Board rejects permanent override levy
PONDERAY — The Lake Pend Oreille School District Board of Trustees decided Tuesday evening that they would not seek a permanent supplemental override in March when the next supplemental levy ballot measure goes to voters.
The district became eligible for the permanent override this year after seven consecutive years of voter-approved levies that account for more than 20 percent of the district's general fund.
Board Chairman Steve Youngdahl, during the Oct. 25 meeting when presentations for the supplemental levy began, said he is against a permanent supplemental override because he believes the levy process is "very healthy," necessary and allows the board to "scrutinize" every aspect of the district's budget. Lisa Hals, chief financial and operations officer, asked board members Tuesday to decide if it was something they wanted to look at or not, and all agreed with Youngdahl that they did not want to pursue the permanent override.
Before beginning Tuesday's discussion regarding the ballot measure, Hals, along with district Superintendent Shawn Woodward, covered the final department presentation for supplemental funding — staffing.
The current two-year, $15,767,484 levy covers one-third of the district's operations and expires June 30. Of that amount, $12,892,963 went to the staffing budget. The supplemental levy covers 26 percent of the district's $6.4 million in staffing and more than 30 percent of all district operations.
"We can not operate in the absence of our supplemental levy," Hals said.
General staffing would remain about the same over the next two-year levy period, but Woodward made a few program requests that would be added to the staffing budget. He requested an additional elementary school counselor at $60,000 per year, $50,000 per year for the facilities fund, $20,000 per year for the Clark Fork Junior/Senior High School learning track program, $10,000 per year for instrument repair and replacement, and $75,000 per year for in additional staffing for elementary class size. Finally, the district currently has one full-time certified nurse assistant and one part-time, so Woodward requested an additional $19,700 per year to increase the part-time CNA to full-time.
The total requested amount for staffing over the next two-year supplemental period is $13,330,094 — up $437,131 from the current two-year levy.
If each department were to receive the maximum requested amount, the ballot that would go to voters March 14 would be $17,100,091, more than $1.3 million over the current supplemental levy amount. Currently, taxpayers with a home valued at $100,000 pay $176 per year.
Some cuts may be made from department budgets in order to lower the amount from $17.1 million. Woodward said his recommendation would be to increase it from the current amount to about $8.4 million per year, a total of about $16.8 million over two years.
"That would include the recommendations that were made by the department heads," Woodward said. "It would include the recommendations that I had this evening, but it would still require us to reduce by $700,000 or $800,000."
Woodward said when the district goes through its budget process for the 2017-2018 year, the goal would be to make any cuts "furthest away from the classroom." He said he will be prepared at that time to recommend between $70,000 and $100,000 out of the district office budget.
"Will it hurt? Yes," Woodward said. "Can we reasonably do it? Yes, I think we can."
Board members could make a decision on the ballot measure by the next special board meeting, which has an early meeting time of 5 p.m., Monday, Dec. 5. at the Ponderay Events Center.