Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Faced with never-ending budget problems, dilapidated buildings and skeptical patrons, some school trustees would have thrown up their hands and quit.

Not trustee Bill Osmunson of the Bonner County School District, though.

Earlier this month, Osmunson and daughter Kristy, a Sandpoint High sophomore, traveled to Boise to lobby the state Legislature for stronger safety codes for building public schools. They did so two weeks after heavy snow caused the Sandpoint High auditorium roof to collapse.

Now, Osmunson has filed a $14 million lawsuit, demanding that the state fulfill its constitutional mandate to provide a thorough and uniform education to its children. Said Osmunson of his suit: “I haven’t heard anyone else who has a better idea, and this seems to be the only way to get their (the state’s) attention.”

Usually, we don’t like to encourage lawsuits. But in this case, we believe Osmunson is acting in the best interest of his district - and North Idaho, as well. He deserves an “attaboy.”

Osmunson’s assessment of the state is dead on.

The Legislature won’t pay attention to Bonner County or North Idaho schools until the state’s under the judicial gun. We saw that in 1994 when the Legislature temporarily sidestepped a lawsuit filed by dozens of districts demanding adequate funding by pumping an unprecedented amount of money into education.

In the process, state officials devised a new funding formula, a complicated one that few understand - that favors southern Idaho schools over northern ones. The formula hit the Bonner County School District hard.

The formula takes for granted that districts with high property values are better able to support schools by passing supplemental levies and construction bonds. That’s not true in Bonner County, which has the fifth highest property values in the state, yet ranks 101st out of 112 school districts in funding per student.

The district last passed a school construction bond a decade ago. Supplemental levies routinely fail. In fact, a $964,000 supplemental levy to fix the leaking roofs at five schools was voted down twice last year before voters narrowly approved it. This reluctance, despite the fact that faulty roofs caused one Bonner County school to close six classrooms.

Bonner County, with high unemployment, has had the misfortune to be a resort area with rapidly increasing property valuations. Many of the school district’s patrons are poor or retired - people who can’t afford to subsidize richer districts hundreds of miles to the south.

In October, Osmunson wrote a letter to us that eloquently spelled out his frustration. It said in part: “Every day that I have been on the school board I have been in violation of state and federal laws pertaining to providing the minimum required level of education. The state does not send enough money to abide by the laws and the community refuses to make up the difference.”

Maybe Osmunson’s suit will force legislators to acknowledge, and correct, the error of their ways.

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