School board unanimously votes to relocate alternative high school

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

A crowd of more than 80 community members, teachers, parents and former students of Lake Pend Oreille High School gathered July 14 at the Lake Pend Oreille School District Board meeting, largely in protest of an agendized vote to relocate the alternative high school from its historic Boyer campus. Despite vocal and emotional opposition, the board of trustees voted unanimously to move LPOHS to the portables behind Sandpoint Middle School beginning in the 2027-’28 school year.

Meeting attendees included members of the Concerned Citizens for LPOHS Coalition, which filed an official grievance with LPOSD on June 30, demanding that they halt efforts to relocate the school from its 117-year-old building on 1005 North Boyer Ave., in Sandpoint. 

The 31-page document and subsequent conditional settlement offer alleged misuse of public funds, attendance and graduation data fraud, and violations of Idaho Open Meeting Law and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, among other claims. The group further threatened the board of trustees with recall efforts should they vote on the relocation without first holding a special public hearing on the issue.

The district has repeatedly denied the coalition’s allegations, citing past agendas and fiscal and attendance audits. Still, at the request of the coalition, the Idaho Department of Education is currently conducting an additional audit of the district’s PowerSchool Student Information System metadata.

LPOSD announced plans to relocate the alternative high school in February, citing declining attendance and the cost of necessary renovations and maintenance at the current campus, which requires new plumbing, electrical wiring, roofing, and a fire alarm and suppression system, among other issues. Because state funding is based on enrollment and attendance, LPOHS has been operating at a deficit, costing the district $528,042 over the past five years. 

The 2025-’26 graduating class has reduced enrollment to 51 students, resulting in a $308,056 loss in funding for the upcoming school year. To cut costs, the district has already eliminated all LPOHS electives, including physical education, which is a graduation requirement.

LPOHS students will remain in their current building for the 2026-’27 school year, attending core classes as usual while taking electives either online or at Sandpoint High School and the adjacent Career Technical Education Center, set to open in September. Following renovations, the school will then move into the portables behind SMS and continue with the same elective configuration.

The coalition argued that combining the campuses and classes will harm LPOHS’s youth, who have qualified for the alternative school for various reasons, including struggles with the academic and social environments at SHS. 

LPOSD Chief Financial and Operations Officer Brian Wallace and Superintendent Becky Meyer both pointed to increased LPOHS enrollment in SHS electives as proof of the system’s viability; however, opponents insisted that enrollment is only up because the district cut LPOHS’s electives.

“Administration claims that the school continues, yet they have already hollowed this program out,” said former-West Bonner County School District Superintendent Jackie Branum, speaking on behalf of the coalition at the July 14 meeting. “Only four teachers remain to teach four subjects. Forcing four remaining teachers in the trailers behind the middle school is not a routine relocation.”

Relocating LPOHS has been a longtime discussion topic, and, according to Meyer, the administration considered several options before deciding on the portables. While writing the initial grant to fund the CTE center, Meyer proposed revamping the district headquarters in Ponderay to house both the alternative high school and the CTE classrooms; however, the school board voted down the proposal due to potential access issues for SHS.

“In all transparency, there obviously are other options,” said Meyer. “We could maintain the current location at the Boyer site, and it would just really need to operate … as more of an isolated, small-school model, similar to how Clark Fork is running.”

That option would require students to take mostly online electives and would not solve the school’s financial issues, as Clark Fork High School qualifies for additional funds under the Secure Rural Schools Act, and LPOHS does not. The third option, which Meyer and the board of trustees all argued against, would be to close the school and save an estimated $600,000-$800,000.

Though the board room reached maximum capacity and late attendees were turned away in the parking lot, only seven members of the public signed up to speak at the July 14 meeting. Of them, five argued against the relocation. The audience remained vocal throughout, often criticizing board claims, shouting out negative experiences at SHS and repeatedly claiming that the board did not “understand how much these kids matter.” 

LPOSD Board Chair Lonnie Williams repeatedly called for quiet, banging his gavel and threatening the audience with expulsion, which prompted several members to leave.

Following public comment, Trustee Mahle Williams made the motion to relocate, which Trustee David DeMers seconded.

“I don’t know what to tell people when they say to me, ‘Do we really need the program? They didn’t have it when I was in school, and I’m tired of taxes. I don’t want to pay taxes anymore. So, I don’t care if it’s 25 cents, $25,000 or $350,000, I don’t want to pay for it.’” said DeMers. “Many of them move here, and they don’t want to pay taxes at all. We all know that. They’re not here to spend [money on] Road and Bridge or the library or anything like that — or schools. They’re not going to vote for anything. It’s always a ‘No.’”

His fellow board members agreed, arguing that the move to the portables is “what is best for students” and is the fiscally responsible choice for taxpayers.

“You guys have proven, over and over, these last few months, what a family you are,” added Mahle Williams, speaking to the former and current students in the room. “You come here, you show up, the community supports you … I have no doubt that that can continue.”

The board voted unanimously to relocate LPOHS. As of press time, the coalition had not initiated a multi-zone voter recall campaign, as threatened in the July 6 conditional settlement offer.