Lakeland looks to tighten budget

RATHDRUM — Lakeland Joint School District trustees are grateful to the community for passing two property tax levies in Tuesday’s election

Those same trustees kept taxpayers top of mind Wednesday when they reviewed the district’s budget for the next school year.

“Let’s really listen to our community and let’s find ways where we can scale back,” Superintendent Lisa Arnold said.

The board went over an initial budget draft in detail, exploring ideas where costs can be shaved, trimmed or cut in response to voters’ passage of a two-year, $9.5-million-per-year supplemental levy to support school operations and the narrow passage of a two-year, $1.14-million-per-year school plant facilities levy, which will fund building maintenance needs.

The supplemental levy, which passed with 54% of the vote Tuesday, failed at the polls in March. March's failed school plant facilities levy, then being sought for six years and needing more than 55% votes in favor to pass, squeaked by Tuesday with 55.21% of the vote.

“It is so important to us over this next year to show our community that yeah, we’re feeling the pain,” board clerk Rebekah Davis said. “We want to cut. We have to cut costs. Our levies barely passed.”

The trustees talked about areas where costs might be inflated, for example, the district pays $22,000 a year to spray the grass at schools, which must be done by a certified professional.

“It’ll be cheaper to certify someone on staff in the long-term than it is to pay for that contract,” district treasurer Chelsea Pursely said. Pursely was hired by the district this year and works with district chief of finance and operations Jessica Grantham to identify opportunities for saving money.

Pursely and Grantham will track spending in a way that shows the community where levy dollars go.

“One of the things that has been really hard for me, this year especially, is really having a handle on how much money is in the bucket for ‘this,’ how much money is in the bucket for ‘that?,’” Arnold said. “We are going to use a project code for the funds of the supplemental levy so that we can pull a monthly report for the board or for patrons, to show what we have charged to supplemental levy dollars.”

After discussing what minor cuts could trim the budget, trustees brainstormed other major cuts that could lower the cost of running the district — like reducing building budgets at each campus, cutting staff to increase a few class sizes, consolidating bus routes for both elementary and high school students or writing the elementary curriculum in-house.

Writing curriculum would come with major benefits, like saving nearly $1 million and having control of what’s taught in schools, but would be a hugely complex undertaking, possibly spanning years.

“It’s an investment,” Board Chair Michelle Thompson said.

Currently, the district is spending between $1 million to $2 million on elementary curriculum and paying someone a salary of $100,000 per year, so changes there could end up saving the district significantly.

Each of the ideas to cut the budget come with effects that need to be managed, minimized or sometimes just tolerated. Cuts to building budgets, for example, would mean principals could go without supplies they may need.

With how narrowly the levies passed, the trustees are mindful of respecting the community’s mandate.

“The community has been good to us up until this point in saying, ‘OK we’ll support you going forward,’” Trustee Bob Jones said. “But it’s untenable to assume that we can do that forever.”