Educators Contemplate Great Divide Headaches Ahead As Bonner County District Splits

(From For the Record, December 15, 1998): Article incorrect: The new East Bonner County School District has a food warehouse, but the West Bonner County School District doesn’t. The west school district also lacks money to hire an administrator at this point. A Monday article on the school district split indicated otherwise.

The Bonner County School District has five trustees, 16 schools, 60 buses, 740 employees and about 6,100 students.

But dividing the district in two will take more than simple math.

“To me the division of tangible assets is probably the easiest part of this whole thing,” said Superintendent Roy Rummler. “That’s just an accounting thing. It’s not nearly as difficult as getting two districts up and running.”

That’s exactly what Rummler and other school officials will be concentrating on for the next several months.

Last week, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to split the district in two, with the west district centered in Priest River and the east one in Sandpoint.

Assets will be divided according to the total market value of each district, which means that the east district will keep approximately 71 percent of the assets, while the west district gets 29 percent.

Yet, while Rummler calls it the easiest part, it’s not without some risk.

How do you make sure all is divided fairly among people and resources? Department heads are concerned that if the division of assets isn’t scrupulous, there could be resentment, even lawsuits, in the future.

Virginia Overland, the manager of the school bus fleet, is already thinking about how to fairly distribute the buses proportionately according to their year, she said.

“We have to find the best way so that when we move the assets or money behind it, we don’t slight anyone,” she said.

But it’s not all division. Some district functions will multiply, at least in the short term.

For instance, instead of preparing just one budget, business manager Steve Battenschlag will have two budgets to prepare. Fortunately for him, only 10 to 20 percent of the budget isn’t locked into place by state and federal rules, regulations and formulas.

And instead of attending two school board meetings a month, administrators could find themselves attending as many as six each month, once the two new school boards are created. That’s because the existing board will act as a joint powers board while the two new groups make all the preparations for the new districts.

“Now, I’m really superintendent of three districts,” Rummler said. “The real concern I have is we don’t just float the next six months.”

Rummler and other school officials would like to hire an administrator for the east side right away, but the problem is there’s no money or authority to spend it. The two new districts won’t get any funding until July 1, 1999.

While the state Board of Education mulls over its appointments to the two new boards, local school officials will be researching the questions that still need to be answered and doing their best to reassure nervous staff members.

“The biggest thing we’re looking at is trying to calm the troubled waters,” Rummler said.

Many employees in district headquarters don’t know where they’ll be working next year - Priest River or Sandpoint. Teachers, administrators and classified staff who now work at a particular school wonder whether they’ll be able to make a switch to a school in the other district.

Transfers may be possible without losing tenure, said state Deputy Attorney General Kevin Satterlee.

“The two boards will have to work out together how to make that transference,” he said.

For those who will be working in the West Bonner County School District’s central office, it’s too soon to say where that office will be.

Eric Eldenburg, a school trustee from Priest River, has suggested the basement of Priest River Junior High’s annex might suffice. But that means two classrooms and office space for roving staff members would have to be relocated, said principal Rick Dalessio.

“It’s going to cramp the junior high, but if we have to, we have to,” he said. “We’re utilizing everything we have right now.”

Priest River Lamanna High School Principal Ron Hopkins hopes that the new school board doesn’t rush into anything that the fledgling eastside district can’t handle.

“If we’re going to split, let’s split, but let’s use common sense,” he said.

One of his primary concerns is the alternative high school. Now, about a dozen Priest River students attend Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School in Sandpoint.

“You don’t just start an alternative school and expect it to function as successfully as the one in Sandpoint,” he said.

Hopkins and other administrators also wonder how some of the tangible assets will be split. For instance, the maintenance shop, the big bus barn and a supply warehouse are all in Sandpoint. Priest River has a bus barn, but it only has one bay and isn’t sufficient for any large bus repair jobs.

“When you talk about all the equipment and supplies, Sandpoint has it all, and our 30 percent doesn’t buy all of the tools,” Hopkins said.

The head of food services, Sharon McInturff, is wondering how to divide up food in the warehouse when the east district doesn’t even have a warehouse.

Then there are all the adjustments to be made on the state level. When the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation gave the state schools $28 million for computer technology and training, the distribution of that money didn’t take into account that next year there will be 113 school districts in the state instead of 112.

Already, Rummler said, people from other parts of the state are calling to ask about how to split their districts. But at this point, he doesn’t have a lot to tell them.

“The whole problem with this situation is that there are so many ifs,” Rummler said. “Since it hasn’t been done recently, it’s almost new ground.”