School Board Votes Down Trooper Presence

The Mat-Su School Board voted “no” on a motion to move and remodel a portable building that would have provided a law enforcement presence in the area around Susitna-Valley High School. The Board entertained the motion at their regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday evening.

Two portable buildings became available for use by the school district in 2021. Previously, the buildings had been used by school resource officers, serving at other schools located in the lower valley. But in 2021, the city of Wasilla decreased the overall number of law enforcement officers provided to those schools.

In response, the administration proposed creating space at two other schools, Houston and Su-Valley, in which emergency response personnel, including the Alaska State Troopers, could utilize.

Su-Valley and the surrounding schools in the Upper Valley continue to be without a police presence on a regular basis. Placing a portable building on the Su-Valley campus would have provided a staging and stopping facility for the Alaska State Troopers and other emergency personnel.

In the time after the portable buildings became available, the District has been successful in expanding the school resource officer program, once again, in the Lower Valley. Officers are currently stationed at Palmer, Colony, Wasilla, Houston and Redington schools.

At the meeting, the School Board was presented with letters of support for locating the buildings at the Su-Valley campus, as well as a memorandum of agreement with the Alaska State Troopers.

However, despite local and administrative support for the project, the School Board voted 4-3 to deny the motion. This leaves the building available for use, once again, at other Lower Valley schools.