MERIDIAN, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
West Ada School District needs over $1 billion to upgrade its buildings over the course of the next 10 years, according to a facilities assessment that was discussed during last Monday’s school board meeting.
This news comes after the district passed a levy in May this year, which sought over $13 million — over $12 million allocated to 152 teachers’ salaries and benefits and under $1 million going to 19 student resource officers. According to the West Ada website, that $13 million is needed because of a recent loss of teachers, increase in class sizes and loss of student resource officers.
However, a year before that, a West Ada facilities levy failed, with around 57% of voters voting against the levy, which sought $500 million that would have been used for building maintenance.
The long-range facilities assessment is required under House Bill 521, which Gov. Brad Little and the Idaho Legislature adopted in the spring.
"The vision of this bill is to empower us for the demands of our student population, which is growing in places ... and to make sure that we have safe schools for all of our students," West Ada Chief Operating Officer David Reinhart said during the Nov. 11 meeting.
The school facilities funding bill allocates $1 billion across Idaho's 115 school districts to pay for new construction and facility upgrades. Because of that bill, West Ada School District — Idaho's largest — will be receiving $140 million to be used for its facility needs. That money, Reinhart said, cannot be used to fund athletic facilities.
"We are deeply grateful for this ability to do good things for our students by improving and modernizing our facilities," Reinhart said during the meeting. "It is a large project, but we are grateful for everybody who got behind this and helped our buildings move forward."
The assessment was conducted by Bureau Veritas, which assessed HVAC, roofing, interiors, electrical systems, alarms and plumbing systems in every school in the district, resulting in reports ranging from 112 to 2,000 pages per school. In the end, the inspections found that the district will need $1.1 billion over the course of 10 years for facility needs.
The school board unanimously approved the assessment at the Nov. 11 meeting.
"This is going to make an impact to be sure, but it will not necessarily produce the best outcome for our students in all cases," trustee David Binetti said during the meeting.
Several other board members echoed Binetti's thought process — while this money will do a lot of good for the district, it's not going to cover everything they need for their facilities.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
