Finally, some room to grow

HARRISON, Idaho – Last year, Kootenai High School split senior biology students into two classes because the entire group couldn’t fit around the small lab table.

In the district’s new high school, with a large new lab, students have plenty of room to spread out, or as was the case Thursday, stretch rat intestines.

Tim Schultz’ advanced biology students were at work dissecting the rodents Thursday when one student joked: “Whose has the longest intestine?”

As students poked and prodded the splayed and pinned rats, Schultz drew a fitting analogy between the old and new science labs.

“We’re not a bunch of rats all in a little cage,” he said. “We more than doubled the size of the room and equipped it as a real lab.”

For years, junior and senior high school students shared a building. A $2.99 million levy voters approved in 2002 – after three failed votes – allowed the district to build a 33,000-square-foot high school just behind the old junior/senior high. Most of the high school classes moved into the new school, which opened this month.

A few high school classes still are held at the junior high, and all students, including students from the elementary next door, share the cafeteria and library. The staff of 17 is split between the two buildings.

The jewel of the new school is its gymnasium, with shiny hardwood floors and plenty of seating on brand-new bleachers.

And the real nice thing about the gym? All students can meet there for assemblies.

According to fire code, only 49 people were allowed in the old gym at a time and the roof leaked. There are 137 students between the junior and senior high schools.

“There’s no water on the floor of the gym from the leaky roof,” senior Samantha Kraack said. “We’d have to stop basketball games and wipe up water off the floor (in the old school).”

The new gym has room for two side-courts of volleyball or basketball. At the old gym, 13 teams were vying for practice time, Principal Rich Lund said. Some players had to be bussed to Harrison for practice at the old Harrison school and the district had to pay to rent the space.

Lund said five recent graduates and former girls’ basketball players visited the new gym this fall.

“They actually cried when they saw it,” he said. “They asked, ‘Why wasn’t this here for us?’ “

The school district tried for years to pass a levy for a new school.

A majority of voters – more than half – had voted in favor of the levies, but Idaho law requires a supermajority, two-thirds voter approval, to pass school bond levies.

Originally, the district asked voters for $3.5 million. To get the bond to pass, they dropped it to $2.99 million.

Lund said the bids for the six-classroom school came in around $3.2 million, so the district started making cuts.

A walkway between the two schools wasn’t covered. The parking lot wasn’t paved. Landscaping was eliminated. Instead of a hall of trophy cases, there’s just one.

Last week, voters approved an $87,000 supplemental levy to help with some of the finishing touches. Lund is hoping the district is able to put sod down before the snow flies. Right now, the new school, built on a hill behind the old school, is surrounded by mud.

Teachers and students aren’t complaining.

Kraack’s happy to have bathrooms with stall doors that actually close.

“I like the laser-action toilets,” senior David Palmiter said.

And as far as toilets go, English teacher Rene Barros is just glad there are more. Students were often late to class because they had to wait in line to use the bathroom.

She likes the larger classrooms, too.

“When you put 25 seniors in the rooms at the old building, it could be done, but they were so close the desks were literally touching,” Barros said. “At the end of the hour, there was no oxygen left to breathe. Now, there’s room between the desks. We can breathe.”