BONNERS FERRY — The Boundary County School District opted to make a lump sum payment to cover its $217,000 contribution toward the Idaho School Benefit Trust's $13 million shortfall.

The Lake Pend Oreille School District in Sandpoint also opted to make a lump sum payment to cover its $661,000 contribution toward the trust's shortfall; however, the West Bonner School District in Priest River opted to make monthly payments to cover its $117,200 contribution toward the trust's shortfall.

As with other districts, the school district has been impacted by the Idaho School Benefit Trust shortfall, Boundary County School District Superintendent Jan Bayer said.

ISBT officials told members in September that it needed an additional $13 million to pay claims for the current benefit year, with the first payment due at the end of September. Districts were given the option of either making a lump-sum payment or making monthly installments.

The trust is a self-funded insurance pool with members including school districts, charter schools and education organizations. Among its 108 members are the Boundary County School District in Boundary County and the Lake Pend Oreille and West Bonner school districts in Bonner County.

The lump sum is equal to $715 per employee and dependent, and the monthly payment plan is $21.74 per month per employee and dependent over the next year. The difference of $67.93 per member is interest, trust officials said.

The district's share of the shortfall is $217,000, Bayer said, adding that until the letter, the district, like other members of the trust, was unaware that there were problems.

"They told us if you don't pay this by the end of September, we will deny all of your employees' claims and their families' claims," Bayer said. "We had no warning this was coming. We didn't even know the trust was in a predicament."

Bayer said that, as a result, the district will be taking a serious look at insurance.

The target is to get district attendance above 95%, 3% above last year's numbers, Bayer said. The district's attendance is "hovering" around 92% to 93%, with numbers slightly lower at the high school.

"If you get a big group out with an illness for a week that significantly impacts it," she added.

Due to state funding formulas, Bayer said the district is being funded at 92% because of its attendance numbers.

"It really causes a funding gap," she said. "But more importantly, we just want kids to be in school."

That gap is one of the reasons the district has to run maintenance and operations levies. It also doesn't fully fund special education or transportation. Bayer said the district only received $1.3 million for special education compared to $1.7 million in the last school year, and it is reimbursed at 85% for its transportation costs.

The school district expects to complete its strategic plan by October 2027 and is working through that process, Bayer said. Toward that effort are upcoming facilities meetings. BCSD recently completed its last 10-year facilities plan and will be setting goals for the next 10 years.

Another component of the plan is financial goals, with the district setting aside a contingency fund in the event of a state holdback or shortfall.

"If we ever had something major, we would be able to cover it," Bayer said. "If the state did a holdback, say they said we're going to cut your funding during the school year or our HVAC system went down at the middle school or somewhere, we would be able to facilitate those. It's just being fiscally responsible."

Bayer said the district is seeing a decline in chronic absenteeism, defined as any student who is not in school for 10 days or more, including doctor's visits and self-directed learning.

Also, the board finalized its goals for the year, with a focus on all subjects and an emphasis on math. Bayer said district staff are aiming for 20% growth in each grade level from fourth through eleventh grade. In kindergarten through third grade, the superintendent said the goal is to get at least 75% of students proficient.

"We're just continuously working to close that gap, so our elementary teachers and paraprofessionals are going through some intense professional development or training on how do we close that gap," Bayer said. "How do we get our tier one instruction in place so at least 80% of our kids are hitting that target, and then what do we do to give more targeted instruction in tier two and tier three instruction."

In other business, Matt Morgan was sworn in as the district's newest trustee after being appointed to the position in September.

Also, Bayer told trustees that progress on construction of the new Valley View Elementary is going well. There have been few change orders, with most of those tied to connecting the new facility with the existing infrastructure.