Sorensen gets a reprieve
A proposal to turn downtown Sorensen Elementary School into a specialized school for the arts and humanities was unanimously approved by the Coeur d’Alene School Board on Monday evening.
The plan calls for the school to boost enrollment by 100 students within two years. Supporters must raise $100,000 by August, then $200,000 for the 2007-08 school year. That, plus the additional state money that would come from increasing enrollment, would cover the estimated $411,000 that district officials hoped to save annually when they proposed shutting down the school.
The board will revisit the proposal in August after preliminary enrollment and fundraising numbers are in. An architect will examine the two-story, 40-year-old building for Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and make recommendations about upgrades by that time.
School board members were pleased with the potential enrollment boost that a magnet school – one that attracts kids from around the district and region – could bring, and said the proposal from Principal David Miller and staff looked promising.
“It’s a very, very well thought-out program,” said Edie Brooks, vice chairwoman of the board. “I can’t foresee that it wouldn’t work.”
The more than 75 Sorensen supporters at the meeting cheered after the final vote was taken.
“This is the best we could have hoped for,” said Roger Snyder, a parent of former Sorensen students. Snyder worked daily with Parent-Teacher Association co-chairwomen Teresa Runge and Amy Evans to organize the effort to keep the school open.
District officials first pitched the idea of closing the school at the Nov. 20 school board meeting, citing the potential savings and the recent $2.1 million cut from the district budget.
Sorensen has long had a reputation as an arts-oriented elementary school, and Miller and staff were working on the magnet school proposal before closure was publicly discussed. The timing of the proposal and the possible closure were a tremendous benefit to such an out-of-the-box idea like a magnet school, board members said.
“Look at the people who are here,” board chairman Vern Newby said of the packed meeting room. “If the time was ever right for a magnet school proposal…the time is now.”
Miller and staff have a detailed schedule for the school as well as a recruitment and advertising schedule. Partnerships with local musicians and artists are already being looked at – various community members appeared in a video Miller had made touting the proposal to the board.
District officials admit the proposal – particularly the fundraising – will be challenging.
“Everyone might think the job is over and we’ve won, but really the job is just beginning,” Brooks said.
The proposal to close the school raised the ire of parents and staff from the beginning, and groups like the Coeur d’Alene City Council, the Downtown Association and the Lake City Development Corp. soon got involved. The district’s long-range planning committee – made up of parents, teachers, administrators and others – voted 10-8 last month to keep the school open.
District officials and two school board members met with Miller and two Sorensen staffers Thursday morning to go over the magnet school proposal in detail after the board heard a presentation from Miller at a recent meeting.
District officials said they’re excited to work with Sorensen staff on the proposal.
“Our shoulders will be behind that wheel at the district level,” Superintendent Harry Amend said. “We’re used to succeeding.”