COEUR d'ALENE - The budget shortfall Coeur d'Alene School District financial planners face for the 2013-14 school year may be less than the $3 million previously anticipated. That could mean trustees won't have to increase the amount of a supplemental, maintenance and operations property tax levy they plan to ask voters to approve in March.

At Monday's school board meeting, Superintendent Hazel Bauman said the shortfall figure has become "a moving target."

"We're finding that we've got savings every month," Bauman said.

When Wendell Wardell, the district's chief operating officer, gave the monthly finance report during the meeting, he said 33 percent of the annual budget cycle has elapsed, with just 20 percent of the total budget expended.

The district has cost and spending controls in place this year that are starting to show dividends, Wardell said. He and Lindsay Carrico, the district's new business manager, who replaced Julie Day, have been working hard, Wardell said, crunching numbers and studying the budget from every possible angle.

"I'm encouraged by what I see," Wardell said.

That's good news as the district's board of trustees moves toward determining the amount of a supplemental levy they will ask voters to approve at the polls on March 12.

The district's $60.2 million annual general fund budget includes $12.9 million in property taxes representing one year of a two-year supplemental levy voters approved in 2011. That levy expires at the end of June, and without a replacement levy, the district will lose that property tax revenue.

Superintendent Bauman reminded trustees during Monday's meeting that they need to set the levy amount no later than the first board meeting next month, now scheduled for Jan. 7. The deadline to provide the ballot language to the county elections office is Jan. 25.

The district's existing levy represents 23 percent of its general fund operating budget.

In 2009, Coeur d'Alene school officials tried to cut back the district's dependence on supplemental levies, and reduced the levy it asked voters to approve that year by $1 million. The $7.8 million measure voters subsequently approved replaced an $8.8 million two-year supplemental levy voters approved in 2007.

By 2011, the recession and a loss of $8.4 million in state funding between 2008 and 2010, made it necessary for school officials to ask voters to increase the $7.8 million levy by $5.1 million to $12.9 million.

Bauman said the voters have always supported the school district. The recession is still lingering, and many families are still struggling.

"Frankly, I would have a hard time increasing the amount of the levy," she said.

As the trustees move toward setting a levy amount, Bauman said she is recommending they assume that state revenues and enrollment will remain flat and that there will be no large, unexpected expenditures or windfalls.

During the process, the administration will continue to look for ways to realize additional budget savings, "keeping those areas as far away from the classrooms as possible," Bauman said.

Voter-approved supplemental levies are in place in districts throughout Idaho, and are used to fill the gaps between state funding and the cost of running school districts.

The Coeur d'Alene district relies on levies to pay for student activities and athletics, salaries for teacher aides and other support staff, and various programs for academically advanced learners and those who are struggling.

The funds from these supplemental levies can only be used to support a school district's maintenance and operations costs. They cannot be used to build or make major renovations to school facilities, so districts must ask taxpayers to support other ballot measures if they need to go into debt to finance buildings. The funds from the $32.7 million bond Coeur d'Alene voters passed on Aug. 28 can only be used on the building projects it was requested for. No part of those funds can be used on any school operations costs.

The upcoming levy and the district's budget process will be discussed, among other things, on Wednesday when Bauman and the trustees host a "community chat" at 6 p.m. at Ramsey Magnet School of Science, 1351 W. Kathleen Ave. There is no formal agenda for the "chat," and it is open to the public.

The trustees will meet for a board workshop on the budget on Dec. 10 at 5 p.m. Members of the public can observe that meeting.