Cd’A school leaders, trustees talk money-saving measures

COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene School District’s budget conversation progressed during a special meeting Monday as trustees and other district leaders continue working to address a projected $6 million deficit in the district’s 2025 operating budget.

A decline in enrollment, Idaho’s return to the average daily attendance funding formula and other unexpected expenditures, including $1 million in special education, all factor into this projected shortfall. Enrollment is down 462 students this year and is expected to decrease at least 300 more students next year.

Trustees previously expressed interest in exploring a four-day school week for cost savings.

At Monday’s meeting, Superintendent Shon Hocker offered another option: a four-day hybrid school year, which would provide a savings of roughly $450,000.

“That’s a big enough ticket item that I think it warrants a conversation,” Hocker said. 

During a hybrid school year, students would attend class five days a week one week and attend Tuesday through Friday the next, alternating throughout the year. This would result in about 13 fewer school days. 

Monday morning late starts would go away, Hocker said. Other scheduling impacts would be minimal, he said, with the addition of 15 minutes to the school day for elementary and high schools. This would gain an entire Monday of professional development for staff at least once a month, Hocker said, which is important as the district continues to focus on its strategic plan and professional learning communities.

“Instead of a late-start Monday, essentially it’s a no-school Monday, possibly a couple times a month, maybe once a month if there are holidays in that month,” Hocker said. 

Hocker said the hybrid would create opportunities to find middle ground, as a four-day school week can be stressful for parents and the community as a whole. He said Coeur d’Alene has reviewed Bonneville Joint School District’s example regarding a hybrid schedule.

Bonneville School District in Idaho Falls serves about 13,500 students. It is the fifth-largest district in Idaho.

“We are already a high-achieving school district, not necessarily No. 1 in every category that you want to be, but certainly high,” Hocker said. “When you look at Bonneville, they’re getting closer to us, and of all districts in the state — based on my research of the larger districts — no district’s made more growth than Bonneville.”

Hocker said Coeur d’Alene doesn’t want to make drastic changes that could propel the district backward.

“That’s my challenge that I feel the weight on as we’re facing a $6 million anticipated budget deficit: How do we address those budget cuts but yet remain a high-achieving district?” he said. “This hybrid schedule right now is probably the most appealing option to us rather than a full four-day (school week).”

Shannon Johnston, the district’s finance director, said the hybrid model would create more savings as fewer minutes would need to be added to staff hours.

“We surprisingly see a good amount of cost savings from this versus the full four-day where you would have to add at least half an hour onto people’s schedule for that contact time with students,” she said.

Some savings would come from the wages not paid to hourly employees on the days schools are closed, as well as reduced costs from buses, lights and utilities not used on those days.

“These projections are still very new, and working groups still have to be done for them,” Johnston said.

The district will soon send a survey out to families and community members for feedback.

Another option on the table is the temporary closure of an elementary school, which could save the district $978,000. Hocker said it’s best not to assume the district wants to close a school and sell it. He said if the district does experience a projected decrease of 300 students next school year, then it makes sense to have the same number of elementary schools as the district did 20 years ago when it had a similar number of students. The district, which was growing its student population at a 2% rate leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, currently has 11 elementary schools. 

No specific school has yet been identified as a closure candidate.

“I don’t want to paint the picture today, knowing what we know, that we are for sure mothballing a school, demo-ing it and selling the land,” Hocker said. “I just want to make sure we’re far away from that conversation today until we just know more.”

Other cost-saving measures were discussed, including: A reduction of at least 19 staff positions with a potential to reduce more; maintaining medical insurance contributions for employees rather than increasing them; reducing custodial positions; and more.

The matter will be discussed in more detail at upcoming workshops and meetings.

The next regular meeting of the Coeur d’Alene School Board is set for 5 p.m. Monday at Midtown Meeting Center, 1505 N. Fifth St., Coeur d'Alene.

Info: cdaschools.org