CV School Board seeks plan input

The Central Valley School Board voted unanimously Monday night to move forward with a proposed facilities plan for the district by first asking residents what they think.

The plan would include building two new schools, in part to ease congestion in the district’s east end, where two elementary schools are expected to surge past capacity next year. Other plans include remodeling existing schools and transitioning others for different uses.

Eventually a bond issue would be placed before the voters to fund the project, which could cost about $45 million.

“We want to make sure it’s what the community wants,” said Mike Pearson, district superintendent. “Nothing is set in stone.”

Over the next three months, Pearson said district staffers will go out into the community seeking public input about the proposed facilities plan.

The plan is based on the findings of a community committee of public officials charged with investigating growth in the district.

The committee told the board in April that eight of the district’s 19 neighborhood schools would be over capacity in 2008, while schools in the west end of the district go largely underutilized.

The committee used data that was collected using technology from Spokane County, which took all of the property in the district boundaries and determined what that property could be used for in the future, and then projected growth for those areas.

At an Oct. 20 work session, Peterson and district administrators presented the board with a proposal to address those facility needs based on that data. The plan was broken down into several steps, immediately addressing overcrowding at Liberty Lake and Greenacres Elementary schools.

“Liberty Lake is going to be out of space next year,” administrator Carol Peterson told the board.

The proposal calls for relocating Barker Center, the alternative high school, and turning the current Barker building into a “kindergarten center,” busing students from Liberty Lake and Greenacres to the center from their schools.

The concept would be staggered over several years, with some projects going on simultaneously.

“The way do this is to start with the concept,” said board member Craig Holmes. “Then build something the whole community can support.”

A handful of parents came to the meeting Monday in the hopes of getting more information about the plan.

“I’m not keen on telling my 5-year-old child that we can see the school from our house, but we can’t go to the school,” parent Jeff Munro told the board Monday. “I have three children in the Central Valley school district, and I ought to be informed about what’s going on, and I’m not. That’s bothersome to me.”

A group of parents from Chester Elementary also came to voice concern over the possibility that their school might be closed and used as a transition school to house overflow from growing University High School.

“I’m supportive of new buildings and remodels,” one parent said. “But I think (closing Chester) would be breaking up community instead of enhancing it.”

After gathering community input, that information will be taken back to the board, likely in March, for further action or discussion, Pearson said.

“It seems like if there is going to be something that is going to impact us this heavily … we should have the chance to comment,” Munro said. “I’m absolutely willing to work toward a solution. I just need to know when to go work.”