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Closure of Sorensen debated

Catherine James, 5, Julia Jaworski, 7, and Elisa James, 7, wear T-shirts with a message about keeping Sorensen Elementary open Wednesday in front of their school. The shirts are part of the campaign used by the Parent Teacher Association at the school. (Photos by JESSE TINSLEY / The Spokesman-Review)
Meghann M. Cuniff Staff writer
Catherine James, 5, Julia Jaworski, 7, and Elisa James, 7, wear T-shirts with a message about keeping Sorensen Elementary open Wednesday in front of their school. The shirts are part of the campaign used by the Parent Teacher Association at the school. (Photos by JESSE TINSLEY / The Spokesman-Review)

The debate over whether to close Sorensen Elementary will continue for at least another month.

The district’s long-range planning committee, made up of teachers, parents, principals and administrators, decided at its meeting Wednesday to postpone making a recommendation to the board about whether to close the school. The committee won’t necessarily vote at its Jan. 8 meeting; it might just compile a summary of the pros and cons of the closure after listening to four hours of discussion during Wednesday’s meeting.

District officials pitched the proposal to close Sorensen last month, meeting with the school’s staff on Nov. 17 and discussing the possible closure again during the Nov. 20 school board meeting.

Parents and other Sorensen supporters showed up en masse to the Nov. 20 and Dec. 4 school board meetings, speaking passionately about the school and why it should stay open.

Sorensen PTA co-presidents Amy Evans and Teresa Runge have been working with other Sorensen parents and supporters for the past month, researching the district’s proposal and forming a game plan to save the school. They attended the meeting with Roger Snyder, a past member of the committee and a parent of former Sorensen students, and expressed concern about possible overcrowding in the other schools if Sorensen closes and enrollment in the north increases, among other things. Sorensen supporters tout the school’s arts and humanities focus as a reason it needs to stay open. More students requested to transfer to Sorensen this year than any other school in the district.

Sorensen Principal David Miller and other staff detailed the plan to turn the school into an arts and humanities-oriented school to attract kids from the district and even the region.

District officials say closing Sorensen and moving students to schools with room for them would save money. The district slashed more than $2 million from this year’s budget, and officials say closing Sorensen could help restore lost programs.

District officials are still reeling from the failure of the building construction levy in March and are searching for ways to show voters that they are fiscally responsible. Sorensen supporters argue that closing the school could hurt the supplemental levy, given the fact that the voting precinct around Sorensen has traditionally supported levies, even the one that failed in March.

That was a big concern with some members of the district long-range planning committee at Wednesday’s meeting.

“I think if we were pushing this issue right now, it might guarantee that we don’t pass the levy,” said committee member John Swallow, a parent at Winton Elementary. “Strategically speaking right now, boy, this is the last thing I would have tossed out.”

But if Sorensen remained open, district Superintendent Harry Amend said, other voters might question why the district spends about $400,000 annually to keep a school open when other schools in the district have room for extra students.

“It’s almost like you’re going to tick off some portion of the voters no matter what decision you make,” Amend said.

The possible closure of the school has city officials concerned with what that could do to the future of affordable housing and residential neighborhoods in the downtown area. The Coeur d’Alene City Council unanimously passed a resolution last week asking the school district to keep the school open, citing the positive effects the school has for the downtown residential neighborhoods.

“Sorensen’s presence plays a deep and necessary role in the social fabric and quality of life for the central portion of Coeur d’Alene,” Mayor Sandi Bloem wrote in a letter to Amend.

Amend presented the committee with information detailing things like the history of elementary school enrollment in the district, student test scores over the years and a plan for the 216 students who would be displaced if Sorensen closed.

The plan calls for the district’s preschool to be moved from Fernan to Ramsey to make room for 161 displaced Sorensen students. The remaining students would go to Borah, Bryan and Winton. All three schools have portable classrooms in use.

Snyder gave the school board information at its Nov. 20 meeting regarding the negative effects of large schools and of school consolidation. The information district officials gave to committee members for Wednesday’s meeting includes a history of test scores that showed smaller schools don’t post higher test scores than the larger ones in the Coeur d’Alene School District.

Committee chairman Dave Patzer said voters simply don’t care about what research says – they care about money.

“It always has been about the money in North Idaho, and it always will be about the money in North Idaho,” Palzher said. “No matter what the research tells you, it’s all about the money.”