Lake Pend Oreille Levy Would Fund Textbooks, Tidiness

New textbooks and a cleaner high school campus are among the promises that come with a proposed $1.7 million supplemental levy for the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

The levy is intended for general operating expenses, including the funding of teachers and staff, materials for math, language arts and testing, as well as extracurricular activities.

While critics of the levy note that it’s a significant increase over last year’s $1.2 million levy, school officials say the district is actually cutting costs.

This fiscal year, the district enjoyed a one-time $800,000 windfall from the split of the Bonner County School District.

“The story really is the total subsidy was $2.2 million,” said Steve Battenschlag, business manager for the school district. “It’s actually a reduction of supplemental dollars.”

While Battenschlag tries to consolidate staffing positions in the district, he’s also hoping to hire nine new custodians for the middle and high schools, he said. The effort is part of a district strategic plan that calls for improved conditions and climate at the schools, as well as facility and educational improvements.

“Those are the positions that I hope to take to the high school and middle school campus and bring the environment up to the level that promotes quality education,” he said.

Now the district can’t afford to hire custodians to clean the buildings during the weekends, even though they get a lot of use then, he said. The district also has no full-time groundskeeper for the campus.

The levy money would go into the general fund, but the intent of school officials is to spend $725,000 on teachers and other staff to keep student-teacher ratios low; $250,000 for continued maintenance, licensing and repairs for the district’s growing number of computers; $180,000 on math, language arts and art textbooks and curriculum development; $75,000 for increased custodial and groundskeeping; and $100,000 for extracurricular activities.

School board member Keith Contor voted for authorizing the levy, but isn’t sure if he’ll vote for it in the election, he said.

Contor moved, and other board members supported, to publicize that the levy goes into the general fund, because many people have the misconception that it goes into a dedicated fund, he said. He also successfully proposed that the board get a monthly accounting of how that money’s spent.

“There’s no guarantee where that money goes or how much goes to it,” Contor said. “None of it is dedicated.”

For instance, Contor said he didn’t understand why math textbooks are still needed, when last year’s levy was supposed to cover math textbooks.

But last year’s levy just covered the cost for the secondary level textbooks, Battenschlag explained. The grade school teachers decided to pilot the math curriculum for a year before purchasing the textbooks, he said.

“It’s so important this year that it passes … to keep the momentum we have going,” Battenschlag said.

The levy will cost $41.23 per year for the owner of a home with a taxable value of $50,000, or $82.45 for the owner of a home with a taxable value of $100,000.

The election is May 16, and polling places will be open from noon until 8 p.m.

The polling places are Clark Fork Jr./Sr. High School, Hope Elementary, Kootenai Elementary, Northside Elementary, Sagle Elementary, Samuels Fire Station, Sandpoint High School, Farmin Elementary, Washington Elementary and Southside schools.

ELECTION The election is May 16, and polling places will be open from noon until 8 p.m.