COUNCIL - In a school district where buckets are strategically placed under a leaky gymnasium roof, there's no shortage of places to spend the extra $60 million Idaho set aside for public education this month after the state ended the fiscal year with a budget surplus.

At Council public schools in central Idaho, most of the additional education funding will likely go toward facilities, said Superintendent Murray Dalgleish. The district has patched seven holes in a gym roof that is spotted with water-damaged tiles and no longer has a warranty.

"We've just been putting things off and putting things off," Dalgleish said. "We're in survival mode. We've been in survival mode for a long time."

Idaho school districts plan to spend the additional funding on everything from new textbooks and classroom supplies, to building upkeep that was put off after the state postponed money for repairs and, at the request of administrators, freed up maintenance dollars so schools could spend the money elsewhere amid the recession.

Some are also setting aside money to restore unpaid furlough days for employees and bolster rainy day accounts that were depleted to help offset budget cuts.

For teachers and parents who bemoaned the cuts to public education during a hearing at the Idaho Capitol in January, the extra cash headed to their schools may seem like an answer to prayer. But the extra $60 million arrives at school doorsteps a year after they lost $128 million in funding, and two years after a $69 million cut.

Schools were expected to lose another $47 million this year, though the extra money headed into school coffers will more than cancel out that deficit. The payout amounts range from more than $7 million for Idaho's largest school district in Meridian, to about $4,200 for a one-room schoolhouse in rural Twin Falls County.

"We understand schools have taken cuts over the past two years, and they've made tough decisions as a result of that," said state Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath. "But we always said there was going to be a brighter day and we're hoping that day is not too far off."

From the state's capital city to the struggling timber towns in the north and the tiny dairy communities in the south, public schools now face a peculiar dilemma after years of budget cuts: How do they spend an extra $60 million? Which programs and services should be restored, and what can wait a little longer?

Make no mistake, Dalgleish said, he wants the additional $66,000 set aside for Council public schools.

"But I'm not going to be able to restore my teacher pay, I'm not going to be able to restore classes," he said. "It's helpful, but it certainly doesn't solve the problem. The problem is a lack of state resources for schools, especially for those districts that can't pass levies."

During the past four years, property taxpayers in Council have rejected three separate measures to boost local funding for education in a region that has boasted Idaho's highest unemployment rate throughout the recession and now, during the sluggish economic recovery.

Like in many Idaho school districts, there's been no teacher pay raises amid the budget cuts. Money for classroom supplies is also down. Council students now drink milk from glasses, not cartons, as part of a new recycling program aimed at eliminating the need for dumpsters - and the cost of having the dumpsters emptied.

Less garbage could mean $2,200 in savings, Dalgleish said.

"Those are the types of things we're having to do to save a little money here and there," he said.

In south-central Idaho, where public schools in Hansen are getting an additional $102,866, some of the money will go toward preventing further layoffs in the upcoming school year, Superintendent Dennis Coulter said.

"I'm tired of handing out pink slips," Coulter said.

A mother traveled from the rural dairy community to Boise in January as state lawmakers collected public testimony on education funding. Lauren Peters sobbed while telling lawmakers the cuts had devastated her community and her son was going to graduate this year without a school band to play "Pomp and Circumstance."

The district, which has 390 students, has six fewer teaching positions than it did a year ago.

While some of the additional funding will go to prevent more job losses in the upcoming school year, Coulter said the rest will be saved for the following year when 4 percent of funding for salaries is shifted toward classroom technology as part of new education laws backed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna.

From one of the state's smallest school districts to the largest in Meridian, where voters dumped a property tax increase to help offset budget cuts in local classrooms earlier this year. The $18.5 million, two-year supplemental levy failed in May amid opposition from tea party activists.

The district's budget plan for the upcoming year cuts about 80 positions and nixes seven days from the school calendar, while also eliminating mid-day busing for kindergarten and draining the last of the district's reserves, which stood at more than $18 million just three years ago, said spokesman Eric Exline.

The district has not yet decided how its extra $7 million from the state will be spent, he said.

"In September, when we find out how many kids show up, then we we'll decide what we might be able to restore with the $7 million." Exline said. "There's a strong possibility that at least a significant portion of it will go back into reserves