Magnet schools attract attention in boundary discussion

COEUR d’ALENE — Seasoned Coeur d'Alene School District educator Shanna Marshall approached the lectern during the school board meeting Monday night to “clear up some misconceptions” about her school.

“Sorensen seems to have come under attack lately,” said Marshall, who teaches fourth grade at Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities.

“The rumors that we have heard in the last couple weeks thrown at the Sorensen staff and community have been really upsetting to our staff and our families,” she said.

She listed the rumors: that Sorensen parents buy their way into the school, that Sorensen waits until tax returns are filed to choose students, that Sorensen seeks out higher socioeconomic families, that the school raises outrageous amounts of money that goes directly into the classrooms.

"False," she said.

"We’re all left a little puzzled at the current outrage," Marshall said.

Her responses come after discussion has been buzzing throughout the community about how the district will effect change when it comes to the two magnet elementary schools (Sorensen and Ramsey Magnet School of Science), which don't have traditional attendance zones but overlays and lotteries that allow limited numbers of students from across the district to enroll.

"This issue should not be school against school," Marshall said. "We don’t want to have to defend ourselves against false claims. We just want to do our jobs and represent our community well. We want to serve our students and our families well, and you should be looking at what’s working in these schools and use that data to bring up any struggling schools.

"We cannot control the real estate. We cannot control rent prices downtown. We cannot control the economy, we can’t control what happens at any other school. All we can do is strive to impact what happens at our school."

Marshall was one of several who spoke during public comment, sharing their concerns and woes as the district continues examining what zoning changes could potentially be made to accommodate for a rapidly growing student population.

For lifelong Coeur d’Alene resident and mom Sarah McCracken, who went to school in the Coeur d’Alene School District, shuffling kids to different schools each year is a headache her family has experienced for five years.

"We’ve not had a home school for the entire time my daughter has been in elementary school," McCracken said. "Each year, our school has been overcrowded, starting with when we were in the Landings zoned for Skyway. That school was full, and we were offered to go to Atlas, but each year we had to apply for a transfer to be able to stay at Atlas. We moved about a mile away when my daughter was in third grade and my son was going into first. Our family priorities were for both of our kids to go to the same school, to go to school with our neighbors and not to move schools each year. It seems pretty simple."

But when presented with options for the 2017-2018 school year, their family had these options: one student at Winton, one at Bryan; one at Bryan, one at Borah; one at Winton, one at Borah; both at Atlas but no guarantee they’d be able to attend together the next year.

"The last option was both kids at Ramsey and the option that they could stay for their entire elementary school years,” she said. "The only reason why that was an option to stay is because it was a magnet school."

The boundary review discussion continued for at least an hour of the meeting, with board members and Superintendent Steve Cook touching on issues such as forced rezoning, grandfathering, busing, balancing priorities for the boundary review committee and more.

Zone 3 Trustee Tambra Pickford said she hopes the committee doesn't get deterred by one perspective as the discussion advances.

"This is a process," she said. "We know that people aren't going to be happy in the end, and that is very difficult. Nobody wants to sit up here and make people unhappy, that's not why any of us got on the school board, I know I can speak for all of us on that. We're not in the business of making people unhappy. We're in the business of doing what we can when we can and always keeping what's best for kids at the forefront."

Members of the public are welcome to attend the boundary review committee at 6 tonight at the Midtown Meeting Center, 1505 N. Fifth St.

Public comment will be accepted during open houses from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 21 at Coeur d'Alene High School and Feb. 18 at Lake City High School.