LPOSD hears supplemental levy options

SANDPOINT — Coaches, teachers and Sandpoint High School athletes stood before school board members Tuesday evening to voice their support for extracurricular activities, which are 100 percent funded through the Lake Pend Oreille School District's supplemental levy.

"It's just fantastic that the community is able, in years past, to support this levy," said Dutt Rogers, captain of the SHS cross country team and student body vice president. "I love that it is so easy to participate (in activities) here and that the community is so supportive. I would not be the person that I am if it wasn't for activities at the high school."

On Oct. 25, LPOSD department heads began presentations for the district's next supplemental levy, which will go to voters on March 17. The current two-year, $15,767,484 levy covers one-third of the district's operations and expires June 30.

While several people spoke on behalf of local activities and how important they are to students and the community, Kris Knowles, SHS assistant principal and activities and athletic director, spearheaded Tuesday's presentation on extracurricular activities. Dave DeMers, athletic director at Sandpoint Middle School and Phil Kemink, principal of Clark Fork Junior/Senior High School, updated the board on extracurricular participation in their schools as well. Each school has more than an 80-percent participation rate in activities, and overall GPAs at SHS and Clark Fork for students involved in athletics exceed a 3.3 at each school.

"When kids are involved in activities outside of the classroom, there are lessons taught that you can never teach inside of the classroom," Kemink said. "I've got kids who have gone through many sports in the community and I can guarantee you they have learned things that are going to take them far in life."

In the extracurricular department, the supplemental levy funds activities, sports and clubs at SHS, SMS and Clark Fork, as well as 110 coaching salaries and advisor stipends, transportation, state travel, lodging, food, facility rentals, safety equipment and supplies. Facility rentals include the use of Sandpoint West Athletic Club, War Memorial Field, tennis courts and city fields.

The current supplemental levy amount for extracurricular activities is $755,409 per year, which includes $436,727 for coaching salaries; $64,031 for trip salaries; $82,194 for bus rentals; $50,000 for state competition costs; $35,000 for facility rentals; $80,237 for coaching supplies; and $7,220 for the Clark Fork activities director.

The proposed supplemental levy amount for extracurriculars in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 fiscal years is $822,409 per year for a two-year total of $1,644,818.

The breakdown of funds resembles the current levy amount, but with an additional $67,000 in coaching salaries each year to account for base salary increase and longevity pay.

As requested by the board, Knowles broke down the impact any cuts in the budget would have on activities. With a 5-percent decrease for example, which would cut $82,241 from the proposed amount, it would allow less regular season travel for games, cut back coaching positions and club advisors, cut intramural programs at SMS and eliminate programs throughout the district. A 10-percent cut could also cost SHS and Clark Fork league memberships and state associations because teams would potentially miss out on state tournaments.

"That would be, in my mind, an absolute travesty for a team to be able to win a district championship and not go represent their school and their region at a state competition, but that's what we would have to look at with a 10-percent reduction," Knowles said.

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Andra Murray, director of Teaching and Learning, had a little less to cover than the extracurricular because curriculum funding breaks down into three areas: consumables, professional learning and curriculum review and adoption of new materials.

Murray began her curriculum presentation by reciting the LPOSD mission, which is to "provide every student an education that is academically rigorous, personally enriching and socially responsible to ensure college and career readiness."

"This mission and vision require high levels of staff cooperation, professional development and high-quality instructional materials," Murray said.

During the current two-year supplemental levy period, the total amount for budgeted for curriculum was $451,600. The levy amount for consumables, which includes any materials consumed over the course of a year, such as paper, was $93,000 per year; professional development was $30,500 per year; and curriculum review and adoption of new instructional materials was $6,600 for the 2015-2016 fiscal year and $198,000 for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The curriculum review and adoption of materials funded a math review and adoption, which Murray said was "definitely under-budgeted."

Murray's proposal for curriculum funding over the next two-year levy period includes a $30,000 per year increase, for a total of $60,500 per year, in professional development to partially fund the salary of an instructional coach. Consumables would remain flat at $93,000 per year. The biggest increase in the proposal is a requested $300,000 per year for curriculum review and instructional materials for grades K-12.

Murray said the last time LPOSD reviewed and purchased language arts materials was in 2006. At that time, she said, the cost was $600,000.

"Based on competition and the availabilty of quite a few digital resources now, we can stay fairly flat with that cost," Murray said. 

Murray presented two other scenarios that would lower the proposed amount for curriculum review and materials from a combined two-year total of $600,000 to $340,000, which would only cover new materials for grades K-6, or $204,000, which would include new materials for grades K-3 only.

Board members will not begin deliberating the details of the March 17 ballot measure until December. The next meeting is a regular board meeting scheduled with an early start time of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22 at the Ponderay Events Center where Shawn Woodward, district superintendent, and Lisa Hals, chief financial and operations officer, will give a staffing overview. The board will begin to summarize and discuss the needs of the district at that time.