Trustees to take a pause
COEUR d’ALENE — Not so fast, said Coeur d’Alene School Board Chairman Casey Morrisroe at a workshop Monday night. The school board’s decision two months ago to abandon a bond election pledge might not be a done deal after all.
Voters overwhelmingly supported the district’s $35.5 million bond measure in March 2017 after having been told that the district would construct a new elementary school in the northwestern area of the district. The high cost of land in that area persuaded board trustees to forgo that location months ago in favor of an existing school property in Hayden at Northwest Expedition Academy, in the hopes of opening doors to a new, larger school there by fall 2019. As Morrisroe put it, he supported the move two months ago because if the board couldn’t keep its promise to build a new elementary school in the northwestern part of the district, he wanted to make sure the board at least kept its promise to open a new elementary school by fall 2019.
However, the facts on the ground have changed since that decision two months ago, he explained. Opening a new elementary school by fall 2019 would be “all but impossible,” Morrisroe said Monday. Architects are at a standstill amid negotiations with the city of Hayden over the Northwest Expedition Academy site and will not be able to get bids out in time for work to begin this fall. Without beginning work this summer, a new elementary school could not be completed by the target date of September 2019, explained the chairman. “It was a tight window to begin with,” Morrisroe added.
Board member Tom Hearn inquired if it would be possible to open doors at a new school in February 2020. Staff explained that this timetable was also not realistic.
Consequently, Morrisroe asked his fellow board members to slow down for the next 30 days and reconsider what the right decision on a new elementary school’s location might be.
“We’re not in a hurry now if we’re not going to make September 2019. We have a little time to make sure we’re making the best decision for the district and for the students. I recommend we take 30 days and pause,” he said.
Earlier in the workshop meeting, Coeur d’Alene Education Partnership President Amy Voeller expressed “grave concerns” about the effects that reneging on the 2017 bond promise would have on future bond elections.
“If we hope to pass future bonds we need to follow through on what we communicate and promise our constituents,” she said.
District spokesman Scott Maben explained that the district is interested in three residential lots comprising just over 7 acres located on the south side of west Prairie Avenue, between north Ramsey Road and Hospice of North Idaho’s Schneidmiller Hospice House.
Superintendent Stan Olson suggested the district would need multiple new school properties in short order, and so should actively develop plans for the Northwest Expedition Academy site, the Prairie Avenue site, and other potential sites across the district. Board member Dave Eubanks asked if that might include a land bank, an idea which Olson affirmed. Board member Lisa May shared her encounter with several families in the northwestern part of the district who were concerned about the lack of a new elementary school there for their students, and the possibility of many more elementary students coming to the area via new housing developments. She suggested that the district stay cognizant of such new housing activity so as to better plan.