After Decades, Voters Finally OK Replacement for Crumbling Idaho School

[sl8]

https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-salmon-school-district-bond-approved

After Decades, Voters Finally OK Replacement for Crumbling Idaho School

The vote follows a yearlong investigation by the Idaho Statesman and ProPublica into how the state’s restrictive funding policies left students studying in deteriorating buildings across the state.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman
May 24, 7 a.m. EDT

The Salmon School District in remote Central Idaho will finally get a new school.

After decades in which voters rejected every bond the district asked for, the community on Tuesday approved a $20 million bond to build a new pre-K-through-8 school with a resounding 72% support.

The election comes after the Idaho Statesman and ProPublica reported last year on how children across the state were learning in schools with freezing classrooms, leaking roofs and discolored water. Salmon was one of the most poignant examples — in the last two decades, the district failed to pass around a dozen bonds to replace its dilapidated schools. Idaho is one of just two states that require support from two-thirds of voters to pass a bond.

At Salmon’s Pioneer Elementary, the plumbing is failing, the floors are uneven and pose tripping hazards, and sewage sometimes backs up into a corner of the kitchen. Parts of the building aren’t accessible for students with disabilities. The foundation is crumbling.

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[lastlib]

1. Well, them kids don't need no book-larnin' anyhow.....

( in case it's needed....)

And I thought Mississippi was the perineum of America......

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Sounds like they were no slouches on deferred maintenance either

You can pay me now, or pay me later. Later was probably more expensive in the long run with the cost of construction these days.

Good job, Potato Heads!

[raging moderate]

3. I once worked for a crumbling rural school held together by duct tape.

There was no money for proper equipment, and the brave school custodians were doing their best under very difficult circumstances.
I must say that almost all of the school custodians I met were heroic in their efforts to keep those schools up and running!