Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two set to appear in Sunday’s Tribune.
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COLFAX — The Colfax School District will receive $280,000 in federal relief funds to address its drop in enrollment and other costs attributed to COVID-19.
Superintendent Jerry Pugh gave a report to the school board Monday night.
The grant is part of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, part of the CARES Act passed by Congress last spring. A second round of ESSER funds was approved in December as part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.
The Colfax district faces a budget gap of 26 students, representing the difference between its summer forecast of 542 students and its year-to-date average of 516. School districts in Washington receive about $9,000 in funding per full-time equivalent student per year.
The funding will cover basic education and various gaps related to the pandemic — from transportation to personal protective equipment.
For the students who haven’t come back, he has called parents to get an idea of the prospects for next year.
“It’s not looking great,” he said. “There are concerns with masks and mandates — sex (education).”
He noted the controversy over a state bill to require K-12 comprehensive sexual health education passed last March, which led to a historic petition and Referendum 90, which failed to void the bill in November.
A main charge of its opposition was that the requirements taught (detailed) sex education to young elementary school kids.
“They lumped the basic concepts of ‘stranger danger’ into the title of sex ed,” Pugh said. “There’s nothing in there about that or sexual lifestyle or life choices. It’s about how to be safe. Your body is your own. (It’s about) how to say to no to bullies and strangers.
“I really want to belay the fears that are out there. We’re going to teach what we have been teaching in Colfax, long before I got here. For us in Colfax, I don’t think it will change one iota.”
— Garth Meyer, Whitman County Gazette (Colfax), Thursday
Land board OKs development plan
Nearly 400 acres of state endowment land around McCall could be developed within 20 years under a plan adopted Tuesday in Boise by the state’s top elected officials.
The State Land Board voted unanimously to adopt a plan to guide management of 5,478 acres of state endowment land around McCall.
The plan classifies parcels based on readiness for development and where timber profits are affected by surrounding urban uses, the Idaho Department of Lands said.
About 80 acres off of Deinhard Lane, 86 acres off of Lick Creek Road and 27 acres on Payette Lake’s Shellworth Island and Cougar Island are considered ripe for development within 10 years, under the plan.
New proposals for the McCall lands are being accepted after being paused since last June.
“I think we need to lift (the moratorium) in order to see what’s out there and to explore opportunities across the board,” IDL Trust Land Management Administrator Jim Elbin said.
The new policy allows the state to begin studying a proposal by Trident Holdings to trade timberlands in northern Idaho for 20,250 acres of state land around McCall.
However, no decisions will be made on the Trident proposal or other proposals for the McCall lands until the land board reviews its range of options in October.
“That’s where we’ll need some help to develop and put the guidelines in place as to how we evaluate those to give you guys the best options,” Elbin told the land board.
— Drew Dodson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
