RATHDRUM — The starting salary for armed security guards working in schools in the Lakeland Joint School District will be higher in the new school year.

Trustees made the decision to bump up the beginning pay during a meeting Monday.

Now a district armed security guard should make around as much as a first-year teacher: $47,477.

“I personally think it should be bumped up higher than that,” board Chair Michelle Thompson said. “I didn’t realize that we started them out so low.”

The Lakeland board of trustees agreed to discuss further increases after upcoming budget talks.

“I do understand the whole, ‘let’s keep them even with a teacher,’ to some degree,” Thompson said. “But on the other hand I don’t. We have other positions in this district that are making more money than teachers.”

The raises were given as a percentage increase to each of the four guards on payroll to closely align their salaries with an updated teacher’s salary matrix from the 2023/2024 budget.

Lakeland teachers received 5% raises, with many subsidized by the state, for the coming school year.

Armed guards on staff received raises based on their experience and time of service, similar to teacher’s pay scales but unique to each guard.

The guards’ salaries fall outside the standard pay matrices in the district, but now they should align as closely as possible, Lakeland Chief of Finance Operations Jessica Grantham said.

Grantham said some of the guards were not making the same as a first-year teacher.

The raises are an attempt to be more equitable to staff, and more competitive. The district is still having a hard time filling vacant positions or holding onto employees.

For additional school security, the district has a contract with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office for an SRO in Garwood at over $80,000. The district also recently added an additional deputy to cover Timberlake High and Timberlake Junior High and the district's northern cities.

“We didn’t have the staff to cover Spirit Lake,” Grantham said.

Lakeland didn’t pay a contract to the Spirit Lake Police Department this year, because the schools went largely unguarded.

“There isn’t a police department in Spirit Lake right now,” Lakeland Superintendent Lisa Arnold said.

The Spirit Lake Police Department lost all but one officer earlier this year, so the district added a sheriff’s deputy to the contract to cover the campuses.

Lakeland intends to reinstate a contract with Spirit Lake Police Department as soon as new Police Chief Michael Morlan is able to hire and train officers to fill the department’s open positions.