WBCSD continues junior high, facilities talks

PRIEST RIVER — During their Nov. 20 meeting, West Bonner County School District trustees announced their intent to continue their review of a facilities committee recommendation to close Priest River Junior High to all use on Jan. 1, 2025. 

While the junior high has not hosted classes since trustees voted unanimously in June to relocate middle schoolers to Priest River Lamanna High School, the building’s gymnasium has been used for events and activities and hosted sports practices. As the seasonal expenses of heating and plowing approach, WBCSD Operations Director Ryan Carruth shared the facilities committee’s recommendation with trustees as a way to save money.  

“We also are recommending that the board would consider other potential closures or ways that we can lessen the footprint of the district,” Carruth said Wednesday.  

During a Nov. 13 facilities committee meeting, district staff and community members explored the possibility of closing Idaho Hill Elementary or Priest Lake Elementary and consolidating grade schoolers to reduce costs. 

Board Vice-Chair Ann Yount spoke in support of the recommendation to winterize the junior high, citing the budget strain and advice from former interim Superintendent Joe Kren. 

“When we discussed closing schools last year, Mr. Kren said that we needed to raise a million dollars to function this year. We have not raised a million dollars,” Yount said. “We've raised almost one-tenth of that. We have got to make some cuts.”

Trustee Paul Turco asked whether the funds saved by closing the facility for the winter would be worth uprooting the facility’s users. In his response, Carruth described snow removal at the building as “a huge task” and told trustees winterizing the school would free up some district maintenance resources. 

During the meeting, PRLHS Principal Matt George urged trustees to make a decision about the facility’s future soon to allow time for sports teams and other groups to react. 

“If you wait until December to make a decision, we're scrambling to figure out where our kids are going to go,” George said. 

Trustee Delbert Pound addressed the latter part of the facilities committee’s recommendation by suggesting a need to take urgent action to reduce the district’s footprint. 

“My thought is we might have to start closing these schools down now,” Pound said. “We need to start making these hard decisions now, because I think we’re going to have some more hard decisions up ahead of us.” 

Board Chair Margaret Hall voiced opposition to closing any of the district’s active schools before the end of the academic year. 

“I would be strongly against disrupting the two elementary schools — Idaho Hill or Priest Lake Elementary — at this time,” Hall said. “We have funds available to get through the rest of the year.” 

With Wednesday’s meeting approaching five and a half hours in length, trustees voted to continue discussing the facilities committee’s recommendation at a Dec. 9 special meeting, hosted at 6:30 p.m. in PRLHS’s cafeteria. 

“Each one of these decisions, there’s a lot of thought that goes into it,” Turco said of the discussion. “We are making decisions that are not only affecting our lives, but our families’ lives, our community's lives — they're not easy decisions to make.”