Lake Pend Oreille School District met on April 14 for a budget workshop to discuss a one-time budget cut of approximately $1,944,000 for Fiscal Year 2021. Chief Financial and Operations Officer Lisa Hals suggested a conservative approach that included the anticipated five percent holdback from state funding for Idaho schools.

“There are so many unknowns that we have, the conservative approach that Lisa (Hals) has taken is really the right thing to do,” Board Chair Cary Kelly said.

FY21 begins July 1, 2020 and ends June 30, 2021. Hals is looking to finalize the FY21 budget by May 12.

Lake Pend Oreille School District (LPOSD) has estimated a loss of $235,000 due to Gov. Brad Little’s one percent holdback. As a result LPOSD furloughed seven percent of non-benefited classified staff last week and saved $94,000 in salaries.

Other anticipated losses include $87,500 for the USDA breakfast and lunch closure, which is paid based on the number of meals served, and public transportation, which is calculated by a separate and distinct funding formula. The school districts will likely not be reimbursed for these salaries and this will cost another $573,000.

Although an estimated 81 percent of Title I funding will be reimbursed by the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) funding, the timing of that is unclear. Higher education money has been released and K-12 is second in line, but that might have to wait until next year. LPOSD estimated $600,000 to be received from CARES funds.

“We are hopefully being conservative and bringing you a potential five percent holdback which would be $1.2 million lost revenue for this year,” Hals said.

Hals recommended putting $702,000 in reserve funds for 2022 from savings on health insurance, sick leave and the March 2019 Supplemental Levy to help balance the budget in the succeeding years to come. In addition Hals recommended deferring two bus acquisitions, leaving three new buses for the school year and saving the district $210,000.

Numerous adjustments set a revised target of cutting $744,338 and LPOSD Superintendent Tom Albertson more than succeeded by proposing potential adjustments in technology, special services, elementary and secondary schools and contingency funds that totaled over $1 million in the second part of the April 14 meeting.

“The reason this number is over $744,000 is because this isn’t a cut, but it could be a gain,” Albertson said. “So when we are working to increase student enrollment at an alternative high school and when we do that we could capture more funds coming in from the state to support them.”

Albertson said he was careful to not propose cutting programs, activities or resources that would take away from a student’s ability to learn. Some suggested cuts included reduced hours or absorption of positions where teachers had already resigned, using state technology software and creating an equitable formula for paraprofessionals for all schools, a formula Albertson said he had wanted to implement a long time ago.

“I wanted to reset support for professionals,” Albertson said. “We (Him and Teacher Brian Smith) came up with an equitable formula to give each building X amount of hours of support based off of their enrollment and we feel that this is something that needed to happen anyway, so it’s a savings of around $63,000. We may be needing some of that back in the fall, but I want to put it where it’s needed.”

Albertson is hoping to provide a raise for the most experienced teachers, however, negotiations have not yet started. Both Hals and Albertsons recommendations for the FY21 budget will be revisited at the April 28 meeting.

“Trying to sit here in my position and give you my opinion given what’s the unknown variable at the state level and at the federal level is the best work I can present on April 14 but expect, please, that things will change rapidly,” Hals said. “As a district we have always tried to be very conservative and mindful of keeping our reserves and deploying them when they are needed. This is what has worked for us in the past and this is why there is a recommendation to dip into our reserves to balance the budget for fiscal year 2021 at this juncture.”

Idaho School Board Association’s recommended policy for time and effort reporting of teachers tied to federal funds will go to second reading at the next board meeting. Resolution 20-06 – a response to the COVID-19 emergency – was approved unanimously as well as legal recommendations for a levy legal matter that was discussed in the executive session at the end of the meeting.

The next regular board meeting is on April 28.