School board looks at cost-saving measures, including possible school closure

LAVA HOT SPRINGS — The future of the sole remaining school in Lava Hot Springs is in question.

While there are no immediate plans to close the Lava Elementary School, the cost-saving option is being discussed by the Marsh Valley Joint School District 21 school board at a meeting Monday.

The meeting will focus on the larger topic of cost-savings at school facilities including the dilemma about Lava Elementary. But it will be limited to discussion, no official actions are expected to be made.

“Nobody in the district really wants to see a school shut down,” Board Chairwoman Paige Armstrong tells EastIdahoNews.com.

Still the district is recognizing the high cost of operating the school compared to the relatively small number of students it serves. Armstrong says its an important discussion to have as the district is considering future school bond or levy proposals for future development.

“We wanted to have a discussion about our finances and if we’re being as responsible as we can be,” Armstrong says.

Lava Elementary School is a school that is experiencing declining enrollment, and currently only serves 67 students. As a result, some of its grades have been combined into the same classes. It’s more expensive to educate students at a smaller school, Armstrong says, because despite the lower number of students, the school still needs to be fully staffed with principals, custodians, lunch workers, etc.

One option to cut costs, would be to shut down the school and redistribute students and staff to surrounding schools in Downey and McCammon.

In this scenario, the students from Lava would shift to McCammon Elementary School, and some of the kids currently in McCammon would move to Downey Elementary School. Armstrong said Downey’s school would see an increase in students, which it can handle, while McCammon would remain about the same size.

Armstrong stressed this is just one option under consideration by the board, and no decisions have been made about the school.

Within the Lava Hot Springs community, there is some resistance to talk about shutting down the school. A group of parents recently formed the SOS – Lava Save our School group on Facebook.

The group organized a community meeting that took place on March 6, to talk about the situation.

Tyson Koester, a parent with two children at Lava Elementary, said the community meeting cleared up rumors that flew around the community that the school’s fate had already been decided. Koester also said they discussed ways to keep all the elementary schools in the district open.

“We’re a rural school district and the elementary schools that we do have are the heart and soul of those towns,” Koester said.

Armstrong and Koester feel the solution to this problem is something the community and school district needs to work on together. They both feel like there are many options to help the district more efficiently allocate its resources.

Koester feels there needs to be a better analysis done of the maintenance costs for what each school building needs. He also feels there needs to be a ten-year plan that takes into account potential growth Lava Hot Springs could experience.

Many members of the Facebook group worry if Lava Hot Springs were to lose their elementary school, it would make it more difficult for the town to experience growth. They worry those people might instead move to other nearby communities with schools.

“Lava is very prideful of our school,” Koester said. “It means a lot, especially to the folks that their blood runs deep here.”

Koester referenced how there are people who have left Lava Hot Springs and come back once their kids were old enough so they could put them into Lava Elementary.

“Those schools are kind of the community hub there. For Lava, we have a very successful Halloween carnival and Christmas play and they really are the heartbeat of these small communities,” Koester said.

One of the possible other solutions to solving the funding issue is a partnership between the school and the city. Armstrong has spoken with a city councilman about ways for the community to use the school facilities on nights and weekends.

“There are some community members over in Lava that are very great team players and are discussing some options that we have,” Armstrong said.

Monday’s school board meeting will happen at the District Office Building at 40 School Street in Arimo at 7 p.m. Armstrong says they will discuss all options on the table. Only at a later meeting will the board be able to take any official action.