Band-Aid philosophy won’t work in the Blaine County School District
Commentary by THERESA COMBER
The Blaine County School District has been providing first-class, quality
education to students for generations. Its goal for the 21st Century is to continue this
history by becoming a model school district in Idaho.
The school district and its patrons want to create an outstanding learning
environment that achieves the state required 20:1 student-to-teacher elementary school
ratio all the way through high school.
They want to move into the future with schools that uphold neighborhoods,
allowing them to become community centers.
They want to offer students the professional and technical learning
opportunities that are in such demand for high school graduates.
Finally, they want to allow a place of learning for Blaine County
residents who are searching for education in the second half of their lives.
Unfortunately, these goals are simply impossible to achieve with our
current infrastructure. Bellevue Elementary School is 35 years old. Built in 1965, it can
not accommodate the area’s swelling growth on its restrictive site.
Completed 27 years ago, Wood River High School was designed to accommodate
350 students; over 740 currently attend with many forced off campus for lunch as the
multiple use rooms such as the kitchen and cafeteria are stretched beyond capacity.
Although exemplary in overcoming space constraints with woefully
inadequate room sizes and common area, Carey School must grow to meet the needs of its
students.
Although a model in classroom size and common area space, the
state-of-the-art Wood River Middle School is already short classrooms, requiring teachers
to become "mobile," using carts for desks.
Undersized classrooms and inadequate common area space are universal
problems throughout the district. Student health-safety issues can no longer be remedied
with strategic Band-Aid measures. The year 2000 is upon us. We must plan now to improve
all Blaine County School facilities over the next 10 years and build a new Woodside
Elementary School.
Passing the school levy to build new plant facilities is now a necessity.
We’ve done the best we can, but we can no longer "get by."
Please, let’s pass the levy in the May 2 election. Let’s build a
model school district and provide all of Blaine County’s students, from ages 5 to 50
and beyond, with education that assures their success in the new century.
Theresa Comber is president of Ketchum-based The Lucas Marketing Group
and one of three people chairing the school levy campaign.
