A notice of determination of nonsignificance, which has to be filed under the State Environmental Policy Act for new construction, was posted recently on the site where a new Jefferson Elementary School will be constructed. The deadline for comments or an appeal to be submitted to the school district is Wednesday.

City leaders have paved the path to build larger elementary and junior high school parking lots. The Spokane City Council voted 4-3 Monday to allow school districts to build lots with up to 2  1/2 spaces for each classroom. Since 2006, parking lots for those schools had been capped at 1  1/2 per classroom. There were no limits before that.

Spokane Public Schools hosted another open house at Jefferson Elementary School last Thursday. Neighbors, parents, teachers and school district staff gathered in the gym to see the renderings of the new school. The site chosen by the school board places the new school building west of the school’s current location, but not all the way over by Manito Boulevard.

Libby Center finished in first place Saturday in the MathCounts middle school competition at Northwood Middle School. The competition included teams from Davenport, St. George’s, Northwood, Lakeside and Sacajawea. St. George’s placed second and Sacajawea third. The top two teams have been invited to compete in the state competition March 12.

After a year of analysis, traffic and home sale surveys and hundreds of public comments, the Spokane school board has unanimously voted Wednesday to rebuild Jefferson Elementary School on the west side of Hart Field.

The battle over the future of Spokane's Jefferson Elementary School remained heated Wednesday. More than 200 people attended a public forum before the Spokane School Board, many making their case for where the school should be rebuilt and how that could affect the adjoining Hart Field.

The options for relocation of Spokane’s Jefferson Elementary School have been narrowed to two – one east and one west, according to a recently released report prepared by Spokane Public Schools administrators. Both options will be presented during a public forum Wednesday in front of the Spokane School Board.

What began as three different proposals for the remodeling or rebuilding of Jefferson Elementary School earlier this year quickly evolved into a major neighborhood controversy when some neighborhood residents turned out to be wildly opposed to relocating the school. Tuesday evening the next chapter in the saga was written when Spokane Public Schools delivered on its promise to present a property value study and a traffic study for neighbors.

There was no escaping neighborhood opposition when Spokane Public Schools held an open house about the remodeling and possible relocation of Jefferson Elementary in the school’s gymnasium Tuesday evening. Poised on the stairs at the main entrance was Mick Heacox collecting signatures opposing the relocation of the school.

More than 100 people signed in at the Comstock Neighborhood Council meeting last Wednesday – and they all had quite a lot to say about one specific agenda point: the site selection for Jefferson Elementary School. Spokane Public Schools has launched an extensive districtwide remodeling project, as part of which Jefferson can either be remodeled at its current location by the intersection of Grand Boulevard and 37th Avenue, or moved to the west end of Hart Field, by the intersection of 37th Avenue and Manito Boulevard, or moved to the northern part of Hart Field, across the street from Sacajawea Middle School.