Boundary Schools Seek New Levy District May Close Elementary If Measure Fails

Providing the basics anymore at North Idaho schools seems to require a little extra help from the taxpayers.

Boundary County School District is asking voters to approve a supplemental levy March 28 just to keep things running as usual.

The district isn’t alone in its reliance on supplemental levies. This school year, 44 of Idaho’s 113 school districts are operating with the help of supplemental levies - totalling nearly $59 million statewide.

Now, Boundary County voters are being asked to approve a two-year, $1,054,000 supplemental levy - that’s $527,000 per year. The levy will replace one passed two years ago for $980,000.

The levy is needed to keep all the schools open, maintain the current level of staffing, pay for new math books, support extracurricular activities and ongoing teacher training.

There’s nothing new included in the levy proposal, school officials said.

If the levy doesn’t pass, the school district plans to close Evergreen Elementary School, which serves families in the Moyie Springs area.

The school has about 112 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

“They would have the option of either Valley View or Mount Hall schools,” Superintendent Reid Straabe said.

The cost to keep Evergreen Elementary open is about $90,000 a year. Other cuts would include $192,500 in personnel costs, but Straabe said he didn’t know which teachers or staff would lose their jobs if it came to that.

The cost of the new math curriculum and training is $134,000, and the transportation for extracurricular activities costs about $50,000 per year. Supplies are budgeted at $60,500 per year.

Boundary County has a spotty history when it comes to passing supplemental levies.

In 1996 and 1997, the district was forced to operate without one. Voters turned down the proposed supplemental levy three times in a row.

As a result, when Straabe came to the school district, he had to cut more than $400,000 out of the budget, he said.

Cuts also forced the school district to start charging students to participate in extracurricular activities. Once the supplemental levy passed, the district was able to pick up those costs again.

The new supplemental levy, if approved, would cost the owner of a home with a market value of $50,000 about $46 a year. Total school taxes would cost the same homeowner approximately $200 per year.

LEVY Polling places

On March 28

The polls will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at all Boundary County schools except the alternative high school.

Absentee

Absentee voting can take place at the school district central office, 7188 Oak Street, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days before the election.