(Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009)
Tuesday there will be a vote on a bond for the school district. The cost will be high (to the tune of over $81 Million) for needed funding for the local schools, and there’s no question our schools are short on money. But we’re going about it in the wrong way. Instead of costing tax payers more money, we should be smart about how we spend our money, and look for way to cut inefficiencies.
We could save an enormous amount of money by combining the two local school districts and cutting our administrative expenses in nearly half. We are wasting wasting wasting money money money because of the duplication in positions by having two districts instead of one. Now, I anticipate there will be strong opponents to this idea. There will be school politics against. This will most likely be driven from the district administrators themselves.
If the districts combine, someone will end up without a job, and they won’t be excited about that, and will come up will all sorts of “reasons” as to why they shouldn’t be combined, or that it won’t save that much money. But in times like these, we need to look for the good of our children, and that ties hand in hand with being more efficient with the money available, and not increasing the financial burden of those who are trying to make ends meet.
So I say – Vote NO on the new bond, and demand that the districts combine before they receive a cent more!
[Moderator Note: No matter where you stand on this issue, dont forget to vote today!]
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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We need to do this. I can tell you from personal experience there’ll be a fight from the districts, but other states have districts two and three times the size of the districts here. I agree, it needs to be done.
I agree. The districts should be combined, but don’t hold your breath on it happening soon, if ever. It will be up to the State Dept. of Education to do it, and the Dept. has been a political football for ages.
Until then, what do we do? Personally, I won’t benefit directly from the bond passing- all my kids are grown.
But I can’t help but think about my Grandparents,who passed a big bond in the middle of the Great Depression to build O.E. Bell Jr. High, Emerson, and Hawthorne because Idaho Falls needed to replace the old fire traps the kids were attending. O.E. Bell’s construction was stopped twice because I.F. was so strapped, but they kept on, and it’s still standing today.
My parents weren’t as bad off as my Grandparents in 1949 when the bond to build I.F. High was built, along with the Civic Auditorium, but I.F. was in a recession as deep then as the one in 1980.
Passing the bond now, while construction prices are as low as they’re ever going to be, seems better to me than allowing our kids to become increasingly less competitive in a job market where tech skills are a necessity. Every bond like this is a vote for the future of our community.
And, it consolidation was ever to happen, the remodeled schools in I.F. would be on par with the newer schools all over Bonneville County if the bond was passed. This would make consolidating easier and equitable to accomplish.
There has been a lot of discussion as to I.F. needing a full community college. I’m sure bond passage now will help make a college a reality in time, especially if the districts combine.
The Idaho Office of performance Evaluations studied consolidating some school district services and released a report on their findings in early 2009. The full report is available here. http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/ope/publications/reports/r0904.pdf
Thanks u for sharing that report Bloop. I’ve read thru it seems that our state statute provides good incentives for consolidating districts but not services. Consolidation of both districts and services are necessary for the most opportunities for savings.
The report seems to confirm that such consolidation does need to be explored and has a lot of potential for significant savings. It certainly needs to be done IMO. But this is not a vote about consolidation.
The problem? The models studied in the report point to significant potential savings but not near enough to make up for most of the expenses in this bond is covering. The article here is giving a false choice to avoid having to invest in education. It is like asking ‘Do you want to pay your $2000 mortgage or save $500 on your heating bills?” Well I dunno about you but I want both!
Consolidation needs to be done and must be done but it is not a viable alternative to the bond that is being voted on.
Thank you for the report. I’ve wondered why we’ve had two districts for so long. I like the idea of voting “no” and forcing the districts to merge before passing any type of bond. They need the pressure put on them, otherwise they’ll never act.
I’m voting “no” on increasing taxes until they fix this.
Idaho will spend 64.9% of the total State budget on education this year. Yes, 64.9% of the total budget. That is 1.625 Billion dollars for 2010 (http://efficiency.idaho.gov/). And they want to raise my taxes a lot to spend more. Can’t see how this will help our low ranking schools educate our kids.
Votes for bettering the education system should never be a “no” vote. I agree that the two districts should be combined but I’m not willing to put these kids through another year in some of the low grade learning environments that they are currently attending in. I have seen them first hand and they are not something that our community can be proud of… they need upgraded and repaired and that is an understatement.
I am opposed to increased taxes but not at a local or community improvement level. I will fight them at a federal level but will always support the betterment of our great community… especially for educational purposes. I will be voting “yes” because we truly need to do something about the conditions of these schools… the need is greater than most realize.
why vote yes when over 64% of high school students fail to go on to attend and graduate college in this state. I say vote no, stop wasting the taxpayers money.
