EDITORIAL: Thanks, voters, for investing in 'our kids'

The answer to Kalispell Public School’s “Our Kids. Our Future” campaign was a resounding yes when the ballots were counted Tuesday for two bond issues totaling $54 million.

Voters overwhelmingly approved $25.3 million for much-needed elementary school improvements — including the construction of a new elementary school in south Kalispell — and gave a green light to $28.7 million for high school facility needs. The biggest piece of the high school bond is a $19.2 million renovation of the 106-year-old Flathead High School.

The magnitude of this level of funding for Kalispell schools is unprecedented in the Flathead Valley. We expect that decades from now, alumni from our schools will look back on our commitment to education with pride.

The Inter Lake fully supported this investment in our schools and made every effort to fully inform voters about the specific improvements that are needed at each elementary and high school. Reporter Hilary Matheson went the distance in her series of articles that detailed the deficiencies at each and every school. Photographs that accompanied the many articles depicted students eating lunch in the hallways, classroom and office space carved out of janitor closets and crumbling facades.

Kalispell Public Schools did an equally thorough job of talking with voters and explaining how crucial the funding is. They conducted tours, made presentations to civic and community groups and worked hard to get the facts out about the needed improvements.

This stunning affirmation of education in our community doesn’t come without personal cost to property owners, though. For some, the roughly $100 annually for the elementary school bond and $50 annually for the high school bond (for an average $170,000 home) won’t be a heavy financial burden. For others, it will squeeze fixed incomes.

Taxpayers in these parts don’t say yes to more taxes very easily or very often, so to have both bond issues sail through is perhaps the clearest indication that the time finally had come to embrace a long-term solution for schools that will keep education at the forefront of our community investment.