PRIEST RIVER — West Bonner County School District staff, stakeholders and trustees met for a work session Wednesday to examine state funding estimates and take the first step toward drafting a fiscal year 2026 budget. 

WBCSD staff told attendees that due to a shrinking student population, the district is anticipating a reduction in support units — a metric used by Idaho to assess districts’ needs — which will likely lead to less state funding next year.

Trustees said they would work with staff to build out a budget and decide by the end of March whether they would place a levy on the May 20 ballot. 

“We have about a six-week timeline to have these hard numbers out and get that across to the community,” said Trustee Paul Turco. 

Staff said they planned to draft a minimum budget based on teachers’ and administrators’ needs that is equivalent to the funding they know they can rely on from Idaho and the federal government. Additionally, the district will identify other costs or offerings that are not covered by guaranteed funding that could be supported by a successful levy. 

“The budget strategy we came up with was, ‘let's let the community know what the state funding is and how a levy could fund enhancements,’” Superintendent Kim Spacek said. 

The last three times WBCSD trustees have brought a supplemental levy to the ballot, voters have denied the request. 

District business manager Kendra Salesky said that state funding has not covered costs in recent years, and that WBCSD has spent discretionary funds on core expenses to stay afloat. 

“We’ve exhausted everything to keep ourselves going these last two years,” Salesky said. 

When considering the district’s priorities, attendees noted the ultimate goal of preparing students for successful futures but also emphasized the importance of extra- and co-curricular offerings despite the budget crunch.  

“People say, ‘Well, we don't need athletics. We need to get our test scores up,’ but we all have been in school and know that if we have plenty of activities for kids, they are going to help with the test scores,” Spacek said. “We forget about the other things that enhance kids in school and how they grow.” 

Salesky gave a personal anecdote in support of athletics, telling attendees that the requirement to attain passing grades to stay in sports motivated her son, and was “the only reason that kept him in school.” 

“If he didn't have that, I would have a child that does not have a diploma,” Salesky said. 

During the session, participants identified challenges they said the district is facing, which include a large transportation network, unfunded mandates from the state and federal governments and a difficulty attracting effective teachers to a district 5 miles from Washington, where the average educator’s salary is 40% higher and per-pupil spending is twice that of Idaho. 

Turco suggested making legislators aware of the challenges and pushing for actions like ensuring Panhandle districts get their fair share of endowment trust money generated by timber sales on state land. 

“It’s not proportional,” Turco said. “That timber comes from North Idaho.” 

“That's the long game,” he said of state-level changes. “But, I think we have a very good plan moving forward for the next few weeks.”