NAMPA, Idaho — It's been a little more than a week since voters in Nampa went to the polls. They were asked to approve or reject a $12 million supplemental levy that would go toward schools in the district.
“Being 11 (later corrected to 10 after a recount) votes short is really hard, but it also tells us that we don’t have a wide disparity there, so we do have a lot of people who do support it and we'd like to find out why those who didn’t, what their concerns were,” said Nampa School District spokesperson Kathleen Tuck.
Right now, Tuck says the school district is not asking for a recount.
“The thought is that the process isn’t broken and so most likely that count was accurate and it's just a heartbreaking result,” Tuck said.
Instead, they'll now hold listening sessions for the public to attend.
“What they would like to do is get a better idea of why it failed, so what are patrons thinking, is it a matter of not communicating well enough and having some confusion out there or are people concerned about specific things on the levy, are they concerned about the amount of money on the levy,” Tuck said.
The levy would have gone toward supporting teacher salaries, curriculum, technology and school building upgrades and repairs, but the school district still has time before deciding what to do next. The current levy in place doesn't expire until the end of June.
"There is a possibility that we could go out for another levy because unfortunately, those are real needs,” Tuck said. “If for some reason we weren't able to run another levy, or it didn't pass, then we'd have to look into making some cuts and it would be very difficult.”
The school district's decision to hold listening sessions comes just days after a Nampa roofer offered to donate his time and materials to fix some of the school roofs.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to a big project like our high school roofs, there's a whole lot of things to consider,” Tuck said. “This gentleman was very generous, but he only has a limited amount of money to put toward it and his time, so really it would be a band aid that wouldn’t solve the problem and it might actually cause more work down the road. So, what we want to do is make sure these repairs are done properly.”
The school district hopes to have the listening sessions before the school board meeting on December 10.