“For the past two summers,” reports the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, “Orchard Mesa (Middle School) Principal Cheri Vana has changed the school’s marquee, located on Unaweep Avenue, to say ‘Your kids deserve a new school.'”

The ritual came to an abrupt end last week after the administration at the Grand Junction area’s Mesa County Valley School District 51 sent out an e-memo to district faculty and staff  reminding them of state election law and its restrictions on using public school resources or man-hours on political campaigns. The school board had voted June 20 to put a bond issue and a mill-levy override – total value: $120 million – on the fall ballot. What was previously an open-ended appeal on Orchard Mesa’s marquee now became a campaign pitch.

The school’s principal assured the Sentinel’s Katie Langford:

“We put that up at the beginning of the summer and probably should have taken it down as soon as it was official,” Vana said. “We won’t put that up again.”

Langford summed up the situation in the story’s opener:

The nearly 3,000 people employed by School District 51 must walk a fine line this fall between sharing their passion for education and advocating for two ballot measures that could have a substantial impact on their future.

It’s an old issue: How far can public school employees – or any public employees – go in advocating for more public funding through the ballot box? It plays out every election in school districts across the state (and country).

But here’s another issue: Even absent a looming election or upcoming ballot proposal, what do taxpayers think of a principal using a school marquee – usually reserved for announcing sporting events or parent-teacher nights – to lobby the public for a new school?