Schools in Priest River (Post Falls, Sandpoint: homes, high schools, colleges)

[tac2008]

My family and I will be moving to northern Idaho within the next year and one of the properties we're considering is just north of Spirit Lake and zoned to Idaho Hill Elementary and Priest River junior and high schools.

Can anyone give any insight as to the quality of schools in this area? We've mainly been looking at properties in the areas just north/northwest of CDA (Athol, Spirit Lake, Rathdrum, etc.) I've had trouble finding very much information online and the realtors have just given generic responses when asked.

We have two young children, one of whom is special needs and will be starting kindergarten next year, and the other will be starting in the next couple of years.

Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of the above schools?

[mistyriver]

I have had two kids in the Priest River schools and I would not recommend them. They are getting worse, not better.

[mistyriver]

To add a little more: we moved here in 2002 and at that time Priest River Elementary was actually a very decent school.
It has since lost it's principal's and the district has gone thru several superintendents. The high school has chewed thru 3 principals in the last 4 years and has great difficulty finding new ones. The latest just started, I believe.
The few decent teachers are leaving and my youngest daughter ended up going to school and heading to the library there to take all of her classes online thru the state so she could take AP classes which the school didn't offer.
It is a beautiful area and I love living here but the school system, in my opinion is a train wreck with no hope of fixing itself until the school board is taken over by people who really understand and value education. I think it would have been better if West Bonner had never split from the LPO district in Sandpoint.
I would absolutely, definitely not put a special needs child in PR. They can't afford text books for every student, so I can't imagine what they would cut corners on with special needs. I would looks toward CDA or Sandpoint if possible.

[mistyriver]

Now that I've vented I feel like I should come back and say that my oldest daughter is now 25 and a college graduate with a fantastic and well-paying career in which she travels all over the world and my baby is in one of the 50 top rated colleges in the country.
So your child CAN come out of PR schools and do well, but be prepared for a lot of beating your head against the wall.

[mythreesonsb]

We moved to Sandpoint in this June from Alabama. We LOVE the area and this summer was wonderful!

Then, school started. I found out the day I registered my children for school about Common Core. I had no idea what it was, but have quickly become very knowledgable. Even though you are in a different school system than mine, Common Core is state-wide.

So, the first week in school, my 10th grader was stabbed in the hand with a pencil by another student, cussed at in every single class he took (even with teachers present), watched (with me) as one student pulled another out of a car after school and hit him multiple times, and there is no enforcement of the dress code (some of the girls look as if they are heading to a street corner after school).

After multiple emails to the principal (who told me they were a 5-Star rated school and has never received such a negative email) as well as the superintendent who shared how well the principal was doing, I shared that I may need to pull my son out and homeschool him (and his siblings). The answer I received was...."good luck".

Common Core, if you have not heard of it, is a National Agenda to indoctrinate children in a "collective" way of thinking. They are going to receive less than stellar education (no matter how "rigorous" they say the standards are) and will lead to Smarter Balance Assessments that will be mining data about our children to send to the government.

I would suggest researching Common Core (Idaho Core Standards) and learning about these yourself. I would also encourage you to just homeschool. Your children will be much better off. (We will be doing this in January).

[tac2008]

Thanks for the information. Your experience and the information we've found online definitely has us looking at other schooling options.

Anyone have any information or experience with the open enrollment policies of the schools in CDA or Post Falls?

Looking at the actual policies online it seems like it is theoretically possible to enroll a child in these schools when not actually residing in the district but does anyone have any experience with actually doing this? Is it something allowed with such rarity that it isn't a realistic option, or is it commonplace?