State officials updated on LPOSD

SANDPOINT — For the second year in a row, increased enrollment qualified the Lake Pend Oreille School District for emergency levy funds.

And for the second year, district officials chose to forgo the opportunity.

“This year would have qualified for just a hair short of $800,000,” said Lisa Hals, the district’s chief financial and operations officer.

Emergency levy qualification is based on the average daily attendance in the first week of school compared to the first week of school the prior year. The district saw an increase of 125 students this year, Hals said, not including students enrolled in the Homeschool Academy. For qualifying districts, emergency funds can be levied at the expense of taxpayers without voter approval.

This was one of the topics discussed on Thursday during a meeting between district officials and local state elected officials Sen. Shawn Keough and Rep. Sage Dixon, who are also members of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee.

Hals also noted that the net taxable value of the district is now over $5.2 billion. About $1.6 of that is new construction in the district, she said, and while district officials anticipated growth when going through the process of the most recent supplemental levy, they did not anticipate growth at that level.

“So that brings the tax rate that we projected for our maintenance and operations supplemental levy considerably lower about — 10 percent lower — than what we communicated to the voters,” Hals said.

LPOSD Superintendent Shawn Woodward updated Keough and Dixon on the district’s strategic planning process, which included a stakeholder engagement process of meetings and a survey.

“Throughout that process, what we found out was they were thinking a lot of the same things we were thinking as far as what our priorities should be over the next five years,” Woodward said.

The five priorities areas approved recently by the board of trustees are: ensuring academic success and high levels of learning for all students; engaging the communities; recruit, train and retain highly effective personnel; utilize resources effectively and be fiscally responsible; and provide safe and innovative learning environments.

For each of those priority areas, Woodward said, four or five target objectives have been identified, and then for each target objective, the district is identifying strategies for reaching those objectives.

One area that has received a lot of attention over the past two years, Woodward said, is facilities.

“Obviously that is one of our priority areas, but there is a very big difference in regards to the current facility effort that we are doing versus two years ago,” he said.

The steering committee application was open to everyone, he said, and 23 people were appointed. The meetings are open to the public, and minutes and video are taken and posted. The facilities committee has met twice, most recently hearing the results of building assessments done by an outside firm.

“We will be making a recommendation to our board at some point moving forward with facility improvement ... It will be interesting to see where we land,” Woodward said.

District officials asked for an update from Dixon and Keough on the state’s financial position, and Dixon said while the first two months were a little bit lower than projected, it is higher than last year. This is contributed to tax reform, he said.

“We are still on an upward trajectory for our economy,” Dixon said. “I think, in general, we expect it to continue to climb through this fiscal year, which is good. And the endowment fund is doing very well, which is nice, so more dollars should be coming to our districts from that.”

The economy as a whole is moving forward, he said, which allows a little more leeway to increase funding and public education “is always a priority.” It becomes difficult, however, with the other things the state has to attend to, he said, such as roads and the prison system.

Keough said Idaho is up to 700 prisoners held out of state, and there is talk about the need for a new prison.

“Schools are huge,” Keough said. “Obviously we are at another historic turning point, and it’s encouraging that the interim committee is talking about an infusion of $100 million, that’s a lot of money … It’s awesome, it’s huge, and there will be a lot of competition for that.”

Keough said the district’s “passion is awesome” and their “communication is key.” Hals has always kept in touch with the elected officials throughout legislative session, Keough said, and expects she will continue to do so even after a new senator is in place.

“My recommendation to you is to stay in touch,” she said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.