Schools back off pledge
MAUREEN DOLAN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 14 years, 2 months AGO
COEUR d'ALENE - Voters in the Coeur d'Alene School District will be asked to support another two-year maintenance and operations levy on March 9, and one of the options on the ballot could be as high as $12.9 million per year.
At Monday's school board meeting, Superintendent Hazel Bauman made it clear the district will not be able to keep a pledge it made to taxpayers in early 2009 to continue reducing the district's dependence on local property tax levies.
"While we have endured through, and we have a balanced budget, I am here to tell you that is not sustainable for too much longer," Bauman said.
At the time school officials committed to future reduction of the levy amount, she said they couldn't foresee that the economic downturn would stretch into an ongoing global recession.
"I really believed we could reduce the supplemental levy," Bauman said.
The existing levy of $7.8 million per year for two years was approved by 74 percent of voters in the spring of 2009. It was $1 million less than the previous levy passed by voters in 2007.
Bauman's early recommendation is for a menu-style ballot, offering voters the opportunity to support just a replacement levy of $7.8 million, or to renew the levy and increase it annually for two years by another set amount: $2.3 million, $3.7 million, or $5 million.
"We have to be aware and sympathetic to the taxpayers, many of whom are really struggling," Bauman said.
With each increase, the district's fiscal picture gets brighter, but the only option that will stabilize the district's budget is the highest one.
Bauman cautioned that if only the existing levy is replaced, the district will still face a 9 percent funding decrease for the 2011-12 school year. In that event, Bauman said there will be some support staff layoffs, activities program cuts, a decrease in instructional time, furlough days and the continuing problem of crowded classrooms.
Should the levy fail completely, the picture becomes far grimmer.
The district is already operating with $8.4 million less than it had in 2008, mainly due to reductions in state funding. The general fund this year is down to $55.2 million and includes $42.6 million in state funds. In 2008, the general fund was $60 million with $50 million coming from state revenue.
This year's budget also includes $5 million that will not be available to the district next year, mainly one-time federal stimulus and jobs fund dollars.
Bauman said the loss of the one-time funding increases the $8.4 million revenue reduction the district has already experienced to an overall reduction of $12.4 million.
It's up to the voters to decide, Bauman said, if they want the district to make cuts beyond the $8.4 million they have already adjusted for.
"Keeping the status quo isn't really keeping the status quo," said Trustee Sid Fredrickson.
Bauman will be meeting with various community groups like Jobs Plus, the chambers of commerce and Concerned Businesses of North Idaho, before making a final recommendation to the board at its Dec. 6 meeting. Trustees are expected to set the levy amount and ballot format by vote at their Jan. 10 meeting.
The proposed levy will likely be discussed when the district holds a public forum Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. at the Midtown Center. Bauman announced the meeting will be the first in a series of regular "community chats," with a relaxed format designed to give patrons the opportunity to have a dialogue with trustees.
It is a response, Bauman said, to input the district has received since changing its policy to limit public comments at regular board meetings.
The district plans to hold similar open dialogue meetings every few weeks for at least six months, possibly longer if the sessions are well-attended.
The March 9 levy election date is the first allowed under Idaho's new election consolidation law that limits school districts to four set dates to run levy or bond elections.
It will be the first school levy election run by the county elections office rather than the district, another ramification of the new law.
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