Historic elementary school to close after vote by local school board
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POCATELLO – A local school board has voted to accept a proposal to redraw its district’s boundary lines, which effectively closes a beloved elementary school.
On Tuesday evening at its regular board meeting, the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 Board of Trustees voted in favor of the Elementary Attendance and Enrollment Area Subcommittee’s proposal, selecting option 1, which closes Washington Elementary School.
Two of the five trustees, Heather Clarke representing Zone 2 and Jim Facer representing Zone 3, voted against the motion.
As the trustees discussed closing Washington, some expressed interest in restoring and reopening the elementary school at a later date.
“I believe, as we all believe, there’s still growth happening in this community, and with the direction that it’s growing, we will need that building as a school,” said Clarke, vice chair of the board.
Before the passed motion, Clarke moved to redraw the boundaries without closing any elementary schools, which did not receive a second.
“This committee has 11 meetings over a period of months … I think we have to respect all the hard work they put into that,” said Assistant Treasurer Raymond Knoff, the trustee representing Zone 4.
For Knoff and the other Trustees, the decision came down to fiscal responsibility.
“None of us wants to close the school. There’s not anybody on this school board of trustees, I don’t think there’s anyone in the district, that wants to close the school, but we have to be maintaining fiscal responsibility,” Knoff said.
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One Washington parent, Dakota Bates, who represented the Washington Elementary Advocates, shared his reaction to the trustees’ decision with EastIdahoNews.com at the meeting’s conclusion.
“I don’t think they have any intention of reopening Washington for the same reasons they closed it. They don’t want to spend the money to save it,” Bates said.
This decision comes right before the school’s centennial anniversary. Founded in 1925, Washington would have occupied the building for 100 years by the next school year.
The board also voted to accept the proposals for the middle school and high school subcommittees and redraw the boundaries for both levels of school. EastIdahoNews.com has not received full-resolution maps of the district’s new boundary lines and will publish those when available.
This marks the end of a process that lasted less than four months. It started in October when the school district formed two subcommittees to evaluate the years-long decline in enrollment. Elementary schools alone lost 742 students over the last seven years.
RELATED | School district considers closing near-century old elementary school
However, the trustees’ statement on the necessity of maintaining and restoring the building as a district asset may mark the beginning of a new process. The trustees could potentially propose a bond to the voters and dedicate the funds to restoring the school.
The proposal to redraw the boundaries, closing Washington Elementary School, was first presented by the elementary subcommittee at the November school board meeting, prompting members of the Historic College Neighborhood to form a group called the Washington Elementary Advocates.
While the committee’s official recommendation remained to close Washington, it expanded its proposal. It provided data for two other options: to close Tendoy Elementary School or to close no schools, but it still redrawn the boundaries on both options.
This prompted teachers and parents from Tendoy to speak out against closing their neighborhood school and criticize the district’s process.
Mary Anne McGrory, representing the Pocatello Education Association, defended the process the district and the committee took.
“This process has been one of the most transparent ones in the district’s history. You charged each committee to find fiscally responsible solutions to address the decrease in state funding and balance the student numbers. You need to trust their decision-making and their recommendations,” McGrory said.
McGrory also called on the public to support their school district by demanding that the legislature provide needed funding for public school districts.
“I encourage all community members to contact their legislators and demand full funding for public schools,” McGrory said.
Dakota Bates spoke on behalf of the Washington Elementary Advocates, making the case for why the district shouldn’t close either elementary school, and updated the district on the organization’s efforts to become a 501c3, allowing them to raise funds for the school.
“This allows us to solicit donations, raise awareness, and lobby on behalf of Washington and the district,” Bates said.
Bates also said the organization was working to establish a network of alumni, as well as applying to establish Washington on the National Register of Historic Places.
Stephanie Powers, a third-grade teacher at Tendoy, also explained why the district shouldn’t close either school.
“I do not believe that closing schools is the right thing to do as it is not addressing the underlying issue you and the district administration need to work out. Work on finding out why families are choosing to look for charter schools and private schools instead of finding problems in our schools to justify their closure,” Powers said.
The district has provided several reasons for the decline in elementary enrollment, including declining birthrates and parents looking for alternatives like charter school and homeschooling.
Bates agreed with Powers, telling EastIdahoNews.com after the meeting that he sees closing Washington as a “band-aid” solution.
“The problem is, we’re losing kids to other forms of education they never once looked at or even took the time to decide, or took the time to find out, why are kids leaving the district?” Bates said. He contends that not adequately funding elementary schools is a cause.
“Until the board and the district realizes that they need to invest in elementary schools, I think they’re going to continue to lose kids,” Bates said.