Kootenai Republicans skip campaign against school levies

After several years of campaigning against school levies, the Kootenai County GOP quietly dropped the issue from their influential voter guide for November’s election.

Coeur d’Alene Public Schools, Lakeland Joint School District and Kootenai Joint School District all have replacement levies on the ballot.

Brent Regan, chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, said that because the decision of whether to make an endorsement happened in executive session, all he could say is that the topic did not have majority support among voting members of the committee.

Although the KCRCC has supported some school levies in the past, it has particularly opposed them in Coeur d’Alene the last few cycles. The party argued the district failed to use its existing budget appropriately, while also criticizing the district’s pandemic-era mask and vaccine policies, and perceived ideology in school curriculum.

Despite staying out of K-12 politics this election, KCRCC still endorsed three candidates for North Idaho College board of trustees. The November KCRCC voter guide does support levies for Northern Lakes and Timberlake fire districts.

The North Idaho Republicans, a moderate group of conservatives that campaigns against what it considers the KCRCC’s more extreme positions and candidates, endorsed all school and fire district levies in the county.

Sandy Patano, a founding member of the group, said there could have been a few factors behind KCRCC’s decision not to weigh-in on the school levies this time.

For one thing, none of the school districts are asking for new taxes; they are simply renewing expiring levies.

Patano said it has been difficult for KCRCC’s candidates to get elected to the Coeur d’Alene school board and that support of public education is popular in the district.

Patano noted that while the KCRCC isn’t opposing the levies, they aren’t supporting them either.

In the May election, 30 North Idaho Republican-endorsed precinct committeemen were elected, shy of a majority on the 73-member KCRCC.

Dan Sheckler, a member of the KCRCC who was endorsed by the North Idaho Republicans, said he is not allowed to discuss the decision, which was made in executive session.

“What I can say is Chairman Regan has admonished us not to comment on what was said and that we would be subject to discipline if we did,” Sheckler said.

He said he wishes there was more transparency on the rating and vetting subcommittee and that the meeting where the full body makes the final decision should be open to the public.

Although he couldn’t comment directly, he speculated in a Coeur d’Alene Press column that the presence of the newly elected precinct committeemen influenced the decision.

Sheckler, whose precinct is in Coeur d’Alene, individually supports the levy. He said the school board’s recent $6 million budget cuts and closing an elementary school as a cost-saving measure show it is being fiscally responsible.

Citizens for Coeur d’Alene Public Schools, a political action committee that supported previous levies, is continuing its Yes! campaign. Sara Meyer, chair of the committee, said she is not privy to why the KCRCC decided not to oppose the levy.

The state of Idaho doesn’t fully fund education. Instead, it leaves school districts to fund 1/4 to 1/3 of their budgets with local property tax levies, making these perennial ballot measures crucial to school finances.

Meyer said that system worked for the community that hadn’t denied a levy in 36 years until March 2023, when voters rejected a proposal to make the levy perpetual.

“Our community wanted to keep local control,” Meyer said.

The school board re-ran it as a regular two-year levy that May, when turnout increased significantly and voters approved it by 63.5%. The school board also warned of staff and program cuts and school closures if it failed again.

This November’s levy is another renewal.

“This time it is the exact same amount,” Meyer said. “It is important for voters to understand it is not in perpetuity, it is a pure replacement levy.”