LPOSD OKs $32.8M budget

PONDERAY — During the first meeting of summer break for the Lake Pend Oreille School District, trustees adopted a $32.8 million budget Tuesday for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Of 164 districts in Idaho, LPOSD is the 22nd largest with approximately 500 full-time equivalent employees and enrollment projected at 3,670 students next year, said Lisa Hals, the district's chief financial and operations officer.

The budget process started eight months ago, when district officials began discussing the two-year, $17 million supplemental levy, which was approved by voters in March. For fiscal year 2018, $8.5 million in supplemental levy funds will make up 30.1 percent of the general fund balance.

The 2017-2018 general fund budget totals $29.2 million, which includes $8.5 million of supplemental levy money. Other funds, mostly federal, but also some state and local grants, total $3.6 million, Hals said.

Hals said the state Legislature has committed to implementing the third year of the teacher career ladder allocation model next year. Ultimately, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee increased K-12 appropriations by 6.3 percent next year.

“While the district truly appreciates this appropriation, which for us was $1,128,000 increase over the current appropriation, what I really think is important are the broader concerns of the overall funding formula, and that the state has appropriated additional funds for the public school funding committee to continue on in year two of their work,” Hals said.

Hals said the state appropriation is just under 70 percent of the budget.

Some of the budget highlights Hals pointed to include an “enrollment buffer,” which $200,000 will go into that fund next year to cover enrollment variance. The district budgeted $155,000 capital improvements in technology. Another $130,000 has been budgeted for unanticipated expenses next year, she said, and $100,000 is budgeted into a plant fund reserve.

“For the first time in the district’s history, we will make a contribution to our plant fund to start establishing a fund balance there,” Hals said. “We have no funds in the plant fund and we have no reserve policy specific to the plant fund.”

The district has a lease purchase debt that expires in about three years, with a principal balance of $166,000, with $51,000 that must be financed through the general fund revenues in 2018.

“We also, in next year’s budget, made $600,000 of cuts,” Hals said. “Those cuts amounted to three-and-a-half certified teachers and about six-and-a-half full time classified positions.”

A summary of the budget can be found online at lposd.org.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.