Kootenai Tribe buys district office

Contruction plans for a Valley View Elementary replacement will begin after the Kootenai Tribe won the bid for the old school district office building. 

The tribe will acquire the office building after placing the sole bid at $611,601.

The Boundary County School Board announced its decision at the board meeting on Dec. 16. The bid exceeded the appraised value by $61,601. 

Board members said all the money will be set aside to fund a new elementary school. The district now needs less than $10 million to fund construction of an entire facility. 

Pooling the $5.13 million from Idaho House Bill 521 with district funds and the new funds from the office sale, the school board approved a motion to begin planning phase one of construction. BCSD Superintendent Jan Bayer said all phase one plans could be done and out for a bid by June. The earliest completion date for phase one will likely be fall 2026. 

“I don't want us to say, ‘You have to spend another winter in that school,’” board member Mike Ferguson said at the meeting. “I know how I would feel if I had to spend another whole winter in that school after this winter.” 

The old district office lot, with a 10,225-square-foot building on Oak Street, is across the street from the Kootenai River Inn and adjacent to tribal property on Arizona Street. Kootenai Tribal Chairwoman Jennifer Porter said the tribe does not yet have plans for how to use the building. 

“We just wanted to secure the land and keep the ownership within Boundary County,” Porter said. "We knew all the money funnels back into the community and would go back into the schools.” 

Porter said the tribe had had their eye on the property for a while and thought there would be more bidders. Valley View was not a substantial factor in the value of the bid.