Members of the Coeur d'Alene School Board have made it official — the old Hayden Lake School on Government Way in Hayden will be sold to Hayden Bible Fellowship, Inc. for $2.3 million.

The school, built in 1936, was appraised in February for $1,920,000. That amount was disclosed Monday during the school board meeting, a condition that accompanied acceptance of the bid offer, per Idaho code.

The school originally went out for bid in March and the two bids that came in, both under the appraised value, were opened April 20. The board opened a second bidding process, setting the minimum amount at $2 million. Again two bids were received. This time, the Taylor Revocable Living Trust offered $2,026,000 and Hayden Bible Fellowship submitted a $2,302,560 offer.

The bids were opened May 20. The board unanimously voted to accept the appraisal and the latter bid.

"It's been quite a journey over this last year," Coeur d'Alene School District director of operations Jeff Voeller said during the meeting, while communicating that district administration recommended the board move forward with accepting the high bid.

He said this will come back to the board for final approval in 30 days when the district receives closing documents and a final resolution is prepared.

"It's kind of bittersweet on the selling of this building, having attended there," Trustee Casey Morrisroe said.

He said he spoke with members of the purchasing organization during the bid opening.

"It is their intent to keep the original school building and utilize that as office and do some additions to it down the road," Morrisroe said. "I appreciate that that historic value of that building's going to be maintained."

Also during the board meeting, Chair Jen Brumley and trustees honored Superintendent Steve Cook with an award following the superintendent's report of all that has been accomplished in the district since he began in July 2018, as well as the important work ahead.

Cook's Coeur d'Alene contract will be complete at the end of the month. He will depart to become the superintendent of the Bend-La Pine School District in Bend, Ore.

"The love and the passion that you had for kids and your staff, your teachers, everybody, has just been exemplified, day in and day out," Brumley said to Cook. "We're going to miss you without question."

Cook responded with gratitude.

"I just would like to thank the community. I would like to thank the board for taking a chance on me," he said. "When you're a deputy superintendent you think you know a lot of things, and when you're a superintendent, you realize you don't know a lot of things. I just want to thank you all for the last three years. It's been an amazing journey for me. I've learned more than I could have ever expected to and I've established connections with each and every one of you.

"I want to thank you all for your belief, your commitment to good work, and, most of all, for the love and compassion and the care that you give to all of our students," he continued. "The pay that you get from this job is just the work that our kids are able to do and the support that we can give to the staff in our school district so that this community's expectations can be met and exceeded. I'm just so grateful for the hard work and dedication that you all have."