COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Parents of kids attending Borah Elementary School in Coeur D’Alene are unhappy with the school districts decision to shut the school to students in an effort to save money.
The Coeur D’Alene School District is facing a $6 million deficit in their budget for the 2024-2025 school year., including declining enrollment and increasing cost of operation.
The school district decided two weeks ago that they would close Borah Elementary to students and repurpose it as an early learning center.
Parents of students at the school were upset about the decision, including Patricia Gonzalez, who is afraid her bilingual son will not have the same teacher attention that he received with his teachers at Borah.
“I’m concerned about Mateo falling behind again, especially my kids being bilingual, that’s my main concern,” Gonzalez said.
The district agenda for their May 13th meeting showed both the current and potential future allocation of students in the CDA area, with updated numbers to each school with the addition of kids from Borah.
Another concern is that some students will be separated from their friends, and it will be difficult to adjust to a new school. Sara Queener has a second grade student, and she’s concerned about her son being split up from his current classmates.
“This is where he started school, and most of the kids have been in kindergarten with him throughout the grades, so I mean, it’s gonna be hard to start all over again,” Queener said.
The school district will meet on May 13th to vote on this new distribution of students, and the district will release their budget for the 2024-2025 school year in June.
