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The school system and our hard-working teachers should be above reproach. To gain the trust of skeptical citizens, the district could adopt two principles of fairness in bond voting. One would be to schedule the vote in the summer when the largest number of property owners are present and able to express their opinions. After all, the ideal of democracy is maximum citizen participation.

A second way to improve fairness would be to set district employees apart from the levy decision. Taxation is serious business: It is using the threat of force to extract funds. Everyone agrees that a judge should recuse himself from deciding on a case in which he has a personal financial interest. By the same principle, school employees should not participate in the decision that forces their neighbors to pay their salaries.

JIM PAYNE

Sandpoint