There were smiles in the schools and administrative offices of five north Idaho school districts where voters approved levies yesterday.
That includes the Boundary County School District in Bonners Ferry, where Superintendent Jan Bayer is thanking the 68% of voters who supported the two-year, $4.8 million supplemental levy.
“A weight's been lifted,” Bayer told SPR News this morning. “It was exciting to walk in. Our offices are tied to an elementary school and their staff had right before their time started, just a celebration, and just the morale in 12 hours, the difference has been amazing.”
Bayer credits the strong showing to better, more targeted communication with parents. She says voters responded to the news that electives, such as band and choir, would have to be cut if local money isn’t there to support them.
There was a breakthrough in the West Bonner County School District, where more than 54% of voters said yes to a two year, $4.7 million levy.
“It's still going to be a tight budget,” said Superintendent Kim Spacek.
“It's still going to be a constant keeping on track to make sure that we're not over budget and going in that direction. So we really have to look at where we're hiring staff, that we're placing them in the correct positions, and we're using their full potential and being able to maybe cross train people. We're still going to have a lot of employees that wear multiple hats.”
In Kootenai County, voters in the Post Falls and Lakeland School Districts were in a giving mood.
The news was especially sweet in Rathdrum where two-thirds of voters approved Lakeland’s two-year, $15 million levy. Another levy narrowly failed there last November. Since then, Superintendent Lisa Arnold says the district has worked hard to teach the community about how schools are funded in Idaho.
“It wasn't just district office staff who were out there talking to people,” Arnold said. “There was a lot of community involvement. We had parents, we had community members who don't have ties to our schools, but support schools, hundreds of people who were also working to try to get accurate information out. And I think that was the key, was just helping people have a better understanding.”
Even with the levy passage, Lakeland expects to lay off about 25 employees. Arnold says adminstrators and the school board will continue to look at how to minimize costs. She said a four-day week, which has already been adopted by dozens of Idaho districts, may be on the table.
In Post Falls, 62% of voters voted for a two year, $12-million proposal. Administrators there say the district plans to use some of it to increase salaries as it tries to retain teachers who might be tempted by higher wages across the border in Washington.
In the Plummer-Worley District, about 56% of voters supported a two-year, $1.8 million measure, a year after they turned down another levy.
