Anchorage Daily News

TALKEETNA - Between classes at Su Valley Junior/Senior High School, students roughhouse and negotiate ice-chunked gravel on sneaker-clad feet. Some are sockless, a few go barelegged in the weak spring sunshine. Everyone lugs book-filled backpacks that act as lockers. Their hallway is the graveled paths between 19 portables on Su Valley Senior Center grounds which houses the student body, homeless since the old school burned down in June.

"It's been tough," said Sarah Ellsworth, 14, a freshman, as she and Duey Essex, 17, worked on a mosaic for art class in what passes for the school cafeteria. "Trying to find out where to go at the beginning of the year took forever."

The pair said that, lacking the usual hangouts, hiding spots and trysting corners of a typical high school, students congregate off-campus. Jens Timmers, 16, said participation level in extracurricular activities is down. Sports practice takes place at nearby elementary schools; homecoming was held at Houston Middle School. And some events, like the annual scholarship and awards assembly, have been canceled for lack of space.

Still, "it's been better than I expected," said principal Matt Clark, a nine-year veteran at Su Valley, of the 2007-08 school year.

NOT A BUILDING

Clark and his staff started the year taking stock of what was lost, ordering replacements and organizing it all. The senior center, which ceded its building for the school's central office until the new school opens, was so crowded with boxes, Clark said, he stood on a table for his first staff meeting.

School is not a building, he told them. People make a school. Until the new school, to be built on the old school site across the street from their temporary digs, opens in 2009, the ability to improvise is key.

Clark knew students would need to be flexible and they have been, quickly replacing academic and sports trophies lost in the fire.

Among their accomplishments: second place at the state academic decathlon in the 3A division; the boys took the state championship for nordic skiing in their class.

Teachers who lost years' worth of accumulated knowledge had to start from scratch, and in some cases, like physical education teacher Stephen Harrison, form a whole new plan.

Given a 600-foot portable in place of a gym, Harrison moved class outside. He ordered equipment like snowshoes, skis and ice skates.

He held a broomball tournament on a nearby lake. One class in outdoor survival morphed into a schoolwide curriculum.

He packed his portable with weight-lifting equipment.

And although he, like most teachers at Su Valley, lost personal mementos in the fire, Harrison pointed to the silver lining.

"(The fire) has allowed me to expand the outdoor education program," he said. "We've asked the kids to do some different things this year. They're having fun and don't complain for the most part."

NO PLACE TO LINGER

The temporary site has its problems - only two bathrooms for everyone, a cafeteria packed each noon, a parking area difficult to monitor, food that caused a student boycott earlier this year - but the biggest one is lack of gathering space. Students go home after school instead of hanging out together; teachers lack a lounge.

"You can either gripe about it and make it a big time negative or adapt and do the best you can," said Dave Stull, the high school social studies teacher and decathlon coach. "But if we have the attitude that we're all in this together, then it pulls people together."

All these factors make everyone at Su Valley view the promise of a new school like "the carrot at the end of a stick," said Deb Maynard, a library aide, cheerleading coach and Parent-Teacher-Student Association vice president.

Maynard was one of several locals on the new school's design committee. All aspects, from the colors to the site plan, was discussed and voted upon.

The new building's blueprint, a multicolored sweep of lines outlining classrooms, cafeteria, a central media center and two-court gym, is tacked to the wall just below the daily schedule in the main office.

"I can't wait until we get into the new building," said Maynard, who had color choices for the new building on her desk. "That's what's keeping me going."

Contact Melodie Wright at adn.com/contact/mwright or call 352-6721.

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