Sorensen gets final approval

The Sorensen Magnet School for the Arts and Humanities got the final OK Monday evening from the Coeur d’Alene School Board.

The board unanimously approved the plan to turn the downtown elementary school into a specialized school despite supporters falling short of fundraising goals. Enrollment has smashed expectations, and the goal of raising $100,000 by the start of the school year was a challengingone suggested by school staff, board members said.

“They didn’t make it, but they did make a very lofty performance,” board member Vern Newby said.

Supporters raised about $50,000 since the board gave the initial approval that saved the school from closure and let staff proceed with their plan for a magnet school. About 50 of Sorensen’s 286 students are new to the district, said Pam Pratt, director of elementary education. The district had hoped for 20 to 30 out-of-district students at Sorensen this year.

That increase lessens the need for fundraising because more students mean more state funding, Assistant Superintendent Hazel Bauman said.

“We really didn’t think the enrollment was going to come in as huge,” she said. “It’s actually worked out very well.”

Enrollment is at the maximum, and many students were turned away, Pratt said. The school offers two sections of each grade, except fifth. That’ll have to change if all the incoming Sorensen fourth-graders choose to stay there for fifth grade, which they’ve all been promised they can do, Pratt said.

Sorensen could cut kindergarten to allow for another fifth-grade class, but the district hopes to expand the school to accommodate demand, Pratt said.

“I really think if we had more classrooms it would be filling up,” she said.

Things at Sorensen will be a bit different than at the district’s nine other elementary schools. Besides the focus on arts in the daily curriculum, students will wear uniforms – khaki pants, shorts or skirts and solid-colored polo shirts with the Sorensen logo. Their days will also be longer – 8:15 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. instead of the standard 8:55 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.

Teresa Runge, co-president of the Sorensen Parent-Teacher Association, said she’s thrilled at the support the school is getting.

She and co-president Amy Evans attended last week’s meeting of the local urban renewal agency board, where members discussed ways to fund improvements at the school to make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We both just had goose bumps to think where we’ve come since November,” Runge said. “It feels fantastic.”

The school was pitched for closure last winter to save money in the cash-strapped district. Parents and others rallied to save Sorensen with the plan to turn it into a magnet school for the arts and humanities – the first of its kind in the district.