Coming from Chicago I have always been amazed we have 2 school districts in a city of this size . For 30 years I have asked why, and the answer has always been politics!
IMO, the answer is because the people at the top would rather keep the status quo than risk losing their jobs… but what do I know.
Also, I think comment 8 is pretty sad. I don’t know if the bond is the answer to all of our educational problems, but giving up on the local kids sure isn’t the answer.
I was troubled today to see a woman with two elementary school-aged children picketing with “Vote No on the Bond” signs, around noon, on Sunnyside and Holmes. I was told they were there all day. I would have expected the kids to be in school. Even if the mom deluded herself into thinking it was OK to use her kids as political props in some sort of twisted civics lesson, it’s hard to imagine many 10 year olds with pent-up, bottled rage over the vagaries of local tax policy. And if they’re smart enough to understand what their signs say, one would think they’re also smart enough to understand their own self-interests: say, better, more modern schools?
Am also intrigued by all the “Vote No” signs plastering the town since Sunday. Hardly any of them are posted on private property (and are therefore violating all sorts of city ordinances), and even of the few plunked in front of private local businesses, a few inquiries elicited that these placements weren’t authorized. One business owner said he “yanked them all up and threw them out in my dumpster.” Turns out, he supports the bond.
And then there were the charming Vote No Robo-Calls. Who doesn’t love having dinner interrupted with a bunch of recorded misinformation from an anonymous recorded voice?
And how ’bout the fact that no one seems to be stepping forward to claim membership — let alone leadership — in “Citizens Against Fiscal Irresponsibility,” or some such. (I may have mangled the name, but the fine print on the signs is so small I couldn’t really make it out while driving without endangering other passersby.)
Guess I’m just puzzled why this particular faction of opponents of the bond would rather spend $10,000 on signs and lazy-and-cowardly-but-I-guess-efficient-anonymous recorded phone messages, than to just pay $100 or $200 in annual taxes to rebuild schools that are probably older than they are.
By contrast, the School District mounted an impressive information sharing effort, and Friends of Schools, operating on two tin cans and a string, mobilized a group of private citizens, who reached out via personal emails, phone calls, PTO meetings, lunches, fliers and other stand-up-and-be-counted public participation methods.
Everyone’s entitled to an opinion and that’s why we put these things to a vote, but when it comes to advocacy, and the contrast between the approaches of the “Vote No’s” vs. the Friends of Schools, I am glad to be associated with the latter camp, rather than the former.
Cindy Smith-Putnam
Idaho Falls
I went into town tonight around 5PM and saw 2 YOUNG girls, maybe elementary age, waving signs on Sunnyside and Holmes waving “no” signs, while who appeared to be their mother sitting back comfortably in the family vehicle, nice and warm I’m sure. Farther down, on Holmes and 17th, 2 more girls, this time more pre-teen – aboout 5:30 PM. OK, is this really the desire of young children to wave signs on a cold street corner, or do we have their parents unwilling to do the deed so they recruit their kids?
I listened to Dr. Schanz today on Neal Larson’s radio show. I just heard that the bond did NOT pass. Congratulations to Dr. Schanz, those he rallied, and any others who helped spread the word to stop this bond from passing.
Thank you Dr. Schanz!
Even though the majority of persons who bothered to vote did vote for the bond, the percentage wasn’t high enough to pass the bond. All it amounts to is that not enough persons cared enough to vote.
Less than ten thousand persons voted. Over fifty percent voted for the bond, for our children, for their education, for their future, for all our future. More than sixty percent of the vote for the bond was required before it could be passed.
We’re doomed only because we fail to protect ourselves.
(the following comment was posted by “opinion” as an article. I’m moving it here as it appears to be part of this discussion, and a more appropriate location)
It is a question I have asked as well. It is something i am not totally opposed to. However, I currently think it would only benefit the patrons of District 93 to merge with District 91. District 93 is extended in debt. District 91 will have their current bond debt paid off next summer. There is no benefit to D91 to merge with 93. Those of us who do live in 91 will gain nothing through this merge other then a few fewer administrators.
Though my kids are through the system, I would like to see buildings that are safe for the children. To hear that some classrooms don’t have the electrical outlets to accomodate computers in classrooms is really really bad. Something needs to be done to bring our buildings up to standard.
