Post Falls Plan For Future Lists New High School

The Post Falls School District is proposing to add more portable classrooms in the short term and build a $16 million high school in the long term to handle its bulging student population.

The school district administration made the recommendations at Monday’s school board meeting, but the school trustees aren’t expected to make a decision until the end of the month.

Superintendent Richard Harris suggested holding a bond election on March 26 with two proposals on a “menu” ballot:

The first is a $15.8 million bond levy to build a “basic” high school to hold 1,300 students, including enough funds to refurbish the existing school’s heating system.

Voters can choose to add another $2.14 million to build a community and school auditorium, a football stadium and a multi-use track, and to expand the cafeteria at the existing high school.

If the high school bond were to pass, the district proposes using the existing high school as a middle school to serve grades six through eight, and the existing junior high as a fifth-grade intermediate school.

The elementary schools then would have room again for kindergarten students, who now attend the former Frederick Post elementary. Frederick Post would continue to serve the alternative high school as well as preschool and Head Start programs.

The bond proposal should adequately house Post Falls students until 2005 at a 3 percent annual growth rate, school officials said.

Until a high school could be built, however, the district still has to plan for the interim growth. For next year, officials propose using state lottery funds to purchase more portables.

“We saw over 100 kids more this year in the elementary level,” said assistant Superintendent Jerry Keane. “We created space for one years’ growth with (the kindergarten center). If we have similar growth next year, we’re pretty much out of space.”

In the meantime, the staff could research the feasibility of starting a year-round school at Prairie View Elementary and other short-term solutions to overcrowding.

Next years’ growth rate is uncertain because of the closure of the Louisiana-Pacific sawmill and the greyhound dog track. The proposed private Catholic school in Coeur d’Alene also could affect enrollment next year if it opens as scheduled, school officials said.

, DataTimes