Supporters celebrate levy's success

SANDPOINT — A chorus of car horns greeted students, family members, teachers and school administrators as they paraded Thursday through downtown Sandpoint celebrating the levy’s success.

Spearheaded by teacher Pam Lippi and office coordinator Cathy Sandell of Farmin Stidwell Elementary, the demonstration served as a gesture of gratitude toward the community for supporting the supplemental levy.

“We must all show up during this time of negativity in our profession and turn that frown upside down,” Lippi wrote in an e-mail publicizing the demonstration. “With the passage of this critical levy, we have a reason to celebrate and our communities to thank.”

The parade started at City Beach and wound its way down Highway 95. Eventually, the walkers crossed over to Highway 2 and turned toward Church Street. After walking past Panhandle State Bank, they paraded back to City Beach. Drivers joined the celebration with supportive horn honks throughout the rally.

“Thank you, Sandpoint, for doing what’s right for our kids,” marcher Connie Johnson said.

The event was very well attended. More than 100 individuals of all ages were gathered on the beach at 4 p.m. when the parade started, while still more joined in progress.

“We’re here to honor the voters for honoring our children,” marcher Kathy Prummer said.

The event was a continuation of celebrations for Lake Pend Oreille School District officials. They spent a long night in the office Tuesday night checking on voting results as precincts reported them. Only when the final precinct revealed a final vote of 3,577 to 2,163 did they breath a sigh of relief.

“We were all so happy with the results,” LPOSD Superintendent Dick Cvitanich said. “I went home, ate a bowl of ice cream and went to bed.”

Particularly heartening for Cvitanich was the high percentage of favorable votes. Altogether, 62.3 percent voted in favor of the levy, an increase of several percentage points from two years ago.

But district officials aren’t resting on their laurels after the success. Cvitanich said that a mountain of work awaited him after turning his attention away from the levy campaign.

“It feels pretty great, though,” he said. “It’s so good to get right back into the work after fixing my attention on the levy for so long.”