Perhaps if we showed our children that we care about their education, then they in turn will learn to care about their own education and future.
America is about freedom and having choices. Without both sides of an issue being presented voters don’t have any real choice.
I am just glad to see that both sides of the school bond issue were made available to the voters, and working within the peaceful framework of our political system the people spoke.
President Obama made a significant amount of relief monies available to Idaho. Who knows why? We didn’t vote for him. He was hoping and planning for our future. Perhaps we could and should have done the same for our children.
I noticed those young children out on Sunnyside all day as well. I think their mother should be locked up for making those kids stand outside in freezing temps all day!! This my friends is why idiots should not be allowed procreate.
I heard that the kids were paid 10 bucks an hour. Pretty good wages for kids. And it really wasn’t that cold outside on Tuesday.
It was a hard choice for me to vote yes yesterday. I believe that the districts should be consolidated, and I was concerned that if the interest rate on the bond wasn’t locked down, we could be facing big interest increases in the future, as the dollar’s value is now declining.
But our kids are the future of Idaho Falls. I really hated the thought of seeing our best and brightest falling behind due to the condition of our old schools. That will only make Idaho Falls less and less competitive for attracting good companies and good wages as time goes on.
re: Bobs comment. They were out there at 7:30am as I was driving to work and it was 21 degrees. Their mother should be ashamed of herself. Or at least stood out there with them instead of sitting inside her toasty warm vehicle while her kids did her dirty work. Let alone them taking fake sick days to do this “work”.
As far as the mom is concerned, she home schools her kids. They had an article about it in the PR. I know that when my children found out that they were paying $10 an hour, they wished that they could have done it.
As far as being underhanded and unfair for being against the bond, I am so sick of hearing all of this. Nobody had a problem with the posting of signs during the City Council race. Those business owners do not own the land by the street. That is city property. Have you ever heard of public right of way?
As for using our kids…don’t you get fliers in the children’s backpack’s asking for support? Why shouldn’t a home school mom who does not use the public schools teach her children about taxes and politics?
Cindy Smith-Putnam’s comments are beyond biased. She won’t even allow that anyone else is allowed to their own opinions.
It is to my understanding that some on the City Council and employees are very involved with the school board. Why shouldn’t they fight against the Vote No’s?
As for nobody stepping up and claiming responsibility, those that live in the city and work for the media are notorious for vilifying and harassing those who are opposed to them or the status quo. Why would private citizens and business owners step up so that they can be hounded and harassed by the media and those opposed to them?
I’m still curious about a question earlier (possibly in another thread) that was never addressed.
If posting signs on public property is illegal, why do these ‘I can sell your house’ and ‘we need 30 people to lose 30 lbs’ and all that other garbage stay posted FOREVER, but the city was right on top of picking up the ‘vote no’ signs? Does the city pick up these signs and they are just replaced? I find them a real eyesore…
Here’s what I don’t understand, according to the ballot, we were to vote on a bond that would be used to upgrade the lighting, heating and cooling systems
new science labs, as well as build new schools. Yet every time that I watch TV and a commercial comes on for the Idaho lottery, the main reason that we should be playing is because the local schools benefit from it. According to the Idaho lottery the money goes to the schools to do the upgrades for lighting, heating and cooling, as well as new desks for the students. Yet when I asked Tom Luna (Idaho’s state superintendent) he informed me that the Idaho Lotto, only contributes 1% of it’s earnings to the schools, understand that is 1% state wide, not per each school. If the Idaho lotto was really contributing to the schools like it was intended to, we would not be facing these issues, just a side note I also received my property taxes yesterday, before going to vote, talk about timing.
The school districts need to take a look at what is happening in there districts, and we should be asking questions of the staff like, “Why does Superintendent George Boland
need three sectaries, for himself? Why is there so many family members that work in the same schools? Why do I see school buses going down my street to pick on only one student and the rest have to walk to school?
I was unaware that the lottery gave so little back to the schools, that’s appalling.
I, for one, would play much more often if I had better odds at winning less. I’d be very happy with 10 or 20 thousand dollars instead of trying to win the millions that it seems Idahoans rarely win anyway.
I’m with you, I’d play more if the money was going where it was supposed to, also.
my4sons, you don’t know much about the bond, but slamming some of the most intelligent and informed people in this commiunity must make you feel better about your selfishness. Intresting way to go about making a very unclear point. The schools are in terrible condition, and something needs to be done.