WBCSD board approves budget

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PRIEST RIVER — At their meeting last Wednesday, June 16, West Bonner County School Board members passed the 2021-2022 adopted and amended budget, discussed future changes to board policy on public participation at meetings and heard updates from principals at local schools.

The budget was significantly delayed due to the Legislature’s difficulty in passing the K-12 appropriations in the usual timeframe.

“Normally we would be approving the amended budget for the school around April,” said business manager Jennifer Anselmo.

The amended budget includes changes due to COVID-19 funding, which the district was told to use as a backfill for the approximately $250,000 in discretionary funds for the governor’s 5% holdback.

That caused complications, Anselmo said, as the federal COVID-19 relief funding has limited uses. The discretionary fund, by contrast, was already budgeted for uses outside of those allowable items when the state made that decision.

“They were cutting my state funds for the fiscal year I was in, without warning, and not giving me money for any of the things that were originally budgeted for that year,” Anselmo said.

Some of the changes to the amended budget include lost funding for classroom technology and IT personnel, she said.

One positive change for the district will be an increase in funds for food service. Due to an extension of the USDA’s “Seamless Summer” nutrition program through June 2022.

“Instead of having to track which students are low or free and reduced,” Anselmo said, “We’re paid the same for each student. So that was a huge benefit. We were originally projecting our food service to run into the hole.”

Aside from that change, most of the expenses were close to what the district projected, Anselmo said. One thing that could impact the district’s funding is a temporary rule that was implemented at the beginning of the pandemic to base school funding on school enrollment rather than average daily attendance.

That led to an increase in funding for the district, but whether the rule will remain in place is unclear.

It was set to expire at the end of the legislative session, however the state House failed to adjourn, but instead recessed while maintaining the option to come back to session before December in the case of an emergency.

WBCSD is also planning facilities updates at several schools, which the board approved several months ago. Those include replacing the intercom system at Priest River Junior High School, which is not functional.

“[It is] a huge safety issue,” Anselmo said.

Of the CARES funding, much of it went toward salaries for additional positions. The district added a Google Classroom teacher, two Google Classroom coaches, an additional nurse and an additional full-time janitor.

The board unanimously approved the adopted budget and amendments.

Also that night, board members discussed, but did not take immediate action, on policy regarding public participation at meetings.

One challenge board members have faced, said chair Sandy Brower, is that members of the public have been able to spread misinformation, which trustees are not allowed to comment on when it is not an agenda item.

Trustee Drew McLain said he wanted to make sure that members of the public had a chance to be heard, however other board members raised concerns about the impact of false information the trustees are not able to counter at the meetings.

“I think it really hurt our levy,” Brower said. “We were directed [questions] that were not on the agenda. If it’s on the agenda, then we can go down the agenda and address issues.”

One possible solution the board will be adding for a second reading would be to have public comment for agenda items at the beginning of the meeting, allowing members of the public to state their views on potential action items, and save public comment unrelated to the agenda for the end of the meeting, before executive session.

Finally, Principal Susie Luckey reported that Idaho Hill Elementary graduated 17 sixth-grade students. The school also received a $5,000 library grant and $2,500 grant from the Community Assistance League to purchase books for students to take home.

Brower, who was unable to make a statement at the district’s celebratory barbecue for passing the levy, said she wanted to thank the community, staff and students for their work in the past year.

“It was a really trying year, and together, through obstacles and challenges, we were successful and we kept our students in school,” she said.