FRUITLAND, Idaho — Fruitland School District is asking voters to approve a $1.5 million supplemental levy to fund new curriculum and repair aging facilities, including a cracked track that has become unusable.
The two-year levy would cost taxpayers approximately $91 per $100,000 of assessed property value, though district officials hope to reduce that amount significantly.
Superintendent Stoney Winston says the district hopes to lower the tax impact through the state's school facilities fund. "Having to use over a third of our discretionary dollars to fund special education, we don't have the money for curriculum, so we have to go out and ask the voters for that," said Winston.
"So that drops the $91 down anywhere between... right now, conservative estimate, $7.36 per $100,000," Winston explained.
In the meantime, teachers in the district are piecing together learning materials without a comprehensive curriculum plan.
"We kinda just hodgepodge curriculum the best we can," said Drew Judeson, a math teacher at Fruitland High School.
Judeson, who was once a student at Fruitland High before becoming a teacher there, says the lack of coordinated curriculum creates problems for student learning.
"We've never really had a K-12 curriculum. Well, any curriculum is more of a luxury than it is an automatic funding issue," said Winston.
The disjointed approach to curriculum means teachers often don't know what material their colleagues are covering.
"You don't necessarily know what's being covered, [or] know exactly what's being covered from one year to the next," said Judeson.
Beyond curriculum, the levy would fund new equipment for band and fine arts programs and replace the high school's damaged track.
"Kids get their cleats caught in there, twist an ankle down there, it can be a serious injury, and we don't want that," added Winston.
The district plans to build a new track on land it already owns, where the old track site could eventually become the site of a new high school.
"That has all the modern security upgrades modern schools are being built with to make sure we are protecting our students to the best of our ability," said Winston.
