Basin appeared to turn a corner at last week’s school board meeting, moving from recrimination and criticism to collaboration and progress toward the potential reopening of its prized 130-year-old elementary school.
“You’ve got a lot of good folks that want to help you in the community,” County Commissioner Cory Kirsch said early in the July 17 gathering. “Sometimes it does get contentious. It’s a very emotional subject for everybody in this town. But if we all work together, we’re all, I think, heading for the same goal.”
That goal is securing the at least two students and one teacher required for the school to return to operational status, after last month’s board decision to enter non-operational status. Basin school could still open for the 2025-26 school year, but if that were to happen, the school would be forced to operate with an extremely low budget in line with non-operational funding from the state, according to School Clerk Britton Mann.
