School levy to run in March and possible plant facility levy to come

BONNERS FERRY — Boundary County School District will run a maintenance and operations levy in March and has named other possible election dates for 2023.

Due to the levy dropping off in June 2023, the district will run an estimated $2.4 million levy to pay for safety and maintenance, transportation for extracurricular activities, staff salary and curriculum materials. The board said the exact amount and additional details on line items will be forthcoming.

Boundary County Superintendent Jan Bayer said that if the levy does not pass, 25% of the district’s workforce would have to be cut. The district would lose 20 or more classified staff, one principal and eight to 10 teachers since their salaries are paid through levy funding.

She added the district could find a way around this cut by having furlough days and the school week could be cut even shorter for elementary schools, although she cautioned this could result in unequal pay for elementary teachers compared to high school teachers.

M&O levies in the state of Idaho only last for one to two years. BCSD has selected to run their M&O every other year. M&Os cover maintenance, operation and learning costs that are not covered by the state, such as band, drama, Future Farmers of America class, Career Technical Education course, extracurricular activities, travel for extracurriculars, grounds maintenance and more.

In the past, the district’s M&O levy has paid for smaller class sizes and allowed the district to maintain its level of learning, Bayer said.

In October, the school board voted 3-1 in favor of putting an M&O before the voters in March and to not raise the dollar value of the levy. Trustee Mary Fioravanti voted no, maintaining her stance to only hold school board elections during the primary and general elections instead of four times a year as allowed by Idaho Code.

Luke Omodt of the Boundary County Education Association, said the association recognizes the importance of the levy as a mechanism for funding school services.

“Without the levy our students are going to struggle and ultimately it always goes back to the students,” he said.

Also at the meeting, the board decided the 2023 election dates by request of Boundary County. Bayer said the county requested the election dates in order to be better abreast of upcoming elections.

In Idaho school boards, elections can run four times a year, since the board can not guarantee the levy will pass the first time they have scheduled out possible dates for the election which includes March, May and August.

The previous proposed bond was to replace the 74-year-old Valley View Elementary and for improvements across the district. The bond failed to pass in the March and August 2022 elections.

Replacing the piping and the roof, which is the same roof that collapsed in the gym a few years ago, was some of the many issues that were to be addressed in the bond. The week of Oct. 17, sinks in the girls bathroom backed up into the floor drain, spilled across the bathroom floor and into the hallway.

In February at a Bonners Ferry City Council meeting, BCSD Trustee Teresa Rae said the district is planning for a possible catastrophic incident that could happen at Valley View. Such an event would make it unsafe for students and displace 400 students, who would likely be farmed out to several churches in town or bring back double shifts at the district to provide schooling for all students.

“I did a double-shifting back in the day, that's where we're at,” Rae said. “And that's what we need our citizens to know, bottom line.”

Bayer said that the district is anticipating a catastrophic failure at Valley View in the next five years.

“If that was to happen, we would look at moving Valley View to the middle school and double shift in the high school just to get us through until we get it fixed. We don't want to do that. I've lived through double shifts,” Bayer said.

Since Valley View is still in need of repairs, the board is looking into a plant facility levy. This would allow the district to repair and rebuild the school in phases. It is projected that the work would be done over 10 years.

The board projects the plant facility levy will run in the November 2023 election, but said they have a lot of research, planning and have to go out for bids before taking the project to the voters.

The next BCSD board of trustees meeting is Dec. 12 at the district office, 7188 Oak St., Bonners Ferry.