Not always does a meeting need action items to have a good discussion.
During commissioner reports on a very light Airway Height Planning Commission meeting agenda Feb. 10, Commissioner Sonny Weathers commented that he had received several emails asking about the growth in the Cheney School District and the need for more schools in the city. Weathers suggested the commission might include how Airway Heights might go about getting property in the city for the school district to build another school as a future meeting agenda item.
Cheney School District is one of the largest geographical districts in the state, and Airway Heights Development Services Director Derrick Braaten said when they go about their planning process to accommodate student and population growth, they attempt to make decisions that will best impact the district as a whole, rather than specific areas.
Those decisions tend to produce school construction that is more centralized within the district. Airway Heights, which Commissioner Matthew Pederson said has been part of the district for over 100 years, is located towards the northern edge of the district.
“We’re suffering because we’re on the edge, so we get pushed towards the middle,” Braaten said.
That has led to most high school students being bussed to Cheney, as well as middle school students, who are now bussed to Westwood Middle School. All elementary school students traditionally attend Airway Heights’ only school, Sunset Elementary, but that changed when Snowdon Elementary School opened in the West Terrace residential area at Holly and Hallett roads east of Interstate 90 in 2013.
Due to redrawn school boundaries, some Airway Heights students are now bussed to Snowdon. In 2010, Cheney School District voters passed a $78 million construction bond to demolish and rebuild Cheney Middle School and a new middle school, Westwood, 2.5 milles east of Snowdon down Hallett Road. The bond passage also freed up state money to help fund construction of Snowdon.
Braaten said the need for more schools in Airway Heights has been discussed often in the past. When the school district does their periodic growth analysis, new schools in Airway Heights “doesn’t pencil out.”
”That’s the response we have received,” Braaten added.
Noting Airway Heights’ longevity within the Cheney School District, Pederson added that the Medical Lake School District was much closer to them than Cheney. Adding that he is a Cheney High School alumnus – “I’m a Blackhawk” – Pederson said a “realistic solution, albeit difficult solution,” would be to combine both West Plains’ school districts into one.
Growth on the West Plains has produced larger interconnectivity between not only the three cities but also the school districts, and Pederson said communities could still retain their individual identity while sharing in the strengths both school districts bring to the table. He added there could be financial savings as well through reductions in places like administration as positions are combined, with some eliminated due to redundancy.
“It could make a lot of sense to shuffle those assets and look at the bigger picture,” Pederson said, adding that while there has been discussion at the administrative level about a merge of districts in the past, those discussions typically go nowhere.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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