Trustees of the largest school district in Idaho by geography sought community input this month on a plan to split into two districts. Some in the Mountain View School District argue the move would return control to local communities, while others fear smaller districts would struggle financially.

Dozens of teachers, parents, and community members attended a series of public hearings this month on Mountain View’s draft deconsolidation plan. 

The final hearing is set for Nov. 6. Following the hearing, the board of trustees will vote on whether or not to send the plan to the State Board of Education. If the State Board approves the plan, it will appear on the May 2025 ballot. 

The last time a school district deconsolidated was in 2006, when the then-Grangeville School District split into the Salmon River and Mountain View school districts. 

Funding fights

This is not the first time that deconsolidation has come up in the Mountain View district.  

Earlier this year, the topic arose when the board of trustees made it clear to the communities of Kooskia, Grangeville and Elk City that if the $5.8 million two-year supplemental levy did not pass in May, the district would likely close Clearwater Valley High School and Elk City School. 

That levy passed, for the first time in years, after a series of denials, but the passage didn’t address a slew of other concerns in the communities.

Superintendent Alicia Holthaus said splitting the districts has been a topic of conversation for over a decade. 

The current district stretches from Oregon to Montana. The zones for the board of trustees therefore are large and the needs of the communities they represent are diverse. 

“It’s really hard to have a common or cohesive plan,” she said.

The communities also have differing needs in part due to school size. 

• Clearwater Valley Elementary School — 117 students.
• Clearwater Valley Junior-Senior High School — 170 students.
• Elk City Elementary School — 13 students.

The three schools would make up the proposed new Clearwater Valley School District.

• Grangeville Elementary Middle School — 509 students.
• Grangeville High School — 253 students.

These two schools would form the second district.

It costs more per child to educate students in Elk City, $15,692, and Clearwater Valley, $16,188, in comparison to Grangeville, $11,683, according to district calculations.

Parents and community members in Elk City and Clearwater Valley have consistently raised concerns that their students have less options for electives and athletics in comparison to Grangeville, Holthaus acknowledged. 

In the spring of 2023, a survey revealed that 82% of parents and students favored deconsolidation. 

When Holthaus, who recently retired as superintendent in St. Maries, was hired for a one-year contract, she began the process of creating a plan for deconsolidation at the behest of the school board. 

A draft of the plan was posted last week with public hearings held in each of the three communities over the past week. 

The plan

Elk City and Clearwater Valley schools would make up the new Clearwater Valley School District. The two Grangeville schools would become their own district. 

Students enrolled in any of the schools would be allowed to stay where they are through their educational career. Students from Elk City would have the choice of which high school to attend in perpetuity. 

Idaho is an open-enrollment state, so students from Clearwater Valley could enroll in Grangeville or the nearby Kamiah School District if they chose, depending on program availability.

Clearwater Valley would have $2.4 million in property value per student compared to Grangeville’s $1.2 million per student. 

Trustees Bernadette Edwards and Tyler Harrington both emphasized that was by design to give the smaller district the best chance of maintaining their services. 

Based on current levy rates, Edwards repeatedly told community members, Clearwater Valley families would pay less too. 

The current levy rate is $185 per $100,000 of assessed property value. 

If the split occurred, Clearwater Valley residents would pay $115 per $100,000 compared to Grangeville’s $230. 

The trustees also emphasized the communities would have more local control over the schools.

After the draft plan is finalized on Nov. 6, the trustees would vote to send the plan to the State Board. If the State Board passes the plan, then it will be sent to the Idaho County commissioners who can put it on the May ballot. 

A simple majority of voters in the Mountain View School District would have to vote in support of deconsolidation. Then a simple majority of voters in the smaller district, Clearwater Valley, would also have to vote in support of the separation. 

If deconsolidation passes, the State Board would then appoint two new boards of five trustees, one for each district. Those boards would work together for a year to split the districts along with hiring or rearranging staff. 

The split would go into effect for students in the fall of 2026. 

The full draft plan is available on the school district website. 

Community concerns

The first of the three public hearings was held on Oct. 17 in Grangeville. 

Andrew Lane, a local business owner with three kids in school, said he is 100% in support of splitting up, arguing it would benefit everyone.  

“I really think the community of Grangeville is going to thrive,” he said. “I think it’s going to be able to control its own destiny and I think the same thing for Clearwater Valley.”

Andrea Soleberg agreed, noting that Mountain View is an anomaly with a such a large geographical area in one district. 

“Small, self-contained districts are operated solely by the community where the schools reside,” she said. “That’s the way Idaho typically operates the education business in Idaho because it works. Communities support what is theirs.” 

Idaho County Commissioner Ted Lindsley said he’s fine with deconsolidation but questioned the decision to put Elk City with Kooskia. 

The general consensus is that Kooskia residents won’t pass a levy and without the levy couldn’t support the Elk City school, which residents do not want to close, Lindsley said. 

“That community up there has got to have a school or it dies,” he said.

He said he gathered over 100 signatures from Elk City residents who want to be with Grangeville. 

The second hearing in Elk City on Tuesday drew about 30 attendees. 

Sue Phillips, the school librarian, said she thinks Elk City residents should have a formal vote on which district they’d like to join. 

Caitland Tow swayed in the back row with her baby strapped to her chest. She emphasized the importance of having a school up in Elk City. She went to high school in Kooskia but thinks the Elk City kids would have a better chance of excelling in Grangeville. 

Robyn Smith, the U.S. Forest Service’s area ranger, said she would have an extremely hard time recruiting employees without a school in Elk City.

A few people expressed the desire to stay with Grangeville because it’s more likely a levy would pass to keep the Elk City school open. 

Trustee Harrington said it’s not a foregone conclusion that a levy would pass. 

“It sounds like nobody wants to be associated with Kooskia, that’s what the sentiment is … what I’m feeling is that if you’re associated with Kooskia you feel like you’re going to be shut down but if you’re associated with Grangeville they’re going to force you to stay open…or force you to pass levies,” he said. 

He said voting history played a part in putting the deconsolidation plan together.

“The only hard data that we had, with the exception of last year, is the voting records and Elk City and Clearwater Valley have voted pretty much the same for 10 years plus,” Harrington said. “It shows commonality and solidarity there.” 

He added that the plan the trustees created was to keep expenses down without impacting academics and that meant putting Elk City with Kooskia. 

The third meeting was held at Clearwater Valley High School Wednesday. 

Butch Suor, who lives outside of Stites, was vocally against the plan. 

“I don’t know where this concoction come from but … I’m 100% against it,” he said. “Cause what I see down the road, the big losers in this are the kids.” 

He expressed frustration that Trustee Jon Menough, who represents Elk City, and Trustee Larry Dunn from White Bird, weren’t at the meeting.  

Rossella Pogue of Kooskia, who attended multiple hearings, said she was frustrated by the speed of the deconsolidation move. She suggested pushing the vote to next November to allow Elk City to have their own community vote for which district they would like to join.