A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE LEWISTON TRIBUNE AUG. 31, 2020
August Frank/Tribune
Yes, there will be a new LHS Lewiston’s high school bond passes with 75 percent approval This story originally was published on March 15, 2017.
By MARY STONE OF THE TRIBUNE
The Lewiston School District’s high school bond proposal captured 75 percent voter approval Tuesday, and Lewiston School Board President Brad Rice had three words to
sum up his response. “Thank you, Lewiston,” Rice said as he accepted congratulations from board members, administrators, teachers and community volunteers. Out of 11,475 votes counted Tuesday, 8,659 were in favor of a $59.8 million bond for building a new high school in the Lewiston Orchards. There were 2,816 votes against the measure. That represented about 66 percent voter turnout in an election that has been almost 3½ years in coming. Attempts to pass a $52
million bond for a proposal at the same site off Warner Avenue earned 61.8 percent and 51.6 percent majorities in 2010 and 2011. A $34.8 million bond attempt received just 46.3 percent in 2004. School bond measures in Idaho require a 66.67 percent supermajority to pass. The path to Tuesday’s election began in September 2013, when the Lewiston School Board passed a resolution calling for a ninth through 12th grade high school. Freshmen currently at-
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The latest rendition of LHS launches at challenging time W
hen future Lewistonites look back on the history of their community decades from now, they might reflect more fondly on 2020 than seems possible at this moment. That’s because 2020 will be remembered as the year the new Lewiston High School opened. Students will pass through the doors of the 204,000-square-foot school for the first time this morning, ushering in a new era in the town’s long history of education. It’s the collective hope of Lewiston-Clarkston Valley citizens that the $59.8 million facility, along with the complementary A. Neil DeAtley Career Technical Center, will fortify the city’s young people for the complexities of the 21st century. So how could the new school perched on an expansive field in the Lewiston Orchards overshadow a pandemic globally and simmering tensions nationally? Well, decades from now, those trials will be over — hopefully. And the new Lewiston High will still be a cornerstone of the community. This will be the seventh building to bear the name Lewiston High, but only
the previous facility on Normal Hill, which churned out graduates from 1928 until last spring, is accessible to living memory. So the Tribune commissioned Steven Branting, institutional historian at LewisClark State College, to provide a long view of education in Lewiston. In this section, Branting tells us about those previous schools and some of the noteworthy graduates who passed through their halls. Tribune photographers have been on the scene to document the construction of the new school, and some of their best images can be found herein. The enthusiasm for the new facility can perhaps be measured by the number of businesses and organizations that purchased advertisements in this section to celebrate and congratulate on this milestone day. The story of the new school will be written by our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the years to come. And, heck, the new LHS might already be the best thing about 2020. — Matt Baney, Tribune