Post Falls, Lakeland To Ask Voters For New Schools Again

Two fast-growing school districts in western Kootenai County - Post Falls and Lakeland - are going back to the voters Oct. 8, seeking property tax increases to build new schools.

Both failed last spring to get the two-thirds majority needed for bond levies.

The Post Falls bond will feature the same two proposals that failed March 26.

Proposal A will be for $15.8 million to build a 1,300-enrollment capacity high school with an infrastructure built for 1,600 students. Proposal B will be $1.94 million to build a school plus an arts auditorium and recreation complex.

The smaller proposal got 62.6 percent of the “yes” votes in March. If approved this fall, the high school would open in the fall of 1999.

The Lakeland School District, headquartered in Rathdrum, will seek approval for school additions that would be ready in the fall of 1997 and a second junior high school that would open a year later.

The proposal is a revision of the $9.3 bond levy that failed in March, school officials said. That got 55 percent of the vote.

The cost for the October proposal and details on the projects will be finalized by the school board in August.

, DataTimes