The empty Hayden Lake Elementary School will open for the 2017-18 school year as an attendance zone elementary school.

The Coeur d’Alene School District Board of Trustees passed the motion 3-2 at Monday night’s board meeting.

Vice Chair Dave Eubanks, Trustee Christa Hazel and Trustee Tom Hearn voted for the motion while Board Chair Casey Morrisroe and Trustee Tambra Pickford voted against it.

The board has been discussing options for the currently vacant Hayden Lake site for quite a while, trying to decide if it would be better to sell it, open it as an attendance zone school or open it as a magnet school.

Opening the school as an attendance zone school allows the district to adjust the attendance zones and choose which one is slated to attend the school.

The district and the board are aware there are crowding issues in the northwest part of the district where the student population is growing. One option for the Hayden Lake Elementary School is to serve students in that area of Coeur d’Alene until another property can be bought and another school be built.

As in previous meetings, Morrisroe voiced his opinion that the facility be used for short-term purposes.

“We need to find the right land in the right spot to build a new school,” he said. “I support the Long Range Planning Committee’s recommendation, but we are in a position that we need to use that school.”

However, a few trustees wanted to see the Hayden Lake site used more permanently.

This spring, the Coeur d’Alene School District called for proposals from staff, parents and community members to come up with ideas for a potential magnet school. Three proposals stood out among the rest: The Hayden COMPASS Academy, the G.R.I.T. Academy and the Hayden Lake Experiential Elementary.

Creating a magnet school or opening any school at the site would go against the proposal the district’s Long Range Planning Committee gave to the board in May, which said to sell the property.

“We have an opportunity to do something special and unique for the kids that come to this school, an opportunity you won’t get anywhere else,” Eubanks said. “Let’s give these kids a reason to come to this school. I like the idea of staying small and forming a magnet school.”

Hazel also reiterated her support for a magnet-style school, especially because so many community members worked so hard to put together the magnet school proposals.

“I think there has been plenty of passion and community input and some of those proposals have long lists of supporters,” she said. “I’m feeling very defensive for the people who put together proposals. This doesn’t feel right.”

Pickford made the first motion of the night, proposing to open the Hayden Lake site for the 2017-18 school year as an attendance zone school until another school in the northwest can be build. Also, the new school at the Hayden Lake site would give the opportunity for school staff to choose a focus if they want.

Her goal was to create an attendance zone school but also keep some of the ideas from the magnet proposals.

Morrisroe seconded the motion, but it failed 2-3. Other board members wanted the board to have a say in the focus of the school.

Hazel then made a motion to make the Hayden Lake site an attendance zone school with an emphasis going toward the Hayden COMPASS Academy. Hearn seconded the motion, but it failed with a 2-2 vote — Eubanks did not vote on the decision because he participated in creating the Hayden COMPASS Academy proposal.

Ultimately the board decided to make the site an attendance zone school and decide on a focus during a later vote, but no later vote was agreed upon.

“Well,” Hazel said, “I guess we have an attendance zone school.”