No headline

The Lake Pend Oreille School District has become widely known for its insatiable appetite for taxpayer money, no matter the economy, no matter its enrollment figures, or the impact it has on property owners and, indirectly, on renters.

Two years ago, it saddled us with an all-time high supplemental levy of $17 million. On March 12 of this year, it wants our vote on an even higher levy of $25.4 million. When will it ever be enough?

Apparently never.

In 2016, right before the $17 million levy proposal, Superintendent Shawn Woodward told the Daily Bee: “As we look at the future of our school district, the needs are always going to outweigh the resources coming in.”

There’s your road map to never-ending levies.

It’s also the reason he was hired. The Daily Bee reported this statement from him in 2013, talking about his job interview: “The board members asked me how confident I would be as superintendent, running a levy campaign. That was literally the first thing that was asked of me behind closed doors during the interview.” Literally the first thing? Not experience, not qualifications, just: make sure we get levies passed?

He has been living up to it ever since: the supplemental levy went up almost $12 million since he made that statement.

Check out www.lposdlevy.com for more information that the school district would rather you didn’t know.

DANA DEAN

Sandpoint