Everyone Has Role In School Problems

Superintendent Max Harrell would have a mess on his hands even if his school district wasn’t at ground zero of the Idaho tax rebellion.

His Bonner County School District administration is top heavy. Some district expenses are questionable at best, ridiculous at worst. Beyond that, Harrell has isolated himself from students, teachers, parents and patrons after a promising start two years ago.

His isolation was apparent last Monday when 1,300 people crowded the Sandpoint High School gym to attack his plan to eliminate a projected $544,000 deficit. His proposal? Cut - his word is “cap” - extracurricular school expenses 50 percent. Such a move, of course, would devastate band, drama, choir, yearbook and sports programs. It also would hinder good students from landing college scholarships.

He should find some other way to balance the books.

The deficit, however, isn’t the district’s worst problem. The perennial lack of proper funding and Bonner County’s distrust of administrators are greater ones. Harrell, after all, is the fourth superintendent in the past six years. Some former superintendents created their own problems. All were strapped for cash to educate children properly.

District patrons and the state of Idaho are as much to blame for Bonner County’s predicament as Harrell. Bonner County voters have waited for school roofs to collapse before they begrudgingly pass bare-bones budgets. Then, the state of Idaho relies on a funding formula that shortchanges the district.

Bonner County can wait for years with fingers crossed hoping against hope that the Legislature or the courts will change the formula. Or it can help itself. Everyone needs to quit pointing fingers and do his part.

Harrell, for example, must rebuild trust.

He can begin by accepting a citizen review of district expenses. In recent months, administrators have provided fodder for critics by accepting a modest 2.8 percent raise while teacher salaries were frozen. They also bought laptop computers and allowed the special education program to overspend by $188,000 while regular classroom needs went begging. Harrell also should freeze his salary and reduce the number of district administrators. Both are bones of contention with the public.

As for the teachers’ part, the Bonner County Education Association should drop its politically motivated threat to blacklist the district. The action would notify universities, teacher placement agencies and hiring organizations that Bonner County is a poor place to work or receive an education. Such a black eye not only would hurt Harrell but also the community.

Finally, Bonner County residents need to examine themselves, too.

Last year, Harrell presented the school board with its first balanced budget in three years, erasing a $1 million deficit he’d inherited 12 months before. That’s been lost in all the recent turmoil. Since then, Harrell has made some controversial financial decisions. But voters are hurting only Bonner County’s children if they use them to justify another levy or bond rejection.

If each warring faction would put the educational needs of the kids first, the rest would fall into place.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board