PF school board OKs new boundaries
POST FALLS – Post Falls elementary school children will only attend different schools next year if their parents choose to send them there.
Although the Post Falls School District board unanimously approved new elementary boundaries to incorporate a new school into the mix, they also approved a plan that will allow all current returning students and their siblings to be “grandfathered” into the current school’s attendance boundary.
The one catch is that parents will have to provide the transportation in those cases.
The boundary changes generated some controversy over the past month, with parents offering up alternatives to Superintendent Jerry Keane’s proposal that would keep more students at their current schools.
Keane looked at those alternatives but determined that they did not balance the dual goals of relieving overcrowding and moving as few students as possible as the original proposal. Board members agreed, passing his recommendation.
“Obviously there’s no perfect plan,” Keane said. “Any time you’re asking students to attend a different school, its something you want to be careful about.
Keane said as many as 50 percent of affected parents might initially take advantage of the grandfathering policy for their children, but he still believes overcrowding will not be an issue in the short-term. In the long-term the numbers of students attending schools outside their assigned boundary will likely decline as parents face the reality of juggling driving kids to school with work and other demands, he said.
The board also approved the appointment of a new Mullan Trail Elementary School principal, Katrina Kelly, a teacher at Ponderosa Elementary School.
Mullan Trail’s current principal is moving to the new West Ridge Elementary School.
Work on that school is progressing, but district officials are still trying to hammer out an agreement with BNSF Railway Co. to establish a crossing over the railroad’s spur line on the north side of the school.
Keane said the only access right now is on the east side of the school, but many of the students will be coming from the north.
About one train a day uses the spur line.