Technical campus plan progresses

COEUR d'ALENE - The campaign to build a technical high school on the Rathdrum Prairie is gathering steam.

Proponents for KTEC (Kootenai Technical Education Campus) are making the rounds at area Rotary, chamber and Kiwanis meetings, eager to share details about the project, and their enthusiasm for it.

"We think it's going to make a huge difference in this community," said retired Avista executive Paul Anderson, vice chair of KTEC's executive board.

The KTEC committee, formed in 2006, is a partnership of local school districts, business and manufacturing leaders.

The school will offer welding, medical, automotive and construction skills training for high school students, with dual credits and industrial certifications available.

Because equipment for tech programs is often too expensive for one school district to consider, the multi-agency effort makes it financially feasible for the districts to increase technical training opportunities for their students.

D.A. Davidson & Co.'s Craig Wilcox has been coordinating the recent presentations through Kootenai Perspectives, part of Jobs Plus, the area's nonprofit economic development corporation.

During an editorial board meeting Thursday at The Press, Wilcox said the community's response has been supportive.

If funding for the project is approved by taxpayers, the building is expected to be constructed and ready to open by the fall of 2013.

Initial enrollment at the school is 180 students

The school boards of the three local school districts involved in KTEC - Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene and Lakeland - are each holding meetings Monday night to consider whether to float two-year School Plant Facilities Levies to finance construction of a 50,000-square-foot building, estimated to cost $9.5 million.

With approval from the three school boards, a levy election will be held in each district on Aug. 24.

Successful passage of the levies requires 55 percent voter approval in each district.

The Coeur d'Alene district will levy $2,683,846 per year for two years, at a projected cost of $29.37 per $100,000 of taxable assessed property value.

Post Falls will levy $1,125,254 each year, which will add about 40 cents per $100,000 of taxable assessed property value. In the Lakeland district, the projected increase is $36.83 for two years.

Wilcox said the time is right to move forward with the project because construction costs are low right now.

"The land has been donated. The infrastructure is already in place," Wilcox said.

Waiting will only see an increase in the costs to complete the project, he said.

Local businesses and Rathdrum Prairie land owners, the Meyer family, donated the land for the project, 20 acres near the corner of Lancaster Road and Highway 41.

Additional information is available online at www.ktechigh.org.