Shutdown could affect area schools

COEUR d'ALENE - They haven't felt the pinch yet, but officials in the area's public school districts say the government shutdown, if it drags on, could begin to affect their budgets within the coming weeks.

Federal dollars provide significant support for school districts nationwide for a variety of programs including special education and nutrition services.

Coeur d'Alene School District Chief Operating Officer Wendell Wardell advised trustees in his district this week that the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture had each cautioned that an extended shutdown period would affect funding for education programs.

"I just think it's very important that the board know about this so if you're asked in the community you can say, 'Yes it does, indeed, have an impact on the school district, and it could be quite severe fairly soon," Wardell said.

The U.S. Department of Education's contingency plan for a lapse in authorization of funding states that "a protracted delay in Department obligations and payments beyond one week would severely curtail the cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies."

The federal education agency's website states: "Due to a lack of appropriations effective October 1, ED activities have been curtailed and most employees are on furlough."

Sid Armstrong, business services director in the Post Falls School District, told The Press that to the best of his knowledge, his district is slated to receive funds for September that they requested last week.

"October funds will be requested during the first week of November and if the government is still shut down, we could be in harm's way," Armstrong stated. "However, it is not unusual for us to front funds to cover federal programs until the payments catch up."

Armstrong said his district has not been negatively affected at this point, but the longer the political impasse continues in Washington, D.C., the more problems it will cause.

Wardell told Coeur d'Alene trustees that, "If this persists long enough, we will have to turn to our general fund to support these programs because they will need our money ... until the federal government reimburses us."

He told The Press Wednesday that school districts access their federal funding through an online "draw down" procedure, with the federal agency marking the requests "in process" and then "paid," once the funds are released.

"We've done our draw downs since the start of October, but they haven't been moved to paid," Wardell said.

He and his staff think, he said, that the payments aren't flowing because there are no federal workers available to process them. But they don't know that for sure, Wardell said, since there's no one at the federal agency to answer phones or emails.

The U.S. Department of Education has furloughed about all but 242 of its 4,225 employees.

School districts are mandated by law to provide special education services, regardless of federal funding, so they cannot by law, simply discontinue those operations.

Wardell told Coeur d'Alene trustees that if federal funds dry up for an extended period of time, the district administration would likely have to ask the board for permission to use its restricted contingency reserves to continue funding programs.

Those funds would likely hold out, Wardell said, until mid-January.

"I think we have 90 days in our hands," he said.