Retired principal to community: ‘How can we make it better?’

Student, parent, teacher and principal voices had the floor for most of the public comment window of Monday evening’s packed Coeur d’Alene School Board meeting.

Many voiced support for the school district and deep concerns about what may transpire if the two-year, $25 million-per-year supplemental levy does not gain voter approval May 16 at the polls.

“When my son Oliver first started kindergarten at Fernan, I was so anxious about sending my baby into the world where he would now be taught and influenced by teachers and other children,” Fernan STEM Academy mom Ashley Reyes said. “I was scared of what all my boy was going to be exposed to, and when I went to leave crying at the first day of kindergarten, his teacher patted me on the back and said, ‘Don’t worry, Mom, he’s going to be OK.’ Let me tell you, she was more than right.”

She shared how her son, who is in an advanced learning program class, has found community at Fernan, as well as irreplaceable friendships. Through Fernan, he has become interested in science, technology, engineering and math.

“Fernan is his home away from our home, and the last four years Fernan has nurtured my son and his education alongside me,” Reyes said. “Oliver is kind, compassionate, confident and intelligent, all things the school has helped me and his dad reinforce in him.”

She spoke of the possibility of elementary schools like Fernan closing if the levy does not pass.

“For those who actively work against this levy, that will be on you,” she said. “I ask you, what is more important than supporting children of your community, the teachers educating them and our schools? These kids are the future of our community and we need to fight to support them.”

Oliver then read from a statement during his own three-minute public comment window.

“My school is at the risk of closing next year, and that really scares me,” he said.

In school is where he has learned division, multiplication, reading and to be kind and respectful to others, he said.

“If Fernan closes, I don’t get to see all my friends and my favorite teachers every day, and that really breaks my heart,” Oliver said. “I also will have to go to a new school and I really don’t want to.”

Some commenters chastised Superintendent Shon Hocker for comments made at recent meetings regarding what is expected to be cut if the levy fails.

Mark Price of Coeur d’Alene said what he witnessed at the last meeting was reprehensible.

“To watch a hired superintendent address our elected board the way it was addressed, there’s no excusing that,” he said, adding that it’s the board that extends or drops superintendents’ contracts.

“I call it ‘Chicken Little the sky is falling’ list of things that you were demanding to pick from so we could keep our children’s sports programs,” Price said.

He asked why the school board would put up with Hocker demanding trustees choose “from a hand-picked, cherry-picked list” of what items would be first to go if the levy again fails.

Among those who spoke in support of the community working together was Steve Casey, who served as principal of Coeur d’Alene High School for 17 years. Casey, of Hayden, moved to North Idaho in 1977. He said his heart hurts looking at the divisiveness that is happening at school board meetings.

“We are all in this together. We all have the same goal, and that is helping our kids,” he said. “We have to do that with hands together. We can’t do it with our hands apart.”

When people look in the mirror, “let’s say to ourselves, ‘We’re doing the best we can.’ We can’t do it if we’re going to argue and fight,” Casey said.

He said no one, himself included, wants to pay levy taxes.

“But the rationale is, when you look around you, look at all the people that are growing. Look at the people coming to school here,” he said. “I will tell you from experience, we’ve had to do this every two years forever.”

He pleaded with people to simply ask themselves, “How can we make it better?” even when they don’t agree.

“We’re going nowhere unless we are together,” Casey said.

Actions conducted by the board were unanimous passages of an updated Drug Free School Zone policy, which now specifically includes vaping devices, as well as an updated Prohibition of Tobacco/Nicotine Possession and Use policy, which now prohibits electronic smoking devices, and possession of tobacco/nicotine by students at any time in a school building or on any school property, buses, vans, or vehicles that are owned, leased or controlled by the district.

The board will meet today for a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. to discuss a draft policy regarding the gender-specific bathroom law signed March 22 by Gov. Brad Little. No public comment will be heard, however comments for the board may be submitted to trustees@cdaschools.org at any time.

Midtown Meeting Center is at 1505 N. Fifth St., Coeur d'Alene.