Potlatch High School’s updated roof only a ‘Band-Aid’
The Potlatch School District recently spent more than $160,000 to replace the roof on its high school, despite the fact that school officials had recently asked the public for nearly $15 million to replace the aging building.
“Even though we haven’t passed the bond that we’ve been working at, it would have cost us more money to not do anything, so we had to replace that,” PSD Superintendent Jeff Cirka said. “Hopefully, down the road, if we do pass the bond, people will understand that if we didn’t take care of those roofing issues we would have a bigger mess than what we currently have now.”
The school district paid $160,503 for the high school roof and another $112,733 to replace the middle school roof, but those costs pale in comparison to the $14.78 million the district was asking for in a bond levy that voters rejected on May 17. That money would have gone toward financing and designing a new building for the high school, but voters overwhelming decided against it, with 59 percent of people voting against the levy.
“I get questions raised on both sides. I have people say $15 million is a lot of money and that means a lot of taxes for us, and I get the other side of that say $15 million to build a new high school/junior high? That’s not enough, you’re not going to get the bang for your buck,” Cirka said.
School officials have said the high school is long overdue for replacement, as it was built in 1969 with mostly prefabricated materials and only had a guaranteed lifespan of 25 years. Once the Potlatch Lumber Co. Mill closed its doors in 1981, the money for a new building quickly went out the door. Now the building is 47 years old and Cirka said the new roof is only a temporary solution. Cirka said the roof does not address the fact that the building’s HVAC system needs to be replaced and the building and its technology need to be modernized.
“It doesn’t address the issue, because really that just puts a Band-Aid on … . It doesn’t do anything more,” Cirka said.
The school district also added insulation at the elementary school. The building was constructed in 1952 and also needs a new HVAC system and electrical upgrades, according to school officials.
“It’s not will the systems fail, it’s when will they fail, and right now we’re just kind of living on borrowed time,” Cirka said.
Cirka said the district was already at the “critical juncture” as far as the need for repair. He said residents will be voting on another bond in the near future, although a date has not been set. When it does go up for vote again, Cirka said voters will have a clearer idea on the details of the cost, as the district has brought in structural and electrical engineers to inspect the building and provide input.
The issues facing the district come at an interesting time, as across the border the state of Washington has a year to address the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision, which required the state to fully fund basic education. A major component of that 2012 decision is to prevent local school districts from using levies to fund education, and legislators have until 2018 to come up with a resolution.
Idaho, however, is different.
“The only thing the state of Idaho provides is a levy equalization, which will help pay the interest of districts when they do buy or build new facilities, but really it goes back to the taxpayers and the community,” Cirka said. “… The state doesn’t have any support that they can provide that can offset the local taxes and that’s where the issues lie. Once again we’re reliant upon the local taxing community to pay and they’re already taxed to the max.”
Tom Hager can be reached at (208) 883-4633 or by email to thager@dnews.com