POST FALLS - Voters in the Post Falls School District may get to choose in March which they would rather have: lower taxes, or a new elementary school.

At 6 p.m. Monday at River City Middle School, Superintendent Jerry Keane will present the school board with a proposal for a $19.5 million bond levy to construct a new elementary school and facility improvements.

The board is expected to decide at its Dec. 8 meeting whether to forward the proposal to voters on March 10.

The proposal includes constructing:

* A $10 million elementary school on the west side of Greensferry Road, north of Prairie View Elementary adjacent to the Fieldstone subdivision, to alleviate overcrowding at Prairie View and Ponderosa

* A $4 million second-story addition at River City Middle School to alleviate overcrowding

* A $2.5 million performing arts auditorium at Post Falls High

* A $2 million auxiliary gym at Post Falls High

* A $1 million sum for a two-classroom addition at West Ridge; heating unit upgrades at Seltice, Frederick Post/New Vision and Mullan Trail; energy efficiency remodels at Mullan Trail and Frederick Post; and security system upgrades throughout the district.

"If authorized by the board of trustees and ultimately approved by our patrons, the district will be able to fund all of the projects without raising taxes," Keane said. "We are in the process of refinancing existing bonds and the West Ridge bonds will be paid off."

A vote of at least two-thirds approval would be needed for the proposal to pass. Idaho is the only state which requires such a vote for school facility measures and does not provide matching state funds, Keane said.

Keane added the school district will also have to float a supplemental levy in the spring but running both proposals together still will not raise school district taxes.

If the proposal fails, taxes for the owner of a $200,000 home would decrease by $32.50 per year, roughly $2.71 per month.

The proposal comes after a 28-member committee reviewed the district's 2008 long-range facility plan last winter to determine if the recommendations were still relevant and whether the district needed to implement any or all of the recommendations.

"The committee not only agreed that the recommendations are still relevant but also suggested that the district needs to move as quickly as possible to implement those," Keane said. "The committee indicated that because the 2008 facility plan was put on hold during the previous five years due to the economic downturn, the district is behind in taking care of its facility needs for students."

As evidence of the need for a new elementary school, Prairie View has 670 students in a facility designed for 560. There are six portable classrooms next to the school to deal with the overcrowding situation.

Ponderosa has 540 students in a school designed for 520. Two portable classrooms are at that school.

The district already owns 10 acres along Greensferry for the school, which would be about 50,000 square feet and designed to handle 425 students.

If the district started construction in the spring of 2015, it would open in the fall of 2016.

River City's enrollment of 570 exceeds the school's capacity of 525. It has two portable classrooms. The second-story addition would relieve crowding issues - which include teachers using carts because they don't have a permanent desk, Keane said.

River City was built in 2004 to include a future second story, which would add 12 classrooms to the school. The River City project would also include expanding the kitchen so meals can be prepared on-site. Meals are currently transported from another school. The project would be completed in the summer of 2015.

Keane said construction of the performing arts auditorium and the auxiliary gym at the high school will complete the facility as originally intended.

"These additions will contribute to delaying the need for a second high school," he said. "At 1.5 percent student growth, it appears that the district will not need to consider constructing a second high school until at least 2020.

"These two projects are a high priority in order to provide our students with opportunities that a comprehensive 1,500-student high school should have available."

The auditorium was part of a proposal in 1998 which received 63 percent voter approval, so it was not constructed. The school was originally designed to add an auditorium with 500 to 600 seats to the west of the current stage and commons area.

The auxiliary gym is needed to effectively offer required physical education courses to students, Keane said. The school has one gym, whereas most large high schools and even some middle schools in the area have multiple gyms.

"In many cases, about 200 students are taking physical education during one period," Keane said.

It would be built as a multi-use facility on the southwest side of the school and include a small number of bleacher seats.

The last time the district floated a bond was 2006. That measure led to the construction of West Ridge, an eight-classroom addition at Post Falls High and an update of the transportation facility.