WBCSD separates myths from facts

With the upcoming West Bonner County School District levy coming up on March 9, school district officials said there is a lot of misinformation being spread.

The levy, which maintains the current $1.47 mill rate per $1,000 of assessed property value, is responsible for 25% of the district’s budget.

Although the state provides funding for schools, it’s not enough to maintain all of the district’s necessary operations, district officials said. The state generally provides less than $400,000 for the district’s transportation, but it costs the district $700,000 to cover its 780 square miles.

To help sort out the facts from the myths, WBCSD Board Chairman Sandy Brower recently provided the facts for common misperceptions circling around the community about the levy.

Myth: The enrollment is down, we don’t need more levy funds.

Fact: Unfortunately when enrollment goes down so does our funding from the state. The broken state funding formula is built on average daily attendance, not need.

In my experience district expenses do not decrease as a result of lower student numbers and here are a few reasons why. The district busing routes and building operational needs do not decrease because of lower student population, we still need to get kids to school and we still need to provide a safe place for them to learn. We also need to continue to offer the same level of high education as other districts which means we provide for five students what we would provide for 30.

Long story short, when enrollment is down our need for levy dollars is greater than ever.

Myth: The Idaho Lottery funds our school.

Fact: In 2019 WBCSD received $75,790 in lottery funds. What people may not know is that this money is earmarked and must be spent on building maintenance and improvements. We are not allowed to use these dollars wherever we see fit. We are

grateful for these funds, however, lottery funds by no means reach an amount that is even remotely close to bridging the cap between state funding and district need.

Myth: The state provides the funds for maintenance.

Fact: This is a prime example of an Idaho state unfunded mandate. We received $75,790 in lottery last year for facilities, yet our mandated dollars to spend on maintenance was $380,000.

Title 33 Chapter 10 of the Idaho Code states that districts shall annually allocate money for building maintenance from any source available to the district equal to at least 2 percent of the replacement value of school buildings.

The state is requiring us to spend money that they are not providing. We have to rely on local funding to meet the state-required mandate.