Bond Measures Narrowly Fail Required Two-Thirds Majority Defeated Two School Proposals

North Idaho residents Tuesday narrowly defeated two proposals to build new schools.

More than 60 percent of voters supported each measure, but a two-thirds majority was required for passage.

Kootenai Joint School District’s proposed $2.95 million high school in Harrison was rejected even though 318 voters, or 62 percent, supported the project. There were 192 no votes.

In the Avery/Calder/Clarkia School District, which proposed building a new school along St. Joe River Road, the tally was 107 to 68 - a 61 percent approval rate.

The Kootenai district, with 315 students, wanted to build a combined junior-senior high. If a new high school was built next door, the existing 40-year-old building would have become a middle school.

The district, on the east shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene, is growing by about 3 percent a year.

The sprawling Avery district has only 35 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. They are divided between schools in Avery and Calder.

The new $1.65 million facility would have been built on donated land between the two towns.

It would have saved money now spent maintaining the old schools, according to district officials. It would have also offered educational advantages, such as the chance to group students more closely by age.

A similar measure failed in 1994, despite receiving 57 percent yes votes.

, DataTimes