In regard to your Sunday Editorial and Mr. Koler's “rant,” thank you for recognizing his misplaced fear of socialism and touching on the need to help the children of our community anyway possible. It would have been more poignant to thank School District 271 for what they are doing despite current budget restrictions. Then “implore” the community to show support verbally and at the polls for a school district that stresses educational success and shows compassion for the children in their care/Nancy Heffter, letter to the editor, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.

Question: Do local school districts to a good job serving the area's kids despite budget restrictions and diehard critics?

The Coeur d’Alene School District will be closed Wednesday due to expected extreme cold, the district announced today. The National Weather Service in Spokane said it expects the low tonight to dip to minus-9 in Coeur d’Alene. Wednesday’s high will reach 9 in the Lake City, and it will be down around zero Wednesday night, the agency said/Spokesman-Review. More here.

dick haugen interviews hazel bauman

Steve Briggs, the district’s chief financial officer, said the students had their facts wrong. Though a “pay to play” system was discussed months ago, it is no longer being considered, he said. Briggs said the district’s activities budget will decline from about $1.66 million this school year to about $1.47 million next school year – a cut of about $187,000. As a result, the activity director positions at both high schools will be reduced to half-time. Other cuts will not be as severe as described by the students, Briggs said. The recently passed levy devotes $1.3 million annually to the district’s activities budget. That money remains intact and makes up the majority of the money for activities throughout the district, Briggs said/Alison Boggs, SR. More here.

Question: Do you think the striking students were acting on good information? Or are administrators right in downplaying the cuts and stating that everything will work out?

Coeur d’Alene High School senior Ariel James attempts to recruit other students to attend the School District #271 Board meeting Monday night while they were participating in a walk-out during school hours at Coeur d’Alene High Monday afternoon. Students were protesting proposed budget cuts for the 2009-2010 school year. Original HBO story. (SR Photo)

At 12:30 p.m. today, Coeur d’Alene High students began protesting what they felt was misrepresentation on the part of Superintendent Hazel Bauman and other administrators of the successful $7.8 million levy election April 21. The students walked out of their sixth period classes and gathered outside of Jordan Court by the general student parking lot. Students believe that Bauman promised not to cut district athletic budgets in exchange for help on the levy, which passed with 74% approval. Afterward, coaches, athletes and sports supporters say they felt betrayed when told that the budgets — about $250,000 for both local high schools, including $75,000 for activities — would be cut by 50%. On Thursday, the Coeur d’Alene Educators Association staged a protest outside the District office. The crowd, wearing red, chanted and were reportedly a group large enough to require traffic to detour elsewhere because they blocked off the street. The CEA claims the district made misrepresentations to members about the levy and future cuts. Teachers at th protest report that Superintendent Bauman came to the front steps of the district office but did not address the crowd.

Question: Do you think Superintendent Hazel Bauman is doing a good job?

Item: Coeur d’Alene School District may declare financial emergency despite passage of levy/Maureen Dolan, CdA Press

More Info: Since January they have identified $3.2 million in reductions for the next fiscal year that begins July 1. Another $1.9 million needs to be shaved for a balanced budget. The supplemental levy approved by voters April 21 is $1 million less than the expiring levy it replaces. Some teachers were upset that the district chose to trim the levy amount rather than campaign for the higher existing amount.

Question: Should Coeur d’Alene school officials have asked for at least another $1M for the easily passed school levy, if they knew they would stil be facing a financial crisis?

Item: Cd’A levy could be $1M less: Superintendent asks trustees for lower amount at Monday meeting/Maureen Dolan, CDA Press

More Info: Superintendent Hazel Bauman recommended to trustees at a special board meeting Monday that the district set the levy amount at $7.8 million. Before making her recommendation, Bauman spent two weeks speaking with and polling nearly 300 people representing community groups — the chamber of commerce, the Rotary, the Parent-Teacher Association Alliance, Jobs Plus, the Excel Foundation and Concerned Businesses of North Idaho. Just 1 percent of those Bauman asked thought it would be a good idea to increase the levy amount while 68 percent were in favor of decreasing it, and 31 percent thought it should remain the same.

Question: Do you believe Superintendent Hazel Bauman’s inclusive approach to setting a levy amount guarantees its passage?

In a CDA Press story by Maureen Dolan this morning, Superintendent Hazel Bauman said the Coeur d’Alene School District could cut athletics programs by as much as $800,000. How would you go about trimming the sports budgets?

*Eliminate travel to southern Idaho, except for state competition.

*Eliminate some less popular sports that don’t attract fan revenue.

*Make an across-the-board trim of all sports programs.

*Schedule fund-raisers to make up as much money as possible.

*Leave sports alone by cutting elsewhere.

Item: Coeur d’Alene school trustees asked to make shuttered Hayden Elementary into kindergarten center/Maureen Dolan, CDA Press

More Info: Superintendent Hazel Bauman recommended to trustees on Monday that the district revamp some of the kindergarten through fifth-grade schools by creating a kindergarten center at the now-shuttered Hayden Lake Elementary school and adding sixth-grade classrooms to some of the schools no longer housing kindergarten students. The recommendation, Bauman said, came from the district’s long range planning committee in the wake of last year’s failed $31 million levy that included nearly $8 million to build a new elementary school.

Question: Would you like to see Hayden Elementary reopened, to become a kindergarten center?