SANDPOINT — Chief Financial Officer Lisa Hals reported minimal changes to Lake Pend Oreille School District’s budget for the 2020 Fiscal Year during their second workshop on April 28. Hals said the numbers remain consistent with updates at the state and federal level concerning the one percent and five percent holdbacks for funds provided to the education system.

Idaho finalized the one percent holdback on April 21 and since then the state has been working on a recommendation of how schools might implement these changes. Hals said more guidance from the state will be flowing to the region either Friday or Monday.

Hals continues to project a $1.2 million loss of revenue, which she feels is a conservative approach. “I am still very confident in this number,” she said.

Superintendent Tom Albertson said he is working with staff to prepare for the worst case scenario, but he also feels confident in Hal’s estimate.

“We can make further cuts then that of non-essential employees, we have started the dialogue for that,” Albertson said, “But we want you all to know we are prepared. We think our numbers are good and we are prepared to meet that one percent and five percent holdback.”

In addition to the four-phased approach for reopening the state, Gov. Brad Little has also provided requirements for schools who wish to declare a financial emergency. Hals said LPOSD has never declared a financial emergency, not even during the recession in 2009, and she does not recommend declaring a financial emergency for COVID-19 either.

LPOSD has their own district policy that would allow them to declare a financial emergency under the following criteria: property tax drops more than five percent or a failed supplemental levy, the supply unit drops three percent from one fiscal year to the next or if the districts unrestricted general fund balance is less than five percent. If necessary, this declaration could occur at any time in the school year, but the conditions met.

The hearing is set for June 9 at 5 p.m. and place is still to be determined.

Following the budget workshop, Albertson briefed the board on issues related to COVID-19. The main topic was on whether or not LPOSD would be eligible to open their doors to students before the end of the school year, given Idaho State Board of Education’s criteria for reopening schools. According to Albertson, however, all regional superintendents are struggling with two criteria points. That includes determining a plan for staff, parents or kids who are uncomfortable with attending school and managing social distancing for school activities and gatherings.

“There is nobody who has this completely dialed in yet, everyone is kind of hopeful and wait and see,” Albertson said. “That one point there has every school district superintendent in a little bit of a conundrum because we don’t know how to get around that local social distancing restriction and what that would look like within a school,” Albertson said.

North Idaho regional superintendents meet every morning to explore new solutions and have weekly meetings with health officials for guidance as well.

“Yes we would love to get back to school as soon as we can, but we also want to be smart about that and we are still making plans for next fall, so we are looking for clarity,” Albertson said.

Albertson said the district will be following the state board of education’s distance learning model for the rest of the year until this criteria can be laid out.

Hals said the policy is a requirement in order to continue receiving federal funds for employees. This states that the school district will treat federally funded employees identical to locally funded staff.

In addition four school calendars were approved unanimously by the school board, two student versions and two certified staff versions for both the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school year.

The only other change to the calendars was a definition for a one and a half hour and a two hour release. The only two two-hour releases for each school year will be the day before Christmas break and the last day of school.

“We tried hard to make all early releases exactly the same but we do have some challenges,’’ Albertson said. “Just with transportation and the geographic distance we are covering so we couldn’t make it work at this point in time.”

No decisions were made or motions were passed during the executive session.

Aly De Angelus can be reached by email at adeangelus@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @AlyDailyBee.