Cd'A school levy: Where money goes

The election for Coeur d'Alene School District's two-year, $20 million per year maintenance and operations levy is less than a month away.

This year's request is $4 million more than the current $16 million annual levy. The additional funds would support five key items: expanding mental health resources to support students; more security personnel to enhance student safety; purchasing school and classroom supplies; teacher and staff training programs; and recruiting and retaining quality teachers.

Superintendent Steve Cook discussed the different programs and needs the levy would support during a presentation at the Human Rights Education Institute on Tuesday. About 10 people braved the snowy conditions to attend the session, even as school had been canceled for the day.

Cook said a focus on mental health is one of the strongest items because at any given time, one in five students in the district is dealing with some kind of mental illness issue, long-term or otherwise. Funding would help make sure kids in need have access to counselors and other resources.

"This community’s dealt with a lot of tragedy in the last 18 months, and I think you can even take that back further if you wanted to,” he said. "It doesn’t start in our schools but it seems to be impacting our schools."

Safety is a top priority. Coeur d'Alene has only a handful of school resource officers covering the entire area, so if the levy passes, more security will be available — especially in the high schools where students have the privilege of open campus.

Cook said that when he visits the different schools, he always asks teachers to raise their hands if they've made it to that point in the school year without spending any of their own money.

"Not a single hand," he said. "Not one teacher has raised their hand."

The levy would provide more money in the building budget for teachers to buy things they need to run their classrooms effectively, Cook said.

"In some cases we’re talking $100 for the entire year. A hundred bucks. We can do better."

The levy would help expand training and development. Cook said this is one of the main reasons people stay employed in a field or profession.

"We would love to increase the opportunity for all teachers and staff members to get different kinds of training that pertains to their specific jobs," he said.

Lastly, more money in the district would help attract, retain and compensate talented teachers who are willing to stay.

"As you may know, we are bleeding talent across the state line," Cook said. "Teachers can go across into Washington and get somewhere upwards of a 15 to 20 percent pay increase, immediately ... What we talked about is, ‘Could we do something that keeps them home teaching our kids and working with our students?’"

Annually, the levy supports several other programs and positions, including school nurses, extracurricular activities, instructional assistants, updating technology, maintaining the schools and buying new, safer school buses.

Even with the $4 million increase, Cook said, "the tax impact will be relatively flat to homeowners."

"We’ve run this model over and over and over, and essentially, the number that sticks out in my mind for a $350,000 home, if we hadn’t changed anything for a $16 million ask, taxes were going to drop by about $114 anyway. When we bump this up to $20 million, taxes drop $.16 per month, so we say essentially it’s flat," Cook said. "That’s good news. That’s really good news."

Cook said his job is not to advocate for the levy but to inform the community about it and encourage citizens to vote.

Coeur d'Alene school board member Tom Hearn, who was in attendance Tuesday, said he’ll gladly advocate for the levy.

"It’s over 20 percent of our budget. This levy is not supplemental, it’s truly essential,” he said. “The loss of a quarter of our budget would be devastating to the school district in terms of programs and people.

“You think of any organization and cut its budget, you’re going to have some serious trouble, and we would have all kinds of problems if we lost that much of our budget.”

He said historically, Coeur d’Alene voters have been supportive of public schools, "and hopefully will continue their generous support.”

The 2019 maintenance and operations levy election will take place March 12.

Cook also will outline the levy request during the Coeur d'Alene Education Partnership's State of the District address on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Innovation Den, 418 E. Lakeside Ave., as well as on Feb. 26 from 5-6 p.m. in the cafeteria of Canfield Middle School, 1800 E. Dalton Ave. District 271 patrons are invited to attend.

Information: www.cdaschools.org/levybond