Plans for a new elementary school in Airway Heights are moving forward briskly as the Cheney School District seeks input on the proposed attendance boundary for the new school and a name for the school. The District also just announced the selection of Gabby Smithley, currently the assistant principal at Sunset Elementary, as the first principal of the new school.
Gabby Smithley was recently selected as the first principal for the new elementary school under construction in Airway Heights on Craig Road north of Highway 2. Smithley was previously the assistant principal at Sunset Elementary and before that was a Kindergarten teacher at Sunset Elementary.
A map of the proposed attendance boundaries is available online at www.cheneysd.org. Parents are invited to give their input at two upcoming meetings, one from 6-7 p.m. April 21 at Cheney Middle School and the second from 6 to 7 p.m. April 22 at Westwood Middle School.
Superintendent Ben Ferney said the district put together an advisory committee that included parents, school staff and administrators to create the new boundaries. The group met four times over several months to discuss various options, he said. “There was no idea before the team started meeting,” he said. “They looked at attendance, they looked at where people were.”
The proposed attendance area of the new elementary school is almost all north of Highway 2, though an area of the Sunset Elementary attendance area crosses north of Highway 2 in the area mostly east of Hayford Road. The new school attendance area dips south of Highway 2 just west of Deer Heights Road.
“The school that’s affected the highest is Sunset, because it is in the same town,” Ferney said.
At the same time, attendance at Snowden Elementary will be affected because quite a few students are being bused there, Ferney said. “Those students will go to either Sunset or the new school,” he said.
Parents will find that there have been some adjustments to other elementary school attendance boundaries as part of the process. “The boundaries are changing for almost all the schools except for Salnave,” Ferney said.
However, the attendance boundaries for the middle schools and high schools have not been altered. “We made that decision early on,” he said.
Parent Karl Doran, who has children attending Salnave Elementary, was a part of the boundary review committee. He said he joined the committee because he wanted to understand how things work. “I live really close to the boundary between Salnave and another elementary,” he said. “Literally two houses down the road, the kids go to another school.”
Doran said he learned a lot about all the considerations that go into setting boundary lines. “It makes sense now,” he said. “The line needed to be drawn somewhere.”
The committee was given a blank map of the district with the schools marked and told to draw boundaries that make sense. Doran said they began by looking at how overcrowded each school is. They wanted to keep neighborhoods together when possible, so kids who live on the same street can go to the same school. Doran said it turned into an exercise of allowing the lines to naturally draw themselves.
“It’s great to have it where the kids are close to where the schools are,” he said.
Early in the process, Doran went out and drove around the district so he could get a feel for where the boundaries were and if it made sense to change them in specific areas. He went as far to look at sidewalks and fencing that could either make access easier or block access for students walking to school.
Toward the end of the process, the district’s transportation department suggested a few small changes based on how easy or difficult it would be for busing. Doran said he thinks the final map proposal the committee came up with is better than the existing one.
“The last one had some long skinny strips,” he said. “It really feels like it’s the best situation out there. It felt like everyone there was satisfied with what we came up with.”
For the last several years, Sunset, Snowden, Betz and Windsor Elementaries have all been overcrowded, with Sunset more so. Voters approved a $72 million bond in November 2024 to pay for the new school as well as upgrades at most other schools in the district.
The capacity of the new school will be 500 students, but the goal is to open with about 400 so there is still capacity to accommodate growth. The new school sits right next door to a new housing development and more development is likely in the area.
“The idea is you don’t fill that,” he said. “You want to have space to grow.”
Ferney said the district will review public input on the proposed attendance boundaries and make any necessary adjustments before submitting it to the school board for approval. Depending on feedback, there could be more public meetings scheduled. “It’s too hard to say if this is it,” Ferney said. “Our hope is this lands really well.”
The goal is to get the boundaries finalized this summer so parents have plenty of time to plan for upcoming changes, Ferney said. “Changing boundaries for schools can really impact families,” he said.
The district was able to get most of the site grading done for the new school last fall. The $36 million school will sit on 11.5 acres on Craig Road north of Highway 2. Ferney said final permitting is underway and construction should start soon. The school should open in the fall of 2027.
Construction of the new Cheney School District Elementary School progresses as grading gets complete at the site on Craig Road just north of Highway 2. The school is sited to open by the fall of 2027.
“We’re right where we need to be,” he said.
The school was designed to be a community gathering place. Ferney said it has a larger gym and cafeteria than usual and there is a community room. “It’s got space to bring the community in,” he said.
A survey recently went out to get suggestions for a school name. A committee will review the names and present a short list of options to the school board for their consideration, perhaps by the end of June, Ferney said. “We have a lot of different entries that have been interesting,” he said.
The District went through a lengthy process in selecting a principal to lead the new school. Ferney said there was a “healthy” pool of candidates and the top five were interviewed by groups of staff, administrators and school leaders. After the candidates were narrowed down to the top three, a community forum was held to introduce the finalists and get feedback from the public. At the end of the process, Gabby Smithley emerged as the top candidate.
“The thing that stood out about Gabby is her true heart for the Airway Heights community and the students she serves there,” Ferney said. “She’s committed, she’s open, she works hard. That’s the exact person we need there.”
Though the new school won’t open until 2027, Smithley will work as a planning principal for the next school year. She’ll work on staffing, work with the construction team and work on creating relationships in the community, Ferney said. “There’s a whole bunch of things that need to happen,” he said. “She’ll be busy.”
Smithley said she’s excited to get to build a school from the ground up. She’ll be in charge of creating school systems and building a school culture. “It’s really cool to know your hands are going to be on everything,” she said.
Smithley can trace her desire to be an educator back to her childhood. “I always loved school,” she said. “I loved playing school with my sisters.”
She recalls that her teachers inspired her and showed her a level of caring that touched her. Her family moved to the area when she was a teen and she graduated from Lewis and Clark High School. After attending the University of Idaho, she did her student teaching at Snowden Elementary.
Smithley hasn’t left the Cheney School District since. She was a kindergarten teacher at Sunset Elementary for several years. She also served on district committees and was the Professional Learning Community team lead. Her assistant principal suggested she consider shifting from the classroom to administration.
“That sparked my curiosity,” Smithley said. “Maybe I could have an impact on a larger scale.”
She was a principal intern at Salnave Elementary for a year before returning to Sunset as assistant principal in July 2024.
Smithley said she loves that she is able to explore a new challenge while staying in her chosen community. “I love serving the Airway Heights community,” she said. “It’s really been an impact on my life.”
She’ll also have the chance to see some familiar faces at the new school. The last class of kindergarteners she taught will be in fifth grade and some of them will be moving to the new school with her. She said they’re excited that their principal will be someone they know.
“I’m really just looking forward to creating that new community hub,” she said.
The opening of the new school will provide relief to Sunset and the other overcrowded schools, Smithley said. She said Sunset is currently at 121 percent of capacity and has either four or five classes per grade level. “We are busting at the seams,” she said. “To meet the needs of our students, it’s easier when it’s less crowded.”
Ferney said he’s grateful for the community support that is allowing the new school to be built. “Our community rose to the challenge,” he said. “I’m just so proud to serve in a district that has the support of the community. I can’t wait. Fall of 2027 is going to be outstanding.”
