Julie Titone

The Coeur d'Alene, Lakeland and Kootenai school districts will ask voters today to approve supplemental levies, so that property taxes can be used to maintain or add programs.

Milo Creek rushes down Maple St. in Kellogg Saturday after a culvert clogged. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Hygiene check: Nurse Terri Ethridge check out Cory Kilpatrick's nails. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

The Lakeland School District will have a school lunch program for the first time if voters approve a one-year supplemental levy. On Tuesday, the Lakeland, Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai school districts will ask residents to increase or maintain their property taxes. On the same day, eight Panhandle districts have board of trustee races, which determine the leadership of community schools.

Students from Mead's Northwood Junior High work on a civil rights exercise at Camp PEACE on Friday. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Among Friday morning's graduates at North Idaho College, Randy Smith of Spirit Lake traded his mortarboard for his cowboy hat, with tassel. He said the hat, or more accurately his job horseshoeing and shoveling out horse stalls, helped pay for his associate of science degree. Smith plans to be a teacher. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Jim Minkler, a philosophy instructor at North Idaho College, was honored Friday by his colleagues as this year's recipient of the NIC Foundation Faculty Achievement Award. The award comes with a check for $1,500. Minkler has taught at NIC since 1988.

Priest River students Yvee Sherman, left, and Tiffany Troudt examine integrated circuit boards during a field trip to an electronics plant Wednesday. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

This old house must be moved to make room for the widening of Highway 3. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Parents who feared the Coeur d'Alene School District was watering down its mathematics requirements are happy now.

This morning, high school students will test their skills by racing electric vehicles they designed and built. But before the "Electrathon" starts at Silver Lake Mall, one of its sponsors will celebrate its own ability to get off the mark.

(From For the Record, May 11, 1997:) Name incorrect: Ron Booth was quoted in an article about the Home School Compact that appeared in Saturday's newspaper. His last name was incorrect in that story.

Just a show-and-tell bugaboo 1. Sixth-graders, from left, Michael Haughn, Ryan Spurway and Seth Hotchkiss eagerly check their catch of small bugs and snails from Jackass Creek in Kellogg on Thrusday morning. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Students show off their prized catch of tiny critters. The bug at right is a mayfly, a sign of a healthy body of water.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved an amendment to allow emergency flood repairs of levees without worrying about Endangered Species Act violations. The legislation was championed by Idaho's senators, in part because of the need to strengthen levees along the St. Joe River at St. Maries. Repairs there have already begun, however, under an existing emergency clause in the act. The legislation, which President Clinton is expected to sign, appears to have two impacts on the St. Joe situation:

Project growing. Teacher Ann Porter-Brown demonstrates good raking technique as students till the soil and pick up rocks Wednesday at Winton Elementary School. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review <

Pat McGaughey of the Chamber of Commerce plays game-show host for Renaissance Feud on Wednesday at Lake City High. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

One dramatically changed her way of teaching. One found special ways to help troubled kids. One set up a "Teacher Leader" program to help her peers.

Local mushroom experts issued a warning Monday after a North Idaho woman became ill from eating wild mushrooms. The Twin Lakes area resident was treated for gastrointestinal pain last Wednesday in Kootenai Medical Center's emergency room, said Tim Gerlitz, president of the North Idaho Mycological Association.

Teachers with creative ideas were given a record number of awards this spring by the Post Falls Education Foundation. The group awarded $10,271 to teacher-created projects that don't duplicate school district spending, according to foundation president Kathy Lewis.

1. Workmen moves earth on top of Milltown Road last week on the outskirts of St. Maries at a point where floodwaters may have risen above the roadway level. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. In the Medowhurst district homes are being elevated on earthen berms or stilts.

"Did you sandbag your place last night?" "How's your dock holding up?" "Should I move my cows now?" As Benewah County's civil defense coordinator, George Currier spends long days during this flood season asking and answering questions.

1. Lights, camera ... The cast and crew of "This Is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" take a break in front of an old cafe in Worley, Idaho, on Wednesday. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Director Chris Eyre, right, consults with writer and co-producer Sherman Alexie.

Benewah County won't have to worry about protecting bald eagles during levee reconstruction if legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig becomes law. The flood-control work would be exempt from the Endangered Species Act under terms of an amendment that the Idaho Republican added to a Senate appropriations bill.

North Idaho College would become a magnet for Native American students under a sweeping proposal accepted Wednesday by the NIC board of trustees. "What you have before you is a dream," said board chairwoman Jeanne Givens, a member of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.