No headline

After watching Lake Pend Oreille School District’s spending habits, you realize that when they present you with a levy and say it’s about the children, it’s always about something else.

In August they tried to convince us with full-page newspaper ads, lawn signs, and levy presentations to vote for an enormous $55 million school facilities levy because tearing down, rebuilding, and remodeling buildings and sports fields would increase academic performance by 6 percent.

Voters looked at all the “facts” and realized that this was not “for the kids” but likely an image issue for LPOSD Superintendent Shawn Woodward and a lucrative business opportunity for consultants, architects, banks, foundations, and construction firms.

Woodward is enamored with the notion of LPOSD being the “lighthouse” district for all of Idaho, and based on what we’ve seen, this runs into money.

In March, he will ask us to vote on yet another supplemental levy, this one $17 million, which is $1.3 million higher than the 2015 levy. Again, it’s “for the kids.” Yet the bulk of it goes to salaries, and some of those are among the highest in the state.

It also comes with at a new counselor position, and Woodward has alerted us that he hopes to have a counselor at every school. Other high-ticket levy line items are 110 coaches, some of whom may soon also receive longevity pay.

Grandiose “lighthouse” visions make for expensive levies. Vote no on March 14 to send a message to this school district about its irresponsible spending.

LOUIS PERRY

Sandpoint