'It is this neighborhood': In East Anchorage, families and neighbors reckon with the potential closure of Nunaka Valley Elementary, one of six elementary schools that the Anchorage School District has recommended shuttering after this school year.
this neighborhood,” Jenner said. “It’s like all of these kids live and play together in this little neighborhood, and this is where they all come together.”
Jenner knows almost all of the school’s students since most have been there since spending a year in her kindergarten class. Former students tell her about becoming Eagle Scouts, and parents write to her on Facebook about students who are now off to college or having a baby. “It’s one of the oldest communities in Anchorage, and it’s seen a rejuvenation of sorts in the last decade or so where we’ve got younger families moving in,” Blake said. “We’re seeing third generations of students come through, so that’s a really unique part of our school is that we’ve got the legacy here.”
Between the mid-October recommendation announcements and late December, the district is conducting town halls at the schools with district officials and a consultant hired by the district to assist with the process. After the news of Nunaka Valley’s recommended closure rippled through the neighborhood, residents started organizing.
Community members eventually met multiple times at Cafecito Bonito, a nearby coffee shop, to discuss their options and strategize as part of a weekly community coffee chat hosted by state House candidate Donna Mears. They were joined by several local progressive candidates running for office in the area, like George Martinez, who is running for city Assembly, Anchorage Assembly member Forrest Dunbar, a candidate for state Senate, and Andrew Gray, a state House candidate, who offered advice.
“I’m generally a person who’s very interested in good deliberative processes, especially about education,” Potter said. “So I completely recognize that the source of the problem is underfunding, so I think there has to be a political solution, but regardless of what happens there, I want to encourage there to be a good decision-making process,” he said.
“When I was working from home for two years during COVID, I watched it every day, families, they bring their kids to school every morning, they pick them up in the afternoon,” Anderson said. “I mean, it’s just like it should be, really. And so it’s really important for me to keep the school alive.” “I have this Swiss way of thinking about school, and everything is public, everything is free, everybody walks to school, the kids walk alone,” Steinmann said. “And I wanted this and this is the one area where I felt that it’s possible. And we do it, we walk every day.”
The neighbors are worried about what becomes of the building and how it might affect property values. Right now, under the district’s proposed plan, the school would turn into a preschool academy, which Steinmann said would be all right for the neighborhood, but still leave them searching for kindergarten options.
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