School levies pass with strong margins in North Idaho
In Kootenai County, the Post Falls School District passed a $6 million levy with 62% in favor , Lakeland Joint School District passed a $7.5 million levy with 67% in support, and Plummer-Worley Joint School District passed a $900,000 levy with 59%.
Notably, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee did not make endorsements for or against the levies as it has in the past.
The Lakeland levy almost didn't make it onto the ballot until a sick school board member called in to a January meeting to break a tie vote. A $9.52 million levy had failed in November.
The Boundary County School District passed a $2.4 million levy with 69% of the vote after another proposal failed in November. A well-organized information campaign and higher turnout helped turn things around, the Bonners Ferry Herald reported.
Voters in the West Bonner School District in Priest River passed a slimmed down levy with 54.5% in favor after two years of failed attempts plunged the district into financial trouble. Voters approved the $2.35 million per-year levy for two years after rejecting a one-year $4.6 million levy last May and a $1.13 million levy in November.
The district closed the junior high this school year, and private donations funded sports and extracurricular activities amid the budget cuts.
West Bonner Superintendent Kim Spacek said the junior high will remain combined with the senior high school, and the levy will cover $614,000 for sports and extracurriculars.
"I think most importantly this is a win for the kids and the community," Spacek said. "We faced some criticism in the last few years, but we are listening."
Spacek, who was hired last summer, said he organized listening sessions in the community to answer questions and build trust. He said the school district has proposed a home learning network as an alternative option for parents, who would control the curriculum. The district plans to partner with Idaho-based distance teaching company Overture Learning and would provide support as needed with two teachers.
"We are going to start slow," Spacek said. "We want to build a quality program."
If the levy had not passed, the district would have had to close two of the three elementary schools and cut staff, Spacek said.
James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
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