Attendance Boundaries On Agenda Cda School District’s New Proposal Proves Public Comment Is Considered, Resident Says

The Coeur d’Alene School District will take comment on its latest boundaries plan for the new Woodland Middle School at a public forum tonight.

The proposal generally uses U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 90 as boundary guidelines, but it also offers a choice to families living in the neighborhood known as “the Borah triangle.”

The boundaries committee is offering a transition option for this year’s Borah triangle students and those who live north to Gilbert, including Best Hills Meadows. The option allows sixth- and seventh-grade students in the disputed area to attend either Canfield or Lakes Middle School with transportation available. New sixth-graders from that area, however, would have to attend Lakes.

While the compromise may satisfy some parents, it may mean additional busing, which the school board will have to approve if the plan goes into effect.

The committee’s latest proposal is evidence that public comment at the last forum was taken into consideration, said Amy Hansen, a Woodside Park resident who helped rally more than 200 neighborhood residents to petition against a plan to bus their students across town. Under the new option, children in the Indian Meadows and Woodside Park subdivisions will attend the nearest middle school - Woodland.

Hansen lauded the committee for listening to public comment and then making adjustments to its plan, such as adding the transition option.

“They are trying to make the majority of the people happy,” Hansen said. “It sounds like they have come up with something that makes more sense.”

The boundaries committee has been meeting for months to draw attendance lines for next fall’s opening of Woodland. The plan attempts to keep the population of each school below 750 but allows for growth in the northwest and northeast areas of the district. One of the major problems has been trying to divide up three middle schools evenly into just two high schools, said committee chairman Jack Smetana. The result is that Lakes Middle School students would be split up, with some going to Lake City High and others attending Coeur d’Alene High.

“An awkward part of this process is we are receiving a lot of concerns from different neighborhoods, but the concerns don’t come with any alternate solutions,” Smetana said. “There is a similar concern being expressed, but it is moving from neighborhood to neighborhood.”

This latest proposal is not just a “shot in the dark,” Smetana said, it’s the result of months of research, written testimony and comment from two public forums.

According to the committee’s proposal, the boundary for Woodland Middle School would be north of I-90 to Highway 95, continuing northwest of Highway 95 to Prairie. It would then continue east to (but not include) Fourth Street, then north to Honeysuckle and Maple, including Woodland Meadows. Those students living on the east and west sides of Maple and all of Maple Place would attend the new school. The boundary also goes north to Lancaster Road, includes Emerald and Pineview estates, and all points west.

A map showing detailed proposed boundaries for Lakes, Canfield and Woodland middle schools is available for public viewing at the district administrative center at 311 N. 10th street. Tonight’s public forum begins at 7 p.m. in the Lakes Middle School cafeteria.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COMMENT Coeur d’Alene school officials will take comment tonight on proposed boundaries for the district’s new middle school. The public forum will begin at 7 p.m. in the Lakes Middle School cafeteria.