Overcrowding — Bethany Blitz

From left to right, Lake City High School senior Celi Barron, junior Mathew Myers and sophomore Jackie Dalleska prefer to eat in the hallways at school because the cafeteria is too crowded. The students have also struggled with other overcrowding issues such as crowded classrooms and teachers that don’t have a permanent classroom. The bond that the Coeur d’Alene School District is putting to the voters in March would add classroom space to Lake City High School.

A gym class at Lake City High School has to spill into the hallways during another group’s lunch hour because there isn’t enough space in the gyms. At one point in the day, four gym classes have to share the same space and have worked out a system where they rotate using the gym floor, the auxiliary gym, the weight room and the hallway. Deanne Clifford, the school’s principal, is worried that someday, someone will accidentally drop a medicine ball over the rail during lunch.

Weight lifting students at Lake City High School have to share the school’s main gym with three other classes, so they do their warmups in the auxiliary gym. The auxiliary gym and the weight room are situated upstairs on either side of the main gym. During an event when the bleachers of the main gym have to be expanded, both the auxiliary gym and the weight room become unusable. The bond the Coeur d’Alene School District hopes to pass in March would fund a new, full sized gym, a new weight room and a new wrestling room for Lake City High School.

Managing Growth, Part I

Published Feb. 22, 2017

Celi Barron sits in the hallway on Lake City High School’s linoleum floor during lunch because her friends are there and the cafeteria is often too crowded.

“It’d be nice to have a bigger cafeteria,” said the LCHS junior, noting that students get competitive over table space. “Oftentimes we’ll get to a table first, but when we go to get our food, people move our stuff.”

Barron and her friends say the school’s growth hasn’t just impacted their lunch hour. It’s affecting their education as well.

Matheu Myers, a junior, isn’t fond of teachers having to put their classrooms on a cart and roam around because there isn’t enough space for all the teachers to have their own classrooms.

“They can’t be ready for the students when they come to class like that,” he said.

Classrooms get crowded, too, the group of friends explained. Last year, Myers said, one of his classes didn’t have enough desks for every student so he had to sit on the floor for the first week of school.

Jackie Dalleska, a sophomore, added bigger classes make it harder for teachers to start class or to move around the room to answer questions.

“It affects our learning environment,” Barron said.

Everyone at the Coeur d’Alene School District — from the nearly 11,000 students to the faculty, staff and administration — is eager to see if the community will support a levy and a bond that would provide funds to help the district address overcrowding issues.

Locals will vote March 14 on a two-year, replacement supplemental levy for $16 million each year, and a $35.5 million bond, neither of which will raise property tax rates.

What are levies and bonds?

A bond is a voter-approved funding mechanism that provides financing to fund large construction projects and equipment purchases for government agencies. Bonds need 66.67 percent of votes to pass.

Idaho school districts don’t get any funding from the state for construction projects.

If passed, the bond will fund the construction of a new elementary school plus additions and upgrades to Coeur d’Alene High School, Lake City High School, Lakes Magnet Middle School and Dalton Elementary School. It will also be used to improve parking lot safety at Fernan STEM Academy and upgrade the gym floor at Hayden Meadows Elementary School.

A supplemental levy is a sum of money Idaho school districts can ask their taxpayers to provide via property taxes to supplement the budget they get from the state. Supplemental levies need 50 percent of the vote plus one vote to pass and can only be used for instructional and extracurricular costs.

This year, the school district is asking for an additional $1 million each year. The levy would be used to maintain programs and the extra million dollars would be used to buy more buses, which the district fell behind on during the recession and is looking to get back on track; to buy more school materials due to district growth and inflation; and to maintain class size reduction and target class sizes as the district grows by hiring more teachers.

Idaho law only allows school districts to run supplemental levies for two years, so school districts have to ask taxpayers for levies often, said Brian Wallace, the district’s director of finance and operations.

The Coeur d’Alene School District has assured community members that if the bond and levy pass, property tax rates will not go up.

Should either, or both, the bond and levy pass, property tax rates would stay at $2.31 per $1,000 of taxable assessed property value — a property's value, as determined by a tax assessor, minus applicable property tax exemptions.

That’s because Coeur d’Alene’s tax base is growing: If the district were to ask for the same amount of money and nobody moved to Coeur d’Alene, the tax rate would have to go up so the district could get the correct amount of funds. But because people did move to Coeur d’Alene, the responsibility to pay the same amount of money would be distributed among more people, which would not require tax rates to go up.

“We cannot guarantee that people will be paying more or less in property taxes [because individual property values could go up or down]. We can only guarantee a stable tax rate,” Wallace told The Press during a newspaper editorial board meeting earlier this month.

Managing Growth Part II

Published Feb. 23, 2017

On March 14, voters will say “yea” or “nay” to Coeur d’Alene School District’s requests for a $67.5 million commitment.

