Kootenai County commission endorses KTEC funding levy

COEUR d'ALENE - The county commissioners are behind the Kootenai Technical Education Campus, and they think you should be too.

The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners issued a proclamation Tuesday stating they support the passage of facilities levies going before voters at polls in the Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts on Aug. 24.

If approved, the levies will finance construction of a $9.5 million professional-technical high school building on a 20-acre site on the Rathdrum Prairie.

"In our opinion, this is a wonderful, wonderful project. We've talked about this over the years, about doing something like this," said commissioner Rick Currie.

In the proclamation, the commissioners urge citizens to vote in favor of the project in their respective school districts.

The development of KTEC is a joint project between the Post Falls, Lakeland and Coeur d'Alene school districts, many area business and industry leaders and North Idaho College.

The proposed high school will serve juniors and seniors from all three districts.

"I think it's very exciting that the county commissioners recognize the value of professional-technical education," said KTEC Committee Chairman Paul Anderson. "The county commissioners have been involved in Jobs Plus for many years, and they understand fully how important it is to have a trained workforce for employers to draw from."

Anderson said the commissioners also understand the importance of KTEC for the region's young people, that it will provide them with the training they need to get jobs that pay well and provide good benefits.

With successful passage of the levies, it is expected that the doors of the high school could open in 2013.

North Idaho College has purchased property adjacent to the proposed high school's location. The college plans to eventually move its professional-technical programs onto the campus.