COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene School District Superintendent Matt Handelman left no doubt Wednesday evening that Coeur d'Alene's kids are very much above average.

"I get to kick things off and do a little - I call it a little - bragging about the great things that our students are doing thanks to our great teaching staff," he said. "You're going to see some data that shows that we are sometimes head and shoulders above our peers in the state and even those around the country."

About 70 people attended the third annual State of the District Forum in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. Handelman and other officials from the Coeur d'Alene School District updated the community on the performance of local students. They also presented details about the supplemental Maintenance and Operations levy coming up March 10, discussed the current status and future of math and literacy through the grade levels, talked about preparation for the Idaho Standard Achievement Test (ISAT) 2.0, other assessment and Common Core goals and presented the strategic direction for the district. The latter includes five key focus areas: Safe, supportive and vibrant learning environments; individualization; quality teachers and instruction; high expectations for all; and family and community engagement.

"We came up with this concept of having these five key focus areas so it was a very approachable process for people to engage in and continue to revisit as we do all the work in our district," said Laura Rumpler, director of communications for the school district. She said the school district distributed cards to many different groups and gave many presentations in the community in search of feedback.

"We went through thousands and thousands of comments with regards to words, specifically ... what words meant to people both in their heart and their head with regards to 'mission' and 'vision,'" she said. "It took us almost a year and a half to get to this point."

Handelman covered details of the levy, which will allow the school district to maintain essential school services and basic education needs not otherwise supported by state or federal funding. If the levy is approved, owners of a $200,000 home will see a tax increase of $2.58 per month or $30.96 per year. The School Board is asking voters to approve a $15 million maintenance and operations levy for two years. The funds would help purchase new materials and textbooks, reduce class sizes and hire more teachers.

"State law says that every two years we have to come back to ask the voters for their thumbs-up or thumbs-down," Handelman said, adding that while it is an obligation, it is also an opportunity to engage with the public. "We could say that we're 'campaigning' for nine weeks between when the board sets the funding and when the voters go to the polls, but at the same time, what I say, we are actually campaigning every day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day."

Mike Nelson, director of curriculum and assessments, gave an update on Common Core implementation into Idaho's school system. He discussed the introduction of the topic at last year's forum, reminding everyone that "Common Core" and "Idaho Core" are the same.

"Forty-three states currently and several principalities have adopted these uniform standards in their area," he said. "These were adopted in our state in November of 2010. When we saw those standards come out, especially in kindergarten through fifth grade, we knew that we had to have a quick transition plan, because the state of Idaho said that we had to start teaching the core standards in the 2013-14 school year, last year."

He explained that a transition plan immediately began and that each school district is a little different as the curriculum is tailored to individual communities.

"The goals are there, but these are not true English, language arts and math goals. There's writing built in, there's technology skills, there's real-world application all built into this," he said. "It also brings to mind what our community wants. You want kids, that can read and write and speak, but we also want people who can critically think. So those elements are built into it as well, and they are part of the assessment. We are going to be measuring kids' ability to listen. We are going to be measuring kids' ability to give deep thought and give detailed answers, much different from what we've been asked to do before."

The televised forum, presented by the Coeur d'Alene Education Partnership in conjunction with the school district, provided three intervals for attendees to ask questions. Brittney Bennett of Coeur d'Alene is a member of the United Parents Forum. She has a child in third grade in the school district and asked a question about the confidence of the Coeur d'Alene School District in giving local students Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests when she has heard that other communities don't support it.

"I am right now especially concerned with the SBAC testing," she said. "To me, it's not been proven to be very effective - like I said, a lot of school districts are choosing other assessment testing that is half the cost and half the time but still align with the standards that the state wants ... I have seen so many other districts pull out and choose other testing, well, why are they doing that? That's what I want to know."

Bennett said overall she thought the presentation was positive and informative, but she wishes she could have asked a few more questions.

"But I have a lot of questions because I've studied Common Core for the past couple years. I'm just learning new things every day, even though I've been studying for four years. I wish there was a little more back and forth, but that's kind of hard in a group setting like this; it could go on for hours."

The forum will air on CDATV, cable channel 19, throughout February. Information about the Coeur d'Alene Education Partnership, its programs and links to education resources is available at www.cdaep.org.