Bonner Trustees Vote To Split School District Now State Education Officials, Voters In Both Areas To Decide Issue

By next July, Bonner County School District 82 could be nonexistent. If voters give their blessing at the polls, the district would be divided into east and west sides.

School trustees unanimously approved a proposal Tuesday night to break up the district. It calls for Priest River to operate separately from Sandpoint.

The plan is now on a fast track with three public hearings scheduled later this month. It will be up to voters in both areas and the state Board of Education to decide the issue.

State education officials are expected to review a final plan at their June meeting. If they accept the proposal, a countywide vote will be scheduled for Dec. 8.

The district has considered a split for several years, but the idea gained support in the last six months. A professional consulting firm was hired to draft the proposal.

The goal of the division is to give residents more local control over schools. The county is large, spread out over 1,900 square miles, and the district has 16 schools. Some of them are 100 miles apart.

Priest River residents have only one trustee on the board. Patrons there have complained they get little attention and less money for educational programs. With a split, Priest River would have its own school board, central office and superintendent.

“Looking into a division … could serve to decrease the past animosity that has existed between the two areas,” trustee Jim Cooper said in a statement supporting the split.

Assets and liabilities would be divided proportionately between the two newly created districts. The student population and taxable property would be divided along current attendance zones, an estimated 70-30 split.

The move would not increase or decrease taxes for residents, consultant Dave Teater said. The only way taxes would increase is if voters pass a levy to build schools or pay for additional educational programs.

The only concern school board members expressed was how the new trustee zones were laid out for the Sandpoint area.

The state allows only a 10 percent difference in population between the largest and smallest trustee zone. The current plan has a 9.5 percent spread.

The school board asked to have two zones redrawn to equalize the population.