Sorensen magnet school urged

Across the nation, efforts to close public schools have been met with strong opposition from parents. They organize and rally, flooding school board meetings and packing PTA meetings to talk strategy. Many times, their hard work pays off.

In Seattle, parents so fiercely fought a proposal to close a dozen schools that the superintendent scrapped the plan and spent a year developing a better-received one. In Portland, a school closure proposal pitched just weeks ago has been postponed a year because of strong opposition.

And in Coeur d’Alene, a group of parents and residents hope their efforts will have a similar result in the district’s proposal to close Sorensen Elementary School. Sorensen supporters suggest an alternative use for the school: turning it into a magnet school for the arts and humanities. A magnet school is a public school that offers innovative courses or special training for students from across the district.

“If anything is going to pull us through, that will be it,” said Teresa Runge, co-chairwoman of the school’s Parent-Teacher Association.

The Coeur d’Alene school board is expected to vote on the magnet school proposal at its meeting Monday night. If it’s approved, the school will stay open. If it’s rejected, however, the school still may not close. That would require a separate vote of the board.

The school board initiated the proposed closure late last year when members asked district officials how much money might be saved by closing Sorensen. Since then, Runge and her PTA co-chair Amy Evans have been researching the proposal, analyzing district data and spreading the word about their interest in saving the school, located on Ninth and Coeur d’Alene streets in the downtown area.

“We meet daily,” Evans said.

“Amy and I feel like we’ve kind of become these community groupies,” Runge said with a laugh.

The two have help from Roger Snyder, a parent of former Sorensen students and a past member of the school district’s long-range planning committee. “We call him our coach,” Runge said.

Their efforts are noticeable. About 100 “Save Sorensen” yard signs are scattered throughout town, and Sorensen students, parents and staff as well as students at other schools have been sporting bright yellow T-shirts touting the need to save the 40-year-old school. A Web site – savemyschool.org – went up several weeks ago.

And it hasn’t been all their doing. Runge, Evans and Snyder have led the charge, but other parents and community members have stepped in to help. Sports Cellars gave them large discounts on the shirts, and downtown businesses and city groups have come out in support of the school. City groups have entered the debate as well. The City Council, the mayor, the city’s urban renewal agency and the downtown association are all opposed to closing Sorensen.

“This is the kind of issue that people just instinctively feel strongly about,” Snyder said.

Local artists, musicians and actors appeared in a video that Sorensen Principal David Miller had made about the magnet school proposal, pledging their support and urging the school board to accept the plan.

District administrators met Thursday morning with Miller and two Sorensen teachers to talk about the details of the proposal. Sending the proposal to the board is a sign district officials believe it may have merit. “I think this has some synergy around it,” Assistant Superintendent Hazel Bauman said.

But questions remain, including how the school would be financed and how enrollment would work.

“For it to be revenue-neutral, it needs to attract out-of-district students,” Bauman said. “But I am a little worried about having to say to a district kid, ‘You can’t come.’ “

Those questions are expected to be part of the debate at Monday’s meeting.