Trustees may delay new school

Coeur d’Alene school trustees will vote this month on whether to postpone construction of a new Lakes Middle School for another year.

“I would say if there was a mantra it was ‘Do it right,’ ” Trustee Vern Newby said, referring to a recommendation from the district’s long-range planning committee that the project be delayed.

The district had first planned to remodel the aging middle school, but later decided it would be cheaper to build a brand-new building. When the project went to bid, though, prices were higher than expected because of the increasing cost of construction materials. Cost estimates came in as much as $5 million higher than the $7.9 million that had been budgeted out of a 2002 School Plant Facilities Levy.

Committee Chairwoman Jill Neal said the committee unanimously agreed that the district should complete all of the projects from the levy except for the Lakes project. The committee is urging the school board to save the money that’s left and add it to funds from a levy that will go before voters in the spring. The amount of that levy has not been determined.

“Delaying the Lakes Middle School project will enable the district to construct the school the right way,” Neal read from a memo, “not making design compromises that will be regretted at a later date.”

Delaying the Lakes project puts Ramsey Elementary first in line for a renovation. Afterward, the district estimates $7 million could be left over to save for Lakes.

Board Chairwoman Wanda Quinn said the only downside was the possibility that voters may not approve the next levy, though the district has traditionally had strong support from voters.

Trustees could take action on the recommendation at the Oct. 18 board meeting. That meeting is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., earlier than usual, to allow time for discussions about the future of Lakes and the district’s southern schools.

During a board meeting last month, representatives of the long-range planning and attendance zone committees met with trustees to discuss declining populations at some of the district’s southern schools. According to the district, enrollment at the southern elementaries and Lakes is shrinking, while the northern schools are growing.

Parent Penny Weiss, a member of the long-range planning committee, questioned the district’s interpretation of the enrollment figures and a statement that southern schools had empty classrooms.

Weiss said she believed the growth at the northern schools was coming from new families moving into the district, not from students moving from southern to northern schools. There is an empty classroom at Sorensen, she said, but that room is now being used for Title I and as a computer lab.

Before, Weiss said Title I teachers worked with students in the hallway.

Weiss said the fourth grade is the only class at the school that still has space for students. She said the school is actually sending students away.

“These south end schools actually are filling up,” she said.

She said she was concerned about the message voters were getting. If the district tried to pass a levy to remodel or replace the southern schools, Weiss said she wasn’t sure how supportive voters would be if they thought the schools were empty.

John McLeod, another committee member, said the district could be causing the population to be greater in the north by building new schools there.

He said a Realtor friend told him about a family looking to buy a home either near Sorensen Elementary or Hayden Meadows on the north end of the district. Coming from California, he said the mother was concerned about the stability of the old brick school in case of an earthquake.

McLeod said he had pulled his own kids out of private school to go to Sorensen and was happy with his decision.

“You don’t know that if you’re from California and you just drive by at 25 miles per hour,” he said.