Central Valley Board Considering Switch To Four-Year High Schools

The Central Valley School Board will spend an evening next month discussing a possible move of ninth-graders up to the high schools.

No final decisions will be made at the Sept. 12 work session.

Central Valley currently is the only district in the Spokane area to send its ninth-graders to junior high schools. Sports and academic issues connected with the ninth-graders have surfaced repeatedly in the district.

“We really need to have the board take a look at the larger issue of four-year high schools.” said CV Superintendent Wally Stanley. “Until they’ve held that discussion among themselves, we don’t know what direction to pursue.”

The work session is “the beginning of the beginning,” said Cynthia McMullen, chairwoman of the school board. If the board agrees to study the issue further, a committee of parents and staff will be formed.

Housing will be one of the major questions to solve.

Moving the ninth-graders up would overwhelm the two existing high schools. Yet it seems clear the community does not want to build a third high school. It took several years and four failed attempts at passing a bond issue before last February’s successful bond issue for $23.28 million to build a new elementary school at Liberty Lake and renovate or update facilities at three schools.

So, talk about a four-year high school often starts the ideas flowing. Here are a few possibilities - all entirely unofficial and unsanctioned - that people have mentioned:

A ninth-grade only school at Horizon Junior High.

A magnet high school at North Pines Junior High emphasizing arts and technology.

A magnet high school at the newly remodeled Bowdish Junior High School.

Such ideas, while exciting, are quite premature, cautions Stanley.

First, the board has to decide whether the time is right to pursue a decision on changing over to four-year high schools. Next, it would direct the administration on just how to involve the community and how quickly to move, he said.

The work session will start at 6:30 p.m. at a location to be announced.

Cautions notwithstanding, Stanley admitted, “Personally I’m kind of excited by some of the ideas that I’ve heard.”

, DataTimes