Bond Issue Steeped In Distrust Some Residents Outraged Over Post Falls School Construction Plan

Post Falls school officials have a layer of distrust to penetrate before they’ll find support among some skeptical school district patrons.

Some residents, including parents of school-aged children, suspect that the latest plan to ease crowded classrooms is disingenuous - simply a scheme to pass an expensive bond issue and raise their taxes.

“The double-shifting and triple-shifting is a ploy,” said Joyce Rapp, who has several grandchildren in the schools.

The school board is considering a recommendation to move the sixth-grade class to the junior high to ease crowding in the elementary schools.

The district’s long-range planning committee has suggested double-shifting at the junior high to squeeze in the sixth grade.

That means half the student body would attend in the mornings, while the other half would attend in the afternoons.

Most parents don’t like double-shifting because it’s inconvenient and leaves some children home alone for half a day.

“I thought it would have to go to that to get another school built, but that’s not why they’re doing it,” said Mary Coulter, a mother and school bond supporter. “It’s something they have to do.”

School officials have not worked out the details of the double-shifting plan or approved it. Public hearings are being scheduled.

Several arrangements are possible, but all are designed to be temporary solutions while the district attempts to pass a bond levy to pay for a new high school.

If the new high school is built, the long-range plan calls for turning the existing high school into a middle school. The existing junior high could then be freed up for use as an elementary school or other programs.

Some residents think the school district should have built its new high school, instead of Prairie View Elementary School, three years ago.

Prairie View Elementary replaced Frederick Post Elementary after a long-range study concluded it had outlived its use as an elementary school. Another problem with the school was the children had to cross a street to use the playground.

Now the old school is housing the alternative high school, preschool programs and classrooms for the district’s kindergartners, who can no longer fit in the three elementary schools.

“That Frederick Post school is supposed to be condemned,” Rapp said. “Post Falls (school district) to me has lied too many times with their school bonds and school levies.”

Her daughter, Brenda Symons, agreed and added, “Junior high is no place to double-shift. If they built schools right the first time, it wouldn’t come to this.”

Assistant Superintendent Jerry Keane counters that the long-range plan suggested continued use of Frederick Post for other programs.

“The plan is intact,” he said. “Whether you do one first or second, you still need the facilities.”

The decision to build Prairie View before a high school was not the wisest, said Vicki Caughran, a parent leader at Post Falls Junior High.

“It left a bad taste in people’s mouths,” she said. “But I think they’ve learned their lesson and I don’t think they’ll ever close another facility.”

Caughran will have two children in the junior high next year. She works part time, but worries about other children who will be left alone all morning or afternoon while their parents work.

Nonetheless, Caughran doesn’t see many alternatives to double shifts.

“I don’t think they’re doing it as a scare tactic. I think there really is a need,” she said.

Dee Lawless, a perennial tax opponent, disagreed. She said Tuesday the district should accommodate the growing elementary population with year-round school at Prairie View Elementary.

That option was explored and discarded by the long-range planning committee because it does not address any long-term need for new schools.

, DataTimes