West Bonner seeks junior high input

PRIEST RIVER — West Bonner County School District is accepting community input as officials consider the future of Priest River Junior High. 

The district recently launched an online questionnaire for stakeholders on the WBCSD website. In it, respondents are invited to share ideas about how the building — which has not hosted classes for six months — should be used going forward.

Trustees voted unanimously to close the school in June in the face of budget turmoil. At the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, junior high students joined high schoolers at Priest River Lamanna High School. 

Since the school’s closure, district officials have sought to determine the best use for the facility. Ideas floated in committee and board meetings have included returning junior high students to the building, moving the district’s office to the facility, using the school as a career technical education hub and selling the property. 

Though the school hasn’t hosted classes, the school’s gymnasium has continued to be used by local sports teams and for community events since June. With winter heating bills approaching, WBCSD’s facilities committee made a recommendation to trustees during the board’s November meeting to close the school to all use and winterize the building; trustees weighed the costs and benefits of a closure before postponing a decision to a Dec. 9 special meeting 

During the same meeting, the district’s facility committee brought forth a recommendation to take steps to address the budget crisis by reducing West Bonner’s physical footprint. Since the recommendation was made, trustees have examined the potential outcomes of closing one or more additional schools in the district, including Idaho Hill Elementary and Priest Lake Elementary. 

Throughout the process, several trustees have emphasized the need to solicit and consider community input before consequential decisions are made. 

“I don’t want to make a decision without community input,” Board Chair Margaret Hall said at the board’s Oct. 16 meeting. “We need to start thinking about it because next year is going to be in front of us before we know it.” 

In addition to the junior high questionnaire, West Bonner is seeking input from students and parents or guardians as the district works to establish a career technical education pathway to prepare students for work in the forest products industry. WBCSD was awarded a $725,240 state grant in 2023 for the initative, which aims to prepare students to work critical local jobs. 

The junior high questionnaire can be found on the district’s website homepage at sd83.org. The career technical education questionnaire is available in a Nov. 26 post on West Bonner’s Facebook page.