Short-sighted not to secure a new high school building

Decades ago, a legendary Flathead business leader observed during a hospital board meeting that with any beneficial community endeavor, the most support you could ever hope for was about 90 percent. Even if the project concerned parking for cancer therapy patients, 10 percent would find some reason to object. The trick was to ignore the naysayers and march forward.

True to form, the WHS school bond has produced anticipated opposition of predictable stripes.

Some claim that the school board presented too few alternatives — as if this design process was not the most inclusive and transparent in the history of District 44.

Others carp that the decrepit school should just be fixed up a bit on the cheap — as if kicking the can down the road is a smart business decision in the current environment of rock-bottom construction and financing costs. Not only do these short-sighted folks seem oblivious to a rare opportunity to secure a vital $19 million community investment for $14 million, but they also seem positively blind to the complete architectural incompatibility of the small, old-fashioned lecture room style and the modern, expanded computer-enhanced style of learning.

Sadly, we’ve also heard from the miserly “takers” of the community — “I’m not educating someone else’s kid!” They choose to forget the hard-earned dollars of previous generations of citizens who built their schools and funded their education when they were school kids. Unbelievably, some even graduated from a brand-new Whitefish High School, only now to turn their backs on kids dodging roof leaks, relying on down jackets and trying to avoid the brown scum that bubbles up into the classroom each morning.

Ignore them and march on.

— Andy Palchak