What to do with old Hayden school?

Once-thriving Hayden Lake Elementary School sits empty.

Coeur d’Alene School District needs more classrooms.

Can the two needs somehow be married? Not if the district follows its long-range planning recommendations.

The district’s trustees have been talking about turning that empty building into a magnet school, an effort that would cost money to get the facility up to inhabitable standards. This week, though, a small but prominent group strongly advised against it.

Steve Casey, John Brumley, Tom Booth and Jerry Anderson all reminded the school board Monday night that the district’s Long Range Planning Committee advised the district last May to sell the property.

“We just want to make sure the money we have to spend goes to the places that most need it,” said Anderson, a member of the committee. “It’s a matter of making the right things happen for the district.”

Anderson made it clear he approached the board as a citizen and was not there to represent the committee in any way. He and his peers reiterated to the board why the Long Range Planning Committee’s proposal should be followed/ Bethany Blitz , Coeur d’Alene Press. More here.

Question: What would you do with the historic structure?