Avery School Levy Fails For Third Time
A proposal to build a school in North Idaho’s tiniest district failed Tuesday for the third time.
Just 45 percent of voters in the Avery School District supported the five-year, $1.4 million levy, which would have replaced the district’s two aging schools with a new, four-classroom building.
“I’m dumbfounded the vote was the way it was,” school board member Liz Codoni said. “I don’t know what we do now. … I don’t see that we have any realistic options.”
Two bonds have failed in the Shoshone County district since 1994, but both of those had more supporters than Tuesday’s levy. A bond requires 66 percent approval. A levy needs 55 percent.
The new school would have been built on land donated by the Potlatch Corp. along St. Joe River Road. It would have replaced the district’s two schools, Avery Elementary-Junior High and Calder Elementary-Junior High, both of which would likely have been sold to the highest bidder, said Superinten dent Robert Singleton. Any profit would have been used to pay off part of the levy, he added.
The Avery School District serves fewer than three dozen students in kindergarten through eighth grade - smaller than some math classes in other school systems. High school students are bused to St. Maries.
Some supporters said the levy failed because voters were just too attached to the old schoolhouses.
Others pointed to a letter distributed by Avery resident Wade Bilbry as an explanation for the measure’s failure.
“It just wasn’t time to build a new building,” said Bilbry, a postal worker, who sent a letter to everyone in the district urging them to oppose the levy. “We have two buildings. Either one could house all of the students.”
But district officials say it would cost more to refurbish the schoolhouses, built in 1923 and 1917, than it would to build a new school.
“The district will have to take a good look at finding some other way to operate with our small enrollment,” Singleton said. “It’s just not feasible to operate two schools.”
The school board will meet at 7 p.m. Monday to discuss the district’s options.
LEVY LOSES A five-year, $1.4 million levy failed Tuesday in the Avery School District, with 75 voters in support of the measure and 90 against it.