Pend Oreille voters face school levy on Tuesday

Kirstin Burley knows Kootenai Elementary School. The 14-year-old attended for a year as a fourth-grader, going to class in one of the modular units behind the small building. When she was told the Pend Oreille School District is asking voters to pay for a 45,000-square-foot addition to the school, she welcomed the idea.

“They need it,” she said, recalling her experiences in the modular classroom. “It was tiny.”

The largest chunk of the $12.6 million levy – $9.1 million – will go to adding 15 classrooms, a room for special education, a library, a gymnasium and other basics. Slightly fewer than 170 students attended the school last year, while more than 600 attended Farmin-Stidwell in Sandpoint and more than 300 went to Washington Elementary, also in Sandpoint.

The district considers those schools to be overcrowded. Expanding Kootenai would allow about 300 more kids to attend, which would help relieve overcrowding at Washington and Farmin-Stidwell. Sixth-grade classes currently at the overcrowded schools would go to Kootenai, which now houses only kindergarten through fifth grade.

Not everyone supports the proposal. Though district officials cite the lack of any school construction levy since 1985 and the poor condition of schools, some object to the $12.6 million cost.

“We’ll probably vote against it because our taxes are too high,” said Dianna May, who lives outside of Sagle. “It’s just the wrong time.”

That’s exactly what people like Terry Lane worry about.

The Sandpoint resident said she’ll support this levy as she does all school levies, but she worries that the high property taxes in the area will cause many to vote no.

“I don’t think people realize where it goes,” she said.

But tax activist Larry Spencer said he’s looked into where the money’s going and is convinced the district is asking for way more than it needs. He’s even spent about $7,000 of his own money to mail fliers denouncing the cost of the levy.

He has examined the levies other school districts have proposed in the past few years and says “by far and away, this is the only one that has tried as hard with as little justification.”

District board of trustees member Mindy Cameron sent out a news release refuting Spencer’s letter. District officials say there’s no mystery about where the money’s going and how exactly it will be spent. If the levy is approved, there will be a citizen oversight committee to ensure the projects run smoothly.

The last school levy, passed in 1985, was used to build Sandpoint High School and other buildings. There was supposed to be money left over for Kootenai. But the cash ran out, leaving the school at just 13,000 square feet with five classrooms, and missing basic school features like a principal’s office and a library. Three modulars are currently used to house the library, computer lab and a few classrooms.

Students enter through a side door by the gym/cafeteria because the office staff is housed in the kitchen just off the side. There’s another set of doors near the front of the school that looks like it should be the main entrance, but there’s no way for school officials to keep track of who’s coming and going that way.

Working next to the cafeteria when a gym class is in there can be quite an adventure, office manager Sandi Greer-Gatlin said.

“It gets a little wild,” she said. “Balls come flying at me.”

A community group was formed about a year and a half ago to examine the needs of the school district and decide what to tackle first. The group decided that Kootenai Elementary was the most pressing need.

“We’re listening to the public and we’re putting that as one of the priorities, because that’s what the public wants,” district Superintendent Dick Cvitanich said.

Spencer questions why the district is looking to expand the size of elementary schools when enrollment growth has remained fairly flat over the years. The approximately 4,000 students enrolled increased slightly last year, but district officials point to the subdivisions being constructed throughout the district as a sign that growth is on its way.

“We want the kind of facilities that are going to last, because they’re only going to get more expensive as time goes by,” Cvitanich said.

Spencer also points to the Post Falls and Lakeland school districts when discussing his reasons for opposing Pend Oreille’s levy. Both those districts are building entirely new elementary schools for less than the $9.1 million Pend Oreille expects to spend.

Construction on Twin Lakes Elementary School in the Lakeland district began in late March. At 43,000 square feet, the school will comfortably house about 350 students. Construction cost is pegged at $5.3 million, not including architecture fees and equipment fees.

In Post Falls, a 50,000-square-foot elementary school expected to cost $8 million should house up to 550 students once it opens in fall 2008.

“One of the major problems that I’m having with it is that they don’t need the money,” Spencer said.

But district board of trustees chairwoman Vickie Pfeifer said the construction costs of all three projects are virtually the same – in the $130-per-square-foot range – it’s the overall project size that’s different.

“We have costs associated with the project that they don’t have. They probably have some that we don’t have,” she said. “So looking at the construction costs versus the overall project costs are kind of two different things.”

John Evans of Architects West, the company that designed Twin Lakes Elementary and helped in the schematic design of the addition to Kootenai, said things like the underlying land and what each district included in its plans play a huge difference. Even the cost of furnishing the building makes a difference, he said.

“The people’s perception is a little misguided,” he said.

The remaining $3.5 million of the $12.6 million will be used to buy 25 school buses, upgrade office technology like computer and phone systems, buy a heating system and furnish the kitchen that serves as the school’s administrative office.

District officials say they’re pleased with the support they’re getting. A group of citizens started Citizens for Better Schools to promote the levy. The group has received donations from many citizens and businesses, including Coldwater Creek.

Bill Berg, spokesman for Citizens for Better Schools, said he’s thrilled with how much work people are putting into the levy campaign, a campaign Spencer called “an all-out media blitz.”

“This is pretty sophisticated,” said Berg, president of the Panhandle Alliance for Education and Cameron’s husband.

Idaho state law makes levies the only way to get money for school construction.

“I think I speak for everybody in wishing we had a different mechanism for raising funds, but this is all we have,” district business manager Lisa Hals said.