Kamiah schools face life without levy

Kamiah students should expect a normal school year, despite the defeat of the school district's second supplemental levy attempt this year.

Levy supporters hoped better turnout might improve the outcome after voters rejected a $325,000 attempt in May. Instead, the same percentage of voters - about 61 percent - rejected the same proposal Tuesday, even though participation at the polls was up by nearly a third.

"The trustees are very appreciative of the patrons' involvement regarding the levy," Superintendent Fred Mercer said Wednesday. "We're disappointed that it wasn't favorable to us, but we'll make the adjustments we need to and move forward. We're going to provide a positive experience for the children of Kamiah this school year."

Kamiah's levy faced an unanticipated challenge Tuesday, with election day falling during the worst fire season in decades. In a community already facing high poverty rates, asking for even a small increase from property owners coping with losses from wildfires was understandably a tough sell, Mercer said.

"With the fire disaster ... we understand how cautious and hesitant people would be," he said. "They don't even know how they're going to support themselves."

Even without a community tragedy like the fires, asking property owners to cover basic education costs is a hurdle for many Idaho districts, Mercer said, including Kamiah.

"I hope the state and the Legislature will address the school funding in a more equitable manner," he said. "We do not have funding that makes a fair playing field across the board."

The state's bump in education funding this year - a 7.4 percent increase - was "truly appreciated," Mercer said, but his hope is the Legislature will work to balance funding for Idaho's small, rural schools

"We're a district that has a high level of poverty, and our assessed value is low," he said. "It creates a unique challenge for us."

The Kamiah district was able to balance its budget for the 2015-16 school year without the levy by using its forest fund account, Mercer said. Secure Rural Schools money is allocated by the federal government to make up for an abundance of national forest land within the district.

The district's school board members and administrators have fashioned a plan for Kamiah students to have as normal a school year as possible, Mercer said, and teachers will take on some extra work to help make that happen.

"We've added additional responsibilities to our staff," he said. "They're picking up a bigger load on the instructional side."

Some classes will be offered online instead of face-to-face with a teacher in the classroom, he said, through resources such as the Idaho Digital Learning Academy.

"We'd like to have more electives," he said. "We'd like to have more staff at our high school."

Looking ahead, Mercer said district officials will be assessing needs for the 2016-17 school year as they consider whether to try another levy.

"We'll be working on that all year," he said. "So if in the spring we need to reach out to our patrons for financial support, we'll have the information we'll need to make those requests if that's necessary."

In the meantime, Mercer said the district is ready to push forward, and Tuesday's election results won't cast a shadow on the new school year.

"The positive side of that was that there were 371 more ballots cast," he said. "That showed that there was high interest in the levy. It didn't come out favorably for the district financially, but it did come out favorably in that the patrons voiced their opinion - and we'll live with the results."

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Stone may be contacted at mstone@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2244. Follow her on Twitter @MarysSchoolNews.