COEUR d’ALENE — Concerns about Coeur d'Alene School District's boundary revisions continue to revolve around magnet schools and how equality and equity will be distributed throughout the district once zoning changes are made.

Potential changes being examined and discussed by the Coeur d'Alene School District Boundary Review Committee are expected to be implemented next school year, but some parents and community members are apprehensive about consequences the changes might have.

Ramsey Magnet School of Science on the north side of Coeur d'Alene and Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities on the south both allow a limited number of students from across the district to enroll in either school through a lottery. Neither school has an attendance zone.

Currently, 55 percent of the 741 students enrolled at Ramsey and 43 percent of the 315 enrolled at Sorensen reside within each school's respective overlay zone.

The board of trustees is considering possibly creating attendance zones for the magnets, continuing some type of overlay zone process, continuing a lottery process or some combination of these options.

As of the Dec. 10 special school board meeting, a springboard model was adopted to potentially give Ramsey a 50 percent attendance zone and Sorensen an overlay with no hard attendance zone.

The first recommendation in the district's curriculum audit, conducted last spring, is for the district to "provide equal access to comparable programs, services and opportunities to impact student achievement. Take steps to allocate equitable resources based on student needs."

Mom Jamie Green told The Press she has kids enrolled in the highest socio-economic school and one of the lowest socio-economic schools in the district. She said she’s seen the inequities firsthand, "which include parental involvement, test scores, homelessness and free and reduced lunch population."

"If all schools were given the same opportunities of enrollment and magnet schools were intentional in their outreach, yet were also required to pull at least half of their attendance from their own attendance zone, I think we could see a bit more balance," she said. "If the goals of the audit are to be taken seriously, we should be aiming for a system in which no parent crosses their fingers and holds their breath that they don’t get into 'the wrong school.' There should not be a 'wrong school' in our district.”

Fernan STEM Academy P.E. teacher and former Fernan parent Julie Meredith said the goal of rezoning has been said to account for the growth in the northern part of the area and to make each school more equitable so that one school is not put at a disproportionate advantage or disadvantage over another.

"Looking at the research put out by the boundary committee, I’m not sure keeping the magnet schools the way they are now addresses these goals," she said. "This creates a disadvantage for neighboring schools and leaves them scrambling for much-needed additional resources."

As a parent and member of the boundary review committee, Marie Nail said one of her top concerns is achieving equity throughout the district. She cited the curriculum audit's recommendation to provide that equity.

"Of the five southern public elementary schools which are within 3 miles of each other, four are currently over 50-percent free and reduced school lunch. One is 19 percent, which is a magnet school. The test scores of these schools reflect these statistics," she said. "My concern is that after paying for the curriculum audit and boundary review consultants, we will remain in a similar position because the public is unaware of these inequities. The curriculum auditors stated, 'Such a shift in focus must take place at every level if the system is to realize improvement in every student's academic achievement.' Without addressing the treatment of magnet schools, this cannot happen."

Coeur d'Alene School District communications director Scott Maben said the district is aware of public interest in the boundary review process and the decisions that will be made in the next few months.

In recent weeks, the district has heard from several members of the boundary committee who have asked for clarification on the committee's role and authority with respect to two issues:

- They would like some direction on how magnet schools and their respective overlays or attendance zones may be part of the committee's purview to discuss and provide recommendations for consideration. What is within the committee's zone of authority and what is not?

- They would like the board to provide some guidance on the order of importance or prioritization of the committee's guiding principles.

Because of these concerns, Maben said the board is being asked to provide guidance on these items at tonight's meeting.

"Nothing is set until a final proposal goes to the board for a decision this March," Maben said.

The district and the board are listening intently to concerns about how the process will shape equity in the schools, Maben said.

"While equity is highlighted as a priority in the curriculum audit, the process of redrawing attendance boundaries also takes into consideration the top values as indicated by the 1,744 parents and guardians who responded to our boundary review survey last fall," he said. "Top issues from that survey include smaller class sizes, creating and maintaining neighborhood schools, having school close to where people live and remaining in their current schools. Questions about equity and diversity based on demographics ranked far lower in the survey."