As Glacier View School heads to closure, community honors longtime principal
Principal Wendy Taylor is scheduled to retire this year after serving 30 years at Glacier View as a teacher and administrator.
What you need to know:
- Glacier View School in the Mat-Su Borough is set to permanently close this month after the Mat-Su Assembly approved next year’s budget without additional school funding.
- The community gathered this week to honor retiring Principal Wendy Taylor, who spent 30 years at Glacier View as a teacher and principal.
- Residents said the school’s closure will deeply affect the small community, with students facing long bus rides to schools in Sutton or Palmer and some families planning to move away.
- Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.
GLACIER VIEW — As Glacier View School heads toward permanent closure, dozens of community members gathered at the school this week to say goodbye and thank their beloved principal at a retirement celebration.
Principal Wendy Taylor is scheduled to retire this year after serving 30 years at Glacier View as a teacher and administrator.
Glacier View School, which serves students from kindergarten through high school, is scheduled to close as part of a series of Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District budget cuts. Larson and Meadow Lakes elementary schools in Wasilla are also scheduled to close.
The last day for students at the schools will be May 20.
The Mat-Su Assembly voted Thursday to approve a budget for next year without additional funding that could have kept Glacier View, Larson and Meadow Lakes open. They also voted 5-2 to convert the shuttered school facility into a borough-managed community center, with Assembly members Maxwell Sumner and Dee McKee voting no.
Details about how the center will operate and any use fees have not yet been released. Glacier View’s population is about 350, according to U.S. Census data.
Staffing at Glacier View was reduced last year from four employees to two as enrollment declined from more than 50 students to about two dozen. Enrollment next year is expected to fall below 14.
Tuesday’s event marked a first chance for community members, staff, parents and students to gather to honor the school and Taylor. Green-and-gold balloons and banners emblazoned with “The Legend” hung around the auditorium for Taylor.
Photo albums, flowers and snacks sat on decorated tables. Students performed an emotional showcase of piano music and singing for Taylor as part of the annual spring concert.
“I feel loved,” Taylor told the audience during the ceremony. “My success has been because of you. My time here has been the best years of my life.”
Taylor came to the school as a young teacher after she and her husband moved to the area from Pennsylvania in 1996. Five years later, she became principal, a role she has held ever since.
Taylor’s best friend from college flew in from Oregon as a surprise during the ceremony. Pat Schroeder, president of the Glacier View Parent Teacher Organization, gave Taylor a hand-painted picture of the school building and asked attendees to sign the gift.
“So they can imprint on your gift as you have put your imprint on their lives,” he said during the ceremony.
Community members said they attended Tuesday’s event because the community shows up for one another, just as Taylor has shown up for them.
“Wendy dedicated her life to this school,” Dorothy Hrncir said during the event. “She saw generations of students come through, supported families and guided staff. That kind of impact is not loud. It is steady. And it adds up to something significant.”
The evening marked an emotional turning point as students, teachers and community members prepared for the possibility that the building could close forever ahead of the final vote Thursday.
Students who live in the area and continue attending a Mat-Su District school will be bused more than 40 miles to Sutton for elementary school or Palmer for middle or high school, district officials said last month.
But several parents at Tuesday’s ceremony said they are not willing to ask their children to endure the bus ride. One family said it plans to leave the state to be closer to relatives, and Schroeder said his family plans to move to Anchorage for better school and job opportunities.
He said he knows of other families considering what they will do next.
“Other families are moving out who have kids who aren't yet school age but are looking at what's ahead and needing to find other opportunities as well,” he said.
-- Contact Emily Forstner at contact@matsusentinel.com