COEUR d’ALENE — School District 271 patrons will decide a two-year, $20 million per year maintenance and operations levy for the Coeur d’Alene School District when they go to the polls March 12.

The request is $4 million more than the current $16 million-per-year levy, which passed in 2017 and expires this year.

If this levy passes, the average homeowner won’t see an increase in property taxes.

“Even with the increase from $16 million to $20 million per year, we’re anticipating, if there’s not other changes in someone’s assessed value of their house for next year, that they would definitely see a decrease in their total tax bill for the school district,” said Scott Maben, communications director for School District 271.

Even if the assessed value of a home increases by, say, 10 percent, “the increase is pretty minuscule,” Maben said. “It was roughly $5 to $15 per year total out-of-pocket for the school district.” That’s because the tax base is growing along with the population — more people and more taxable property means more money.

Teacher pay a key

Of the $20 million levy request, $16 million will be used for student support in many ways — extracurricular activities, music programs, athletics, school nurses, courses and materials for students at all levels, instructional assistants for more personalized attention in the classroom, updated tech, school upkeep, school buses.

The additional $4 million will be split: $2.5 million to increase wages across the district, and $1.5 million that will pay for mental health needs, bolstering security, training and development opportunities and increasing building budgets to give teachers access to more funds for supplies so they aren’t using personal money for classroom needs.

On average, teachers and other district staff would see about a 4 percent pay raise. Maben reported that last year, the district experienced 24 percent turnover rate among classified staff, such as bus drivers, custodians, food service workers, maintenance, and office staff, and 8 percent turnover among certified staff, which includes teachers and salaried staff members. Maben said district officials know some of those teachers departed for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

“The substantial teacher pay increases in Washington took effect last fall, and we probably have not yet seen the real impact of that here,” he said. “We may see more of our teachers take jobs in the Spokane area after their current-year contracts are up.”

The difference in annual pay between Coeur d’Alene and Spokane-area teachers can range from $10,000 to more than $30,000, Maben said, depending on years of experience and advanced education.

“Perhaps a bigger factor with respect to the pay gap is how many well-qualified job candidates do not even bother to apply here because of the lower pay,” he said. “We don't know how many decide not to seek positions in our district because of the salary schedule in Idaho. But we used to get far more applicants for teaching positions here.”

Distribution decisions

Coeur d’Alene Education Association officials and school board trustees have yet to decide on how the raises will be distributed because they have to consider that the funds would not be coming from a permanent source, said Superintendent Steve Cook. Stipends are one option.

“If the board and the CEA agree that it needs to go into salaries, and then the economy hits a rough patch and we have to reduce the levy because our voters need us to provide that, then you’ve got, in essence, $2.5 million we’d have to cut from somewhere else or try to call that back, and that’s not going to feel good for anybody,” Cook said. “That’s a potential set of circumstances that I think everybody would be concerned about.”

Cook said he’s been asked about whether the additional pay would be tied to additional work, which is something that traditionally happens in Idaho. Right now, he said, there’s no intention to tack on more responsibilities with the wage increases.

“The intent on this was never to make people do more to receive a stipend,” he said. “It was more of a retention and recruitment tool and meant to be a recognition for the work and commitment that our staff has to stay.”

He said the district does have employees willing to do their work “with less compensation, but $20,000 a year when you’re raising a family, that’s just such a difficult position for our teachers to be in. And staff as well. It’s such a challenge.” The $2.5 million is separate from money the legislature will approve for teacher compensation, and that’s being decided in the current legislative session.

“Our kids need quality teachers in front of them,” Cook said. “That’s the most important factor for student performance and achievement, so we’re going to do everything in our power to hold onto those that we have and to train those who want to get better at their craft to be that type of instructor for our kids. We have such hard-working, committed folks, and they will do just about anything for these kids, and we need to do everything that we can to recognize that.”

Safe and mentally sound

As for the $1.5 million, the lion’s share of those funds will go toward the mental health and security needs.

“Safety is our absolute No. 1 priority,” Cook said.

“You need a safe and welcoming environment in order for learning to happen and to be successful,” Maben added. “The parents and the families have always placed a high priority on that as well.”

Right now, the district has eight school resource officers — one for every secondary school and one to cover the elementary schools.

"One SRO for seven elementary schools is a stretch. That’s where we’re feeling the most on that,” Cook said. “The hope is that we could hire an additional SRO, a city SRO, that would be our ninth SRO overall and have that SRO help with the elementary because right now, we’ve got two SROs for a total of 11 schools. We’ll have 12 schools in 2020 with the new elementary school opening. We would like to have three SROs that each would have four elementary schools.”

Levy funds would also pay for support security personnel who would monitor parking lots as well as exits and entrances, and assist officers where needed.

“Both of our high schools have open campus,” Cook said. “That’s a lot of kids coming and going during the day, and having some staff help support the management of that and keeping our buildings as secure as possible would be a benefit. We’d love to have a couple per high school.”

Mental health will be a big focus of levy funds to address the growing need for resources and student support.

“It may be additional counselors in schools, additional school psychologists, but there’s going to be this intentional effort on making sure that each building has the resources they need to help these kids,” Cook said.

That includes hiring a district mental health coordinator who can help streamline tasks put upon teachers, counselors and administrators when students are in crisis.

Training and professional development will be included in the $1.5 million. Cook, who has been conducting listening sessions with teachers since he assumed the role of superintendent early last year, said he has heard resoundingly from teachers and staff that they want more training opportunities. That could be something as simple as providing them with a substitute for a day so they could participate in a collaborative session with other teachers.

“This isn’t all just district-mandated programming — we’ll want to give some autonomy in that decision-making and give the schools and teachers opportunities to seek additional training,” he said. “And not just teachers; other staff as well. We provide some pretty intensive training for our paraprofessionals and our instructional aides.”

Dollar amounts for any of these items are difficult to pin down because each school varies in its needs and funding will be subject to a budget process if the levy passes. However, the $4 million additional ask will be allocated specifically for mental health, security personnel, school supplies, training opportunities and pay increases.

The big picture

The levy accounts for 22 percent of the school district’s budget. Idaho schools have asked taxpayers for their support through levy elections for at least 30 years, increasing request amounts around 2008 when the country experienced the Great Recession. According to a November 2018 Idaho Education News article, schools across the state are asking for more than $200 million per year this levy cycle for 2018-2019, a record that tops the $194.7 million in levy funds collected in 2017.

Cook said people have an obligation to provide kids with an adequate and equitable education.

“Public education is a vital service provided by the community, and it costs money to do so,” he said. “It’s a critical need in the community; it’s the expectation of the community to provide those services for children. Children are our No. 1 asset and resource.

“If you look at this list, this list isn’t supplementing our children’s education. These are fundamental expectations both in the district and for our community.”

Info: www.cdaschools.org