LPOSD outlines its case for levy

SANDPOINT — Recruiting and retaining employees in Bonner County can be a challenge for a number of reasons.

The high cost of housing, low income and age demographics of the area are some of the biggest challenges for employers and, as the largest employer in the county, the Lake Pend Oreille School District is no exception.

“As a school district, we are having trouble recruiting because currently, by northern Idaho regional wage comparison, we are lower,” said Lisa Hals, LPOSD chief financial and operations officer.

District officials recently engaged the community in a year-long strategic planning process that resulted in five priority areas, one of which was to recruit and retain highly effective staff. Every two years, LPOSD officials ask the voters to approve a maintenance and operations supplemental levy, which funds approximately one-third of the district’s budget.

For 2019-2021, district officials are asking for $25.4 million — $12.7 million per year — with the goal of being more competitive with regional districts in Idaho, such as Rathdrum, Lakeland, Coeur d’Alene, and Post Falls. For that reason, nearly $21 million of the proposed levy is slated for staffing, an increase of about $7 million from the current two-year levy that was approved by voters in 2017. If passed the proposed levy would replace the current levy, which expires in June.

In addition to raising salaries, the proposed levy would also allow the district to hire additional staff due to enrollment increases, hire a second school resource officer, maintain elementary counseling support, and increase non-tuition based full-day kindergarten. The levy does not include an increase in salary for Hals or Superintendent Shawn Woodward. The levy also funds academic and athletic extracurricular activities, curriculum and instructional materials, technology and more.

Woodward and Hals said the goal is to get first year staff to about $40,000, and top attaining staff up to the $70,000 range. Currently, top attaining LPOSD staff can make up to $65,250. In his State of the State address, Gov. Brad Little said education would be his top priority, and recommended a minimum salary for teachers of $40,000. Contrary to popular belief, however, Hals said it will not give LPOSD staff state-appropriated raises across the board.

“Of the about 550 full-time employees, 10 of them are affected by that minimum salary,” Hals said, adding that the others fall into different rungs on the allocation model. “... That’s $42,000 more of about a $32 million budget — it’s not substantive.”

District officials hope the increase, if the levy passes, will be enough to keep recruit and retain staff, as outlined in the strategic priorities.

Hals said the district’s staffing turnover is higher than the national and state averages for teachers.

“This isn’t just us — this is happening in the county,” Hals said of the housing and labor challenges. “But we are mandated by the Idaho Constitution to deliver public education. We can’t just relocate because of this situation.”

In recent months, local housing and labor officials have outlined the challenges regarding wages, cost of living and age demographics, as many Bonner County employers are faced with these issues.

During the October Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce luncheon, for example, Bonner Community Housing Agency executive director Chris Bassett said that, in Bonner County, the area median income for a family of four is $45,600. For a single person, the area median income is $31,950. Based on 2016 data, Bassett said an affordable single-family home should be $156,515. The median home value in Bonner County, however, is $212,000.

At the “What’s Happening Up North” economic summit in November, Sam Wolkenhauer with the Idaho Department of Labor spoke about the demographics of Idaho and Bonner County, and while the population is growing, the most employable age group of 25-64 are moving away. The biggest growth comes from the 65 and older group.

Despite the challenges locally, LPOSD is not the only district in the state that relies on levies for operational funds. In fact, out of 114 school districts in Idaho that can levy property taxes, Hals said 93 of them have a maintenance and operations supplemental levy in place. There are only two of the 114 that do not have some sort of levy or bond, she said. LPOSD does not have a bond or plant facilities levy in place. Some districts have taken the opportunity to levy emergency dollars, which can be done without voter approval. With enrollment well above projection, LPOSD has qualified for emergency levies for the past two years, and could have collected nearly $1 million, though the board chose not to.

“Now we are asking the voters to include that amount in this levy so we can hire the staff that we need based on our enrollment numbers,” Woodward said.

As for the levy rate, for a home with an assessed value of $250,000 with a homeowner’s exemption, taxpayers currently pay $20.75 per month. If approved, the replacement levy would increase that amount by $6.92 per month in 2020.

As a state, Idaho is among the lowest for property taxes, she said, and as a county, Bonner ranked the 35th lowest out of 44 taxing districts, according to 2017 Idaho State Tax Commission data. Taxing districts in Bonner County include the county itself, the hospital, highway, library, fire and ambulance services. Of county taxes paid by residents, LPOSD currently makes up 20 percent of the bill, Hals said, projecting it will increase to approximately 27 percent if the levy passes. The average percentage for school districts in Idaho is around 30 percent, she said, and LPOSD’s tax rate is 56 percent below the state average.

“We are just considerably lower,” Hals said. “That is by and large because we don’t have a bond or plant levy. It is just not factual to say that Lake Pend Oreille School District’s property taxes are above the state average — we are, in fact, half.”

Woodward said there has been false information going around about the levy, including that it would be used for facilities, or that the district plans to run a facilities levy in August. A committee has just started the process of assessing the facilities, so a levy or bond has not been discussed or planned.

Information for the maintenance and supplemental levy can be found on the district’s website at lposd.org, including a calculator to project the tax rate for year one of the levy based on current assessed value.

A Nov. 12 presentation to the LPOSD board, which is available on the website, details the line items for the levy. The line items, however, are not on the ballot as they were with the 2017 levy, Woodward said, because the district may need some flexibility depending on what the happens at the state level.

“If something were to go sideways from a state perspective, and all of a sudden there was a drastic cut in our resources from the state, we would have to spend our money differently than we are proposing,” Woodward said.

Hals said variables at the state level could include lower than projected revenue tied to the December 2017 federal tax bill, as well as the funding formula for public education. The interim committee is making a recommendation to the House and Senate education committees regarding the funding formula, which Hals said could “fundamentally change how public education would be structured from a funding vantage in Idaho.”

While Woodward said they don’t anticipate any major cuts, if the district did need to adjust where the levy dollars go, they would still be contained to the programs outlined in the line-item presentation.

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