[Vision2020] The Nuclear Option (re: School Levy)

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

Gee, I go up to Spokane for a couple of days, and I come back to find that my email has been flooded by hundreds of slavering, frothing, Pavlovian posts about poisonous plastics, security fences, the desirability of murdering jay-walking pedestrians, and -- my personal favorite -- some great investigative reporting by Phil "Gumshoe" Roderick and Jack "Doc Holliday" Wenders about those notorious Palouse gangsters, Keely "Baby Face" Mix and the Trail family mafia.  Thank God for this timely exposure!  Phil and Jack (not to mention their graphaholic blog buddy, Dale Courtney) must have been wondering how long it was going to take the rest of us chowder heads to catch on.  Keely Emerine Mix and Tom and Dave Trail have been working on this levy scheme for years, see?  There is no school facilities levy!  That's all just a cover for the ultimate in crunchy, granola, nefarious plans.  They're planning a secret merger, and they're going to call it . . . Trail Mix!  That's right!  And it'll make a million, I tell you!  An international snack cartel, right here in Moscow, Idaho!  Potato chips and Cheetohs are doomed, do you hear me?  Doomed!

How the rest of you have resisted making that joke, I don't know.  I admire your fortitude, I really do.  Now, on to more serious matters.     

J Ford writes:

"There is NO $29mil remodel of the high school.  The $29mil is for the ENTIRE  
remodel/buidling project which includes two elementary schools and the high  
school and the new high school.  If you want a break-down of that, then you  
need say so.  BTW, that has been supplied to the newspapers, in newsletters,  
is available at the District Office and was very available on Saturday in  
the form of the individual handouts that the architect had for everyone's  
convenience.  Did you not get a copy of those?  I am sure if you went to the  
District Office and asked NICELY they would direct you to the material.  I  
believe they are/will be available at the individual schools also."

Amen, J. Ford, amen.  What has gotten lost in all of this fuss over "to build a new high school or not to build one" are the proposed renovations of Russell and West Park.  Those two renovations account for $8.6 million of the levy total, not an insignificant amount.  What's also gotten lost is the fact that this is a FACILITIES-SPECIFIC BOND.  I generally don't like to type in all caps as it comes across via email as yelling, but this fact needs to be yelled.  If we vote yes on the $29 million levy, we will get a new high school, but there is nothing in the levy that requires that the school be built on the Trail site.  Keely favors that site; the Trail family favors that site; and I favor that site.  But that doesn't mean that the Trail property has to be the site.  See?  This is a levy that one can (and I dare say should) support, even if one is worried about urban sprawl.  We need a new high school.  Once the bond is approved, is there any particular reason we can't begin a fresh argument over where to locate it?

Also -- and this is a big also -- here's the complete 411 on this levy: West Park and Russell are crumbling.  They're inadequate.  It is my understanding that they are not in compliance with the ADA.  What's more, it would be cheaper by far to scrap them both and build a new elementary school at the Joseph Street site.  So why don't we?  Well, I'd say it's because the Moscow School Board is sensitive to the emotional and aesthetic attachment many of us feel for West Park and/or Russell.  (With regard to Russell in particular, its aesthetic appeal, history and location seem to be of paramount concern to many.  And I'm glad for this.  I think Russell is a beautiful school, and it would pain me to lose it.)

Now, let's ask ourselves a simple question.  What will happen to Russell and West Park if the April 26th levy fails because too many of us have lost sight of the elementary forest for the high school trees?  There will be no levy, period, that's what.  No new high school, but also no renovations for Russell and West Park.  Why not?  Because there will be no way to seamlessly merge the existing levy that is to be retired this fall with a new levy, and that means that any fresh levy MSD might put before the voters next fall or next spring will not feel like a continuation of the existing bond but instead will feel like a tax increase.  And getting the voters to approve a tax increase as Phil and Jack and Dale well know will be next door to impossible.  Hell, forget next door: it'll be the basement, backyard, and attic of impossible.

The bottom line?  If the April 26th facilities levy fails, then West Park and Russell will continue to crumble until it is simply no longer feasible to remodel them.  We will lose those schools.  They will be gone.  So long.  Farewell.  Auf weidersehn.  Goodbye.  Is that what the Friends of Neighborhood Schools want?  Is that what the members of Citizens for a Quality Education want?  We know that's what Dale Courtney and Jack Wenders want; that's why they've gone to the trouble and expense of setting up disingenuous, disinformation websites like www.moscowlevy.com and www.moscoweducation.org.   

Good people can disagree on this issue and still remain good people.  My friend, "Baby Face" Mix, has pointed this out repeatedly and with unflagging, near superhuman kindness, courtesy, and generosity, and she has done this despite some of the rudest personal attacks and willfully ignorant provocation that it has ever been my displeasure to read on this list.  She's right; good people can and do disagree, but we need to understand the consequences of our actions.  We need to understand that "No" on the April 26th levy means goodbye Russell and goodbye West Park.  Do we also mean good riddance?  This outcome would certainly please Dale Courtney and Jack Wenders (both of whom were extensively, if ironically, educated on the public dime), but how many of the rest of us would be dancing in the streets?  Precious few, I suspect; precious few.

"No" on April 26th is the nuclear option.  Bill Frist would be so proud.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.org
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