MVSD 244: Final deconsolidation vote moves to Wednesday

Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.

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GRANGEVILLE — Mountain View School District 244 will hold an additional public hearing Wednesday regarding deconsolidation.

Due to a question about posting notices of the meetings, the decision was made to hold an extra hearing, followed by a board vote on the deconsolidation plan. The draft plan was unanimously approved by the board of trustees at the October meeting.

“(This special meeting to vote and additional hearing) are being held to ensure that we have fully met the requirements. We were advised by the attorney to hold another hearing with additional posting,” explained superintendent Alica Holthaus.

The Wednesday meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. in the Grangeville High School Library. After the meeting is called to order and the pledge recited, the board will take input from patrons. Hearings have already been held in Grangeville Oct. 17, in Elk City Oct. 22 and in Kooskia Oct. 23.

“The decision is the last thing on the agenda before adjourning,” Holthaus said.

All hearings have been or will be recorded and, if the board passes a final deconsolidation plan, will be sent to the State Board of Education as part of the testimony information to go with the plan.

Deadline to get the plan to the Idaho State Board of Education (ISBE) is Nov. 14 in order for them to consider the plan that — if approved by ISBE — will be placed on the May 2025 ballot.

“At that point, it would be up to our communities, but it is a two-pronged vote,” explained Holthaus. “It would have to be approved by the entire school district and then the smaller of the two proposed new school districts.” The newly proposed districts are Clearwater Valley School District 245 and Grangeville School District 246; CV is the smaller of the two.

The deconsolidation plan plus a map of the proposed new districts is available at sd244.org, under the “Board of Trustees” tab, then “Deconsolidation information.”

Should the choice pass the voters, two new school boards would be formed with trustees approved by the state. During the next election cycle, trustees would then follow that process to be elected. For a period, both boards would work together to form the new districts.

“We have written in the plan for a two-year process, because this is not an easy issue and there is a lot to navigate through,” Holthaus said at the October board meeting.

— Lorie Palmer, Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville), Wednesday

$13.7M federal grant to boost railroad

COLFAX — A grant awarded to Washington State Department of Transportation for rail system upgrades will allow $115 million to go toward improving the Palouse River Coulee City railroad lines in Whitman County.

The U.S. The Federal Railroad Administration awarded $37.7 million toward Washington State Rural Rail Rehabilitation Phase III to improve supply chain efficiency and resiliency.

WSDOT Rail Freight and Port’s Divisions Capital and PCC Railway Program Manager Larry Rasmussen said the $37.7 million will go toward improvement toward the Washington Eastern Railroad going from Davenport to Wilbur.

“The project is going to replace 34 miles of rail and ties between Davenport to Wilbur,” Rasmussen said, noting it will replace 100-year-old lightweight worn rail with new heavier rail to better accommodate today’s modern 286,000 pound railcars.

Rasmussen said while the improvements are in Lincoln County they are leveraging state funds for federal funds for capital improvements on the entire Whitman County rail system.

“It frees up more of our state funds to be used on the other two branches,” Rasmussen said, adding that although the $37.7 million will go toward the Davenport to Wilbur, Central Washington branch.

The other two branches include the Palouse River Coulee City and the branch that runs from Thornton to Winona, Hooper through Winona to Colfax branch.

“Our system goals are to raise the entire system, the three systems, to a state of repair while building resiliency,” Rasmussen said.

The funds will come from the “Move Ahead Washington” initiative package, in which WSDOT received $150 million toward repairing the rail system.

Rasmussen said the system will focus on moving grain commodities.

“We’re just part of the supply chain in moving the local wheat to domestic and foreign markets,” he said, adding the funds further the project but there is still a way to go to improve the entire system.

WSDOT Rail, Freight and Ports Division Spokesperson Janet Matkin said this is the third federal grant WSDOT rail division has received for the entire Palouse Coulee City Rail system.

“There are seven other projects, including some that are part of the PCC system, that went directly to those railroads,” Matkin said.

— Teresa Simpson, Whitman County Gazette (Colfax), Thursday