Students, alumni and supporters of Lake Pend Oreille High School packed the district’s meeting room Tuesday to express frustration about the decision to move the school to portables behind Sandpoint Middle School in 2027.

Among those who spoke during the meeting’s public comment period was Kiley Cooke, a recent graduate of the school. Cook said LPOHS is a family, and that their home is the school’s current location. She asked the board to give the community time to find the money or enrollment to keep the school in its current building. 

“Taking students who left Sandpoint High School because that environment didn't work for them and putting them right back there defeats the purpose of LPO,” Cooke said. “You're not just changing your program; you're taking away what makes LPO. This building is LPO. This is my second home.”  

The school will be moved to portables on the campus housing Sandpoint high and middle schools in 2027. Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer said the school would move sooner, but the portables will be occupied by SMS during the middle school’s reconstruction.  

Meyer said the decision came down to two factors: instructional time and financials. The school’s enrollment has been on a steady decline for the last two years and will only have around 50 students next year, according to district projections. Meyer said the school had roughly a $347,000 deficit last year.  

For students to meet graduation requirements, they must be bused to Sandpoint High School for electives, losing valuable instructional time, Meyer said. That is how the school offers electives like art this year as well as additional electives next year. 

“I am, by no means, recommending that we shut the program down or just integrate those students into SHS,” Meyer said. "I'm trying to find the spot to where we're being fiscally conservative and responsible with taxpayer dollars while still supporting the at-risk alternative school program.” 

Several current and former students of LPOHS spoke to the Bonner County Daily Bee and expressed hurt and frustration with the decision. While the school isn’t going away, LPOHS senior Jailyn Weber echoed Cook’s sentiment and said that the LPO building had become a safe space for her after she felt like she could never fit in at SHS.  

During the public comment portion of the meeting, parents Bart and Jonnette Gutke said their son, who has autism and ADHD, was given a chance to graduate high school at LPO. Jonnette Gutke said her brother had similar issues and attended a mixed campus alternative school, which did not help him. 

LPO principal Chris Davis said the decision resulted in a lot of emotions to work through and acknowledged the decision resulted in some agony in students who had spent four years in the building. Davis said while the budget cuts hurt, she believes LPO can remain open and successful because of the people. 

“We just keep reminding everybody that our particular alternative high school is not the walls; it's not the building that we're in. It's the soul, it's the culture,” Davis said. “Part of what our job is to teach resiliency and like some of those soft skills to our students, because our ultimate goal is to get them out of here and be productive members of society.” 

One of those all-important staff is Belinda Wilson, who’s been there for over 20 years. Wilson is commonly referred to by students as “Mom 2.0” and has a passion for connecting with the students and guiding them to graduation. 

Wilson said she was scared and sad when she heard the decision to move the school because she’s seen the LPOHS staff work tirelessly to transform the building into their home. She said her biggest concern is that the move might make students feel like they are hidden. 

“I worry that they'll start to feel like they don't matter. It's really hard to get them past that thought process daily,” Wilson said. "That's the part that I struggle with, is that these kids will feel that they have no worth this community, and that's just not the truth. I've seen some really amazing kids come through here, and it's so much fun to see them out in the community.” 

Cooke and Weber’s story are not anomalies in the greater Sandpoint community; nearly every current student or alumni who spoke to the Daily Bee said LPO changed their life. Cooke said her time at LPO has helped her through the roughest points in her life and found a passion for cooking that she’s using at the Floating Restaurant in Hope. 

“I don't really know what would have happened to me, because I come from a family of addicts, and I was down that road for sure. And every time that I slipped, I had a teacher grabbing me right out of that hole every single time,” Cooke said. “It built me up to who I am today, and it's like a home, and I don't think I could drive down Boyer [Avenue], or if it wasn't there." 

LPOSD trustees will decide on the future of the LPOHS building at a future meeting following an appraisal of the building, Meyer said. Board Chair Lonnie Williams said he understands the community’s feelings and hopes to carry an open-minded approach as the district moves forward. 

Wilson said she appreciates that the district is doing all it can to keep an alternative school around the community and knows that LPO will continue to be successful. She said when she speaks with students, she reminds them of the transformation they’ve undergone in their time and that change was scary at first, but they made it through together. 

“We're a family, so we're going to move locations, OK? Is it the most ideal? Nope, but at the same time, you know what? We're LPO, we're resilient,” Wilson said. “We'll figure out how to make this the best possible situation we could ever encounter. That is one thing that we do well here is, yes, we'll feel the feelings. We'll feel the sad. We'll feel the afraid, and then, and then we get to work.” 

    A crowd of Lake Pend Oreille High School supports, students and alumni in the district's meeting room on Tuesday.