Post Falls passes schools levy

Post Falls will get a new elementary school and eight additional high school classrooms after nearly 72 percent of voters approved the district’s $10.9 million bond levy Tuesday.

Of the 1,900 votes cast, 1,365 were for the levy, well above the two-thirds supermajority needed.

“We’re very, very excited,” Superintendent Jerry Keane said. “It’s a real tribute to our community and the continuous support they’ve shown in taking care of the needs of the students.”

Voters in the Plummer-Worley School District were not as receptive Tuesday to the idea of paying for new schools. The district’s proposed $13.7 million bond saw 326 votes in favor and 348 against, well below the two-thirds approval required.

Of the $10.9 million the Post Falls levy will bring in, $8 million will finance a new elementary school, $1.4 million will build two four-classroom additions to Post Falls High School, $725,000 will be used to remodel the bus facility and $750,000 will go toward land purchases.

The district expects the additional high school classrooms to be ready for the 2007-08 school year, and the elementary school and bus facility to be completed by 2008. The new school would be built on an 11-acre site known as the Montrose Development, located west of Chase Road, Keane said.

Taxpayers in the district will save money even with the new bond levy, Keane said, because the district recently refinanced existing bonds to save money, and a growing Post Falls population means more people will be shouldering the cost.

The district predicts taxpayers will pay $1.92 per $1,000 of assessed value under the new levy, instead of $2.09 per $1,000 they’ve been paying under the existing levy.

“We’re just ecstatic,” Assistant Superintendent Becky Ford said. “We’re so pleased with the message the community is sending with respect to their children.”

Ford said the school district has enjoyed strong community support the last several times it has sought tax support for new facilities.

Still, “we were not taking this one for granted at all, knowing it’s pretty hard for some of us to pay those taxes every year,” she said.

Plummer-Worley Superintendent George Olsen called Tuesday’s results “just sadly disappointing.”

“This was about kids, and the problem of course is kids become the losers in a situation like this,” Olsen said.

The district hoped to use the money to build a new high school, convert the current high school to a middle school, and convert the current middle school to an elementary school.

Olsen said the school board will meet tonight to determine a plan of action.