More than two years after an earthquake destroyed one of its middle schools, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (Alaska) School District is beginning construction on a $33 million high school that will replace the lost space.
The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports that constructing new facilities for Houston High School in Houston, Alaska, will enable the district to convert the existing Houston High to Houston Middle School.
The former Houston Middle School campus was torn down after sustaining irreparable damage in a major earthquake in November 2018. The new high school is being built on the site of the former middle school.
Since the earthquake, middle school students have been attending classes in portable classrooms on the campus of the existing high school.
The new high school will have 93,000 square feet of space; the Mat-Su Borough Assembly last month approved a $33.3 million construction contract for the school.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved funding in May that will enable the district to replace the earthquake-damaged school space.
Construction is expected to be finished in 2022.
