By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

RATHDRUM — Voters in the Lakeland Joint School District on Tuesday overwhelmingly turned down a $70.9 million bond measure that would have funded a new complex for Lakeland and Mountain View high schools on district-owned property on Lancaster Road and improvements to other schools.

A total of 940 voters in the district that has precincts in Kootenai and Bonner counties voted for the proposal, while 2,436 voted against it. The approval percentage was 28%.

Two-thirds of votes — or 66.6% — needed to be cast in favor for the bonds to be issued.

"You always go into a bond election hopeful and optimistic, but it's a challenge because you need a super majority," said Brian Wallace, Lakeland's finance director. "A two-thirds vote is a high bar."

Superintendent Becky Meyer said the district's Long-Range Facility Planning Committee consisting of patrons and staff spent more than a year reviewing the district's needs and developing the proposal that the school board agreed to pass on to voters.

The ballot stated that the annual cost to the taxpayer would have been $147 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value per year based on current conditions.

The district stated the estimated annual impact would be $41 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value because the amount on the ballot, based on rules directed by the Legislature last year, does not allow for estimated and predicted future growth, which would increase the tax base and reduce the bond repayment cost for property owners.

"The ballot language made it muddy for patrons to find out the facts," Meyer said. "We were hamstrung by the way the new law requires to post how bonds financially impact people. It doesn't give patrons the full picture of the taxes for our district, and that put us at a disadvantage."

Meyer said she believes Idaho is the most difficult state for districts to receive funding for buildings due to the super-majority vote needed and the fact that the state does not provide districts funds to build new schools.

Wallace said the district will engage the school board and community to develop another plan.

"Growth is still going to happen," he said. "The needs are not going to go away."

The bond would have funded:

- new schools for Lakeland and Mountain View high schools and athletic facilities next to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC);

- building system upgrades, a renovation of the commons and the creation of single-point entry of the existing Lakeland High that would have been occupied by Lakeland Middle School;

- improvements to the existing Lakeland Junior High building to improve bus parking and to accommodate support services;

- six classrooms and a new auxiliary gym at Timberlake Junior High;

- improvements to the commons and athletic facility upgrades at Timberlake High.

Lakeland Junior High would have become Lakeland Middle School if the measure would have passed as it would taken on sixth-graders to alleviate growth pressures at the elementary schools.

District officials said drivers for the proposal included Lakeland Junior High's poor condition, population and student growth and increased traffic on Highway 41 that has drawn pedestrian safety concerns.

The district predicts its student population will reach 5,376 by 2025. It was 4,413 during the last school year.

"Last year we grew by 100 kids, and it wouldn't surprise me to see that again," Wallace said.

The last bond that Lakeland voters approved was in 2005. The measure paid for construction of Twin Lakes Elementary.