Failing Our Future

Hearing stories of high school and crazy parties or activities can be the highlight of someone’s life. Kids often look forward to experiencing these cool things for themselves. Seeing your sibling drive a car or go out with their older high school friends, thinking they’re so cool, and listening to all the stories they have to tell and all the things they warn you about when it is finally your turn can be exciting for younger siblings.

Generations of last names have been coming through Lakeland for decades. Whether the last name is recognized through the parents or a sibling, it is no lie Lakeland is packed with generations of families. 

Truth be told though, this next year Lakeland may not see as many recognizable names come through their buildings. 

The recent levy failure has faced Lakeland students and parents with a widespread problem and has not come to look very promising anymore recently. 

Lakeland’s levy failed in November by 244 votes with 49.41 percent in favor and 50.59 percent against. While Lakeland has come close to failing levies before, the results of this one were shocking. 

Multiple attempts have been made by School District supporters to try to persuade taxpayers and voters to help pass the re-run of another levy this May. 

While I could go into a 1,500-word article on just the levy failure alone, this is not what I intend to write this article about. 

The main focus and reason that I write this is to inform the community of the youth that we have now failed and ripped away futures and creativity. 

I am not very political, and this is the last article I ever thought about writing, but the problems have become outrageous. 

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I currently attend Lakeland High School as a senior and have been lucky to have all of the opportunities that Lakeland has had to offer with the passing of our levies. 

I have played sports through the district, joined clubs, enjoyed activities and trips, and much more that Lakeland provides to keep students’ creativity and liveliness growing. 

While you may think this levy failure does not affect me because I am graduating this year, it does hit close to home. While I cross that stage and they hand me that diploma, my brother, Dominic Wike, crosses another stage and walks through the doors of the high school for the very first time. 

He is the star and inspiration for this article. 

His future and the thousands of other future generations for the next two years that we as a community vote on with this levy. 

My family and I originally moved to the Lakeland school district 12 years ago, because it was the best district around the area. My parents felt sending my brother and me there would provide us with the best futures and opportunities to live like kids and think like adults. 

My parents grew up and went to school in Priest River. While their school constantly failed to pass levies and struggled with funds, they were ripped of opportunities and options throughout their school time. 

My parents did not want that for me or my brother and once they took tours and talked with all the schools, they knew Lakeland would not jeopardize us.  

While this was true at the time, the downfall of the district may be close. 

Lakeland has fought to keep its title as one of the best around, but it has started to become a little more of a struggle due to the desperate need for funds. While things were looking up for the school this new levy failure has destroyed everything we have all worked so hard to accomplish. 

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Lakeland is not about being the best in the area, but being the best for the kids. 

Losing these funds means losing clubs, sports, teachers, classes, and everything that makes being a student enjoyable or individual. 

Plenty of clubs have started to be taken away from the district, for example, I did Model UN for the last two years and loved it. It helped me understand the way our world works, grow my critical thinking skills, public speaking skills, and much more. It also brought me some of my close friends. Stuff like this set me aside as an individual and made school enjoyable. 

While the club was fun, we struggled to receive funds even with the levy we had passed. We fundraised ourselves for things like our meals, fun, and travel, and even that was a struggle at times.

It is the same with a trip to a journalism convention for Lakeland. Finding the money for that is like trying to find a non-existent needle in a haystack. 

So now while I got to enjoy all of these trips and make lasting memories, my brother gets to miss out on maybe even taking the journalism class, let alone go on any trips.

Another one is sports. I have played Lakeland sports for three years. I have attended Lakeland playing two sports each year, and may even play one more depending on my schedule in the spring. While we had money provided for certain things, there was still a lot of fundraising we as students, and our parents had to do. 

The fundraising, yet again, was hard at times and easier at others. 

Now for my brother, he may not even get to play sports because a pay-to-play policy could pop up at Lakeland. 

Paying to play should strictly stay at club sports. Some kids only play at school because they can not afford to play club, and the school lets them play for free. 

Now the same people who stay in our Facebook comments saying, “Well fundraising is a thing, just do that,” are the same people who deny us when we ask them to support our fundraising.

Funny, isn’t it?

These people also fail to realize that Idaho does not fund their schools like California and Washington. This is the whole reason we have a levy in the first place. 

