The public weighs in and a meeting is scheduled to discuss the future of Highland High School
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POCATELLO — A local school district will hold a meeting Wednesday following the results of a survey regarding the future of Highland High School and the rest of the district.
Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 (PCSD 25) has scheduled a special meeting for the Board of Trustees at 2 p.m. to go over the survey results and decide what the district’s next steps are.
The three options listed on the survey include:
- Use insurance replacement funds only to rebuild Highland using the facility’s original footprint as it was prior to the fire.
- Use insurance replacement funds plus additional bond funding to rebuild and enhance Highland’s facilities at the school’s current location.
- Use insurance replacement funds plus additional funding to acquire property and build a new 1800-student capacity high school and repurpose Highland’s current facility for use as an elementary or middle school.
The district would not need to pass a bond on the first option. The second would require a $12 to $25 million bond and the third would require a $115 to $125 million bond.
The option that garnered the most support from district stakeholders was the first option to rebuild Highland as it was. On the other questions, the response was more divided. In total, the survey received 2,959 responses from district stakeholders.
When EastIdahoNews.com asked district spokeswoman Courtney Fisher for a timeline on when construction would start a new school is built, she said, “That timeline is dependent upon multiple factors. The district anticipates that this process may take between 3-4 years to complete.”
When stakeholders were given the chance to choose between $25 million, $75 million, $100 million or $125 million bonds, the $25 million bond received the most support.
What the fire investigation revealed
The results of this survey came out before the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office Fire Investigation Report and the Pocatello Fire Department Fire Investigation Report revealed Highland High School was not in compliance with many fire safety standards before most of D-wing was destroyed in a fire.
RELATED | Highland High School failed its fire inspection before April’s blaze
Among these standards was a failure to service the fire alarm system, not maintaining fire doors from the stage to the choir/band room corridor and removal of the door leading to the northside corridor as well as not having fire-rated stage curtains.
When the April fire occurred, the alarm system never triggered to notify the fire department. Rather, a burglary alarm somehow went off bringing an officer to the scene who called in the blaze.
Because the fire alarm never went off, none of the school’s fire doors closed. The firefighters on scene had to close them manually to protect the rest of the school from the flames.
While the alarm never triggered to warn firefighters, Fisher said that the D-wing’s heat-activated sprinklers, warning horns and strobes all activated.
“It is the district’s understanding that the sprinkler flow switch did not trigger the fire alarm system control panel. No additional sprinkler or fire alarm zones throughout the school were activated because the flames or heat of the fire did not impact those areas,” Fisher said.
It is still unknown why the alarm never notified authorities of the fire.
Fisher pointed out that, “While the insurance investigation is still ongoing, the fire has been ruled accidental and is considered a covered loss.”
The Fire Marshal’s report concluded the stage curtains were the probable first fuel for the fire, which was originally sparked on the cafeteria stage. A facility report from around the time of the failed inspection showed that this was a “multi-year repeat” violation.
Fisher said maintenance deals with work orders in excess of $1,500 to $2,000 per month, which requires them to often “complete projects and address issues in phases.”
When EastIdahoNews.com asked Fisher if the district’s maintenance schedule could handle adding another school if that’s what they decided to do, she said, “PCSD 25 continually evaluates the needs of its facilities… This ongoing effort requires the prioritization of projects to accomplish with the finite resources of taxpayer dollars.”
So far, no decisions have been made based on the results of the survey, but it has drawn controversy from some members of the district’s Board of Trustees.
Trustees and the public responds
Idaho Education News quoted Trustee Deanna Judy from a regular meeting when the board discussed the results of the survey. She said she wasn’t given enough time to weigh in on the survey before it was sent out to the public. She also disagreed with how they framed the questions in the survey, saying that a new school should be marketed for the whole community rather than for Highland.
Trustee Heather Clarke disagreed with Judy, saying she thought the survey was an appropriate way to gauge public sentiment toward the ideas proposed. She also added that there would be opportunities to interact with the public in the future.
“The Board of Trustees is actively engaged in the decision-making process, which includes ongoing discussions and planning meetings to evaluate community feedback provided by the survey, as well as other factors such as the completion of the insurance investigation, which is still active and pending release of the burn-out site to the district,” Fisher said.
A wide range of comments were made anonymously from stakeholders on the survey including:
“We need another elementary in the Chubbuck area, but not another high school. I feel Highland is a sufficient high school and the bond money should go to a new elementary in the Chubbuck area.”
“I think building another high school is inevitable, may as well be now.”
“We need bigger but with the cost of everything else we cannot afford a new plot of land and TWO new schools. Thank you.”
“Do it right the first time! Our community needs a good large high school to support the growth of our area. Especially north of town. Chubbuck needs a high school. So let’s support our kids and build for the future and get a great high school. My kids go to century but we support a good high school for our community!!”
“The fact that this is even a question is ridiculous. Just use the funds you have and rebuild it just as it was. There are plenty other schools that that type of money could and should go to.”
“Make Highland a true 5 A-6A School with adequate parking. Buy the property across from Highland and make it an awesome school.”
“This event is being used to force a new bond upon the taxpayers of the county. Our property taxes are high enough. If the issue would have been fixed appropriately a fire would never have occurred.”