KTEC advisory board named

COEUR d’ALENE — The Kootenai Technical Education Campus is getting down to business.

KTEC, the future professional-technical high school on the Rathdrum Prairie, now has a 13-member advisory board of broad-based business professionals to help guide its development.

Ron Nilson, KTEC founding member, named the committee on Friday during a meeting on the project at the Midtown Center.

“This group will help change and revolutionize the way we see business and education in Idaho,” he said.

Members include: Tom Power, Sunshine Minting; Nilson; Greg Gervais, Copper Basin Construction; Jim Tippett, Bayshore Systems; John Barlow, Hagadone Real Estate Holding Co.; Michelle Lemelin, Kimball Office; Jae Enos, Victory Homes; Eve Knudtsen, Knudtsen Chevrolet; Tim Komberec, Empire Airlines; John Chambers, Ground Force Manufacturing; Karleen Meyer, agriculture/land donor; Steve Griffitts, Jobs Plus; Ron Rock, Northwest Specialty Hospital; and Dean Haagenson, Contractors Northwest.

Voters in the Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Lakeland school districts in August approved financing for construction of the $9.5 million school set to open in fall 2013.

The school will offer classes in skilled trades — health occupations, welding, construction and automotive trades — to junior and senior high school students in the three districts.

Meyer, widow of the late farmer and state representative Wayne Meyer who was among the brothers who donated property for the school, said she’s honored to serve on the advisory board.

“Wayne would be on it if he was here with us,” Karleen told the group. “It’s one of those things that need to be carried on.”

Several of those at the meeting recently toured the Canyon-Owyhee Support Service Area (COSSA), a venture in the Boise area that’s similar to KTEC.

“There’s a lot of confidence in those kids,” Enos said. “It’s a proven success model, unlike any we’ve seen.”

Chambers said he’s looking forward to having one boy in Ground Force’s welding apprenticeship program after he completes high school.

Nilson said it’s interesting that students in the program don’t worry about the recession.

“They’ve got the skills to go to work and they know they’re going to get jobs,” he said.

Nilson said COSSA instructors told the group they’d be willing to come to North Idaho to help KTEC get started.

KTEC board members said middle school job fairs and the annual Hard Hats, Hammers and Hot Dogs event for students featuring area businesses at the fairgrounds will be a great opportunity to market KTEC to prospective students.

The tax dollars for KTEC will be received by the districts twice a year, in January and July of 2011, and in the same months in 2012. Those funds will be transferred to KTEC, and can be used only for the construction project. For taxpayers, the costs will be reflected in their property tax payments beginning this December, and in their December and June tax bills through the start of construction in 2012.

The owner of a $200,000 home in the Coeur d’Alene School District will see a property tax bill increase of about $35 per year for two years. That same home in the Post Falls district will not see an increase because an existing levy is expiring. In the Lakeland School District, that homeowner’s property tax bill will be roughly $50 for each of the next two years.