PRIEST RIVER — The West Bonner County School District approved a roughly $13.94 million budget for the 2026-'27 school year last week.

Trustees unanimously approved the budget at a special June 24 board meeting, described as "largely flat" at its mid-June board meeting.

The district had projected it would have roughly $3.147 million in its fund balance at the end of the year, which includes a 5% contingency of $572,000 and $2,911,000 unappropriated balance.

While it may look like the district has a lot of money it is sitting on, WBCSD business manager Kendra Salesky told trustees that much of that funding is restricted. 

"It is not free-for-all money. It has a home. It has special requirements for where it gets spent," she added.

While two audits remain outstanding, Salesky said progress is being made, with the district now having a clear picture of what its beginning balance will be for the start of its fiscal year.

"We have a clearer understanding of where our fund balance is and where our fund balance was in previous years," Salesky told trustees.

If the district passes a levy similar in size to what it passed in May 2025 — two‑year, $4.7 million measure, amounting to $2,353,440.50 per year— and eliminates five teaching positions, the district would have to use roughly $1.7 million of the amount in its fund balance, leaving roughly $1.3 million, Salesky said.

"It's definitely not money that … is just a free for all. It has definitely consequences if we dip into that," she told trustees.

Another factor that the district has to consider is that West Bonner still needs to complete its overdue audits. While audits up to the 2023 fiscal year have been completed, audits for 2024 and 2025 remain outstanding. Salesky said there "a good chance" that the next audit won't be completed by the Nov. 15 deadline, which will again cause the district to miss out on some IDE funding.

The 2024 audit was expected to be completed by late June, and the district's accounting firm, Hayden Ross, has told district officials it will then immediately begin the 2025 fiscal year audit, making it unlikely the 2026 fiscal year audit will be completed by the Nov. 15 deadline.

Salesky told trustees at the June 17 meeting that West Bonner's budget is largely the same as the year before. As with other districts, increases to the budget are largely due to rising insurance costs.

Salesky told trustees the district didn't have many options when it came to its insurance. To give the district more choices, WBCSD officials explored plans outside its plan that could be offered to the district. However, the district opted to stay within the Idaho School Benefit Trust, which spreads the costs over a larger pool of people and will help the district keep overall costs down.

Attempts to seek insurance outside the trust were turned down after insurers reviewed at the district's demographics and past claims, Salesky told trustees.

The district unanimously approved the medical/dental plans in a one-year contract, which runs from Sept. 1, 2026 through Aug. 31, 2027. 

The insurance plan maintains Dental Blue Connections and Willamette Insurance as the district's dental insurance providers. On medical insurance, the district stayed with the trust to keep overall costs down; and, while choosing a plan with a $3,000 high deductible plan, the district will again offer a "buydown" benefit by funding $1,500 of that amount.