LPOSD board approves budget, solicitation of qualifications

The Lake Pend Oreille School Board approved the district’s 2021-2022 budget Tuesday as well as a move to solicit qualifications for facility projects. The board also heard facility updates on Hope Elementary and Kootenai Elementary.

The district is one of the largest employers in the county, with an annual budget of $46.6 million. LPOSD also educates approximately 3,825 students, and employs roughly 500 full-time equivalent employees, Hals said.

Normally, the budget cycle would take six to nine months, Hals said. For the upcoming fiscal year, planning started in July due to an influx of COVID-19 federal funding.

The district has four main factors impacting revenue, Hals said: The local property tax levy voters approved in 2019 for a flat dollar amount of $12,700,000 a year; state K-12 appropriations; and federal revenue from stimulus packages known as ESSER I, II and III; and student enrollment, which dropped by 8.28% in the past school year, but is expected based on family surveys to return to pre-pandemic numbers in the fall.

Over the past year, a temporary rule by the Idaho Department of Education changed school funding models to be based on enrollment instead of average daily attendance during the pandemic.

That rule was set to expire at the end of the legislative session without further action from legislators; however, because the Idaho House recessed without officially adjourning, the rule may stay in place, Hals said.

The final payment for fiscal year ‘21 is July 15, Hals said. Any change to enrollment versus ADA-based funding would have to happen before that deadline.

“Unless Sine Die occurs between now and July 15, for the current fiscal year, we will be fully paid on enrollment,” Hals said.

At LPOSD, enrollment-based funding would mean approximately $400,000 of additional revenue for the coming school year, Hals said in a follow-up email. Statewide, the switch to enrollment-based funding resulted, on average, in a roughly 4% increase for Idaho schools in the past year.

Another major component of the budget, the three stimulus packages, are being budgeted through 2024 with funds allocated to items including staff salaries in special education and counseling, and facility improvements. The district specifically budgeted $2,210,979 budgeted in ESSER III funds allocated to expenditures including capital improvements, bus purchases, technology and HVAC upgrades.

Staff are also being given a 1.75% base salary increase, with an additional $130,000 budgeted for staffing modifications in case of student enrollment fluctuations.

As of this year the district has also paid off all of its debt, Hals said, with a general fund balance projected at $9.1 million as of June 30. The budget also contributes $200,000 to a plant reserve fund for future capital expenses.

In terms of state funding, the Legislature approved a 3.8% K-12 appropriations increase. That will result in an additional $326,000 for the district, Hals said, but that increase is expected to be offset by a new rule the Legislature implemented barring districts from tapping into the state’s Public Education Stabilization Fund this fiscal year.

Because of the freeze on the PESF, LPOSD is expected to lose around $200,000-$400,000 in helping to backfill K-12 statewide appropriations with a negative variance.

Moreover, if student statewide enrollment remains low due to the pandemic, another funding provision known as Protection would mean schools with a reduced revenue from that enrollment drop would be funded to the 97% threshold of the previous year’s student count.

That funding would be provided by all other Idaho public schools, and, for LPOSD, could result in a revenue loss of as much as $600,000 in addition to those brought on by the PESF freeze, Hals said.

Also that night, the board approved a request for qualifications for architectural and other related professional services for the ESSER III-funded facility projects.

The request covers projects in a two-to-three-year time span, including office space remodeling, mechanical ventilation replacement and retrofitting and digital HVAC controls at 13 different sites including the district office in Ponderay.

Because the upgrades will come out of federal funding, the district is required to follow federal rules in soliciting architectural and related services, Hals said.

“[Because of the federal funding], you must adhere to the more stringent of the purchasing laws,” Hals said.

That includes the Davis Bacon Act, which requires the district vet applicants to ensure they pay the prevailing wage for public works projects. The district plans to screen applicants by the end of July and begin interviews in August.

Lastly, the board heard facility updates on Hope Elementary and Kootenai Elementary by Matt Diel.

Hope Elementary, which currently serves 98 students, is in good condition, Diel said. It does have some ADA accessibility issues, where certain things such as fixture heights have fallen out of compliance since the school was built in 1998.

The school also has some issues with drainage on the playground, which can get icy during the winter. In addition, the school is extremely short on parking.

Ventilation at Hope Elementary is significantly better than other area schools, although some air handlers are noisier than what would be preferred, Diel said..

At Kootenai Elementary, which serves 372 students, the facilities are in “great shape,” Diel said. The main recommendation, which applies to every school in the district, is to increase security measures and create a vestibule to bar visitors from entering without checking in.