The district is seeking voter approval for a two-year supplemental levy at $16 million a year, and a $35.5 million bond. At the core of the requests is the district’s attempt to accommodate growth and alleviate overcrowding that already exists.

District officials sat down with The Press editorial board earlier this month and were asked to address the main concerns they hear from community members.

One of the most common complaints about levies and bonds comes from senior citizens who argue they don’t have any kids or grandkids benefitting from the schools and that they sometimes struggle financially.

Brian Wallace, the district’s director of finance and operations, said good schools are part of what makes communities vibrant and healthy. He added that current students will grow up and get jobs and pay into Social Security, which is a safety net a lot of senior citizens rely on.

“There’s a collectiveness in public education,” added Superintendent Matt Handelman. “No matter where you’ve lived, people paid taxes, and there were senior citizens paying taxes so you or your kids could go to school.”

School districts often get accused of running bond and levy elections in March so fewer voters will participate.

While it’s true fewer people participate in March elections compared to November elections, district officials say March elections better fit their budget cycle.

Money comes with tax collections, Wallace explained. If a levy or bond passes in March 2017, the district would see that money in June 2018, and can budget for it accordingly, he said.

School Board Trustee Dave

Eubanks added that March elections tend to be less politically charged.

“If we ran it in November, it would be on the ballot with a lot of other things and we don’t want to get into a political battle,” he said. “I think a lot of people will put politics aside to do what’s best for our kids.”

What would happen if the levy or the bond doesn’t pass?

Superintendent Handelman said the district would manage if the bond fails to get the necessary 66.67 percent of votes needed to pass. But if the levy falters — it needs 50 percent approval, plus one vote — the district would have to cut a lot of programs and probably jobs, too.

“If we don’t get the bond, we could exist; we’re surviving this year,” he said. “But the need is now. If we closed all our portables, we’d need a whole new school just for that, and we’re growing.”

Wallace pointed out 22 percent of the district’s general fund is money that comes from levies.

If that went away, he said, the board would be looking at making major cuts.

“Anything the state didn’t require,” he said of potential cuts. “We don’t want to do scare tactics, but we would have to go into crisis mode.”

If the levy doesn’t pass, Wallace said, the district would most likely look at deferring curricular adoptions, reduce transportation services, increase class size, no longer have student resource officers, defer technology purchases and no longer pay support personnel like crossing guards and nurses.

If the bond fails, less-than-ideal conditions will continue. For example, gym classes at Lake City High School will still spill into the hallways and the auxiliary gym, which is only big enough for a court, no sidelines or sports for spectators, because the one full-sized gym in the school has to be shared by four classes at once.

Right now, the high school’s auxiliary gym and weight room are situated behind the main gym’s bleachers on the second floor. When the bleachers need to be opened, they take up so much of the space in the weight room and auxiliary gym that both are unusable.

Two years ago, the school had to add a third lunch period because 800 students could not fit in the cafeteria. The move freed up space but requires more teachers to work the lunches. Each lunch period requires eight staff because the cafeteria is not closed off and flows freely into the hallways.

“I think this system is working really well, it’s just expensive,” said Deanne Clifford, Lake

City High School’s principal. “The staff just embraced it because this is a staff that does what’s best for kids.”

Across town, Dalton Gardens Elementary School is also bursting at the seams.

Neither the band class nor the art class have their own classrooms and resort to using the gym and cafeteria, respectively.

“We are teaching in spaces not designed for those topics,” said Jim Gray, the school’s principal. “It’s just not as quality of an education.”

Gray said his school is at 136 percent of its capacity right now, and is adding a third fifth-grade class next year due to growth.

To fit the additional fifth-grade class, the school will have to ditch its computer lab. The school still has a traveling computer lab with Chromebooks.

Mattie Vodila, the art teacher at Dalton, said it’s not ideal teaching class in the cafeteria. Since there’s no sink for her to use, she has to bring buckets of water and rags to each class to clean up.

“You really have to plan your entire day out and be aware of what supplies you need and you have to completely clean everything up at the end of each class,” she said, noting the school’s lack of storage space means her art materials are stored in the girls’ bathroom on the other side of the school.

“If I had my own classroom, it would be wonderful. I could have things posted on the board and have more art around, more inspiring materials on the walls.”

If voters approve the bond, the school will get an art room and a music room, another multimedia room/library, and the existing library and computer room will be turned into classroom space.

“This wouldn’t just be a temporary fix, this would take care of what we really, really need and give us some breathing room,” Gray said.

Asked how he balances the needs and desires of taxpayers old and young, of adults without kids and of the students themselves, Handelman didn’t hesitate.

“Ultimately we are here to advocate for our kids and our schools,” he said.