At a meeting Tuesday night, members of the Lake Pend Oreille School District heard from parents concerned over LPOSD’s mask mandate, reports on the state of the district’s finances and a presentation from Sandpoint Middle School’s principal.

The school heard a report on the district’s financial audit, which was found to provide a clean statement and adequate disclosure.

The general fund, which sits at $6.8 million, had an increase of roughly $2 million. However, these figures are misleading said Lisa Hals, chief financial and operations officer at the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

“An increase to our general fund balance by $2 million sounds like a lot of money,” she said. “But a lot of that is planned and strategic.”

Although a significant portion of the budget appears unassigned, most is already allocated to certain expenses, she said, and in some cases the budget was falsely inflated by unexpected changes due to COVID-19.

In some categories, the district ended up with more money than expected due to budgeted items being covered by federal grant money. In others, such as technology, levy funds for two years worth of budget were used in the first year.

“I just didn’t want the board to walk away thinking that we had truly increased our fund balance by $2 million,” Hals said, “because much of it was already carved up for a future fiscal year.”

The board also heard from several parents, who spoke against LPOSD’s mask mandate during the public comment section of the meeting.

Parents said they wanted to have the ability to choose whether their children wear masks instead of the school district, and that they believed the downsides outweighed the positives for masks.

One resident, Annalea Eastly, said she’s had challenges because of the mandate with her son, who she said has special needs.

“I’m not willing to put him in a situation that is so stressful where he can’t see faces,” she said. “He needs to see faces.”

Some said they believed moisture buildup in masks would cause bacterial growth, and several rejected the general scientific consensus that face masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Some parents also described the mask mandate as “discriminatory,” and cited negative impacts on children including expulsion for those who refused to wear masks.

Sandpoint Middle School principal Casey McLaughlin also gave a presentation, stating the school has been focusing on mental health, particularly during the time of COVID-19.

“We are still really really intentional about trying to connect with students. I think more than ever it’s really important to focus on mental health,” he said. “In middle school it is all about your friends.”