Sorensen school backers turn out

Some were parents. Others were neighbors, teachers and policymakers. All were passionate, and all shared the same message: Sorensen Elementary fills an important niche in this community and closing it would be wrong.

More than 75 people packed the Coeur d’Alene School Board meeting Monday night to urge the school district to keep the downtown elementary school open.

Facing stagnant enrollment and money problems, district officials are grappling with the future of the school. Closing it could save money, they say, but citizens need a chance to have their say before any decision is made.

Monday’s meeting was their first chance.

“If you close Sorensen, you’re not just shutting the door on a building, you’re cutting out a program that is so unique,” said retired teacher Ron Fisher, who taught at Sorensen for 24 years.

The school board will consider Sorensen Elementary again at its Dec. 18 meeting, though it’s unknown if any vote will be taken then. District officials have declined to release the estimated savings if the school is closed.

With 216 students, the smallest enrollment in the district, Sorensen promotes itself as an arts-oriented school, offering activities such as juggling, pottery and poetry.

The school, at 9th Street and Coeur d’Alene Avenue, is near downtown businesses, which is a great economic benefit, said city Councilwoman Deanne Goodlander, a member of the Lake City Development Corp.The development corporation is working to get more affordable housing downtown, Goodlander said, and closing the neighborhood elementary school won’t help that. Goodlander read a letter from Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem expressing support for keeping Sorensen open at its current location.

But the budget problems the district is facing are real, district Superintendent Harry Amend said, and student population size on the south end of the district is not showing signs of improvement.

The district considered closing Sorensen about five years ago but didn’t after discussions with officials and residents, some of whom attended Monday’s meeting.

“I think we were all hopeful and almost counting on the fact that there would be an influx of families with children into the core area of our city,” Amend said. “The reality is that families with students in elementary school have not come back in the numbers we thought they would.”

When the district slashed more than $2 million from this year’s budget, those cuts “actually did, I would say, hurt children, and we are in that budget mode right now,” Amend said.

But the approximately 20 people who spoke said there are other things to consider.

“The community is far more than just enrollment numbers and budget numbers,” said John McLeod of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association.

Sorensen Principal David Miller and his staff have been working for the past three years on turning the school into a magnet-school for the arts. Miller sat on a stool while the Sorensen supporters spoke, smiling as the school he’s been principal of for more than three years was showered with compliments.

About 20 students outside of Sorensen’s attendance zone request transfers to the school each year because of the school community and curriculum, supporters said. That number could increase, they said.

“Our daughter is thriving in this environment,” said Ann Jaworski, who requests her daughter be transferred to Sorensen each year, though they live on the north end of town. “She’s learning to juggle; she’s made pottery; she’s read her own poetry in front of a huge crowd at Java (coffeehouse).”

The community at Sorensen is unmatched, said PTA co-president Teresa Runge, and it shows in something as simple as the way parents pick their children up from school.

There are no “drive throughs,” as Runge called them, at Sorensen where parents can stay outside in the parking lot and wait for their children to leave school. At Sorensen, parents come inside to pick up their kids, giving everyone an opportunity to get to know each other – parents, teachers and students.

“It’s utter chaos, and it’s fantastic,” Runge said.

Other supporters spoke about the benefit students get from small schools, particularly elementary school children from less affluent backgrounds, which many Sorensen students are.

Parent Roger Snyder gave each school board member a packet with information on other districts that have consolidated schools, then regretted it.

He said the turnout of passionate, caring Sorensen supporters to the meeting was astounding.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said after the meeting.