SANDPOINT -- The course ahead is becoming clearer as the Lake Pend Oreille School Board moves incrementally foreward with its Facility Master Plan. At a special meeting last week, trustees voted to put a plant facilities levy in front of voters Aug. 30.

Taxpayers will determine whether to fund several projects that board members and citizens committees have prioritized according to need. Building a new middle school and a new Northside Elementary to replace the 1953-vintage structures, major repairs for Washington Elementary, a new career technical shop for Clark Fork Junior Senior High School and four new classrooms for Sandpoint High School are all planned for phase one of the Facility Master Plan. New athletic fields for SHS are also on tap, according to Superintendent Shawn Woodward.

A second levy would follow about six years later to fund phase two, board members had agreed at an earlier meeting. The district would use the tax dollars to address structural problems and modernization of the remaining schools on their list, including Lake Pend Oreille High School, and Farmin Stidwell Elementary, according to the Facility Master Plan. 

"This is an important step for us moving forward. It is clearly time to give some much-needed attention to our aging facilities," Woodward said.