Governor’s office takes notice of grassroots push to replace school

BONNERS FERRY — District officials met with local contractors last Wednesday to brainstorm a grassroots effort to replace Valley View Elementary. 

After the bond measure to replace the school failed Nov. 5, Boundary County School District Superintendent Jan Bayer was contacted by several local builders and architects who suggested a joint meeting to explore an affordable, cooperative solution. The closed-door meeting took place at Valley View. 

One attendee, a senior employee from Idaho Forest Group, also spoke at the crowded Boundary County School Board meeting Tuesday. He cited IFG's 2017 lumber donation to help rebuild St. Ann’s Catholic Church as an example of how locals could support the Valley View project. 

District 1A State Rep. Mark Sauter also attended the closed-door meeting via Zoom.  

Last week, Sauter and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke toured Valley View in the wake of the district's third failed bond measure to replace the deteriorating school. 

“I’m embarrassed being here representing the state of Idaho,” Bedke said as Bayer and BCSB Co-chair Teresa Rae gave the Idaho officials a close look at Valley View’s outdated plumbing and heating systems and the building’s crack-lined walls. 

With district officials in Bedke’s ear about the grassroots effort to replace Valley View, they are now devising a proposal to send all the way up to Governor Brad Little’s desk.  

“Valley View is on the top of tongues in the Legislature and at the governor’s office,” Rae said at the school board meeting. 

Though the grassroots movement offers a potential new avenue to replace Valley View, lots of hurdles must be cleared at the local and state level. It can only succeed if state legislation changes. Rae said she hopes to testify in person at the next legislative session in January. 

“Our community is fed up, our legislature is fed up, so it’s a perfect storm to have something productive come of it, even if it is hard to accomplish,” Bayer said. 

About 20 local community members — many with architectural experience — who toured Valley View three years ago recently had another tour, and they were surprised at the extent of the building’s deterioration in such a short period of time. 

“We’re going to have to figure something out. The voters spoke, and now we have to deal with it,” said BCSB Chair Ron MacDonald at Tuesday’s meeting. “That building is not fit to have students in it, and we are worried.”