08/10/2026
Hello everyone! I posted this on another site and feel obligated to start addressing our upcoming supplemental levy on the ballot in November. Our levy accounts for more than 25% of our overall budget and the state requires we go to the local community every two years for a vote of support to continue funding these programs, opportunities and personnel. The funding must come in the form of local property taxes. We are blessed by a tremendously generous community.
Before re-posting, I have a few primary goals:
1. To maximize scholastic achievement for the students at 271 and prepare them for life after they leave the halls and classrooms of our schools, regardless of their pursuits.
2. To be good stewards of the public’s hard earned, precious tax dollars and to seek ways to lessen the tax burden along the way.
3. To be honest, transparent, approachable and available throughout this process.
4. To provide clarity, information and perspective when I see confusion, misunderstanding and/or misrepresentation. I don’t pretend to have every answer and will treat others with dignity and civility. We are all neighbors in this matter.
I will be updating this site as I come across topics of interest and opportunities to inform. I’m hungry for questions so fire away! If you are uncertain about a matter, chances are that someone else is too. I am eager and happy to use this platform as time permits. Please also feel free to share.
Thank you,
Jimmy
Hi everyone! As a board member, I completely understand that taxpayers will deservedly have many questions and concerns. I want everyone on here to know that I personally do not take any of this lightly and consider myself, like many of you, to be very fiscally conservative. In addition to all of our financials being available each and every month, I promise that we trustees will do our best to make ourselves available, accessible, and transparent like we did during the last levy cycle at different parks and other events around our community.
It’s impossible to address such a sizable budget and a very complex funding formula in a single post on social media, but I will do my best to address a few concerns that I see recurring here. Our levy amount has been flat the last two election cycles (4 years). We were on a steep decline in enrollment and had to right size the budget a few years ago by closing Borah Elementary, which was incredibly difficult to do, but needed to be done at that time. Enrollment has since stabilized, but we have experienced some pretty significant increases in costs. One example is insurance. Annual premium increases of 20%+ are adding up to millions of dollars every few years. There are many more examples, just like you run across each time you visit the grocery store or renew your insurance policies. Our goal is to maintain as many of our existing programs and opportunities as much as possible, including that of staffing SRO’s for school safety, maintaining class sizes, and providing funding for KTEC (Kootenai Technical Ed Campus), which CDA accounts for 51% of through levy dollars. That is just one example of a program that truly prepares kids for the workforce and real life. Band, art, sports and other extracurricular programs build grit and challenge kids outside of the classroom as well. I certainly had these opportunities growing up in Idaho and consider that to be part of the traditional school experience. Levy dollars pay for them and about 75% of our highschoolers are involved in them in some way. Plus, it keeps kids out of trouble and off of screens.
Another area that we have tried to focus on is attendance. Despite the fact that attendance has very little bearing on our fixed costs, we receive funding based upon attendance. A post-Covid phenomenon is chronic absenteeism (absent > 10%) and it has a huge impact on the dollars that we receive from the state. I know that it sounds like a money grab, but the more that attendance improves, the less we have to rely on local property taxpayers to fund our costs. Additionally, better attendance = better academics. It’s a win-win and the dollars associated with attendance are significant enough to revisit as we head into the new school year. There are very few states (I believe 5) that operate this way. If your kids are sick, though, by all means do not send them to school. If they’re healthy enough to go to school 95% of the time, attendance will improve dramatically, along with funding.
As far as academics are concerned, we do have the lowest per-pupil funding of any state in the country, but we ranked in the middle of the pack in most all measurable categories. In fact, CDA has the second best composite score for academics of all the large districts in the state and we have gained dramatically on #1 West Ada in the last few years. You can compare individual schools with others locally-even some non-public schools-and you might be pleasantly surprised with the results! We have some of the highest achieving elementary, middle and high schools in all the state.
There are many things that the state leaves up to the local taxpayer to fund through property taxes. I wish that wasn’t the case, but currently we can only fund a levy for a two-year cycle, which is something we are trying to address. I am also cognizant of our most vulnerable seniors on fixed incomes. While we have protections in place like the circuit breaker to lessen that burden, I think those guard rails should be updated to help more of our elderly.
There is a lot more to discuss and I want each and everyone to know that we realize this is a big ask. I believe our nearly 10,000 students are worth it and we are beyond grateful for our incredibly generous community. Even if you disagree, we can do so while maintaining civility and dignity. Be well.
