SANDPOINT — Voters will decide next week whether to make the Lake Pend Oreille School District’s two-year, $25.4 million maintenance and operations supplemental levy permanent.

“Despite what you might have read, this is not a new levy and it is not a new tax,” said Kendon Perry, who kicked off Tuesday’s candidate forum with remarks on the permanent levy initiative. “This will be a continuation of the approved supplemental levy for $12.7 million a year that was approved in March of 2019.”

Both sides of the issue were debated during the forum, which was hosted by Sandpoint Online, Sandpoint Reader, KRFY radio and Selkirk Association of Realtors in Sandpoint Community Hall.

Perry, who spoke on the “pro” side of the permanent levy initiative, said the district has successfully passed this supplemental levy every two years for the last 20 years. Making up 35 percent of the district’s general fund, Perry said it is a “very critical” levy for funding the district. It covers approximately 300 full- and part-time positions, he said, providing them with competitive wages. It also goes toward providing elective and career-technical education courses, academic and athletic extracurricular activities, professional development for staff, technology, teaching materials and more.

Perry said it also requires a lot of resources not only by staff and administration, but by the community.

“As a treasurer for Citizens for Better Schools, I see the amount of time and money that is required to make this happen,” he said. “In closing, our tax rate is 53 percent below the state average and I think it is evidenced by our performance that we are getting a good bang for our tax dollars.”

Angelo Lonzisero, who served as the spokesman against the permanent levy at the forum, started off by saying that the two-year, $25.4 million levy is a nearly 50-percent increase over the previous levy. (Editor’s note: the previous levy that passed in 2017 was a two-year total of $17 million, approximately 33-percent less than the current levy).

“The reason we have a 50-percent increase is the school district knew that they were going to go for a permanent levy, that they were going to have a nice, big fat number so that they could have more money to play with. The last levy that we passed … passed by a pretty slim margin. The school district is pretty afraid of that.”

The supplemental levy passed in March with 3,391 votes in favor and 2,643 against.

Lonzisero said there are taxes coming from “every direction,” and the taxpayers can’t afford to make the levy permanent. It also takes away any oversight that the citizens had at the ballot box, he said.

“We want to see the budget come down, not stay on a path that is high as it is,” he said, encouraging people to call their legislators in Boise and tell them to “figure out how to fund education.”

The first question posed to Perry and Lonzisero was, if the district lost its levy funding and was forced to consolidate its schools, which school would they close? Lonzisero said consolidation is not the answer, but rather not giving out any more raises or bonuses each year. Perry also said he wouldn’t want to see any schools close, because the community has spoken “time after time” that they want the district’s small, rural schools to stay open. He also responded to Lonzisero’s comments that to indicate the teachers in the district do not deserve a living wage is “embarrassing.” Lonzisero was provided with a final rebuttal, and said that he doesn’t have a problem “paying people what they are worth, but at a certain point you have to hold the line.”

Along the same lines of if funding were cut due to loss of the levy, a question was posed as to whether internet would be removed from the schools, as it is something the community member who asked the question understood to be paid for through the levy.

Perry deferred to LPOSD Superintendent Tom Albertson who was in the audience. Albertson said the technology budget is funded through the levy, though it does not specify WiFi. However, he said, the technology budget provides 21st century learning skills to students so they are “proficient in the technology of today.”

Perry and Lonzisero both said the internet is not likely to be removed from schools, even if funding is cut, because it is vital to student learning.

The forum swiftly turned to the candidate race for LPOSD Zone 4 trustee, with incumbent Geraldine Lewis and her opponent, Tara Tribbett, who answered just two questions.

The first question posed to the pair was in regards to the Freedom of Information Act. The question to the candidates was what have they done, or would do, to notify those who have been turned away looking transparency?

With a journalism degree, Tribbett said she files requests for public information all the time, particularly with the school district and the city of Ponderay.

“I just keep coming back until I get the truth,” Tribbett said.

As a current school board trustee, Lewis said nobody is turned away, and the district has a clerk who spends “countless hours satisfying those requests.” One of the areas where they are not allowed to share information is when it involves a student’s name.

“So certainly that is confidential information, but the district really prides itself on transparency, both in financial matters and in matters of operation,” Lewis said.

The second question was whether they think “paying the LPOSD (chief financial and operations officer) over $10,000 a month is fiscally responsible?”

Lewis said while she is the longest standing trustee with the district, she was not on hand to set the CFO salary. There has been cost of living increases each year, she said, which she does believe is fiscally responsible.

“I will say that Lisa Hals, our CFO, is an amazing asset for this district,” Lewis said. “… Lisa watches every penny and it is all recorded out. It is on the website down to the penny … She is paid a lot, but at this time it is worth it for this district.”

Tribbett said Hals is “the most powerful person in the Lake Pend Oreille School District,” and is an employee, not elected.

“So I think that is a complicated issue. I don’t really know if we even need to have administrators anymore,” Tribbett said, adding that she has learned about teacher leadership models and local building control. “And we already have that.”

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.