Today's headlines:
- The majority of WA police officers aren't completing their required violence de-escalation training, but requirements may be too burdensome per a new state audit.
- Spokane leaders float the idea of splitting the fire department from the city to create a new fire district.
- Spokane Community Colleges and the University of Idaho are partnering to get more students four-year wildlife degrees. That could especially benefit local Tribes.
- The newest U.S. submarine is named "Idaho." It honors the landlocked state's unique contributions to naval science.
Plus, the Lakeland School District in North Idaho is in disarray after the school board removed superintendent Rusty Taylor but didn’t explain why. Board chair Michelle Thompson told Idaho Ed News that Taylor isn’t being investigated for any wrongdoing, and the board intends to pay Taylor the rest of his $200,000 salary.
Idaho Ed News reporter Emma Epperly debriefs with SPR about what's happening—plus the big price tag she's facing to get public records.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Carrillo-Casas and Emma Epperly.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Monday, April 20, 2026.
On today’s show, the vast majority of Washington’s police officers aren’t completing their required trainings on violence de-escalation and cultural awareness. That’s according to a new report from the state auditor.
And some officials in Spokane City Hall are exploring the idea of splitting the fire department into its own district as a cost-saving measure.
Plus, Lakeland School District has now gone through three superintendents in four years. Idaho Ed News’s Emma Epperly will join us to explain why some community members are calling the board of trustees to resign—and comparing the situation to North Idaho College’s recent accreditation crisis.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Most police in Washington aren’t meeting state requirements for violence de-escalation and cultural awareness training.
That’s the conclusion of a new report from the state auditor’s office.
However, the audit also shows challenges faced by officers, including the possibility that 46 complex training topics is just too many to fit into the 40 required training hours.
Just 16% of veteran officers and 14% of new officers have completed their required training.
If the current rate of training completion continues, the state auditor says about half of officers will be out of compliance with state law in 2 years.
The auditor’s office is recommending the legislature put together a working group to address officer feedback, provide more support to help officers meet requirements and clarify consequences for those who don’t complete their training.
It’s also recommending more transparency through increased public reporting of compliance data.
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Would the city of Spokane and its fire department split?
SPR’s Eliza Billingham has details on an idea floating around city hall.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: It’s too early to tell if this will really happen, but the idea of a separate fire district is being tested by Spokane officials as they brainstorm ways to keep the city’s finances afloat.
Council member Zack Zappone filled in the plan commission last week.
ZACK ZAPPONE: “Yeah, it's not baked and the finances have to be super understood but I think a key part of that, is like, if we're moving forward with fire stuff, we'll have to go to voters and part of that might be a request to include funding for additional services if we're wanting to expand to Latah and Five Mile and community engagement around that. So this is definitely a multi-year process.”
EB: Right now, the commission is including fire impact fees for new developments in Spokane’s comprehensive plan update.
Those impact fees go to the city. They also make development more expensive.
If fire splits off into its own district, that entity is typically funded by a direct property tax levy on all property owners.
Zappone said more feasibility research will be presented at the June 1 Public Safety committee meeting.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Natural resource students at Spokane Colleges now have another option to continue their education after earning associate degrees.
Spokane Colleges and the University of Idaho announced this week those students can transfer right into the U of I’s bachelor’s degree in wildlife studies.
Ralph Allan, Junior is with the natural resources program for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.
He says he hopes it will lead to a deeper pool of candidates for tribal natural resource jobs.
RALPH ALLAN JR: “A two-year degree is just fine and that'll move them up into leadership positions at the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. But if they're able to move forward and get a four-year degree, man, that's where we want everybody to be.”
OH: Spokane Colleges says a quarter of the students in its natural resource programs are affiliated with tribes.
Allan says he hopes the deal will attract more Native students to pursue the 4-year degree, and then go into natural resource fields.
RA: “I think it will be a new recruiting tool for me and for everybody else in our Natural Resources Department at the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.”
OH: Allan says the tribe offers summer jobs and internships for middle and high school students to introduce them to natural resource-related work.
Spokane College officials say they’ve recently added degree and certificate programs in freshwater fisheries and wildlife sampling.
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The US Navy will commission its newest nuclear submarine this weekend. It’s named the “USS Idaho.”
SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas reports this is the first sub to honor the Gem State in more than a century.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: Richard Colburn, Chairman of the USS Idaho Commissioning Foundation, says the last ship named “Idaho” was commissioned in 1919 and was used during World War II.
To have the newest U.S. Navy submarine named “Idaho” after all that time is special, he says.
RICHARD COLBURN: “We're looking forward to this great celebration, and we, you know, hope it'll be something that folks can remember for the next 100 years.”
MCC: Colburn is a retired Navy captain. He says the landlocked state has a deep naval history, considering Lake Pend Oreille is a submarine base.
