Canyon, Owyhee districts seek funds to pay for new technology center

CANYON COUNTY — Voters will head to the polls this week as the Marsing, Notus and Homedale school districts present supplemental levies to fund a new technology center.

The center is a project of the Canyon-Owyhee School Services Agency, which offers professional-technical classes and educational services and classes for both students and adults in the two counties. COSSA is made up of the three districts plus Parma and Wilder.

"It's going to enable us to expand," Marsing Superintendent Harold Shockley said of the new center. "We've had well over 100 adults that have gone through our programs, and we want to be able to expand that."

The districts must raise about 40 percent of the $5 million to fund the center, which will be located near U.S. Highway 95 north of Wilder. The cost will be divided between the districts based on their size and assessed value.

Shockley said both the Wilder and Parma school districts plan to raise the money through a bond issue, which will combine funding for the center with other projects in their districts.

The superintendent said half of the funding, $2.5 million, should come from the federal Economic Development Agency, though the EDA has not officially confirmed the funding yet.

The Wilder School District donated the 17 acres of land on which the center will be built, and R and M Steel of Caldwell will donate the entire steel structure, which Shockley said is worth about $400,000. The Wilder district also wants to donate utilities to the center once it is built, Shockley said.

High school students can take technical classes for transferable college credit for only $15 per credit. Adults who take the class pay the regular fees of their college.

"One of things we will be doing is working with business and industry for very targeted training," Shockley said. "It's important to create new jobs in the area, but its also important to maintain the jobs that we have."