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Don Gronning
OF THE MINER
PRIEST RIVER - Kim Spacek, the newly hired West Bonner County School District Superintendent, says he will give school district trustees an ala carte selection of things they can include in any levy they choose to run.
School trustees are still making a decision on whether to run a levy this fall during the presidential election.
“The administration approach is, we’re going to give the trustees an ala carte,” he said. 'If they say ‘we want to do a levy for so much’ then they’ll know ala carte what they could put into the levy.”
He said that will give trustees options. If they decide to run a $1.5 million levy in the fall and the ala carte selections come up to $1.7 million, for instance, trustees could decide to raise the levy amount or cut things to get where they want, he said.
Trustees haven’t decided on whether to run a fall levy or not. Trustee Kathy Nash is against running a fall levy, partially because of the heavy voter turnout expected for the presidential election.
'I do not think a levy on the November ballot would pass,” Nash said at the July 28 school board meeting. “If we wait until May to run a levy, we’ll have a better idea of what our actual needs are.”
Trustee Paul Turco saw things differently. He said he wants to run a fall levy. He said the “Herculean” fund raising district volunteers have been engaged in is a one year solution.
'I think we put (the levy) to the voters,” he said. He said because of the high turnout, the school board will get the most accurate idea of what the community thinks.
Spacek said regardless of whether the district runs a levy in November, they will still likely need to run one in May.
He said facilities will require money.
“It’s not just the junior high, it’s all the facilities need to be upgraded,” he said. “Just getting a facilities plan and then saying what do we want our kids to learn in the facilities will probably need to be a push between here and May.”
Spacek said people who move to Idaho from other states may be surprised to hear that the state only funds 70-80% of what school districts need to run. The rest of the money needs to be raised locally.
“I think people who move in from other states understand the funding in their states and they try to apply that understanding to Idaho funding and it doesn’t make sense to them,” he said.
Spacek says the district has about three open teaching positions. He said the target number of teachers for the 950 students is 58.5 Full Time Equivalent teachers.
“That’s what the state funds,” he said.
Spacek is familiar with districts having a hard time with levies. The district he worked at before West Bonner, the Mountain View School District, near Grangeville and includes Kooskia, had trouble passing levies.
“At the 30,000-foot level, the two districts look the same,” he said. But when you look closer you see the differences. He said Grangeville was agriculture based, while Kooskia is more timber and mining based.
Spacek said the professionalism and dedication of staff and trustees is vital for districts where levies don’t pass. He said clarity was a key to community relations.
“If there’s something we’re doing, we want to be clear about what we’re doing and why,” he said. “Or if something didn’t go right, what we’re trying to do to make it better for kids.”
