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PRIEST RIVER — West Bonner trustees decided in a split vote at a special meeting Thursday to run a $4.7 million two-year levy in May.
The decision comes after years of failed levies, a rotating door of superintendents and murky budgets.
Debra Buttrey, an accountant hired to help get the school district back on solid financial ground, said if the levy fails the district would be in dire straits.
At the end of this school year, the district will have at most $500,000 in savings, she said.
Superintendent Kim Spacek said the district would have to close two elementary schools and even then would struggle to make ends meet if the levy failed.
Trustees disagreed over whether to vote on a levy proposal Thursday or wait for additional information from district employees to fine-tune the ask. Ultimately, Chair Ann Yount and Trustee Delbert Pound voted to support Trustee Paul Turco’s levy proposal. Vice Chair Margaret Hall and Trustee Kathy Nash voted no, despite generally supporting a levy on the May ballot.
The levy will pay for sports and extracurricular activities; maintain staffing levels and 2% cost of living raises; and restore art and music programs, among other supports.
Finance expert to district: “You have no wiggle room”
Buttrey and Belynda Best, who work in finance at the Newport School District, stepped in to help the district when its longtime business manager retired.
They combed through the last 10 years of financials and found that the majority of the 2021–2022 levy wasn’t spent but it’s unclear why. The majority of the funds, $2.3 million, were earmarked to pay for teachers and staff that the state didn’t fund, Buttrey said.
She suggested using those funds to reduce the May levy ask.
The district is set to spend about $10 million this year with about $8 million in revenue, Buttrey said. So the district plans to dip into its savings to cover the deficit, resulting in a $500,000 reserve fund budget.
Buttrey explained that she set aside the unused levy funds, which are in a separate account, so that even if the levy failed in May the district would have a small buffer to pay staff and help close schools. Those existing levy funds also reduced the amount Buttrey suggested trustees ask the community for in May.
“You have no wiggle room,” Buttrey said. “There is no doubt we need a levy.”
The district has yet to pass its 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 audits. Buttrey expects the district will pass the audits with findings for poor checks and balances but not for inappropriate purchases.
Multiple trustees noted the district is in this position because of significant business manager and superintendent turnover, partially due to hiring unqualified people. Most notably the district hired Brandon Durst, whose brief tenure was marred by controversy and litigation.
Next, Buttrey and Best are set to start working on reconciling this year’s budget and then building the 2026 budget in coming weeks.
The levy proposal
Levy discussions began with a $3.2 million proposal from Buttrey, based on the current budget and previous levy asks, then trustees made additions to reach the $4.7 million figure.
* $1.7 million general fund shortfall (teachers/staff salaries) * $200,000 school library and copy paper * $614,000 for sports and extracurriculars * $75,000 one bus per year * $150,000 restart the music program * $150,000 restart the art program * $250,000 school psychologists & nurse * $150,000 for utilities at the closed Junior High School building Trustee Paul Turco proposed adding $1 million to supplement facilities maintenance and $500.000 to increase staff pay and retain employees. Those additions brought the levy ask to $4.7 million.
He and district leaders noted that because the district expects about $1 million in property tax relief funds from House Bill 292 over the course of the two-year levy term, local taxpayers would only pay about $3.7 million into the levy over the course of the two years.
The specifics of how the facilities funds would be spent will be ironed out in the coming weeks, as the trustees work with attorneys to craft the ballot language.
Turco noted negotiations with the teachers’ union are ongoing but a 2% raise, which is below the rate of inflation in recent years, for all employees would cost about $175,000 a year.
Teacher calls for stability, better pay
Jared Hughes, a teacher and coach at the Priest River Junior/Senior High School, argued during public comment that teachers won’t stick around forever if salaries don’t increase and the district doesn’t start providing stability.
“We have the highest turnover rate in the state because we still do not have contracts,” Hughes said.
In the 25 years Hughes has been a teacher at the district, there have been 12 principals, and in the last three years, six superintendents, he said, and the district went eight months without a business manager.
He noted that at every level in the pay scale, West Bonner teachers’ pay is among the lowest in Idaho.
Trustees agreed that teachers need to be considered in the levy ask.
“Our teachers are important and we need them and we need to have something on there that ensures that we can keep them,” Yount said.
Ultimately, Turco motioned to make the $1.5 million in additions, with specifics to be ironed out in coming weeks. The $4.7 million levy proposal passed in a 3-2 vote.
