Plan emerges to move Anchorage’s Alaska Native Cultural Charter School into Abbott Loop Elementary

A local charter school currently squeezed into a wing of an Anchorage high school may soon occupy a former elementary school in the district.

The Anchorage School Board is set to vote on a proposal that would move the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School, which serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade, into the building that currently houses Abbott Loop Elementary — a school that board members agreed to close at the end of this school year. Abbott Loop was the only one of the six schools initially recommended for closure that the board ultimately voted to shutter, amid ongoing state education funding issues and declining enrollment districtwide.

The Alaska Native Cultural Charter School has been located within a wing on the second floor of Bettye Davis East High since early 2021. It’s not an ideal learning environment, according to students and supporters. The school’s student population has dropped since moving into a portion of the high school building, a cramped space that lacks a teacher’s lounge, a lunchroom and a gym.

The charter school offers a unique curriculum that incorporates Alaska Native values, like respect for elders, compassion, dignity and humility. The school is the district’s only Title I charter school, meaning a majority of its students come from low-income families.

Under the new plan, the charter school would pay operational expenses like utilities and janitorial services at Abbott Loop. The charter school also would only stay in the building for five years maximum as its leadership board, the Academic Policy Committee, works toward finding a more permanent space for the school.

“There’s so many different reasons why this is an ideal situation for our school,” said the committee’s president, Manny Acuña.

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The school would not have to pay a lease, since Abbott Loop is a district facility, he said.

At a recent school board meeting, multiple people spoke in support of the district’s plan, urging the board to vote in favor of the move at its upcoming meeting.

“We can’t accomplish our cultural mission at the current location,” testified Michael Patterson, a member of the school’s governing committee.

“These kids deserve a proper building,” Patterson said. “The staff and the teachers deserve a proper building.”

The school community would raise funds toward a more permanent building of their own during their maximum five years at the Abbott Loop Elementary building. After the five years are up, the district will turn the building back over to the municipality.

Next year, the students now attending Abbott Loop will be split into two groups and head to nearby Kasuun and Trailside Elementary schools.

Rick Whitbeck, president of the Abbott Loop PTO, said he understood why the district might take the school out of its ongoing expenses, but questioned why the district didn’t use funds previously allocated via a municipal bond to fix some of the building’s structural deficiencies.

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“I don’t really have a problem with giving them their own home, but I wonder why you would give them their own home in a building that you’ve deemed structurally and educationally deficient?” Whitbeck said.

The district had initially committed to upgrading the school’s fire suppression system, but instead obtained a waiver from the city’s fire marshal to leave the facility as-is for the next five years while, potentially, it is occupied by the charter school.

Jim Anderson, chief operating officer at the district, said over email that the school does have “an enhanced fire suppression system,” and that there’s no risk to students, just to the facility itself.

He said that the district analyzed school capacities alongside long-term maintenance needs and found the long-term improvements at Abbott Loop stretched beyond a fire suppression system. Refurbishing the building would cost almost the same as rebuilding it, he said.

“The recommendation was to reduce Abbott Loop from the District’s inventory in order to provide more efficient education opportunities to students. It didn’t make sense to invest in a new fire suppression system for a school that could be closed,” Anderson said.

Acuña noted the school’s fire suppression system, while outdated, is up to code, and the fire alert system is new.

“ASD wouldn’t let a school or anyone move into that school, or attend that school, if it wasn’t safe or up to code,” Acuña said.

A lot of charter school families live on the east side of Anchorage, Acuña said, and some families are concerned about the geographic change. He said their committee is trying to plan to help those families out.

Acuña said he planned on hosting a town hall meeting with the Abbott Loop community if the school board votes in favor of the move, to explain the school and what it brings to the community.

“Our school isn’t private, it’s open to everyone and anyone, so if the Abbott Loop community wanted to enroll their students into our program, they totally can as long as we have room, and we want that,” Acuña said.

If the charter school does end up moving into Abbott Loop, it won’t be a long-term solution, he said.

“It is a temporary plan,” he said. “It is not our forever home, but at least it is a temporary home that we can call home if the board votes in our favor.”