Supplemental levy talks are continuing
PONDERAY — Supplemental levy talks for the Lake Pend Oreille School District continued this week with presentations by facilities director Matt Diel and technology director Matt Brass.
The district's next supplemental levy will go to voters on March 17. The current two-year, $15,767,484 levy covers a third of the district's operations and expires June 30.
In the facilities department, Diel said the supplemental levy covers utilities, building maintenance, custodial salaries, contracted snow plowing and custodial supplies.
"We do a great job of managing the resource of utilities, but we still need ongoing support and supplement from the levy," Diel said.
This year's utilities, for example, Diel said there is $469,917 in the general fund and $275,419 for a total of $745,336. Over the next two years, gas, electric water, sewer, trash and other utilities are expected to increase. The largest projected increase is by Sagle Valley Water, which is expected to jump 17 percent from its current rates. However, some leftover 2017 utility money will go in the general fund for utilities, so Diel projects less supplemental funds will be required over the next two years.
Diel said the supplemental request for fiscal year 2017 is $557,715, and with the less utility money needed from the supplemental levy next year, the requested supplemental amount for the facilities department is $493,659 for 2018 and $529,074 for 2019.
In the technology department, the supplemental levy covers staffing, licensing of programs and applications, and capital costs, which include network switch and E-Rate infrastructure upgrade, replacement of hardware and maintenance of 1:1 devices like Chromebooks for use by students. Some new costs in the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years include a suggested internship program, which Brass said he would like to get $10,000 supplemented to support, and the E-Rate project to install a Fiber Wide Area Network throughout the district's 13 locations.
The Fiber WAN project was approved by the board last year and Fatbeam was awarded the contract to install 49 miles of infrastructure throughout the district. It is a three-year contract at a rate of $623,220 per year, but with the district's E-Rate discount, it will cost LPOSD $186,972 per year for three years. After the initial three years, service will cost the district approximately $62,400 per year, which is comparable to the $64,386 the district paid for the current WAN service in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
While Brass projects a 22-percent decrease to capital costs and a six-percent decrease in licensing costs, an increase in staffing costs, the fiber project and a 28.6-percent projected decrease in the general fund, drove the suggested levy amount up from the current year. Brass projects a supplemental need of $1,185,384 in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, and $1,215,023 in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. The current supplemental amount is $1,065,680.
Lisa Hals, LPOSD chief financial and operations officer, opened up presentations for the supplemental levy during an Oct. 25 meeting using the district's annual audit as a platform to begin the process. Department presentations will continue through November and deliberations among district trustees will begin in December.
A supplement levy timeline is available on the district's website at lposd.org, outlining the meeting schedule for the next five weeks. The timeline notes dates and changes of some regularly scheduled district meetings as well. Department presentations, including the most recent by Diel and Brass, as well as the financial overview prepared by Hals are also available on the district's website.
The next LPOSD meeting is a special meeting for the supplemental levy to discuss the extracurricular and curriculum needs of the district, and will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Columbia Bank building in Sandpoint.