RC: “The two most important things in submarine construction are acoustic stealth and nuclear technology, and both of those come from Idaho.”
MCC: The submarine was originally supposed to be commissioned in 2023 but was delayed due to the lasting effects of COVID.
During the pandemic, a large number of shipyard workers took early retirement, Colburn says.
RC: “The submarine industrial base, not just the shipyards, has struggled since then with hiring qualified trades folks to be able to do the work. They're still not where they need to be.”
MCC: Colburn says the new submarine will be commissioned on April 25 in Groton, Conn. He expects at least 500 Idahoans to be at the celebration.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: When Lakeland School District hired Rusty Taylor last June, he was its third superintendent in four years.
Now, the Kootenai County School will need to find a fourth, because Taylor was placed on administrative leave late last month, and it's unclear why. The district has also seen several levies fail recently, and lots of turnover at the district office.
Our partners at Idaho Ed News are looking into the departures, but so far their requests for public records have been blocked.
With me to talk about it is Emma Epperly, who covers the panhandle for Idaho Ed News. Thanks for being here.
EMMA EPPERLY: Thanks for having me.
OH: Let's just lay a little groundwork. When we say there's been turnover in staff, what are we looking at?
EE: Yeah, so this kind of goes back to 2022, when then superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer, her contract wasn't renewed by this current school board. And so then her assistant took over, Lisa Arnold, and she retired early last year.
Her assistant superintendent, Lynn Paslay, also left at that time. And I talked to Lisa this week, and she really told me about just the toxic work environment. She had tried to be, in her words, really collaborative with the school board, especially Chair Michelle Thompson.
They set the agenda for board meetings together, and they had a disagreement about a year into superintendent Arnold's tenure. And from that point on, their relationship was just kind of non-existent, and there was just a lot of tension, frustration. She told me that staff members would routinely cry ahead of board meetings. Just really high-stress environment.
OH: And for Taylor himself, what do we know about why he was placed on leave?
EE: Superintendent Rusty Taylor came in last June and came into this environment. There was a lot of departures, and he told me at the time he really wanted to work with the school board, kind of set some boundaries, and figure out how to have a good working relationship.
And so over the last nine months, the school board and superintendent Taylor had some visible tension in board meetings, but there was nothing to indicate that he was going to leave until late last month. He was placed on leave after his annual review during executive session. So they came out of executive session, voted to put him on paid leave, and to pay out the rest of his contract, which is about $200,000.
OH: And as you've been looking into this, what sort of obstacles have been stopping you and Idaho Ed News from getting the records you've requested?
EE: In Idaho, the school board can't talk about personnel issues. And I talked to board chair Michelle Thompson. She said it was just not a good fit, but couldn't go into more detail.
So we requested emails between Rusty Taylor and Michelle Thompson from the start of the year. And then we also requested emails to and from all the other trustees in the week before he was placed on leave. And the board clerk responded and said it was going to cost about $1,200 for us to get those emails.
And in the 10 plus years that Ed News has been around in Idaho, we've never been charged by a school district for public records because they're seen as for the public good. They're public records, and therefore the fees are waived. That's a caveat in state law to kind of avoid getting charged fees.
And so it was really surprising to us. We tried to work with the district to maybe reduce the request so that it would be less time intensive to redact. But they still wanted to charge us about $600 for those records.
OH: And as all of this has begun unfolding, community members have started to make their feelings known, including at a board meeting last week. What happened at that board of trustees meeting?
EE: Yeah, so last Wednesday, the board meeting was super full. A group of 84 former school district administrators, teachers, and community members wrote an open letter asking the board to either reinstate Superintendent Taylor or resign.
They called the decision vindictive and said that the district leadership is just out of control and creating a really toxic situation for the community. They called it NIC 2.0, which listeners may remember, North Idaho College had a years-long accreditation issue which went back to board governance. And so they made that comparison.
And current NIC trustee Mary Havercroft and her husband Will both worked at the district in Lakeland for a long time. And they signed the letter along with three former superintendents and a former trustee, Bob Jones, who just decided not to run for reelection in November.
OH: And how is all of this affecting the students in the district?
EE: A lot of teachers, like Allison Knoll, who read the open letter from the community, which is on our website, she was a drama teacher at the school and she's left. There's just been a lot of instability with these levies failing.
And I think, like Superintendent Lisa Arnold said, students and families are feeling this instability and they are concerned. They're thinking, ‘Should I transfer my child to a different district? Are supplemental levies, which pay for teachers and sports and activities, are those going to pass in the future?’ So I think the uncertainty is really bleeding into the classroom.
OH: Emma Epperly covers North Idaho for Idaho Ed News. Thanks for sharing your reporting with us once again.
EE: Thanks for having me.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Emma Epperly and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
