Voters pass CdA school bond, Lakeland levy

A $32.7 million bond measure to renovate some of the oldest schools in the Coeur d’Alene School District was embraced by voters tonight. The measure, which requires a two-thirds supermajority to pass, received 71 percent yes votes. “I’m very, very excited that this looks like it’s going to pass,” Superintendent Hazel Bauman said. Elsewhere in Kootenai County, a Lakeland Joint School District maintenance levy easily passed, while the Kootenai Joint School District saw voters approve its $2 million bond measure to upgrade its wastewater system. The Coeur d’Alene district will renovate Borah, Bryan, Sorensen and Winton elementary schools and Canfield Middle School. The work over the next three years will include adding gymnasiums, removing portable classrooms and upgrading heating and ventilation systems. “The difference in the learning environment will be like night and day,” Bauman said. The 13-year bond issue also will finance mechanical improvements at Coeur d’Alene and Lake City high schools, Hayden Meadows and Fernan elementary schools, and Hayden Kinder Center. Other schools will get technology upgrades. Taxpayers won’t see their property taxes increase because two other school taxes are expiring: a 20-year Lake City High School bond and a two-year levy to help build the Kootenai Technical Education Campus on the Rathdrum Prairie. The Lakeland district in northern Kootenai County asked voters to approve a five-year tax levy to raise $800,000 a year for new equipment and furniture, computers and buses, and to remodel and repair school buildings, improve energy efficiency, and enhance building safety and security. A 55 percent majority is required for the levy to pass. It was passing Tuesday night with 60 percent yes votes. In March the district fell 47 votes short of passing a larger, 10-year levy for upkeep of buildings and equipment. The tiny Kootenai district near Harrison had 76 percent of voters in favor of a $2 million bond measure to improve the wastewater collection and lagoon treatment system for its three schools. The district proposes repaying the bond over 10 years. It would replace an expiring $3 million bond for the district’s new school.