Liberty Lake parents hear proposed facilities plan

When Sheryl Demars moved into her home across the street from Liberty Lake Elementary school, there were no houses to the east of hers.

There seemed to be plenty of space for her children at the school nestled in the hills in the east end of the Central Valley School District’s boundaries.

But now the mother of six is faced with busing one of her children to another nearby school because Liberty Lake Elementary is overflowing.

“It’s either my fifth-grader or my kindergartner,” Demars said. “I’m not happy with either, but I know one of them has to go.”

Demars joined about 100 other Liberty Lake parents Wednesday night for a presentation of the district’s proposed facilities plan. Enrollment in the district increased 3 percent this year, after a steady increase of about 1 percent each year for several years

The proposed facilities plan is based on the findings of a community linkages committee, made up of officials from Spokane County, and the cities of Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley. The committee was charged last year with investigating growth in the district.

The school board voted Nov. 8 to take the proposed plan to the community for input before taking it back to the school board in March.

“Something has to be done,” said Liberty Lake parent Lori Wilson. “It’s just a matter of finding the solution that works best for everyone.”

Liberty Lake, the district’s newest and largest elementary school, has 715 students this year and expects 738 next year, leaving the building short one classroom. Greenacres Elementary is also nearing capacity.

The committee recommended building two new schools under the proposed plan to alleviate growth, especially in the Greenacres area.

Until new schools can be built, however, the district is considering busing a full grade of students from Liberty Lake and Greenacres to Barker Center, which currently houses the district’s high school alternative center and some special-needs students. The programs at Barker Center would be moved to a more central location.

The district suggested busing only kindergartners from those schools, turning Barker into a “kindergarten center,” where the district could also offer some parents a tuition-based full-day kindergarten, an option not available now because of overcrowding.

Other options include busing only the fifth-graders, or placing portable classrooms at Liberty Lake, which cost about $100,000 each. The district argued that portables are costly and that the infrastructure of Barker Center is not viable for fifth-grade students because it does not have a gym or a cafeteria.

It would cost about $30,000 to bus the kindergartners to Barker. The state would pay $27,000 of that, leaving only $3,000 for the district to pay.

“I came here ready to defend, to say, ‘No, I won’t put my kindergartner on a bus,’.” Demars said. “But after hearing this presentation, I think it’s probably the most viable option for us.”

She also said it would be more difficult to move a fifth-grader for social reasons.

“After going to school here all these years, these kids really look forward to being the big kids on campus,” Demars said. By busing them away, they wouldn’t have that opportunity, she said. “It wouldn’t be fair to them.”

Liberty Lake parents also signed up for small group discussions to talk about more options with district officials over the coming weeks. Other community meetings are planned in January and February at the district’s other 20 schools.

The district has already met with parents at Chester Elementary. Chester is one of the schools in the west end of the district where enrollment numbers have dwindled. Under the proposal, the district has called for “transitioning” Chester for other uses, such as housing overflow from nearby University High School.

Last week some Chester parents were agitated with district officials over that prospect. They complained about poor planning in the Liberty Lake area and have been circulating a petition against the proposed plan.

“The problem is that we just can’t turn around and build a school out there tomorrow,” said Melanie Rose, district spokeswoman. “It’s just not that simple.”