Trustees approve KTEC levies

Trustees in the Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene and Lakeland school districts decided Monday to float two-year supplemental levies before voters this summer.

At three separate meetings, school board members in each district voted in favor of asking voters to approve financing for construction of KTEC (Kootenai Technical Education Campus), a joint professional-technical high school on the Rathdrum Prairie.

The individual ballot measures will go before voters in all three districts Aug. 24.

Superintendent Hazel Bauman told trustees in her district that if two districts pass a levy and one does not, the project could possibly still move forward.

"Obviously, then the revenue then would be severely compromised, especially if Coeur d'Alene would be the district to fail it, since we have the larger proportion of it because of the size of our district and our tax base," Bauman said. "A decision would have to be made whether to go forward with a much-reduced project, if in fact that was to be even tenable. It probably would not."

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. The Lakeland district will levy $940,900 with a projected tax increase of $36.83 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value for two years.

If funding for the project is approved by taxpayers, the $9.5 million, 50,000-square-foot building is expected to be ready to open by the fall of 2013.

Initial enrollment at the school is 180 students

Local businesses and Rathdrum Prairie landowners, 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.