SPOKANE, Wash — The Mead School District’s Riverpoint Academy could be on the brink of temporary closure.
Like many in the state, the Mead School District has proposed budgets cuts. And the district’s award-winning, STEM high school is on the chopping block.
Riverpoint Academy is a non-traditional, project-based STEM and Entrepreneurial high school.
The classrooms look more like workshops filled with machines and computers. Students pursue a variety of academic fields related to technology and business.
Senior Macey Paradiso said her experiences at Riverpoint Academy prepared her for college.
"This type of schooling has changed my way of thinking. I use what I learned here every single day not even just in school, I use it at work, I use it at home,” Paradiso said.
Junior Bella Memeo plans to pursue a career in aviation, an interest she was able to cultivate at the academy.
"It’s been super great having the opportunity to be here and learn and to meet incredible people and create incredible connections,” Memeo said.
It is the inspiring experiences of students that make the news of the closure so difficult for those connected to Riverpoint Academy.
At a recent school board meeting, parents, students and staff found out the district was considering shutting down the school for two years. According to the district’s budget proposal, the closure would save the district $1 million and chip away at a $12 million deficit.
Mead school officials have proposed $15 million in cuts and more than 70 layoffs.
The Riverpoint Academy has roughly 200 students and staff members.
The news came as a shock to Traci Logan-Demus, a parent of a Riverpoint Academy student.
"I didn't know if I wanted to throw up or cry. I felt like I just got soft in the gut. They're not making cuts to the school. They are eliminating the school. I really had a hard time even believing it at first,” Logan-Demus said.
Logan-Demus said her son has come into his own and she looked forward to her other children attending the high school. But the future of the academy is uncertain.
Sophomore Noah Rosser plans to speak at the next two school board meetings. He said he thrives in the academic setting of Riverpoint. He worries he may struggle in a traditional high school.
"It's honestly a little bit scary, because the place that I have kind of grown up with, and the place that I've kind of made plans with the future with, it's going to be hard to move somewhere else,” Rosser said.
There will be school board meetings Monday and Wednesday at 6 PM. The meetings will be held at Northwood Middle School. The school board will take public comment on the budget proposal.