooms. The playground was recently remodeled to better fit the needs of the large special needs student population of Fire Lake.
The district plans to send 40 students to Birchwood Elementary, 108 students to Eagle River Elementary, and two students to Chugiak Elementary. The district says that Fire Island is currently at 47% capacity, but recently Anchorage has approved major family-sized housing projects within walking distance of the school.
The district in general has a shrinking student population across the city’s campuses as families flee Anchorage, some heading to Eagle River, which is still in the municipality, and many heading to the MatSu Valley for a more traditional education and better quality of life. With lower enrollment, funding is shrinking and the district is trying to close some schools. Politically, it is not targeting schools in the urban core as much as those in the suburbs.
