Please support our schools and students

Dear citizens of the Lake Pend Oreille School District,

We cherish that all of us are different. We have different challenges and triumphs, backgrounds and futures. What we all have in common is a love for our children and a desire to see them receive a quality education.

We have terrific schools and teachers. Our district continues to improve every year. We not only want this to continue for our children, but also for the children of friends, the children of people we have yet to meet, and those children who will enter our schools in the future. In short, we care about all of the children in our community.

Our children love their schools, and they deserve a solid education every year. Not passing the proposed levy will create a school system that features classes of 35 children, few or no extra curricular activities, limited access to technology, and a reversion to outdated texts. This is the past, and we cannot afford to go back to those days.

As parents, we do understand the difficult economy. Food prices, transportation costs, and an unsteady job market worry us, too. We live it every day. However, our School Board has developed a plan that will keep our school taxes flat in year one and down by 45 percent in year two. This is responsible leadership — responsible to taxpayers and our children.

We ask all of you to join in supporting our children the same way families and parents supported us when we went to school. It is our turn and responsibility to show each other that our children really do matter.

BARB OLER,

Southside PTA president

Sagle PTA

CINDY GRIESEMER, Sandpoint High School

parent representative

GERALDINE LEWIS, Sandpoint Middle School

parent representative

MIKE TOMT,

Washington PTO president

Jacinda Bokowy, Washington PTO

vice president

Julie Wolff, Farmin-Stidwell PTA president

Cyndy Hernandez, Kootenai PTA president

Northside PTO

Robin Eich, Lake Pend Oreille High School

parent representative

Cindy Kiebert,

Hope PTO president

Dexter Vogel, Clark Fork Booster Club president

Francie Martin, Clark Fork High School and Junior High parent representative