Shoshone schools plan $6M bond

SHOSHONE, Idaho -- The Shoshone School District will bring a $6 million bond to voters in August.

It would pay for a school remodeling project, a new multipurpose building and spaces for vocational and alternative school classes. Voters will cast ballots during the Aug. 29 election.

Bond projects are designed to improve school safety and to provide students with better facilities for classes and extracurricular activities.

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Cities, counties, school districts and the state would be allowed to enter into public-private partnerships to upgrade energy services under a bill winding its way through the Washington Legislature.

"I think our current building is in good shape, but it just needs a little remodeling," Superintendent Rob Waite said Wednesday.

Projects are part of a 20-year strategic facilities plan a community committee created. Meetings began in fall 2016. The bond would address the first five years' worth of projects.

Shoshone's school board decided June 13 to pursue a bond. The measure requires a two-thirds supermajority, 66.67 percent, vote to pass.

Voters paid off a bond for the existing school building one year ago. If the new bond is approved, tax rates will revert back to near that previous level.

Tax rates were a big topic of discussion when school trustees were considering a bond, Waite said.

If passed, the $6 million measure would pay for remodeling the existing school building. Currently, all students -- from kindergarten through 12th grades -- come into the building through one entrance and there isn't a front office nearby.

The project calls for creating two separate building entrances -- one for the elementary school and one for the junior high/high school -- and each would have its own office near the entrance.

It would also create more areas for small group instruction. Currently, "we have kids meeting in the hall," Waite said, as well as in converted office spaces and the cafeteria.

The project would add a new area for deliveries to the school. Currently, "big trucks come right in the middle of where students walk" outside, Waite said.

The bond would also fund a multipurpose building, including a stage and gymnasium space.

Lincoln County officials are interested in acquiring the old Shoshone school building across from the courthouse, Waite said. That currently houses the school district's second gymnasium and High Desert High School, an alternative school with about 25 students.

"If we could do a new multipurpose building on campus, it would be better educationally," Waite said.

The new multipurpose building would be open to community organizations just like the old gymnasium. And it would provide a space for children to play indoors.

"Right now, kids don't have anywhere to go at recess when it's snowy and rainy," Waite said.

Bond-funded projects would also include a new vocational building and a small building with a couple of classrooms for the alternative school.

The school district is interested in building the alternative school facility near the football field, which is owned by Lincoln County.

"I'm pretty sure we could formalize a deal for a land swap with the county," Waite said, if the bond passes.

Lincoln County Commissioner Cresley McConnell said the county in still in negotiations about acquiring the old gymnasium building and it depends on the school bond results.

The county already owns half the lot, he said. The goal is to build a new county courthouse on the land.

Lincoln County officials are in the design stages for a new courthouse, and preliminary numbers are being locked down for how much the project could cost and how much the county could pursue in a bond request.

The Lincoln County Courthouse was built in 1904 and it's the oldest working courthouse in Idaho, McConnell said.

For the Shoshone School District, a focus this summer is to communicate with community members about the bond measure, Waite said, "and provide facts for them."

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School bonds Idaho
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