COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Coeur d'Alene Public Schools is hosting one of two open houses Tuesday for voters to discuss the two school funding levies up for a vote on March 14th. The open house will be at Ramsey Magnet School of Science at 6:00 pm on Tuesday.
District employees will be available to answer questions about the supplemental levy and the safety and maintenance levy the district is proposing.
If approved, the safety and maintenance levy on the ballot would give the district $5 million annually for the next five years. The district needs a 55% voter majority for the levy to pass.
Last year, they were just a few hundred votes away from 55%. The previous levy proposal had requested $8 million annually for 10 years, so the district scaled back the request for this year's vote.
Scott Maben, the spokesperson for the Coeur d'Alene Public School District, said the money would help the district catch up on necessary improvement projects.
"It's really to address a massive backlog of maintenance issue. We're just not funded through the state to take care of that to the extent that we need to," Maben said.
He said in the next few years, that backlog of maintenance will cost the district over $100 million.
The second levy on the ballot is the supplemental levy, which voters renew every two years. The current supplemental levy is set to expire at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
Maben said the supplemental levy funds a quarter of the district's annual operations, with the money going toward employee salaries, student transportation, classroom supplies, etc.
The district is asking to increase the supplemental levy from $20 million to $25 million annually. They are also asking voters to make the levy permanent, which would make it unnecessary to vote every two years.
Property taxes fund these levies. Maben said even if both levies pass, the tax rate for the Coeur d'Alene district would still be lower than last year's rates.
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