No headline

A lot of people in Lake Pend Oreille School District were unaware that there is a supplemental levy vote coming up on March 14 until they saw the “vote yes for schools” signs in the usual places. That is the way it seems the school district prefers it for levy elections.

LPOSD has been setting up this $17 million levy since last October, discussed it in seven school board meetings

but treated it as a routine agenda item without any special publicity effort. There were not even minutes of those meetings posted until January. Now that it is on the ballot, we’re finding out the many additional salaries and perks included in this replacement levy — in the tune of $1.3 million more than the last one.

The under-the-radar handling of this levy roll-out is by design: it aims to suppress voter turnout so that mainly school employees and their families will show up to vote.

In a show of “openness,” Superintendent Shawn Woodward began holding “informational meetings” for the public, but only after the levy was on the ballot. No publicity for those meetings, except on the school’s website. Only Ten people are allowed per meeting, none in the evening except by special appointment. All require an RSVP.

It is hard to imagine a more clandestine, inconvenient, and inefficient way to get the word out about a levy which will remove another $1.3 million from our pockets.

Vote no.

JAMES DAVIS

Sagle