School Officials Struggle With Growth Committee Studying Long-Term Strategy For Area’s Education
Five Mile Prairie kids used to play jacks in the hall of their neighborhood school and slide down the oak banister to the lunchroom.
In its day, the 60-student, two-room school typified the country charm of the North Spokane bluff. Closed since 1969, the school now lies dormant.
The Mead School board last winter began a lengthy process of selling the 1939 building. There are no takers yet, but the Five Mile Homemakers Club would like to lease it and turn it into a community police station and community center.
A committee of Mead School District residents and administrators is writing a long-term plan for growth. Al Swanson, assistant superintendent for finance, hopes the committee will consider the building’s future by June.
However, the building is in such horrible shape that the district dropped it as a storage facility.
“I’m not certain that it would meet current building codes, fire and safety codes,” said Swanson. “I’m not sure those people fully understand what kind of shape the building is in.”
The building and its three acres of surrounding property are too small for the district to use as a school.
But there are plenty of Mead students on the prairie, who traverse switchback roads down the bluffs to Evergreen Elementary, Northwood Junior High and Mead High schools. About 225 take buses, and another 90 drive, according to estimates from the district transportation office.
Although the school district owns 20 acres atop the prairie, officials are gauging the growth boom before committing to build an elementary school.
The planning committee should have a complete report done by the fall. The committee is studying, among other things, how to deal with rapid growth along Highway 395 and in Colbert, where schools are crowded.
“We know the Five Mile area is prime for growth, especially with the (growth boundary)” drawn to allow dense development on the prairie, said Swanson.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of area