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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Most Idaho school tax levy votes pass, North Idaho district can now reverse deep cuts

For one small North Idaho school district, yesterday’s levy election results brought welcome news, with voters approving a two-year $1.1 million supplemental level that’ll allow the reversal of deep cuts, including eliminating all sports, cutting kindergarten to half-time, furlough days for all employees and cutting a day off the school week starting this fall. “Needless to say, we are ecstatic,” Plummer-Worley Superintendent Judi Sharrett told S-R reporter Scott Maben; you can read his full report here. The final tally was 561 votes in favor, 374 against. This morning, in a special meeting, the school board voted to reinstate funding for sports, full-day kindergarten and a five-day school week.

Plummer-Worley had been the only school district in North Idaho without a voter-approved supplemental property tax levy to offset state budget cuts to school; an earlier levy proposal fell short in May. It was one of about half a dozen Idaho school districts with levy elections yesterday; most passed. Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News reports that Cassia County and Emmett school districts passed levies after scaling back proposals that earlier failed. Homedale voters rejected a levy for a second time, while Parma voters overwhelmingly approved a 10-year, $2.5 million facilities levy. You can read Richert’s full report here.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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