If you are ever driving around in states like Colorado, Washington, California, and many more you will see nice big schools that look expensive and luxurious, yet Idaho’s schools look cheap and rough. This is because our funding is based all around these levies and people’s votes. 

Whereas other states have regulations that provide funding directly for the schools. 

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Many have taken measures to inform the public on this matter, especially parents and booster members, but those same comments continue to pop up and just bash those who are trying to show the light of the dark situation in which we have put the school district.

A post made on Facebook on Feb. 12, by Lakeland Jr. Tackle and Cheer President, Gabe Young, had me even more convinced to vote for the levy, although that was already my intention.

While he explained how the program has doubled in size and they are now the largest tackle and cheer program in North Idaho, he also made sure to highlight how students are having struggles with staying in the district or leaving to go play for a school that can fund the sport they love. 

“Right now, hundreds of Lakeland athletes are transferring to neighboring high schools to play sports just in case,” Young wrote. “This is an absolute travesty if we, as a community, allow this to happen. Our environment is terrifying as we prepare to start our 2nd season of spring 7 on 7 football.” 

This comment alone I agree with one hundred percent. 

*** 

In my sophomore year in 2023 when the Levy was on the ballot, I was terrified of the outcome of my sports season if it did not pass. 

We were moving that same year and my parents were close to buying property in Sandpoint so that my brother and I would be guaranteed opportunities throughout our high school careers by their levy vote rules, unlike here at Lakeland. 

While we did move out that way, my brother and I still decided to stay at Lakeland because the levy had passed.

 Now that it has failed the question of keeping my brother in Lakeland or pulling him lays on the table. 

With  Young’s post, he shared a story on one of the kids he ran into, an 8th grader, and soon-to-be freshman, and asked if he was still working and preparing for football. He replied saying he did not know if he was going to play and this left Young stunned. 

When Young told the kid he was playing and asked why the boy would say that, he replied saying if the levy fails he will not be able to. 

Young said this broke his heart. It broke mine reading it too.

No 13 or 14-year-old kid should have to worry about not being able to play their favorite sport because of the levy failing. 

This is also a struggle that 15-18-year-olds are currently going through with just spring sports, which is unfair enough. 

So many people (more than you may know) work very hard to get all of the sports where they are today and provide the best for these kids. It is not only unfair to the kids, but also to the coaches, athletic directors, teachers, administrators, parents, and so many more that work their butts off to get these kids the opportunities they deserve. 

Young ends his post by saying, “Without the levy,  I personally can’t do it anymore and will resign. I know there are others who feel the same way I do. Lastly, everyone hates taxes; I do too. We don’t defund fire districts for good reasons. Let’s not mess with the kids of Lakeland.”

While cowards and keyboard warriors sat in his comments calling him petty for Young’s statement, I personally jumped up out of my seat and applauded to a fake audience. 

It is not a petty statement, especially when Young has put in so much work for these kids and is seeing their future get ripped out from under them.

*** 

I see this with my own brother and it hurts me knowing he will not be provided with what I had.

 I have a successful and bright future ahead of me because of the teachers and opportunities that are being ripped away from Lakeland with this levy, and I will fight to make sure that my brother gets the same opportunities for the bright future that he deserves. 

Face it, these kids are our future, and if we are failing them, then we are failing our futures. Our future doctors, police officers, firefighters, criminologists, even professional sports players, and all of the other things that help our world run. 

By failing this Levy we fail our community and all of our futures. I can not tell you what to vote for and I can not change your mind, but I hope you take a minute and think about the harm that saving a couple of bucks a month on housing does to the future of all of our families and all of our lives. 

I also hope you take a minute to think about how the problems and comments have gotten so out of hand that a 17-year-old girl is sitting behind a keyboard typing this story out right now with the intent to publish it on the school website, knowing the consequences that are to come and the derogatory comments much older people feel the need to say, in hopes of informing the public of how not to ruin our future. 

I would love to stay in this community and be with my family and maybe even raise a family of my own here, but I will not sit back and watch as it burns and crumbles. 

That is not why people move here. That is not why people send their kids to Lakeland. 

Get out and vote YES for the Lakeland Levy. If you don’t then that is your choice, we can not change it,

But at least understand what is at stake and picture the faces of the kids you are stamping NO on when you fill it out on that ballot in May.