Coeur d'Alene Superintendent Hocker addresses concerns

Coeur d'Alene School District Superintendent Shon Hocker will not be taking a superintendent job with the Educational Service District 105 in Yakima.

After an interview Thursday, another finalist, Shane Backlund, was chosen for the position.

Hocker is not exploring any further positions elsewhere.

“These professional opportunities only come available when they come available and the challenge is they oftentimes come available at maybe not the most opportune time, and that’s exactly where we’re sitting today,” Hocker said in a meeting Friday with The Press.

“There’s a perception that maybe 'the supe would be jumping ship because things are tough here,' and that is not the case at all," he said. 

“You can be exploring an avenue and you can be 100% dedicated to your current district at the same time, and that’s exactly where I’m at,” he said.

The Coeur d'Alene School District has big decisions that lie ahead as it navigates budget work to balance a projected $6 million shortfall, which includes the conclusion of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding, the closure of Borah Elementary School, increasing needs for special education resources, a change in the state's funding formula and declining enrollment.

“It’s not a fun place to be, but I do feel like the board has been very good about trying to keep the direction that we’re headed focused on students. That’s our goal, that’s our mission," Hocker said. "We’re going to do the best we can to make those decisions for our kids. The closure of Borah was really a result of that.”

Borah will close at the end of this school year and be repurposed to house the Coeur d'Alene Early Learning Center at the start of the 2024-25 school year.

“We want to keep utilizing Borah in a way that keeps it maintained and keeps it going,” Hocker said, adding he is cautious to renovate and turn it into anything other than a school because it may again be needed as a school in a few years.

Some have suggested the school district office could be sold to prevent Borah from closing, or district office staff could be cut to save money.

“We hear people say, ‘You’re top heavy, you’ve got to get rid of people,’” Hocker said. “In my opinion, it’s an easy statement for people to make that don’t understand what it takes to run a $100 million organization with 1,500 employees.”

No departments are overstaffed, he said, as reflected in the curriculum audit that was conducted in 2019.

“We’re running a very big organization very lean, which the audit says,” Hocker said. “We haven’t added a person to the district office in years."

He said as of July 1, the district's organizational chart will clearly show that Coeur d'Alene has one superintendent, one deputy superintendent and the rest in leadership are directors.

“We are down to the bone in our operations, and Coeur d’Alene has expectations," he said. "I have a communications department of two, and we're trying to communicate with 40,000 people all the time, students and staff and community members. That is daunting."

The coming changes will be disruptive, he said.

“Change is difficult for lots of people all the time anyway, and we are the second-largest employer in the community," Hocker said.

He praised district staff as some of the most dedicated, caring individuals he’s ever been around.

“That makes it worth it when you hear negative comments from time to time from some in our community that maybe are unpleased with the sort of things that are happening,” he said. 

He said he feels fortunate to be in Coeur d’Alene, where the school district has such a strong support network.

“I’m going to continue to work my tail off to build that even more,” Hocker said. "The school district is never not needing our community support."

The Coeur d'Alene School Board will hold a regular meeting at 5 p.m. Monday, during which proposed elementary attendance zones will be considered by trustees, among several other items on the agenda.

The meeting will be at the Midtown Center Meeting Room, 1505 N. Fifth St., Coeur d'Alene.

Info: cdaschools.org