Trustee Calls For Sale Of Office

A Coeur d’Alene School District trustee is calling for the sale of the district’s central office building to replenish the school system’s dwindling contingency fund. Dave Eubanks told his fellow trustees during Monday night’s school board meeting he believes selling the 21,000-square-foot commercial property is the most practical way to replace $1.8 million in contingency funds used to cover a building project shortfall. “In the last year or so, our district has been the loser in a series of grievous miscalculations involving the reconstruction of Winton Elementary School, on the part of someone who, not surprisingly, is no longer employed with us,” Eubanks said. Winton was one of five aging schools targeted for major renovations financed by a $32.7 million bond voters approved in 2012. The projects were overseen by the district’s former chief operations officer, Wendell Wardell. Wardell parted ways with the school district last fall. The new Winton school building is slated to open this fall/ Maureen Dolan , Coeur d’Alene Press. More here . (Shawn Gust’s Press photo: The Coeur d’Alene School District 271 administration office building at 1400 N. Northwood Center Court)

DFO: I’m at a loss why you would need to sell the district office building to make up for the contingency fund shortfall. Why don’t you simply allow the fund to replenish itself over a period of time? Thoughts?