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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCollapsing Roofs, Broken Toilets, Flooded Classrooms: Inside the Worst-Funded Schools in the Nation
https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-deteriorating-schools-repair-bondsJan Bayer sank into the couch in the family room of her Bonners Ferry, Idaho, home and stared at her phone, nervously awaiting a call. Her twin teenage daughters were nearby, equally anxious.
It was election night in March 2022, and Bayer, the superintendent of the Boundary County School District in a remote part of Idaho on the Canadian border, had spent months educating voters about a bond that would raise property taxes to replace one of her districts oldest and most dangerous buildings: Valley View Elementary School. Built just after World War II, the school was falling apart.
The walls were cracked. The pipes were disintegrating. The ceilings were water-stained. The electrical system was maxed out and the insulation was nearly nonexistent. Classrooms froze in the winter and baked in the summer. The roof, part of which had already collapsed once, was nearing the end of its lifespan. Outside, potholes pocked the parking lot and deep splits formed in warped sidewalks. The kindergarten playground, weathered from decades of brutal winters, had turned hazardous; at times, sharp screws protruded from some of the equipment, and kids routinely got splinters from the wooden crossbeams.
Most worrisome to Bayer and her staff: Kindergarten students had to cross a street multiple times a day just to navigate the sprawling six-building campus, a piecemeal attempt to add much-needed classroom space.
*snip*
GPV
(72,388 posts)Rhiannon12866
(207,437 posts)No child should have to face a school that's a falling apart and is a dangerous environment.
DFW
(54,593 posts)This is not a set of unfortunate circumstances coming together by chance.
Timeflyer
(2,085 posts)DFW
(54,593 posts)But its still unfortunately current
2naSalit
(87,106 posts)Another school that is just like that is the Potlatch School. An alleged public school in a paper company owned town.
The don't care about non-bible based education.
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