Last fall, the new bleachers at Kenny Mendhall Stadium were packed for Bonners Ferry High School’s football season opener — the culmination of nearly a year of reconstruction made possible by community donations, which covered everything from demolition and excavation to lumber, labor, and funding. 

In the dead of winter, hundreds packed the Bonners Ferry High School gym each week to watch the Badgers dominate on the basketball court, capping an undefeated home season en route to back-to-back state championships. 

On weekend nights, rose-bearing family members and friends have often filled every seat in Becker Auditorium — whether for the high school’s production of "Newsies,” a community theatre performance, or a concert by the Bonners Ferry Community Orchestra, now in its 52nd year. 

The school libraries have regularly welcomed Civil Air Patrol meetings and church groups. The cafeteria has filled with bargain hunters during community rummage sales. 

Across Boundary County School District facilities, parking lots have regularly filled during off hours for adult league sports, church services, youth programs, club teams and private dance groups. 

Many of these school sporting events, fine arts productions, community association meeting spots, and more are on the ballot May 20. 

“Our schools are a hub for the whole community, not just for students enrolled in our schools,” said BCSD Superintendent Jan Bayer. “Not only are our schools beneficial educationally, but they are also beneficial socially and economically.” 

For the first time since the maintenance and operations levies were introduced in Boundary County in 1986, the school district is down to its final chance to secure local funding for the upcoming school year. This change comes after Idaho law was amended in 2024, limiting local ballot measures to just twice a year. 

For the past decade, the $2.4 million levy has passed every other March. If the levy failed, the district could try again in August to secure funding for that year’s budget. 

That safety net is now gone. The district won’t be able to run another levy until November, by which time the budget for the 2025-2026 school year will already be finalized, and the school year will be well underway. 

The supplemental school levy makes up roughly 12% of the district's general fund. Without it, all school facilities will close at 4:30 p.m. each day, without exception. The district will be unable to afford a new bus, new technology, textbooks, field trips, most fine arts programs, or any sports programs. 

“Win, lose or draw, athletics bring families and communities together,” said BFHS basketball head coach Nathan Williams, who led a Badgers basketball team to its first ever state championship in 2024, and then did it again in 2025. 

Nine faculty and staff members would lose their jobs, as well. Career technical education would no longer offer business classes and would lose half of its agriculture program. Boundary County Middle School would no longer provide fine arts. 

“The arts help develop so many pathways in our brain,” said BCMS art teacher Dawn Wagner, whose job is on the line, and who said she is looking at moving states with a failed levy, despite owning a home in Boundary County. “In art, some students who are not very good verbally can express themselves. For example, some of our special education students thrive in art.” 

Of all public schools in Idaho, districts in the Panhandle are the most in need of local funding but the least able to pass levies. Nineteen of the 20 school districts with the largest reliance on levies to support their general fund budget are located in North Idaho. In November, only three of the 25 supplemental school levies statewide failed—and they were Boundary County, West Bonner in Priest River, and Lakeland in Coeur d'Alene. 

“Our message to the state legislators is we do not want to run levies,” said BCSD Vice-chair Teresa Rae. “We are running these levies to fulfill mandates from the state and federal levels. Fully fund us so we can do our job.” 

Lakeland School District is also facing the possibility of cutting sports programs. Its initial analysis of a pay-to-play system was about $3,000 per athlete per season. 

In West Bonner, the pay-to-play system worked briefly thanks to two $25,000 donations, but those donors are unlikely to continue providing that support annually. 

In Boundary County, athletics programs cost the school district approximately $350,000 annually for coaches, administrators, uniforms and gear, referees, transportation and more. 

Coaches, teachers and school administrators all agree that sports and extracurricular programs build character that is valuable in many facets of life. 

“We're going to see a downward spiral if these programs don’t exist,” Rae said. “A lot of these programs are what keep kids in school; it’s not the minimally state-funded math, English and social sciences. How could it not create a downward spiral when the school doesn’t have programs to make students more well-rounded and get them out of bed in the morning? As enrollment decreases, funding decreases. And then we start looking at ways to minimize costs, which could include closing schools, shrinking staff even further, and cutting overhead. It's just the way it is.” 

The previous supplemental school levy that ran in November 2024 failed, with 53% voting against. A levy passes with over 50% of the vote. 

Early voting will conclude May 16. Voters can register in person on Election Day, May 20 at the polling booths at the Boundary County Fairgrounds.