New middle school relieves overcrowding

The brand-new River City Middle School started the day with bells that didn’t work.

The glitch in the bell system was just about fixed when new Principal Mike Yovetich found himself with another problem. The school’s music room had been double-booked for fifth and sixth period, leaving one teacher without a classroom.

The choir teacher moved his class to the school commons area, just as the custodian was readying to sweep up lunch crumbs with a super-size vacuum.

“This is the multipurpose room, but right now we just have too many purposes for it,” Yovetich joked as he headed off to find an empty classroom for the displaced students.

A year ago, finding extra space might have been hard. The district’s middle school was packed with 1,200 students. The opening of River City Middle School on Tuesday helped ease the overcrowding.

When school started Tuesday, students and teachers in both middle schools – old and new – were enjoying the extra room, shorter lunch lines and less-crowded hallways. About 400 of the district’s middle schoolers are at the new school.

Designed as a “starter school,” River City was built ready for the addition of a second floor to accommodate even more students.

“I keep pinching myself,” said Cheri Mitton, an English teacher at River City. “I’m afraid it’s a dream and I’m going to wake up. Everything’s clean. I’ve never had brand-new in my career.”

With the prospect of starting school in a new building, Mitton said that for the first time in her 24-year career she couldn’t wait for the school year to start.

Willie Hosea and Tasia DeRuwe were impressed with the new building. Not only was the building new to the two students, but so was the whole middle school experience. Both started the sixth grade on Tuesday.

Willie said one of his teachers told students they had a responsibility to keep the school in good shape.

“He said you should treat it really nice so it’ll stay new for the other kids,” Willie said.

Tasia, who emerged from school carrying a blue purse and pulling a blue backpack with wheels, said she liked the colors in the school – lots of blue.

And she liked having a locker to store her stuff.

“It just makes you feel more grown up,” Tasia said.

Just a few blocks away, at Post Falls Middle School, if anyone was jealous of the new building, it wasn’t evident.

“It was so crowded last year we had to have three different lunches,” eighth-grader Kim Sorenson said. “Now I can eat with all my friends.”

Fellow eighth-grader Kristy Tessier said the smaller population allows for more one-on-one with teachers.

When voters approved the $7.13 million levy in 2002 for the new school, both students said they were worried about losing friends to the other school. But both teens said they, and other students, are taking the split well.

“Some are actually happy because their enemies go to the other school,” Kim said. “Some are sad because their friends go there.”

“We’re going to meet up in high school,” Kristy added.

Assistant Superintendent Becky Ford said it was a relief to visit the old middle school and find out that, finally, the school had fewer than a thousand students.

“There are even parking spots today,” she said.

Principal Don Boyk said Post Falls Middle School might not be brand-new, but it still has some advantages. Because it used to house the high school, there are two gyms and great science labs.

“This is where you take age over youth,” Boyk said.