Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) is the public school district for the Mat-Su Borough. Its elected school board, also known as the Mat-Su School Board, sets academic calendar, staffing and budget decisions for Palmer, Wasilla, Houston, Big Lake, Talkeetna and the surrounding valley.
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Mat-Su school board denies community bid to reopen Meadow Lakes Elementary as a charter
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District board on Wednesday formally denied a Meadow Lakes group's application to open Alaska Adventure Charter School in the closed Meadow Lakes Elementary building on Pittman Road.
Board members Brooks Pitcher, Ole Larson, Vice President Andrew Shane and President Kathy McCollum voted 4-0 to approve the written decision. Three members were absent. The board had already rejected the charter Monday, Oct. 19, when a motion to approve it needed four yes votes and got none; five members voted no.
The Meadow Lakes Community Council Public Education Committee applied Sept. 11. It proposed a K-8 school with a place-based, outdoor curriculum, opening in 2027-28 and serving about 200 students. The district closed Meadow Lakes Elementary in fiscal year 2026 and now uses the building for Twindly Bridge Charter School and other programs.
The district's review found 46 of the application's 52 components partially compliant or noncompliant. The two sides' budgets were far apart: the applicants projected a surplus of about $460,000, while the district estimated a deficit near $1 million and put the net cost to its operating budget at about $1.5 million. Reopening the building alone would add about $309,000 a year in operations, utilities and energy, the review said.
The written decision also cites no proposed contract with the district and no lease for the building, which it called "a material deficiency"; a one-year budget for a 10-year charter; safety concerns over K-8 students using ATVs, dirt bikes, side-by-sides and snow machines; and a staffing ratio that depends on volunteers. Approval, it says, would undo the stabilization that the 2026 closures and redistricting were meant to provide.
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Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly and School Board Joint Meeting
Mat-Su Assembly reverses vote, drops request for school to start after Labor Day
Two weeks after asking for a post-Labor Day school start, the Mat-Su Assembly took it back 1-6. Families picked August in the district's last survey anyway.
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