WBCSD approves $10.9M budget

PRIEST RIVER — A budget of roughly $10.9 million was approved by West Bonner County School District at the June 17 board meeting.

Although the school budget is approximately $200,000 larger than previous years, school board clerk Jennifer Anselmo said most of the money has already been spent to offset the unexpected costs accrued as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“The budget that we are looking at was $175,000 short after cutting everything that we could,” Anselmo said. “I really searched through every pocket that we had here in the district.”

Much like the rest of Idaho, WBCSD has gotten good at shuffling around unused levies and grant dollars to compensate for the revenue lost from an early school closure in March. Among Anselmo’s biggest saves was shaving the food service deficit down from $150,000 to $60,000. In addition, the summer food program in May recovered $40,000 by providing 8,000 meals to their students in the off-season. Other efforts to cut cost included fully utilizing an old levy for a Career Technical Education position and cutting certified positions when applicable.

Nearly one-third or $3.4 million of the 2020-2021 WBCSD budget came from state funding, which has significantly decreased due to Gov. Little’s one percent holdback this year and the presumptive five percent holdback for the following year.

Anselmo built the budget on 1,011 predicted students, aiming for a 95 percent or greater attendance rate to secure state funding. In the past, the district has seen a decrease of funding or an increase of contingency funds when student attendance fluctuates.

Another $6.4 million of the district’s budget is reliant on local property tax such as the 2019 voter approved supplemental levy. The remaining sources of revenue are primarily from private and federal grants. Anselmo said an additional $375,000 will be received by the district from the CARES Act. Anselmo said it was not built into the budget, but will pay for COVID-19 related expenses such as remote learning, training for remote learning and cleaning supplies.

“We are really saving it because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the fall,” Anselmo said.

This year WBCSD budgeted to acquire a new school bus. The district’s biggest deficits included a $40,000 deficit on workers compensation and a $90,000 deficit on healthcare insurance, which went from a two percent increase in 2018 to 8.8 percent for 2020. Anselmo said that their insurance plan was better than most, where surrounding districts faced an almost 20 percent increase.

Aly De Angelus can be reached by email at adeangelus@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @AlyDailyBee.