Cd'A Schools '22-'23 budget on target

COEUR d'ALENE — Actual finances came in at a variance of 1.38% from the projected budget for the Coeur d'Alene School District's 2022-23 fiscal year.

The district closed the books in August, with the exception of final property tax numbers and a couple areas that require more work from auditors. The district's fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30.

Director of Finance Shannon Johnston gave an update on the unaudited actuals — the ending actual financial statements prior to them being audited — Monday evening during a regular meeting of the Coeur d'Alene School District's board of trustees.

“We talk a lot about the budget, but we also need to see how our actuals came within the budget,” Johnston said. “The budget’s not perfect, but we want the variances to be minimal and, if there are variances, we want to be able to explain them.”

She said what helped the district this year was using a working budget for 2022-23, where in prior years an adopted budget had been used and financials were reported monthly.

“A lot of things can happen and change, especially if we are doing a cost of living adjustment and it doesn’t get into the June adopted budget. That can throw off a lot of variances,” she said.

With the working budget philosophy, the district has been able to better keep track of what was happening throughout the year, especially personnel changes, vacancies and contracts instead of staffing, Johnston said.

“It was able to kind of stabilize expectations, reduce variances and we also got some better guidance this year from the state,” she said. “We knew we were going to be enrollment-based funding, so that wasn’t a big huge variance like we experienced in 2021-2022.”

The beginning fund balance at the start of the fiscal year was $7,157,668 with an ending fund balance of $7,186,157 June 30. Revenues include property taxes, transportation charter income from outside parties, selling surplus at auctions, state and federal funding.

In May 2023, the district projected a $1.88 million budget deficit.

“We knew we were going to have a deficit going into the 2022-2023 year after we did our cost of living increases," Johnston said. "We were planning on using our ESSER free dollars to cover it as a one-time covering, knowing that we could not continue to sustain that deficit, it could not be ongoing, so we would have to balance the budget.”

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to help schools and students through the challenges brought about at that time. ESSER funds must be used by September 2024.

“For the ’23-’24 year, we aren’t having ESSER funds cover any deficit. We were able to balance the budget,” Johnston said. “The deficit was not ongoing, it was one time in nature. We balanced the budget, so general fund revenues are covering all of our general fund expenditures, plus all the other funds because of that cost of living increase. We didn’t get extra funding for federal funds, but the general fund is able to cover it."

Visit cdaschools.org and see the ESSER expenditure plans on the finance department's page.

The district's financial audit is expected to be completed in October and reviewed by the audit committee, to be officially presented in November.

Also during Monday's meeting, Superintendent Shon Hocker gave an update on what the district is doing to follow requirements of the "bathroom bill," Senate Bill 1100, around which the district built Policy 3081. The bill requires students to use restrooms based on their genders assigned at birth.

Hocker said when it became a bill in July, it was shortly thereafter blocked by a U.S. District Court, leaving the school district without clear guidance. He said the district's intent is to follow Policy 3081.

"If you look at the details of that policy, it addresses how to work through things," he said.

The policy directs students to use restrooms identified by their birth genders and calls for reasonable overnight accommodations and locker room access for students who are unwilling or unable to use a multi-occupancy restroom or changing facility designated for that person’s sex and located within any district building, or multi-occupancy sleeping quarters while attending a public school-sponsored activity; and provides a written request for reasonable accommodation to the district, signed by the student's parents/guardians.

Hocker said district officials have identified at least two unisex bathrooms at all of Coeur d'Alene's secondary schools for any students who are uncomfortable using bathrooms identified by their birth genders.

"It is our hope, my understanding is, that Senate Bill 1100, although there's a stay on that bill right now, we're hopeful that it won't take a year or more to get this resolved," Hocker said. "The courts understand this is a big discussion item in Idaho schools and hopefully that would move things along just a little bit quicker."