For schools, time to regroup

For Bob Shamberg, the failure of the levy that would have remodeled his school is symbolic.

“This signals a change of the times,” said Shamberg, the principal at Borah Elementary School in Coeur d’Alene.

“I know we still have supporters out here,” he added. “It’s a question of economics.”

The cost of energy and gasoline have gone up for voters, Shamberg said. “We’re the only entity that went out and said: ‘We’re going to give you a choice.’ They spoke.”

School staff from Coeur d’Alene and other school districts in the area reflected Wednesday on why supporters of the levy made up only 45 percent of the vote – about 786 ballots short of the 55 percent needed for approval.

They agree that the district’s long-range planning committee needs to regroup and figure out how to balance school needs with what taxpayers are willing to pay. That committee of parents, community members and district officials will meet the first week of April, Superintendent Harry Amend said.

“We need to go back to the drawing board and work with the community,” Amend said.

The district has not discussed when another levy vote might take place, he added, or what the size of the proposal might be.

The levy in Tuesday’s election sought nearly $40 million in property taxes, over four years, to:

•Replace Lakes Middle School and Winton Elementary School.

•Remodel Borah Elementary School.

•Build a new elementary school.

•Update instructional technology throughout the district.

About 22 percent of registered voters in the Coeur d’Alene district cast ballots. With 7,713 voters casting ballots, the turnout was the highest in a decade among school measures.

At Winton, Principal Kristen Gorringe said she was disappointed. The polling place at her school was one of only two that broke the 55 percent approval mark. She believes that’s because people in that area know the struggles the school faces.

“More people need to come and talk to us and visit us,” Gorringe said. “It’s certainly not grandiose things we’re asking for.”

Next time, she said, “we have to make sure the facts are crystal clear.”

Local taxpayers have shown they support schools, she said. “They have to know what it is we’re asking for, and frankly there’s misinformation out there.”

The polling place with the highest approval, at 63 percent, was Sorensen Elementary, located in the south end of the district where most dollars from the levy would have been spent.

The polling place with the lowest approval, at 26 percent, was the Hayden Lake Center, formerly Hayden Lake Elementary School before Atlas Elementary replaced it last fall after a successful 2002 school plant facilities levy.

Other districts eye loss

Other North Idaho districts have scheduled levies this spring.

Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane said the Coeur d’Alene results raise concerns for his own district’s vote. The Post Falls district will ask its voters to approve a $10.9 million bond May 16.

Keane said he’ll seek the advice of Coeur d’Alene officials on what to do – and not to do. “We need to be very cautious in how we proceed,” he said.

Still, he said that while Coeur d’Alene was looking to the long term, Post Falls is asking for projects it says it needs now: a new elementary school, additions to the high school, a remodeled transportation building and land for future schools.

The Plummer-Worley School District will ask its voters to approve a $13.7 million school facilities measure May 16.

While Superintendent George Olsen said he felt bad for Coeur d’Alene, he doesn’t think it’s a harbinger for the Plummer-Worley election.

“I’m optimistic we have a good package, a reasonable package,” Olsen said. He had just learned that the state will help the district on its interest payments for the bond, relieving taxpayers of about 10 percent of the cost.

If the measure passes, the district will build a new high school and will remodel the existing high school to be a middle school and the existing middle school to be an elementary school.

“It’s really tough the way we have to go after public dollars to support education,” Olsen said. “If you don’t do these things, then our kids fall behind.”