Future of Bickel Elementary uncertain

NOTE: Updated with correct date of school board meeting.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —The future of Bickel Elementary School in Twin Falls remains uncertain as district leaders review possible plans to try and keep it open.

“I’m hoping it can stay open so that things don’t have to change for my kids, but if it does then we’ll probably do homeschool,” Mikayla Diville said.

Parents like Mikayla Diville are already weighing their options after getting news that Bickel Elementary may close at the end of the school year.

“Bickel emailed or sent home a letter, one or the other, but they notified everyone that ‘hey we’re having this meeting and we’re trying to figure out what to do,’” parent Guy Butterfield said.

We asked the Twin Falls School District Superintendent why this could happen, and he pointed to declining students.

“We have been experiencing a declining enrollment particularly over the last three years, as a result we’ve reached a point where we’re actually smaller than when we built two new elementary schools here in Twin,” Superintendent Brady Dickinson said.

Closing Bickel is the last resort, according to Dickinson. One option would include moving students there from other schools. The district could also turn it into a magnet school, offering special instruction and programs to attract a more diverse student body.

“If they do the dual emergent thing that would be kind of cool as long as the kids can still go here, but if not, I guess we’ll go somewhere else,” Butterfield said.

If the school does have to close, the superintendent says the school zoning map would have to be redrawn.

“Our goal would be for nobody to lose a position in the district. If kids are moving, we’re going to need staff to be able to move with them,” Dickinson said.

But parents of Bickel students are hopeful that won’t need to happen.

“I’m honestly so sad to hear about it, my son started here when he was in kindergarten, and he had the greatest experience,” says Nancy Gildersleeve.

“It’s not the greatest because we live right around the corner and my kids have been here for three years now,” added Diville.

The school board is meeting on Feb. 10 to review the options to keep the school open.

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