Students in one of Coeur d'Alene's downtown public schools will spend next year learning in the northern section of the district.

School officials announced Monday that while Winton Elementary undergoes an almost total rebuild, the Lacrosse Avenue school's students and staff will be relocated for the 2014-15 school year to Hayden Lake Elementary, the current site of the district's Kinder Center.

Before selecting Hayden Lake Elementary for the relocation site, school officials considered other locations, including commercial space and churches closer to the Winton neighborhood.

"It became clear that this was the best choice in terms of keeping the Winton students and staff together and in terms of cost to our district," said Superintendent Matt Handelman. "We need to treat our kids well but also be conscious of what we're doing with the bond money."

The Winton construction project is one of several being paid for with a $32.7 million bond approved by voters in August 2012.

Details regarding busing and other relocation logistics are still being finalized.

The Kinder Center has been operating at Hayden Lake Elementary on Government Way since 2009. It serves as the kindergarten location for students in the Atlas, Ramsey and Skyway elementary school sending zones. Kindergarten students in those zones will attend their neighborhood schools next year.

But parents will also have the option of sending their kindergartners to Hayden Lake Elementary next year, if they want their children to attend school in a pilot Core Knowledge classroom.

Core Knowledge is a copyrighted teaching method that is, according to its developer, E.D. Hirsch Jr., based on the belief that learning depends on a broad base of knowledge known as "cultural literacy." Hirsch has written several books on the Core Knowledge concept and theorizes that there is a core body of knowledge students need to acquire in order to learn; the more they know, the more they are able to learn.

Core Knowledge provides specific, concise standards for each grade and those standards build on each other from year to year, similar to the controversial Common Core Standards now in place in Idaho schools and in schools in nearly every other state.

"While standards are not a curriculum, the Common Core State Standards echo and support the work of the Core Knowledge Foundation for the last 25 years," states the Core Knowledge website, www.coreknowledge.org.

The Coeur d'Alene School District began piloting Core Knowledge at the Kinder Center this year. The initial push to consider the teaching method came from former trustee Brent Regan.

Next year, in addition to a Core Knowledge kindergarten class at Hayden Lake Elementary, the district will offer a first-grade Core Knowledge classroom at the school.

School officials will assess the program's effectiveness and parent interest before deciding whether to expand the program further in the future. If successful, Hayden Lake Elementary could, in the future, become a Core Knowledge Magnet School.

The Core Knowledge organization's 2012 Annual Report indicates there are 1,100 preschool- or kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools using the Core Knowledge teaching and learning system. The Coeur d'Alene School District is the first in North Idaho to offer the program. There are currently three Core Knowledge schools in Idaho: two in Idaho Falls and one in Gooding.

Next year, parents from throughout the Coeur d'Alene School District will have the choice to send their kindergartner or first-grader to the Core Knowledge pilot school, but children from the Atlas, Ramsey or Skyway neighborhoods will be given first preference.