Idaho Education Notecard Nov. 3, 2017
This week’s education (and school election) news:
The $194.7 million bill. This year, Idaho property owners will pay a record $194.7 million in voter-approved supplemental levies to help finance their local schools. The state’s supplemental tax bill skyrocketed during the recession, as school districts backfilled budgets in the wake of unprecedented state budget cuts. The state’s K-12 budgets are growing again, but 93 Idaho districts still collect supplemental levies. More information HERE.
… and a $216 million election day. On Tuesday, voters will decide the fate of $216 million in school bond issues and supplemental levies. The big-ticket items are a series of bond issues to build new schools in Idaho Falls and Teton County. Voters in Bingham County will also decide whether to join the property taxing district for the fledgling College of Eastern Idaho. More information HERE.
Idaho Falls’ $110 million decision. The Idaho Falls School District says it is time to replace one of the city’s high schools and renovate the other, a $110 million undertaking. Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot has weighed into the debate, suggesting that the bond issue will trigger an increase in property tax rates. Eric Heringer, a financial planner working with the district, says increasing market values will cover the cost of the bonds, leaving the property tax rate unchanged. More information HERE.
And speaking of elections … Idaho school trustees will discuss election dates during their annual convention in Coeur d’Alene next week. State Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, wants to move trustee elections onto the November ballot, in order to improve turnout. Trustees do not want their nonpartisan elections on the same ballot as partisan races for president, governor, Congress and the Legislature. More information HERE.
‘I want to have the coolest classroom on campus.’ Susan Woodard has stripped away the typical furnishings from her classroom: textbooks, notebooks and pencils. Instead, her seventh- and eighth-graders learn by coding or sewing, tuning up bicycles or breaking apart computer equipment. “The past has been about discovering new things, now it’s time to make things,” said Woodard, a teacher at Pathways Middle School, an alternative school in the West Ada School District. More information HERE.
Kevin Richert is a reporter and blogger with Idaho Education News (idahoednews.org.) Idaho Education News is an independent news site focused on education policy and politics, funded by the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation. Richert has worked in the Idaho news media since 1985, as a reporter, editor and columnist.
