Petition Seeks Division Of Bonner School District

Disgruntled over high taxes and snailpaced school improvements, some Bonner County residents want to carve their school district into three separate chunks.

“They see all these millions coming into the school district and they don’t feel that anybody’s getting their fair share,” said Carol Pietsch, a state legislator from Sandpoint who’s become the unofficial spokesman for the petitioners.

The Bonner County School Board tonight will discuss a petition to radically restructure the school district.

The petitioners want three subdistricts that would act as individual school districts with taxing ability, and do away with one district administration that makes decisions affecting all 15 schools.

Critics of the single district say it’s hard to pass bond issues if they don’t have something for everyone - from Clark Fork to Priest River.

In fact, last month’s bond issue attempt for a new elementary school in Kootenai failed by more than 2 to 1.

The idea to divide the district has been around for years, Pietsch said.

“They’ve tried to do this in past years,” she said. “They always get beaten around the head and ears on it and in the end they’re told they can’t do it.”

The latest attempt has been fueled by high taxes and reports of shoddy bookkeeping at the central office. An audit last fall showed the district had a $1.1 million deficit. The deficit now stands at about $400,000.

The petitioners’ original request, filed a week ago, stated that they wanted to “dissolve” the school district and create three new districts.

Their petition was reviewed by Kirby Nelson, the deputy attorney general for the state Department of Education. Nelson said it’s not possible to dissolve a district by petition.

He did point out that citizens can petition the board to subdivide the district under a law passed in 1986. No school districts have done so since the new law went on the books.

Pietsch said she’s “100 percent” certain that a new petition will be delivered tonight with the 50 signatures it needs to start the subdivision process. That includes hearings, approval by the state Board of Education and an election.

In two recent town hall meetings on education arranged by board member Bill Osmunson, no one spoke of dissolving the school district, he said.

“We need to do our homework and make sure we aren’t making things worse,” he said. “At this point we have to try to see if we can keep the family bickering to a minimum.”

The school board meeting starts at 6 p.m. today at Sandpoint High School.

, DataTimes