The Coeur d’Alene Schools Board of Trustees made the hard decision Monday night to close down Borah Elementary School and repurpose it into the district’s Early Learning Center, potentially saving the district $1.2 Million per year. The current Borah students will be dispersed among other area elementary schools including Bryan, Dalton, Fernan, Ramsey, and Winton. These changes are slated to go into effect beginning the 24/25 school year.
The $6 Million budget deficit brought a number of difficult decisions to the board at Monday’s meeting; besides the Borah vote the board also had to make tough choices around reducing the number of psychologists, instructional coaches, and assistant principals, including not filling currently vacant positions in areas across the district. The overall staff reduction, will bring a $3.6 Million savings per year.
The board also gave directions to staff to bring a 5-day calendar schedule back to the next board meeting that would emphasize PLC teacher development. The calendar committee will bring their recommended calendar to the May 13 board meeting for final approval.
During continuing discussion, Trustees agreed that continuing to be hyper-vigilant about the budget would help the district to avoid a budget crisis like this again. Trustee Anderton asked to have staff look at moving the district office to the Borah School and sell the district office building to bring in more money...they will continue to have discussions around this topic. Trustee Bjerke mentioned that they need to rebuild bridges within the community to regain the public’s trust, not only to raise enrollment numbers, but also for when the district asks the public to pass the next supplemental levy.
After the meeting the district sent out four letters: one to all school district families, one specifically for the Borah families, one for all staff, and one for Borah staff. Attached to each letter was the final spreadsheet of reductions that the board went through during the meeting, all of which are available on the CDA Schools website here.
This was the first meeting after Shocker was announced as a finalist for a superintendent position in Pueblo [Colorado] School District #60. After the Pueblo School Board interview, Shocker was passed over for that job and had to return to Coeur d’Alene, sending a letter to district staff “assuring Coeur d'Alene team members he will continue to work together with them in the best interest of the students and staff.”
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