PONDERAY — Lake Pend Oreille School District trustees unanimously approved the establishment of a culinary arts program at Sandpoint High School on Tuesday. 

The new kitchen is set to occupy the residential carpentry shop, near the commons, which will be moving to the Career Technical Education Center upon its completion. LPOSD Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer said the classroom will include a commercial kitchen with industry standard equipment and would be completed by mid-year 2026 and be open to students in January 2027. 

“Students are coming back into our district, coming from other places and from homeschooling to enroll in our school, and this is going to keep us competitive,” Meyer said. “Really excited for our community, our kids, our parents. I think it’s going to be great for our community.” 

Meyer said the program will be a part of LPOSD’s career technical education efforts but won’t be moving into the building as a cost-saving measure. In addition to expanding class offerings, Meyer said the new program helps the district fulfill a portion of its $3.5 million Idaho Career Ready Students grant. 

Meyer said construction of the room and program will cost $950,000, which will come from the district’s reserve funds. LPOSD Chief Financial Officer Brian Wallace said he feels good about the district’s financial position, which currently has $22 million in its reserve fund that it plans to spend down to six months of operations.  

Wallace said those factors and the fact that the program will be a one-time expense; makes this moment the perfect time to pursue a large project like this. 

“It’s funny because as finance directors and business managers, whenever you have a superintendent come to you and say, ‘I have a great idea,’ you go, ‘No,’ Wallace said. "I think we're in a good spot where we can afford to do this, and to be able to use fund balance for one-time expenses is a perfect use of it.” 

Board Chair Lonnie Williams said he loves the idea of this program and that it aligns perfectly with the district’s goals of expanding career technical education opportunities. Meyer said the culinary and hospitality elective is always one of the most requested classes at SHS. 

Williams said he spoke to a local restauranter who said he could use “100 people” across several of his restaurants. He said his dream is to see the curriculum of these programs meet students who are hoping to go into the trades in an effort to keep them in the community. 

“We're creating skill sets for our students,” Williams said. That's a lot of times we're thinking, ‘Oh, to make money,’ this is to survive. Maybe they’re cooking real meals instead of just eating macaroni and cheese.” 

The rest of the board received the proposition positively; trustees said they thought it was a great idea. Trustee David DeMers said he hears about the popularity of the culinary program at Sandpoint Middle School and hopes staff can find a way to blend the two programs. 

“A lot of parents have told me, ‘Boy, it’s so nice, my kid didn't know what hummus was, and now we make hummus for us all the time,’” DeMers said. “I was talking to some of the kids and they're like, ‘Oh yeah, we hope we can just carry this on.’” 

The district is using $3.5 million from the ICRS grant to build the new CTE center on SHS’ campus. The culinary arts and hospitality program is the first of two obligations LPOSD has made for the ICRS grant; Meyer said LPOSD will add an automotive program to the SHS at a later date. 

The LPOSD board’s next scheduled meeting is on Jan. 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. at the district’s headquarters in Ponderay.