SCHOOL: Keep your promise

To Coeur d’Alene School Board:

I want to register my protest in the strongest, polite words I can use.

The School Board campaigned for the most recent bond issue promising to address the critical and rapidly growing need for classrooms and facilities west of Ramsey Road. Anyone can see the unprecedented growth west of Ramsey and the obvious on-going developments that will include thousands of housing units.

I believe many, maybe a vast majority of “yes” votes were based on the vision expressed by board members, and various proponent groups: the immediate need to address where the population was growing most rapidly. The owners and renters in this area are living with the crying need for school resources now. That need cannot be met later without much additional cost.

The stealthy pivot to what has been a favorite project of many “insiders:” salvaging the Hayden school at any cost and cutting a deal with the city, I consider a breach of faith and commitment to the voters. I doubt the bond vote would have turned out favorably had this scheme been the major focus of the recent bond campaign. It seems the board resumed their personally preferred course of action as soon as the cash was in hand.

We need a new school where it will reduce busing times and expense, where the population has grown most rapidly over the past decade and where it will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

Should the board proceed to serve its own personal preference in the face of what was promised to bond supporters, I could not support any future funds or bonding requests from the Coeur d’Alene School Board and would campaign against the same.

JOHN McTEAR

Coeur d’Alene