WBCSD levy is back on the ballot

PRIEST RIVER — Following the failed supplemental levy request on March 12, West Bonner County School District officials were left with two options — run the levy again or cut 26 percent of the budget.

“That’s the long and short of it,” said WBCSD Superintendent Paul Anselmo during the March 20 board meeting. “My recommendation is to hold the line on the proposed levy amount and eliminate the permanent levy option.”

The board ultimately chose to follow Anselmo’s recommendation and the two-year, $6 million levy request — $3 million per year — will be back on the ballot in May.

The second question on the March 12 ballot asked voters to approve a permanent supplemental override, meaning the district would only have to go back to the voters if they chose to raise the levy amount to more than $3 million.

Anselmo said he believes the permanency request caused some confusion, which is why they chose to forego the question in the next election.

There were “rumblings” of misinformation throughout the community as well, Anselmo said, including that WBCSD was running a $25 million levy, which was actually the Lake Pend Oreille School District on the east side of the county. The district split nearly 20 years ago.

“Hopefully we got caught in the crossfire, the perfect storm, of all these things happening and that hopefully the community here, the West Bonner County School District, does support what we have been trying to do,” said WBCSD Trustee Margaret Hall.

WBCSD vice chair, Drew McLain, suggested running a one-year levy to offset the district from LPOSD’s future levies. While many of the trustees agreed it was a good idea, it was nixed for a couple of reasons, including the timeline of the school board elections and possible new trustees coming on board next year.

There was also speculation among the board that some of the misinformation was spread in the wake of a controversy over the Human Rights Club at Priest River Lamanna High School. The issue on the Human Rights Club arose after the December topic of “Men and LGBTQA,” with a number of community members expressing concern that LGBTQA is not a human rights issues and that there is no transparency with the club.

“It’s really sad to me that a group tried to hold a district hostage over freedom of speech and a human rights club,” Anselmo said.

WBCSD Trustee Samuel “Ranger Rick” Hall has also spoken out against the club, and during last week’s meeting said it has caused a trust issue due to a lack of transparency. He was quickly corrected by WBCSD Chair Sandy Brower, however, when he called the club a “gay club.”

“This is a human rights club,” Brower said. “That topic was one time, one month. If that’s the information that’s being spread out there, it is causing this rift in our community. And if we don’t stand behind our students and support our students, all of them, regardless of who they are or who they want to be, we’ve got a bigger problem than a group of people trying to hold us hostage. We’ve got a problem where we may lose our entire community to a certain group of people with an agenda that does not protect us all, and that frightening.”

Margaret Hall said while she is glad that community members do show up and express their concerns, she does not believe it is representative of the whole community. Anselmo agreed and said there is a large group of people who support the schools.

With only 20-percent voter turnout on March 12, Hall said the precincts that voted for the levy were the precincts where informational meetings were held, despite the low turnout at those meetings. Looking at trends between 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections, Hall suggested reaching out to areas such as Laclede and Oldtown to provide more information on the levy for the May election.

The board members will be looking at ways to engage the community more, not only to provide information on the levy, but also to gain trust and assure the community they are listening, Hall said.

“I think that is critical, that we have to have a better dialogue,” she said.

The supplemental levy covers areas such as the district’s general fund shortfall of $2,128,737 per year, as well as class fees, the school resource officer, technology supplies, library and school funds, curriculum and more.

Anselmo said there are several areas where the district finds itself short of state funding each year, such as transportation, which is reimbursed by the state at 50 to 85 percent of expenses. Also for maintenance of facilities, he said, the lottery dollars from the state provided $67,416 to the district in the 2017-2018 school year.

The state recently increased the minimum teacher salary to $40,000, which Anselmo said is “great.” However, there is no increase to the maximum salary of $50,000, and there are currently 28 top-tier teachers in the district, he said.

“Our kids deserve those master teachers, and if we don’t pay them, someone else will,” Anselmo said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.