CV board’s urging goes unanswered at hearing

Sixteen Central Valley school district elementary and middle school principals donned bright red T-shirts asking “What would you do?”

These principals and the district’s board of directors pleaded their case for financial assistance in the form of impact fees during a meeting Monday with officials from Spokane County and the cities of Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake.

Impact fees are assessments paid by developers to offset the impacts of their projects on the community.

The answer to their question was the same as it was in January at a similar meeting.

Councilman Bill Gothmann said that the city of Spokane Valley has the authority to collect impact fees for streets, parks and schools, and that it is responsible for streets and parks, but not schools.

“There’s not a well with unlimited depth,” Gothmann said. The city is having a study done on road improvements and will have the results early next year. Officials want to look at all three elements together.

“If we don’t ask, we don’t know,” board President Lynn Trantow said.

“We’re beggars with a huge problem and we’re doing everything that we can. Every new building has a huge impact on our schools. And you don’t need to do a study. We have that information for you,” said board member Cindy McMullen.

County Commissioner Mark Richard brought up the issue of inequality of collecting only from people purchasing new homes. They might not have school age children.

Richard acknowledged the needs of the district based on the principal’s presentations but suggested that another meeting, a financial summit, should be held.

“Personally I’m not diametrically opposed to this. Let’s sit down and discuss the alternatives,” said Richard.

Earlier this month, Liberty Lake officials passed a resolution endorsing a proposed $1,410 impact fee and called on neighboring governmental agencies to support fees on development to pay for new school construction. The ordinance will be voted on at the Oct. 3 City Council meeting.

“It’s not a big piece, but it’s a piece, and it says we are going to help. It’s not parks and roads. It’s not city or county budgets. It’s how we’re going to interface with the district,” said Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson.

The district is running out of room. There are seven elementary and nine middle school classrooms available in the 80-square-mile district.

Horizon Middle School Principal Denis Rusca, who has four classrooms available, said the rooms are a sewing room, cooking room, art room and the back of the wood shop.

Opportunity Elementary School is using a shower room for reading. McDonald Elementary’s community room is used as a literacy center.

Many schools now have three lunches, meaning that class periods are split.

District officials are running a $75.76 million bond this November to help construct two new schools at the east end of the district and make improvements to nine other schools.