Fourteen years ago, long-range planners for the Coeur d’Alene School District created a wish list of school building projects that appeared to be pie-in-the-sky. It called for the construction of a new high school, an overhaul of the old one, a third middle school and the construction or retrofit of several elementaries.

At the time, the district was struggling to pass bond elections as many of the district’s patrons were infected with the region’s anti-property tax fever.

Not only was 1992 a year for dreaming but it also was a breakthrough year for the district as voters finally decided that an old high school with more than 2,000 students was overcrowded. They passed a $16.9 million bond election to build Lake City High and to begin upgrading Coeur d’Alene High. The district never looked back afterward, using two, four-year, pay-as-you-go capital facilities levies in a row to build, remodel or expand Woodland Middle School, Project CDA alternative high school, several elementary schools and Coeur d’Alene High.

An erstwhile source of embarrassment, Coeur d’Alene School District buildings now are among the best in the state. But the job isn’t done.

On Tuesday, the district will ask patrons to approve another four-year levy to reconstruct and remodel three buildings in the old, poorer part of Coeur d’Alene and to construct another new elementary school. With solid input from the community, the district reduced the original price tag by $10 million to an acceptable $39.8 million for the four projects. As a result of the proven need for the projects and the district’s willingness to pare costs, it has received backing from a number of influential community groups, including the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, Jobs Plus and Concerned Businesses of North Idaho.

Since the early 1990s, the district has proven to be a good listener to public concerns and a good steward of public money in planning, remodeling and constructing buildings in Coeur d’Alene, Dalton Gardens and Hayden. A good example of its willingness to listen, albeit belatedly, was the decision last fall in the face of neighborhood opposition to back off plans to build the new Lakes Middle School on the popular Person Field playground. The new middle school will be built on the current site at a cost of almost $20 million, including $2 million left over from the current levy and money to level the old middle school.

Of the remaining levy money, $5,250,000 is designated for a new Winton Elementary School; $5,209,313 to remodel Borah School; $7,717,500 to build a new elementary school in the southwest or east part of the district; $3.2 million for new technology; and $761,068 for a contingency fund.

The district is overdue to upgrade and replace buildings in the southern part of Coeur d’Alene.

If approved, with at least 55 percent of the vote, the new levy will replace the expiring one, costing owners of an average $210,000 home $72 per year more.

The Coeur d’Alene School District has come a long way since the late 1980s and early 1990s. But it still has further to go to complete its list.