Moscow School District. Short term potential impacts The District has many teachers with long tenure, relatively high salaries and a very competitive recruiting history. Moscow and Pullman have a long history of qualified potential teachers seeking but not finding employment in the District (because of few openings) and the two universities continue to graduate education students interested in teaching in the area. Palouse Prairie will seek to attract some of the highly qualified teachers who wish to remain in the community but have only found substitute teaching opportunities at the District. Long term potential impacts There are two potential long term impacts of a successful Palouse Prairie School on the District: facilities and curriculum. Facilities: When Palouse Prairie School reaches its target K-8 enrollment of 200, it will have enrolled enough children to have significant impact on the District’s elementary schools. West Park Elementary, built in 1955, is located near the University of Idaho campus and increasingly finds itself apart from neighborhoods with young children (except UI student housing). Most of the 275 K-3 children who attend are bused to the school. Currently West Park houses three Kindergarten classrooms on the UI campus because the school is not able to accommodate them. For the 2008-09 school year, West Park is adding a modular classroom to accommodate a need to add an additional 2nd grade classroom. X. Xxxxxxx School, built in 1926, remodeled in 1973, and enrolling 175 students grades 4-6 is located in the Ft Xxxxxxx Historic District a walkable neighborhood that may or may not have enough students to populate that school. The other two elementary schools are located in neighborhoods with many children and adjoining growing areas of town. The District has had a stable or slowly declining enrollment for a decade, but now is experiencing an uptick in lower elementary enrollments. Palouse Prairie’s growth might change the District‘s enrollment levels and might provide an opportunity to review facilities requirements.
