Coalition for split district will be heard

Supporters of a grass-roots effort to split the Lake Pend Oreille School District say they never got a chance to rebut the arguments opponents of deconsolidation made to the State Board of Education in April.

Today, members of the Hope-Clark Fork Coalition for Quality Education will have a second chance to be heard.

After the state board voted against the attempt to split Hope and Clark Fork from the rest of the school district, members of the coalition appealed. A hearing officer will listen to testimony and collect information from both sides today to forward to the state board for reconsideration.

“We felt like they didn’t really hear our side,” Terry Stevens, chairman of the coalition, said Wednesday.

The coalition spent the past few years gathering information and campaigning for a new and separate district for the two small communities.

At the board’s April meeting, Stevens testified that the community supported the split and many believed having a local district with local control would increase support for the community’s two schools.

The Lake Pend Oreille district hired a consultant to develop a deconsolidation plan. If the board had approved, the decision could have gone to voters this fall.

In 1998, voters approved the split of Priest River-area schools from the rest of the district, forming the West Bonner District. The rest of the district was renamed to become the Lake Pend Oreille District.

At April’s board meeting, Hope Elementary Principal Sherri Hatley testified against the latest deconsolidation effort.

Hatley said she was concerned that a split might not benefit education.

Hatley said the proposed district of 150 students would qualify for about 1.8 full-time positions for administration – possibly leaving only one-third of a position for an elementary principal.

State Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard said she was concerned the smaller district would mean limited services for students needing special education or speech therapy and fewer extracurricular activities and class offerings.

Some speakers at April’s meeting said the Hope and Clark Fork communities were less supportive of school bonds and levies than voters in the rest of the district.

Stevens disputed that claim Wednesday. He said district voters can cast votes at any school in the district. Many of the voters from Hope and Clark Fork work in Sandpoint, he said, and cast votes there rather than at their home schools.

“There could be Sandpoint people out here voting in our schools,” Stevens said. “They really have no way of tracking whether we support or don’t support those issues.”

Board spokeswoman Luci Willits said today’s hearing is an information-gathering meeting.

The hearing examiner’s findings will be presented to the board, likely at October’s board meeting in Lewiston, Willits said.

“It’s important people know this is their opportunity to speak out if they have feelings on the issue,” she said.

Though the board as a whole won’t attend today’s hearing, recently appointed board member Sue Thilo of Coeur d’Alene said she plans to attend to learn more about the issue.

“I’ve only got a very basic background on it,” Thilo said. “I look forward to hearing the discussion on both sides.”