"We need this": Kuna teachers share how supplemental levy will impact schools

Voters in Kuna will see a $3.6 million supplemental school levy on the ballot in November. If it passes, Kuna schools can keep 37 teachers and add 6 more. If it fails, those 37 teachers will be cut from classrooms.

• The majority of the $3.6 million levy will go towards teachers, with $250,000 of those funds going towards student technology and textbooks.
• The proposed levy will cost the taxpayer $65.48 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value.
• You can find more information about the Kuna School District supplemental levy here.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

If the $3.6 million supplemental levy passes, the majority of those funds will go to maintaining 37 teaching positions and adding 6 more to help reduce class sizes.

If the levy doesn’t pass, those 37 teaching positions would need to be cut and students would see changes like bigger class sizes, loss of the block schedule at high schools, and kindergarten being reduced to half-time.

“We need this, we need this levy to maintain the quality of education we have here in Kuna," says Travis Edwards, an AG teacher and FFA advisor at Kuna High School.

“Losing the block schedule is probably my biggest concern, my biggest fear if the levy doesn’t pass," says Edwards.

He says that the block schedule gives students more opportunities to take a variety of classes and electives in areas like career technical education and the arts.

“We’re gonna lose a lot of those. It’s going to kill programs, it's gonna reduce teachers because students won’t have room in their schedules to take those things anymore," says Edwards.

“In our department, we would probably rearrange classes so that we would have smaller numbers at the freshman and sophomore level," says Allison Touchstone, the Science Department Head at Kuna High School.

She tells me losing teachers would force them to increase class sizes.

“We would probably be looking at 40+ in all of our junior and senior classes. You cannot divide your time equitably among 40 students in a class," says Touchstone.

“All day every day kindergarten gives students a safe, comfortable, happy routine place to be," says Alyssa Townsend, who has been teaching kindergarten in Kuna schools for 14 years.

She says that changing to a half-time schedule would impact how she teaches.

“In order to fit in the things that we need to be teaching we would have to cut out some more of the fun. We wouldn’t have time for science and social studies things like that," says Townsend.

“We will serve everybody that’s here as best we can, but I think it would be a challenging thing for our classroom teachers to see a levy not pass this year," says Jason Reddy, an Assistant Superintendent for the Kuna School District.

“This is a situation where it’s going to drastically change what we can and can’t offer here in Kuna," added Edwards.