LEVY: Providing essential funding

With children attending both Winton Elementary and Lakes Magnet Schools, it is with great hope that the voters of Coeur d’Alene will approve the Maintenance and Operations Levy on March 10. The classroom sizes for every grade level increased several years ago by two students. The powers that be in the school district understand this is a concern of parents and teachers alike, but smaller classroom sizes require more teachers. Hopefully now is the right time to reduce our classrooms to pre-recession numbers. As a parent volunteer, I can attest that 32 fifth-graders in a portable is really tight. While the teachers do a wonderful job handling the crowd, it is definitely not ideal. Nor is the fact that our school district has not had the funding to update textbooks in a decade (source: Coeur d’Alene School District). Do I think students need new textbooks every other year? No. But every decade or so is another story. It is time. If passed, the Levy will also help fund and access modern materials via computers (i.e. educational software, etc.). Our children need to be competitive in a worldwide market. More importantly, with the many online tools and classic up-to-date books, they will hopefully have several “A-ha” moments throughout their school years. Those moments when they discover and learn something new. Or some evasive subject matter finally clicks. Please join me in voting Yes on March 10 and helping provide the students of Coeur d’Alene with a few more “A-Ha!” moments.

MARCIA DIXON

Coeur d’Alene