Why did CdA’s levy fail?

The Coeur d’Alene School District will conduct a survey of residents in hopes of learning why a $40 million property tax levy failed in last month’s election.

The survey will serve as “a reality check, if you will, to make sure we’re doing our homework as we should,” said school board member Vern Newby, who sits on the district’s long-range planning committee.

The results would inform the district’s mindset not only for a possible second levy request but for future levies as well, Superintendent Harry Amend said.

The Lake Pend Oreille School District surveyed residents last month and found most would not support a levy or bond measure. The Sandpoint-based district, which has not passed a levy since 1985, said many of its buildings are overcrowded and need remodeling.

The Coeur d’Alene district has had better luck with voters. The recent defeat was an anomaly. The levy needed at least 55 percent of the vote to pass but received about 45 percent.

If it had passed, the levy would have replaced an expiring property tax levy. The new, four-year levy would have paid for rebuilding or remodeling three older schools, building a new elementary school and improving instructional technology at all schools.

The upgrades would have been concentrated in the south end of the district, which has a poorer population than other areas.

The planning committee this week discussed possible reasons voters shot down the buildings levy – not enough information, not enough confidence, too high a price tag. But committee members also want to talk to voters to hear their reasoning, Newby said.

The district will hire a firm to conduct a random phone survey that would ask residents how they voted and why, and what they think the district should do, planning committee chair Jill Neal said.

A subcommittee will draft questions in the next couple of weeks. Officials haven’t decided when to do the survey.

Later, the district will hold open forums as another opportunity to hear from residents, Amend said.

The district needs to find a package that voters are willing to support, even if that means tabling the building needs for a few years, Newby said.

“It’s the community’s schools, the community’s dollars,” he said.

Larry Spencer, an Athol resident who sent out 23,000 letters in opposition to the school levy, said he thinks this is a good move for the district.

With those letters, he included a response card that asked about recipients’ voting patterns and how they felt about the funding request. About 10 percent of the returned cards were from people who normally voted for school levies, but not this one, Spencer said. The rest were from people who never vote for them.

“It’s important to be in tune with what people want,” he said. “A lot of what the voters were telling them was the taxes are hurting and you’ve got to tighten the belt a little bit.”