Friends of Mosquito Lake School and Community Center say they’ll take their case to two Haines Borough meetings next week, including a Jan. 15 planning commission meeting where commissioners will be asked if the building should be sold.
At a borough school board meeting Monday, board members will discuss an outreach plan for determining if there will be the 10 students required for full state funding of the elementary school.
Borough manager David Sosa this week said he put the sale on the planning commission agenda because he didn’t want to miss a sale season in the event that efforts to save the school fail. “If we go through the process and it’s not a school and a viable plan for borough use doesn’t come up, I want to have it available for sale,” he said.
Sosa has told the building’s supporters that for the borough to keep the building for something other than a school, he’d like to see a plan for its use that exceeds a “community center.” Incorporating other uses such as public safety also might qualify the building for funds to help maintain it, he said.
Sosa said at $100,000, the cost of maintaining a community center is about half of the property tax income from the upper valley. “That’s a lot of expense for a one-trick pony,” he said.
“We want something of a good value to the entire community. It’s a borough facility. Can it be more than a community center?” Sosa said.
Highway resident Dana Hallett is facilitator for the fledgling citizens group aiming to keep the school in public hands. The group is circulating petitions to keep the building and recently formed five subcommittees to address issues, including one investigating whether 10 children can be found to attend school there.
Hallett said school superintendent Ginger Jewell wants to know by Feb. 1 whether there will be 10 students, and wants letters of commitment from parents to know numbers are real.
Hallett said identifying 10 students by February also will give the district time to find a highly qualified teacher. He said highway residents want a hand in the school’s direction.
“We want quid pro quo. If we get them 10 students, we want the district to allow us to help them set that school up for success,” Hallett said. “That school has had a great track record for quality teachers.”
Hallett said if 10 students aren’t found, it’s premature for the borough to sell the building. “A community center might be there, as a holding (function), until we get enough students.” The area’s future is hard to predict, he said. “The price of oil isn’t going to go down forever. To make a decision based on present political realities doesn’t seem very prudent to me.”
Hallett said his group would comply with a Sosa request for writing a plan for the building. “I think that’s a responsible kind of direction that we find helpful. It’s in development. We’re doing an awful lot of research right now.”
Sosa said the borough has learned that re-opening the school building, either as a school or community center, will not require the municipality to make $100,000 or more in upgrades to the building’s sprinkler system, as previously believed.