Kootenai Voters Take On School Bond Tuesday District Wants $3.5 Million To Build New Four-Year High School

Voters in the Kootenai School District will decide Tuesday whether to build a new high school.

It’s the district’s second attempt to pass a $3.5 million bond for a new four-year high school.

Last year, the bond failed despite 62.3 percent voter approval. In Idaho, bond elections require 66.6 percent approval.

Superintendent Ronald Hill said he believes the bond failed because residents did not want to pay for two bonds at once. This year, the district’s 1991 elementary school bond will be paid off.

Enrollment continues to inch up by about 3 percent per year.

“We are quite crowded,” Hill said. “We’ve got art and math out in a trailer right now.”

The new high school would house grades 9-12. The existing high school, built in 1956, would be used as a middle school for grades 6-8.

On $50,000 assessed value, taxes would increase from their current level by approximately $49 per year if the 12-year bond passes.

According to Hill, 43 percent of the district’s assessed value is owned by out-of-state residents who can’t vote. That makes school construction easier on the district’s residents.

“Forty-three percent of that school will be paid for by people out of state who don’t live here,” Hill said. “If you didn’t have that it would almost double what our taxes would be.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHERE TO VOTE Polls are open from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Carlin Bay Grange, Harrison EMT Building, Harrison Elementary School, Medicine Mountain Grange, and the Sharon and Rex Smith residence in Hell’s Gulch.