Technical decision
COEUR d'ALENE - Voters in three local school districts will decide this week whether their tax dollars will be used to jointly finance construction of a $9.5 million professional-technical high school building.
Polls will be open Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts.
Each election requires 55 percent voter approval for passage, but the project will likely move forward even if the measure fails in one of the districts.
"It would obviously be something smaller than the plan that is in place," said Post Falls School Superintendent Jerry Keane.
The current proposal is for a 50,000-square-foot school expected to open in 2013 with an initial enrollment of 180 students. Starting program offerings would include courses in health occupations, welding, construction and automotive training.
Trustees in each of the three districts announced in May that they would be running elections this month to ask voters to approve funds to pay for a share of the cost to build the Kootenai Technical Education Campus facility on land already secured, at no cost to taxpayers, on the Rathdrum Prairie.
"The district that did not pass would more than likely be able to enroll students in the program anyway," Keane said. "However, that district would need to pay tuition for their students to attend."
Students from the district without a levy would also need to pay for their own transportation.
"No district would take on additional costs," Keane said.
Ron Nilson, founding member of the KTEC committee and CEO of Ground Force Manufacturing in Post Falls, is confident the levy will pass in all three districts, but said the committee will ask any district that fails to approve it to run it again at a later date.
"It's that important to the kids," Nilson said.
Nilson and Keane are each members of the executive committee that serves as KTEC's governing board. Additional members include the superintendents of the Coeur d'Alene and Lakeland districts and retired Avista executive Paul Anderson.
Keane was elected by his fellow executive committee members to serve as the group's chair.
An advisory committee of area business representatives will report to the executive committee. That committee will likely be formally established by the executive committee this fall.
"The name of the committee says it all. The committee will advise the governing board regarding the operation of KTEC," Keane said. "From my perspective, the advisory committee will be most valuable regarding curricular matters. They can best advise what skills need to be taught in order to be successful in the private sector."
KTEC's governance structure is in accordance with Idaho Code that allows school districts to join together to create Cooperative Service Agencies. The Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland districts formed a CSA in the summer of 2009.
As a CSA, KTEC is an extension of the school districts, so its governing board is subject to all the same rules, regulations and state codes as any school board, including those pertaining to open meetings, open records and budget and policy setting.
The KTEC governing board is accountable to the school boards of each district.
"This model is in place throughout the state," Keane said.
The Canyon-Owyhee School Service Agency, or COSSA, in southern Idaho is similar to KTEC.
Since 1969, COSSA has served as a CSA, and includes five rural districts - Wilder, Marsing, Homedale, Notus, and Parma.
COSSA is in the process of building a new regional technology center in Wilder using levy money from the five districts and a U.S. Economic Development Grant. Three of those districts passed levies last summer. Two of them passed them later in the year, including one that failed once.
The CSAs are not empowered to generate funds through tax levies on their own.
On Tuesday, voters in the three North Idaho districts will be asked to approve two-year school plant facilities levies. There will be no bonds, so no interest is included. The levies will be "pay-as-you-go," and drop off the books after the second year.
The owner of a $200,000 home in the Coeur d'Alene School District will see a property tax bill increase of about $35 a year for two years. That same home in the Post Falls district will not see an increase because an existing levy is expiring. However, if the measure fails, this Post Falls homeowner will save about $55 a year for two years. In the Lakeland School District, passage of the measure will mean an increase in that homeowner's property tax bill of roughly $50 for each of the next two years.
State funding per pupil will pay for maintenance and operations, including an additional 33 percent from the state's division of professional-technical education. Schools in the districts have not been able to qualify for those PTE funds previously.
Once programs are in place there will likely be other new revenue opportunities through federal grants, like the $2.5 million U.S. ED funds the 40-year-old COSSA program was awarded to build its new center.
Absentee ballots can be cast until 5 p.m. Monday at the central offices in all three districts.
The absentee ballot response so far in Coeur d'Alene has been brisk, said Board Clerk Lynn Towne. By Friday afternoon, they already had 214 people come in to vote, and had mailed out 317 ballots.
Post Falls voters had cast 74 absentee votes, and in the Lakeland district, 72 voters have done the same.
Polling places are open Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in all three districts.
Coeur d'Alene polling sites are Coeur d'Alene High School, Lake City High School, Project CDA, Lakes Middle School, Ramsey Elementary School and Hayden Meadows Elementary School.
Voters in Post Falls can go to the Frederick Post Education Center, Ponderosa Elementary School and Prairie View Elementary School.
Polling sites in the Lakeland School District include Athol Elementary, Betty Kiefer Elementary, Garwood Elementary, John Brown Elementary, Spirit Lake Elementary, Twin Lakes Elementary, Hauser Elementary, Hauser Fire Station and the Bayview Community Center.