CHEERS ... to Strong Schools-Strong Communities.

Last week, the volunteer group’s five-month campaign succeeded in passing a two-year, $5.872 million supplemental levy that provides the Mountain View School District with almost a quarter of its budget. Three other attempts across four years had failed.

Another defeat would have threatened athletics and music, a school closing and more momentum behind talk of splitting the district.

Strong Schools-Strong Communities didn’t wage a persuasion campaign. It mobilized people who had not gone to the polls before.

Volunteers raised funds, went door to door and worked social media.

Direct mail was employed. Yard signs were ubiquitous.

They provided a levy calculator.

Volunteers distributed absentee ballot request forms. They generated call lists and got out the vote.

The results speak for themselves.

Some 4,220 people voted — a 33% increase from the number that showed up at last year’s supplemental levy election. Voter turnout in Idaho County reached 49%, nearly double the state average. Within the school district itself, 60% of registered voters cast a ballot.

Even with that, the outcome was close — 2,202 voting in favor, 2,018 voting against.

Clearwater rejected the measure by 69%. Elk City split. The vote in Kooskia went nearly 60% negative.

What turned that around was a 56% win in Grangeville and a 66% tidal wave in the absentee vote.

The late President Lyndon B. Johnson said it best: “If you do everything, you’ll win.”

Strong Schools-Strong Communities did everything.

JEERS ... to Idaho state Rep. Kevin Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, and Sen. Doug Okuniewicz, R-Hayden.

They’re behind a hairbrained scheme to waste your time and $200,000 of your tax money on a less than worthless proposed amendment to Idaho’s constitution.

Now on the Nov. 5 ballot is this language:

“Shall Section 2, Article VI of the Constitution of the State of Idaho be amended to provide that individuals who are not citizens of the United States may not be qualified electors in any election held within the state of Idaho?”

Talk about redundant. The state constitution already states “every male or female citizen of the United States, eighteen years old, who has resided in this state, and in the county where he or she offers to vote for the period of time provided by law, if registered as provided by law, is a qualified elector.”

If that’s not clear enough, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution refers to the right of “citizens of the United States to vote” regardless of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

The 19th Amendment speaks of the right of “citizens of the United States to vote” regardless of sex.

And the 26th Amendment extends the right to vote to “citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older.”

So where is this threat that noncitizens are voting in national or Idaho elections?

But this is worse than a campaign slogan cluttering up Idaho’s constitution. It actually could do some real harm.

Imagine you are a foreign student attending the University of Idaho. Does a state constitutional amendment banning noncitizens from voting in “any election” apply to student body contests? Would a noncitizen be barred from voting in his homeowner’s association election?

Andrus and Okuniewicz got a lot of help. In the House, 63 members voted yes. In the Senate, 28 voted for it.

CHEERS ... to Brooke Henze.

As the 2024 Avista NAIA World Series reaches its finale, take a minute to salute Lewis-Clark State College’s outgoing athletic director. She’s leaving the school as of next month, marking a break in a 13-year run as the tournament director.

As the Lewiston Tribune’s Teren Kowatsch noted in his profile, Henze is well-regarded across the NAIA for overseeing the championship and putting a positive face on LCSC and the World Series itself.

Ask around and you’ll hear about someone who leads by example. With the possible exception of announcing, she won’t ask someone to do a job that she isn’t willing to do herself — whether it’s working concessions, the ticket booth or the cleanup crew. Even the work of coordinating the tournament is technically outside her duties as athletic director.

She has spearheaded a World Series that for 33 years has become uniquely a Lewiston-Clarkston Valley event involving:

-- Two weeks of nonstop work.

-- 10 teams with 25 players each.

-- Scores of volunteers.

-- About a dozen concessionaires.

-- An audience of about 20,000.

Henze is the quintessential local-girl-made-good who played basketball at LCSC and evolved into a leader who brought sports to her community and the student body.

“(I’m) sad she has to leave,” former AD Gary Picone told Kowatsch. “Best co-worker I ever had.”

CHEERS ... to the Tribune’s own Kathy Hedberg, who is closing her 44-year career this week.

Hedberg is that rarest of reporters — she could cover practically anything: features, local government, environment. She developed a speciality in topics that are vital to readers but foreign to many reporters: religion and agriculture.

But it was as a columnist that Hedberg connected with readers on topics such as:

Gardening — “If the garden is a bust, which it sometimes is, well, that’s why you stocked up on the gin and tonic.”

The essence of life — “If I’m going to end up a pile of dust, why am I worried about my cellphone that’s on the fritz?”

School bands — “Schoolteachers are all heroes in my book, but school music teachers are wizards.”

Heading out the door Thursday, Hedberg told Tribune Publisher Emeritus A.L. “Butch” Alford Jr.: “It’s been a good career.”

Replied Alford: “It’s been a great career.” — M.T.