Cd'A School District makes Landings decision

COEUR d'ALENE — Children in the western section of The Landings subdivision in Coeur d'Alene have new school assignments for the fall.

But, after Monday's regular meeting of the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees, more than 100 students who transferred into the district through open enrollment could be getting their homework assigned by teachers in a completely different district next year.

Atlas Elementary School and Woodland Middle School were approved Monday by the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees as the designated schools for students in the area. The subdivision was annexed into the district from the Post Falls School District last November following a successful, homeowner-driven initiative.

There are an estimated 253 students living in the neighborhood; 85 of them are currently attending Coeur d'Alene Schools on a transfer.

Trustees voted unanimously on the zoning decision, which could have also seen them approve a wider re-zoning of the district based on recommendations from its Attendance Zone Committee. The committee, formed by the board in 2015 to address growth in the district, provided trustees with two options for adjusting current attendance zones that would have affected up to 450 families.

Instead of voting on either, the board took up a discussion on the more than 100 students who attend Coeur d'Alene schools, and live outside district boundaries.

"If we didn't have kids from out of the district attending Coeur d'Alene Schools, that would relieve 100-some slots right there," said Trustee Tom Hearn. "It's not going to make people outside of the district happy, but one could argue that people who live here should have priority in the schools."

Vice Chair of the Board Casey Morrisroe echoed Hearn's statement, and mentioned the Attendance Zone Committee had asked the board to look at the feasibility of temporarily halting out-of-district transfers. He added that the five schools experiencing the most over-crowding also happen to be the schools attended by the majority of out-of-district transfer students.

"I'd recommend that we temporarily suspend the practice of allowing out-of-district students into our elementary schools," he said.

Morrisroe mentioned Ramsey Elementary School, which has 83 out-of-district transfer students, would immediately be relieved of some of the overcrowding it is experiencing.

Superintendent Matt Handelman responded, saying if the trustees followed the line of thinking to action, there could be unforeseen consequences. For example, he said, not allowing out-of-district transfers could impact the funding the district receives from the state, a number that would be unknown until after school begins in the fall and enrollment data is finalized.

Board Chair Christa Hazel said the conversation is challenging for her because, on one hand, the board is told reducing class sizes by even one student is a triumph. But, on the other, they are told that taking action to remove more than 100 students from the district wouldn't be helpful.

"I get that our schools would still be crowded and it wouldn't alleviate over-crowding," Hazel said. "But what it would do is eliminate making them (schools) bigger than necessary and put a priority on our own kids. Why aren't we putting our own kids first? This seems to be a no-brainer for me."

The board is expected to continue discussion on temporarily halting out-of-district transfers, and could possibly take action on the issue, during its May meeting. Handelman, under direction from the board, said district officials would take steps to notify potentially impacted families of the discussion prior to the meeting.