BCSD pauses school bond until 2024

BONNERS FERRY — The Boundary County School Board pulled back from its decision on running another school bond for Valley View Elementary in November.

After the board had asked the state to repair the elementary school after voters rejected a bond for the second time, trustees were told they would have to go out for the bond another two times before the state would step in.

In July, trustees voted to run a bond in November, after discussion that Boundary County residents would be paying for at least two more school bond elections, something trustees doubted the community would support.

Board members agreed that this pushes the timeline further back and puts students at risk as the school needs to be fixed.

Board Vice Chair Teresa Rae compared the school to a ticking time bomb due concerns of heating, sewer lines, power and the possibility that the roof could cave in, like the former gym did only a few years ago.

At Monday’s meeting, Superintendent Jan Bayer told the board she doesn’t support running the bond in November 2023, due to not having the levy rate, or assessed property values yet. She said she did not feel comfortable going in front of the community and giving voters information that is not available, such as rates based on assessed values, which are not yet finalized.

Rae said this is what happened in August when the bond was run and proposed rates were off due to assessed values not being finalized until September.

Ballot language for the November election is due in mid-September. Bayer said it is not enough time for staff to turn the data around to give residents property quotes for their taxes.

The district has been informed that after requesting the state step in and fund a new Valley View Elementary School, it must present a school bond to voters before the state will step in. If the bond fails two additional times at the polls, then the state will step in. To date, BCSD has run a bond for Valley View at the March 2022 and August 2022 elections for $16 million and then $16.4 million, all have failed to reach a super majority of 66 ​2/3%.

The plan is to run a bond for Valley View in May 2024. School districts can no longer run elections in March, so May is the earliest time a bond could be run.

Rae said this decision doesn’t delay the district too much, since if the bond doesn’t pass in May, the district could opt to run it again in August and the bond would still be on the minds of voters, instead of waiting six months like between November and May.

Trustee Mary Fioravanti said that after talking to community members, she doesn’t believe a bond of $14 million will pass. She suggested finding ways to reduce the price of the bond by cutting out unnecessary expenses and getting the bond amount close to $11 million.

Rae said that when it comes to cutting costs, the first thing to look at is cutting classrooms.

The new Valley View plans incorporate additional classrooms to allow for increased growth projected in Bonners Ferry.

The proposed school bond for November 2023 was going to be set at $14 million for a new Valley View, which would include moving the kindergarteners to the main campus and adding additional classrooms. The second gym was pulled from the plans.

Fioravanti then said if voters pass a $11 million bond, the remaining $3 million could be covered by federal grants and local fundraising, since it will take a few years to break ground.

“That would have been huge for our local taxpayers,” she said.

If the Valley View bond fails another two times, then the state has agreed to step in and build the school, with the caveat that Boundary County taxpayers will pay for the school that they did not vote for.

Fiorvanti said that if the state came and fixed Valley View, she would be voting against a forced tax.

In other maintenance news, the board agreed to spend $10,000 to repair damage at the district office stemming from when a minivan hit the building in April. The repairs will only bring the building into compliance. The board decided not to spend an additional $46,000 to repair the brick.

The long-term plan is for the district office to go to Valley View Elementary and to sell the district office. The board said at this time they don’t wish to invest in offices when an elementary school needs to be rebuilt.