A financial windfall will allow the Boundary County School District to give its teachers a little something extra. 

In a meeting with Boundary County Education Association negotiators on Oct. 13, BCSD officials at the district’s school board budget review meeting said that the windfall will allow them to give each full-time teacher $2,000 and each part-time teacher $1,000.  

Superintendent Jan Bayer said it will be a one-time payment and the board does not want it to be considered a bonus. These funds are not scheduled to continue for upcoming years, as there is no guarantee that the extra revenue will continue to be in BCSD for upcoming years.    

In total, the county had around $900,000 in extra funds, but $478,000 will be distributed to teachers as much of the rest was put into operational funds for the district. This comes after gathering input from BCEA on how best to use the extra money. 

A primary reason for the unanticipated revenue comes because of the start of BCSD online school, which now has around 360 students, much more than the board thought there would be. 

Payments for teachers are estimated to arrive sometime in November, right before the holidays.    

This comes at a time when Idaho faces a $56.6 million budget deficit and most state programs will have to reduce spending by three percent. 

During the meeting, Bayer reiterated the focus of the school district.  

“We do everything we can for our staff, but we’re not going to jeopardize the financial stability of our district,” Bayer said. “We can’t put it in the salary schedule because it’s not ongoing, but we can do this.” 

Board members said there is a possibly of more unanticipated revenue next year, which could enable them to give out a similar amount to teachers. 

If there are economic problems in the future, one member at the meeting said BCSD would be able to weather the storm for at least one year, a position that many other districts in the state are not lucky enough to be in.