1982-03-17-sc-p6-edwall-school-closes

March 17, 1982 Spokane Daily Chronicle Page 6:

Edwall residents lose battle for school

REARDAN, Wash. — Edwall Elementary School will close after this school year, the board of Reardan-Edwall Joint School District decided unanimously last night.

Losing the battle to keep their school means Edwall residents will have their youngsters taken 15 miles by bus to Reardan. There are 33 students in the Edwall school this year.

“The economics of the situation just dictated, in my view, that we can’t afford the luxury of the small Edwall school any more,” said board member Jim McManus, who made the motion for closure.

Asked whether the closure will be permanent, McManus said the board will decide by this summer whether to sell, lease or retain the Edwall property.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Edwall parent Coleen Done. “We pretty much expected it was going to go down.

“We will be checking into the possibility of private schooling.”

In promoting the closure, Superintendent Gil Johnson said the district will save about $50,000 of the estimated $75,000 annual cost of running the Edwall school, which has two teachers and a secretary-cook-librarian.

But if Edwall parents take their children out of the district’s schools, the district would lose a proportional amount of state funds.

Angry over the closure plans, many Edwall residents have said they will not suppers levies sought by the district. They voted overwhelmingly against a levy last week, and despite support in the remainder of the district, it fell eight votes short of passage.

Last night the board decided to resubmit the levy to voters May 11.

“We're going to give it our best shot,” McManus said. “We'll be out beating the bushes.”

Since the proposal to close the school surfaced last year, the issue has been surrounded with emotional controversy.

Edwall residents maintained the district has a “moral obligation” to keep their school open. That obligation dates to 1975, when Edwall consolidated with Reardan under promises that the Edwall school would remain open for “many years.”

Superintendent Johnson said he interprets “many years” as meaning “two or more years.” And, he said, he thinks Edwall residents are being “selfish” by demanding the school be kept open.

But many involved in the issue say the real culprit is the Legislature, which has failed to maintain full funding of basic education even though 1977 laws and a state Supreme Court decision require it to do so.

Also, the levy-lid act of 1977 prevents district residents from raising as much school money as they might otherwise through property taxes.

“I can very much understand their distress,” said McManus. “On a school closure there’s always big emotion, especially if it’s the only school in your community.

“If I were down there, I’d probably be fighting to keep it open.

“I hope we'll be friends again.”