Kootenai district levy fails

Voters in and around Harrison overwhelming rejected a levy proposal from the Kootenai School District that would have given the district $540,000 over the next two years.

Of the 280 voters who turned out Monday, slightly more than 41 percent voted for the levy, according to results announced late Monday. It needed a simple majority to pass.

“It bombed big time,” said school board member John Kraack.

Kraack said the board will rework the proposal at a meeting April 9.

“We’re definitely going to run it again,” he said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board and see what we can do.”

The levy represents about 8.5 percent of the district’s budget. Two-year levies like the one rejected have been part of the school district’s budget for more than 20 years.

District Superintendent Ron Hill called the levy’s defeat “difficult and disappointing.”

“It’s been an essential part of our education process,” Hill said.

Property owners in the district would have paid $24.40 for every $50,000 of assessed property value – an increase of about 8 cents per $1,000 over the two-year levy passed in 2005, Hill said.

The 2005 levy amount was $454,000 over a two-year period. The additional money in the defeated levy would have covered inflationary costs of current operations and built a savings pot for the district to use on upcoming facilities upkeep and maintenance.

Hill said he doesn’t know what the district may need to cut. “That’s tough. Never had to do that before, and we don’t want to start,” he said. “I could say teachers; I could say athletics; I could say books.”