WBCSD lands SRO grant

PRIEST RIVER — Amid funding shortages, West Bonner County School District has received grant money from the state. 

During a Wednesday board meeting, Superintendent Kim Spacek announced West Bonner had secured a grant from the Idaho Department of Education totaling $70,675. The funds will support the salary and benefits of a full-time school resource officer in the district for the current school year. 

According to Spacek, former finance director Dean Davis was instrumental in assembling the application before his Aug. 27 resignation. 

Community members have expressed that having an SRO is critical for school safety and student well-being. 

In the results of a questionnaire shared during a July 31 WBCSD board meeting, 62% of respondents listed SRO services as a program they would like to see funded with the passage of a supplemental levy — the highest percentage of any item in the questionnaire. 

Prior to receiving the grant Wednesday, WBCSD had already allocated funds for an SRO. Trustees voted in a July 31 board meeting to use about $70,000 of the district’s Safe and Drug Free Schools fund to guarantee West Bonner would have an officer for the start of the school year. 

Now, the state grant money will be used to refill the Safe and Drug Free Schools fund. 

In a letter to the district from Katie Watkins, healthy students and schools coordinator for the Idaho Department of Education, Watkins said that the state awarded all 27 applicants for the SRO grant with funds to fully cover the cost of an officer for the 2024-25 year. 

The letter also specified SRO salary and benefits funding for the next two school years, with the caveat that “pending appropriations and lack of required documentation from Year 1 may or may not impact funding for 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 school years.”

With the district still seeking finances to hire nine full-time staff members, including six teachers, director of special services Kristina Kenny shared an update on the district’s fundraising efforts. 

Kenny reported a $73,400 total as of Sept. 18, placing the district nearly within reach of its first goal of purchasing a $86,500 English language arts curriculum for grades 6-12.  

“After we cover curriculum, our next goal is to raise funds for the two new buses and additional staffing as needed,” Kenny said during the meeting. 

Community members have organized an Oct. 19 spaghetti feed, silent auction, and cornhole tournament at Popeye’s Lounge in Priest River to raise money for the district, and West Bonner will hold a father-daughter dance fundraiser Nov. 9 at the district’s junior high school, which was closed in June. 

“We're just really hoping to make this a community event,” Vice Board Chair Ann Yount said of the dance, adding that the Priest River Community Foundation and Priest River Elementary School’s parent-teacher organization have both contributed funding to “make it something special for the kids.” 

“It's completely a community that's coming together to put this on and help raise money for our schools,” said Yount. 

WBCSD’s fundraising effort may get a boost if its proposed one-year, $1.13 million supplemental levy is approved by voters Nov. 5. A levy passed in the upcoming election, however, wouldn’t provide funding until the 2025-26 school year.