Lakeland school board to explore budget cut options

RATHDRUM — Repurposing an elementary school, a four-day school week, a modified workday schedule and re-running the supplemental levy ballot measure for a lower amount are among options Lakeland School Board trustees will examine in the wake of the $9.52 million replacement levy's failure at the polls in November.

Lakeland Superintendent Lisa Arnold brought the budget considerations to the board during a regular meeting Monday evening at the Lakeland School District office. The meeting was at capacity with several people listening from hallways and others watching a livestream online.

"We have been working pretty much nonstop since the levy election trying to figure out the recommendations we want to make to the board for consideration as we try to figure out how to reduce our budget," Arnold said to the board.

She said she and her team began with the question, "How do we change the way the district operates and looks?"

"We can't continue to do what we've been doing, and we no longer have funds for that, so kind of reimagining some things," she said.

The district has just over 1,800 elementary students in six schools. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, those numbers have been dropping, Arnold said, while secondary numbers are increasing. If that 1,800 is divided by five schools rather than six, it would distribute 374 kids to each one of those five schools.

She said one option for the board to consider is rezoning attendance to allow for one school to be repurposed. That could help with staffing.

"What we're looking for tonight is just direction from the board to at least start the conversation," Arnold said.

This process would include creating a parent committee and town hall meetings to hear from families and community members.

"We want to look at each of the elementary schools and see what the impact is educationally to kids with regard to space and then also financially with regard to transportation," she said.

The repurposing could also help accommodate the reallocation of a behavior program for the district's most at-risk students, some of whom may have violent tendencies. Arnold said the board had been asking about placing those students in a classroom with highly trained professionals rather than in general education classrooms that may be disrupted by certain behaviors.

However, the state requires such a program to have students with behavioral needs learning alongside their typically performing peers rather than isolated, Arnold said, so any reallocation would have to be a "school within a school."

Although nothing was decided, Mountain View Alternative High School and John Brown Elementary were mentioned in the discussion.

"Identifying a school has to be a first priority because as we have the conversations about rezoning, that has to be part of that conversation," Arnold said.

Transitioning to a four-day school week, as neighboring Post Falls School District and other North Idaho school districts have done, is another option for Lakeland.

"We are trying to look at ways to cut our budget without really impacting classrooms," Arnold said.

Lakeland spent nearly $140,000 last year just on guest teachers covering staff absences on Fridays, Arnold said.

"That's where Post Falls has seen some of their greatest savings," she said, adding that Post Falls also saw $200,000 in savings on its power bill compared to the prior year because of buildings being closed one day a week.

A modified workday schedule is also being considered, although it only works in a five-day school week, Arnold said, otherwise school days would have to be extended. That also wouldn't work well for teachers who need time for meetings and prep after school.

"When you look at a modified day, what it gains us is everybody is teaching all day long so we don't have to have extra staff to cover the periods when people are on prep," Arnold said. "It allows us to reduce staff more easily and maintain class sizes."

Vice Chair Randi Bain said she would like staff to present a list of pros and cons, plus financial implications, as soon as time permits.

Trustee Bob Jones said he wants people to be aware that trustees have not taken off the table the option to run another levy.

The board is expected to hold a work session Dec. 18 to discuss what the district would need to do to reduce its budget without any levy funding as well as what options may be if another levy election is held for a lower amount.

Info: sd272.org