Hals: LPOSD on solid financial footing

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PONDERAY — Lake Pend Oreille School District trustees were given an update of the district’s financial situation by Lisa Hals, chief financial officer, at the March 8 meeting.

The first area covered by Hals detailed the district’s strong financial situation on June 30, 2021, which was the end of the fiscal year.

The second portion was devoted to revenue projections for fiscal year 2023 which Hals said “would highlight what was currently known, taking into consideration that the legislature is still in session and working on educational funding legislation.”

Hals said that she would be reporting her department’s recommendations on FY23 expenditures at the April meeting and that, with revisions, the budget will be adopted at the June meeting as per statute.

And, the third topic was a general multi-year forecast on the district’s financial future.

“I don’t normally do this, and it’s going to be high level, but with the infusion of both federal COVID relief money at the state level and then directly to a school district in the country and then that conflated with some potential real changes in the funding formulas for the fiscal year 2023, I think it’s salient particularly for new board members,” Hals said.

The school district currently has a budget of around $46 million. In the packet of information she provided, the factors bearing on the district’s future as outlined on the “management’s discussion and analysis” page of the summary states that the district’s passing of the Indefinite Term Supplemental Levy “provides significant stability for our district’s overall funding.” The public can find this financial information at LPOSD’s website.

The summary also said that the federal ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Relief Funds) funding was pivotal to the district’s future financial position. “They not only are key to formulating the FY22 budget but also future budgets. These one-time ESSER federal funding packages platform or very budget structure through Sept. 30, 2024.”

Hals said that the projection that school enrollment, that had decreased during the pandemic, would rebound was achieved. “Student enrollment has rebounded after its precipitous drop last school year, an increase of 392 students,” she said.

Among the challenges to the finance department’s projecting revenues is how the state will determine funding. During the pandemic the state changed from an average-attendance based formula to an enrollment-based one. That change was temporary.

The analysis states: “Now districts across the state, even those with normal attendance numbers, are concerned (including LPOSD) about the return to attendance-based funding in Idaho. Hence, swapping back to enrollment-based numbers to alleviate pressure of weighing funding needs against student health needs during a contagious pandemic (with high absenteeism) seems prudent.”

Overall, Hals described the financial situation for the Lake Pend Oreille School District as being solid. She said the ESSER funds allowed the district to build up reserves without implementing any mandated practices. She said her projection estimates that amount of levy funds will be sustainable at least through 2027.

Superintendent Tom Albertson said that he wanted to make a couple of clarifications to the community. The first was to emphasize that no federal mandates were put into place for receiving federal dollars. The second was regarding the supplemental levy:

“I think Lisa captured the message that we want the public to understand is that we do not want to go back to the voters for an increase in property tax for as many fiscal cycles as possible. And that is important to me because that is the statement I made when I went in front of much of the community and different organizations when we were proposing to the community to make this (levy) permanent,” Albertson said.

“People may say, ‘well, you’ve got a lot of money and you could be doing this and this’ but that isn’t the idea. We recognize the support we get from the community and we appreciate the support from the community. And, we’ll try as hard as possible not to go back and ask for more.”

A video of the school board meeting, as well as the financial reports are available on the LPOSD website. The next school board meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 22 at 5 p.m. at the Ponderay Events Center.