School Bond Loss Means New Band-Aids Double-Shifting, More Portable Classrooms, Year-Round Schedule Among Options For Post Falls

The specter of double-shifting was raised again in Post Falls after the latest failure of a high school bond issue.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” said Superintendent Dick Harris.

“We’re going to have to look at all the short-term solutions that we have in the past.”

The $15.8 million bond issue, designed to ease overcrowding throughout the school district, received 62.5 percent of the vote Tuesday.

School bond issues need a two-thirds majority to pass.

Lakeland School District’s $8.6 million bond levy for a combined junior and senior high school in Spirit Lake barely passed, with 66.78 percent of the vote.

While Lakeland bond supporters were celebrating Wednesday, bond advocates in Post Falls were reeling from their third defeat in two years.

In March, a similar measure failed by almost the same margin. In that campaign, supporters raised $20,000 and spent $15,000 on the campaign.

This time, campaign treasurer Linda Holehan estimated, they spent about $11,000.

“In the last six months, we’ve done everything we could do,” she said.

“It’s hard, but we have kids. That’s why we keep coming back.”

In the long term, Harris said the solution has to be new facilities.

This year, the district’s enrollment grew by 4.5 percent, or about 175 students.

After the past two defeats, the school board accepted a committee’s recommendation to add portable classrooms to the schools to ease overcrowding.

Each of the past two years, the district has added eight portable classrooms.

While the classrooms are adequate for teaching, they do nothing to solve the problem of overcrowded hallways, cafeterias and gyms.

The district also moved all kindergarten students to the old Frederick Post building.

Other short-term options the school district has considered include sending students to school in staggered shifts (often called double-shifting), leasing space in other buildings, more portable classrooms and year-round school.

The district is researching the possibility of having year-round school at Prairie Elementary next year.

“There’s going to be some tough choices for our school board and community to make about what to do for the next few years, because our facilities cannot handle any more students,” Holehan said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: VOTER TURNOUT Both districts reported record turnouts. In Post Falls, more than 5,000 people visited the polls.