Will voters in School District 5 approve a $6.1 million building reserve levy next month? I have my doubts. Unemployment remains high in Flathead County; that and uncertainty over future economic growth will make voters exceedingly reluctant to raise their taxes.
Those things alone are enough to defeat a levy. Adding considerable, and justifiable, anger over how this was handled, further diminishes the prospects of success.
Yet money for repairs to Flathead High School is needed. To comply with the fire code, a sprinkler system must be installed. Here’s the Daily InterLake’s Kristi Albertson’s explanation of how the school district’s trustees created this predicament:
The district had considering installing a sprinkler system in 2006 with money from the $50.7 million bond issue voters had approved in 2004. Most of that money was for building Glacier High School; some went toward remodeling the junior high into Kalispell Middle School.
The rest was set aside for Flathead High School.
The district and board could have used that money for structural issues — sprinklers, switches and other items Kalispell now hopes to take care of with building reserve money.
Instead, the money was put toward building a commons area for students — “something that gave them an extra feeling of, ‘Wow, we were included,’” Superintendent Darlene Schottle said.
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The district decided to use bond money for the commons and building reserve money to address Flathead’s hidden needs. District officials and trustees were confident taxpayers would continue to support the building reserve levies, as they had since 1982.
But in November 2009, voters rejected a $4.1 million high school building reserve request. A $2.8 million elementary building reserve levy passed in the same election.
“We would not be in that situation if we had passed that building reserve,” Schottle said.
True. But we would not be in this situation if the money had been spent on repairs instead of a student commons. It wasn’t the defeat of the levy that caused the problem: it was the reckless decision to subordinate repairs — to subordinate the safety of students — to construction of the student commons.
Consequently, voters face this dilemma:
If they shoot down the building reserve levy, unsafe conditions continue, putting students at some risk. If they approve the levy, they reward the trustees for what amounts to bait and switch management of the $50 million bond issue that provided money to build Glacier High School. This is going to strike a lot of voters as begging $6.1 million of forgiveness.
Voters who read the fire department’s report are going to demand to know just what the people in charge were not doing that created this mess.
I don’t yet know whether I’ll vote to approve this levy. That disturbs me. Without safe, well equipped school staffed with blue ribbon teachers, a society cheats its children and weakens its future. That’s why I usually vote for levies, even if I must hold my nose while marking my ballot. And perhaps I’ll muster up the courage to do that once again next month.